DRIVE TIME
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By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer
What's your vision of O'ahu's transportation in the year 2030:
• A rail line linking Kapolei and Waikiki?
• A long bridge across Pearl Harbor?
• A monorail running from La'ie to Pearl City through the Ko'olau Mountains?
• A double-decked H-1 Freeway, and a double-decked Nimitz Highway, to boot?
• Or maybe just more of the same old, bumper-to-bumper gridlock that we've got now?
These aren't just idle questions. The island's transportation planners are starting to put together a master plan for transportation projects to be completed in the next 25 years and they want to know what you think.
Officially, the effort is known as the O'ahu Regional Transportation Plan update, something that's done every five years. It includes lots of opportunity to make your opinions known, including telephone surveys, regional and islandwide meetings and a citizens' advisory group.
Here's the crux of what the planners are up against:
For more information on the O'ahu Metropolitan Planning Organization Outreach program, designed to ensure the public has a chance to participate in the 25-year planning process, call OMPO at 587-2015 or visit the group's Web site: www.oahumpo.org.
Traffic is bad and getting worse all the time. We need to do something. Well, actually, we need a lot of things; new buses, ferries, a rail system and highways all are going to be needed. But money is limited. So what's the best way to spend what public money is available. And if we have to raise more money for transportation, what's the most acceptable way of doing it?
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A survey taken by the O'ahu Metropolitan Planning Organization (which is in charge of transportation planning effort), shows that the only thing most people agree on is that something — anything! — needs to be done.
Beyond the answers about what's needed and how to pay for it, the survey offered a glimpse into how people currently get around the island.
To no one's surprise, cars are still the vehicle of choice:
• Seventy-eight percent of respondents described themselves primarily as drivers, using either a car or motorcycle to get to work or school on a regular basis.
• About 30 percent of those surveyed said they rode TheBus at least once in the past month. But only one-third of bus riders said they used the service daily; many more (43 percent) said they rode five or fewer times in the past month.
• Less than one person in 10 (8 percent) used other means to get to their jobs or school. They either walked or rode a bike or moped.
So the planners — and the politicians — have their work cut out for them. Reconciling the various transportation needs and wants is a difficult — almost impossible — thing to do, as evidenced by the city's failure in the past 30 years to reach any kind of agreement on how to develop a mass transit system here.
OMPO officials say they'll hold public hearings on the 2030 transportation plan beginning in a few months. Then they'll have another survey to ask people about specific transportation projects later in the year. A final report that prioritizes all of the upcoming projects should be done by the end of next year.
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
