ISLAND VOICES
Get serious on O'ahu transit

Kate Diggle, a former photograph curator at the USS Arizona Memorial, is in private consulting.

There's a new transportation group in Honolulu, the Committee For Balanced Transportation (CFBT). The grassroots group is comprised of citizens who are pushing for a fair and balanced discussion about transportation in Hawai'i and are dedicated to putting into operation a transportation alternative to the automobile.

Waipahu community leader Darrlyn Bunda (a former City Council member) is leading the charge with a Web site (www.saveoahu.org), and regular meetings in an effort to make a mass-transit system (besides TheBus) on O'ahu a reality.

The goal of the group is simple: end traffic congestion on O'ahu by implementing automobile-alternative modes of transportation. This includes rail, ferry, BRT, carpooling, expanded bus routes and any other form of mass transit.

CFBT does not believe that adding more roads and freeways is an appropriate solution for our beautiful island.

The group was inspired by a recent visit to the Islands by U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon. Blumenauer helped implement Portland's popular and successful rail system, which links downtown Portland to a university and other key commuter destinations.

Most people agree that traffic congestion on O'ahu has become unbearable. Past attempts at creating transit alternatives have been consistently crushed by a small but vocal opposition backed by private interests.

This opposition, combined with a lack of dedicated local funding sources and last-minute political flip-flopping, has prevented

Honolulu from building a mass-transit system. Loss of federal transit money most notably occurred in 1993 when $618 million in federal funds authorized by Congress for the fixed guideway rapid-transit project was rejected by the City Council by one vote. This "free" money then went to San Diego, which used it to build its popular fixed-rail trolley, which runs parallel to the freeway.

The Federal Transit Administration, the federal body that distributes money for transportation projects, warned Honolulu that if it did not bring to life transit projects that are now on the table (including the Bus/Rapid Transit system), then future projects, such as rail, would not be considered.

It is no longer acceptable to sit on the sidelines and complain about traffic congestion. O'ahu must come together — citizens, politicians and government — to show political and local will to change our island for the better.

The time is now, Honolulu.