Alternatives urged to city transit plan
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
City officials should reconsider transportation alternatives ranging from a monorail to wider streets before pushing ahead with plans to develop a $1 billion bus rapid transit system, dozens of O'ahu residents testified yesterday at a public hearing on the bus plan.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
A light-rail system, bus pullout lanes, coordinated traffic signals, more left turn lanes, increased regular and express bus service, better use of private buses and trolleys, and bigger roads were among the ideas to relieve traffic congestion raised by more than 150 people testifying on details of the city's BRT plan, on which construction could begin later this year.
Mayor Jeremy Harris has ambitious plans for the city's bus rapid transit system.
"Time and again, the city hasn't done a good enough of job of looking at real alternatives," said Tom Dinell, an emeritus professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Hawai'i. "They haven't tried to develop other ways of approaching the problem."
The City Council is expected to hear testimony Wednesday night on Mayor Jeremy Harris' request for $35 million to pay for initial development of the Kaka'ako portion of the bus rapid transit system.
Supporters of the BRT, which will use electric-gas hybrid buses running on exclusive and semi-exclusive bus lanes to move people through urban Honolulu, said all of the ideas raised yesterday have been considered at one time or another.
The BRT plan is the first major mass transit initiative in Honolulu since the City Council killed a light-rail proposal 10 years ago.
"We've been studying and developing this plan for four years," said Cheryl Soon, city transportation services director. "A lot of people testifying today are suddenly just looking at the picture outside their door. We've had to look at the bigger picture for a long time."
Two complaints emerged over and over during yesterday's testimony at the Hawai'i Convention Center: the loss of traffic lanes for private automobiles and the city's decision to start building the bus system in urban Honolulu, rather than the suburbs, where commuting times are worse.
"In-town bus rapid transit will doom private motorists and their passengers to worse traffic congestion, permanently," said Dale Evans, president of Charley's Taxi.
Evans said city efforts to reserve two lanes of traffic on Dillingham Boulevard for buses could "effectively turn the road into bus mall, just like Hotel Street." Others noted that the Dillingham area is increasingly home to big-box retailers such as Home Depot, whose customers depend on autos to carry home their loads of bricks and lumber.
"The design premise of this project is biased against automobile use," said Mark Monoscalco, a computer consultant who lives in Waikiki. "The proper purpose of this project should be to reduce overall traffic congestion."
City officials have said the exclusive lanes will allow buses to move quickly through town while drivers in private cars will increasingly be stuck in traffic, creating an incentive for more bus ridership. With buses coming every two to four minutes in peak times, travel time from downtown Honolulu to Waikiki or Manoa would be about 16 minutes, officials say.
"Every person riding on a bus takes another car off the road," said Kenneth Stanley, vice president of O'ahu Transit Services, which runs the city bus system. "Every person on the bus is helping people in cars improve mobility for everyone."
Nearly everyone testifying at the three-hour hearing yesterday supported some aspects of the city's mass transit programs, but even some avid bus riders said they didn't see the need to start the BRT in urban Honolulu.
"It makes a lot more sense to start at the other end of the island, in the country, where people are really suffering in their commutes every day," said Rep. Galen Fox, (R-21st, Waikiki, Ala Wai).
Soon said city officials chose to delay the Kapolei-Kalihi portion of the BRT to coordinate construction the H-1 Freeway areas with state work planned in four or five years.
"We're listening for new suggestions that we can incorporate into the overall plan," Soon said. "We're looking for ways to work with local communities and alleviate their concerns."
That didn't satisfy some of the harshest critics though.
"Now that we're seeing the details of this plan, a lot of people don't like it. They're worried about the cost, confusion and congestion that's going to result from the in-town portion of this BRT," said Dick Stephenson, who heads the Oahutrans4all organization. "We'd like the City Council to take another look at the program before forging ahead. The bottom line is: What's the rush?"
Duke Bainum, head of the City Council's Transportation Committee, said there's no need to rehash the work.
"We've been working over these ideas over and over again for four years. We've had more than 100 community meetings," Bainum said. "To start over now would be ridiculous."
