City bus plan far from certain
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
The city hopes to have the first phase of its Bus Rapid Transit system up and running by 2005, but opposition at the state and City Council levels still could delay or derail the project, officials said yesterday.
Details of a 10-year plan to build and operate the nearly $1 billion public transportation system are contained in a final environmental impact statement released this week and being reviewed by federal officials.
Councilman Gary Okino, who is expected to chair the council starting in January, said yesterday he did not know if there would be enough support among new members to continue funding the project. Gov. Linda Lingle has said she is opposed to it.
"Definitely, a lot of council members seem to be against it, or at least some aspects of it" Okino said.
Since many of the roads to be used by the BRT, including H-1, are state-owned, Lingle's approval could be crucial to its success.
"If they don't get the state's cooperation, there goes the BRT," said Okino, who has reservations about the project but favors allowing the first phase to be completed so officials can evaluate fairly how it works.
The city has spent four years planning, and the current City Council has appropriated $41 million for the project. Final design work is expected to be finished in coming months, and a contract for the first phase of construction could be signed by the end of 2003, according to Cheryl Soon, city director of transportation services.
"If new council members have a better idea, they've got to say what it is," Soon said. "It's not enough just to be against it. There's no value in that."
Councilman-elect Nestor Garcia, who is scheduled to head the council's Transportation Committee, said others need to bring an open mind to the debate over the best mass transit alternative for Honolulu.
"I've got my reservations," Garcia said, "but it's hard to strike out at something when you don't have all the information. It's easy to be a naysayer, but you've got to bring an alternative. Let's see how it plays out."
Soon said she looked forward to educating incoming council members about the project, but only three of them — Garcia, Mike Gabbard and Donovan Dela Cruz — took advantage of a briefing offered by her department last month.
The final environmental impact statement offers the fullest picture yet of the city's plan to make frequent bus transportation, unfettered by other traffic, the solution to O'ahu's congestion.
Using existing and newly built freeway zipper lanes, exclusive and semi-exclusive bus lanes, nonpolluting electric-gas hybrid buses, prepaid fares and devices to give a bus driver signal-light priority at selected intersections, the plan envisions a bus system so successful it will lure riders out of their cars.
"These advanced features, coupled with limited stop spacing (between one-quarter and one-half mile apart), priority lane treatments and very frequent service, will offer riders a true alternative to driving their cars," the report says.
In town, the BRT would operate on 12.8 miles through commercial and residential areas of Honolulu, serving Iwilei, downtown, the University of Hawai'iiManoa, mauka and makai Kaka'ako and Waikiki, with 32 transit stops between a quarter-mile and half-mile apart.
During peak periods, the town buses would operate at two- to four-minute intervals.
The regional BRT, to be built in the second half of the decade, would extend 17.5 miles from Kapolei to Kalihi. Combined with a network of 20 transit centers and park-and-ride facilities, and using existing and newly built zipper lanes plus contraflow lanes, it is aimed at offering a transportation alternative for one of O'ahu's most congested areas, the H-1 corridor.
Opposition has centered on the loss of traffic lanes for cars and parking.
The town portion of the BRT calls for buses to operate in exclusive medial lanes or curbside contraflow lanes (38 percent of its length), semi-exclusive curb lanes (29 percent) and in mixed traffic (33 percent).
"The biggest worry is about taking away space for exclusive bus lanes," Okino said.
Soon said the final report is the result of more than four years of work and hundreds of public meetings. The council voted two years ago to use a combination of general obligation bonds and federal money to pay for the project.
"If the dialogue is going to start to brew all over again, I'd like to know where the new ideas are," she said. Garcia, Okino and Soon agreed that starting the transportation process all over again would be disastrous.
In a section called "unresolved issues," the final environmental impact statement says the city will consider building new off-street parking facilities in areas where a large concentration of on-street parking is taken to make way for the buses, but "only if they meet other liveable community objectives and are the result of community-based planning."
"In those areas — where the lanes are made possible by taking street parking — we'll go back to the communities and discuss alternatives," Soon said. Kaka'ako, Manoa, Waikiki and Dillingham Boulevard are likely to be among the areas affected.
Okino said the project also could run into trouble at the O'ahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, a federally mandated agency that must approve local transportation projects involving federal money.
In the past, the five city representatives on OMPO's Policy Committee have been strong supporters of the BRT, while state representatives have been lukewarm to the idea, Okino said. New council members who will serve on the Policy Committee could swing the balance of power against the BRT, he said.
