Posted on: Friday, January 17, 2003

Transportation projects depend on political tide

By Mike Leidemann
Transportation Writer

Buses, light rail, tollways and even ferries may all be part of Honolulu's transportation future, but only if the public is willing to pay for them, according to transportation planners and experts in Hawai'i.

In fact, a transit network that blends different technologies might be ideal for O'ahu, where a wide variety of topographies and neighborhoods makes alternatives necessary, planners say.

Money is the problem.

"Of course they could all exist together. The more the better. But can we afford them all?" said Lee Sichter, a senior planner with Belt Collins, one of the state's biggest planning firms.

In recent weeks, various government officials have pushed a number of seemingly competing mass transit ideas to the forefront of public discussion:

• Mayor Jeremy Harris remains strongly committed to an ambitious Bus Rapid Transit project that has been under development for more than four years and so far has cost $14 million.

• Gov. Linda Lingle is believed to be preparing a proposal for a high-occupancy toll road along the H-1 corridor.

• Senate President Robert Bunda this week called for planning to resume on a light-rail project to move large numbers of commuters between urban Honolulu and its suburbs.

• And City Councilman Romy Cachola said a new ferry system, linking Wai'anae, 'Ewa, Kalihi and downtown Honolulu, could be part of the answer to O'ahu's traffic congestion.

Without public consensus on what's best, planners are worried that the most recent comprehensive proposal, the BRT developed by Harris, could end up a victim of a changing economic and political landscape, as has happened twice before in recent city history.

"It's deja vu all over again," said C.S. Papacostas, a civil engineering professor at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa who closely monitors transportation issues. "New faces enter the picture, and suddenly the ground shifts underneath the planning."

City officials remain confident that BRT can still move forward quickly. Plans call for the first, in-town phase of the system running from Iwilei to Waikiki to be in operation by 2005 using money approved by the last City Council.

After meeting with Lingle last month, Harris said he came away believing that there were no serious obstacles to completing the in-town BRT, even though Lingle still opposes converting existing traffic lanes on state roads to exclusive bus lanes.

"They agreed that transportation needs must be dealt with now," said city spokeswoman Carol Costa. "Mayor Harris stressed the urgency of moving forward with the in-town portion of BRT, which is on city roads."

"There's no reason not to go forward," added Cheryl Soon, the city's director of transportation services. "As the system grows and additional money becomes available, we can always look at other options."

The second BRT phase, scheduled for operation by 2010, calls for buses to use exclusive lanes on H-1 Freeway to move commuters from Kapolei to Middle Street, where they could connect with the in-town BRT lines.

The new ideas circulating at the Legislature, including toll roads and Bunda's call for a light-rail system, apparently would operate on much the same route using different technologies.

Lingle said this week that the details of her proposal would not be ready for several months, but it would be an "exciting mix" of mass transit and other ideas.

The plan could include a tollway in the H-1 corridor in which drivers willing to pay an extra fee could use an expedited route into town. Former Mayor Frank Fasi once killed a test of a similar proposal in Honolulu, and it has not been seriously advocated since.

Bunda said yesterday that the state should revive plans for a light-rail mass transit system that would link up to the city's bus system in urban Honolulu. The state's share of the project could be paid with a 2-cents-a-gallon increase in the gasoline tax, senators said.

"We had hoped to have a BRT system that would become a trunk line into town," Soon said. "If the trunk line becomes a toll road or a light rail, that works, too."

Planners say highway and light-rail projects are typically more expensive than bus projects and all require a public consensus and a commitment of money over a long period of time as they are phased into existence.

"Transportation projects can easily take eight, 12, even 16 years to complete, but other things change faster than that," Sichter said. "A project might get a favorable commitment from one administration only to be put into jeopardy the next time there's an election or it comes up in the budget. Even if policy stays consistent, it always comes down to the money."

That's what happened twice before in Honolulu.

In 1982, the city abruptly ended more than five years and $6 million in planning for a billion-dollar fixed rail commuter system when Eileen Anderson replaced Fasi as mayor. Anderson cited a lack of federal money and questions about projected ridership for the system, which would have extended from Pearl City to Hawai'i Kai. Anderson said she would concentrate instead on building up Honolulu's bus system.

Then in 1992, after Fasi was re-elected and spent years developing a proposal for a $1.7 billion light-rail system, the City Council refused, on a 5-4 vote, to approve a half-percent increase in the state's excise tax on O'ahu that would have covered the local share of the project, causing more than $708 million in federal money earmarked for Honolulu to lapse.

After that vote, federal officials changed their rules to prevent the commitment of mass transit money until there was a secure source of city money.

"It's still called the Honolulu amendment," Soon said.

Soon this week pleaded with new City Council members not to make the same mistake again with the BRT.

"If you start all over again, 10 years from now you'll still find the same people recommending against the project," she said. "If you go back to ground zero, nothing will get done in your lifetime on the council."

Because there is plenty of opportunity for the public to comment on big projects in hundreds of meetings and hearings during the planning stage, "there shouldn't be a need to continually go back evaluating a project," Sichter said. "The project may not look exactly like what you envisioned in the first place, but if it still meets the stated goal, then it's a win."

Papacostas said the current debate over transit alternatives is developing because Honolulu residents still haven't reached a consensus on the issue.

"I don't think we have an understanding on what we really want to accomplish," he said. "I don't know how many people even believe that a transit system is really needed. There are still people who believe in the do-nothing alternative. Others may want something, but it's a question of who is going to pay for it."

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5460.