ISLAND VOICES
Double occupancy the answer

By Tom Welch

Tom Welch lives in Hawai'i Kai and has been commuting from East Honolulu to town for 40 years.

The traffic continues to get worse. All the while the different factions battle back and forth, debating buses versus rail versus doing nothing (which seems to usually come out on top).

This has been going on since at least the 1980s, and not much has changed. In the meantime, all of us commuters begrudgingly accept the ever-increasing commute times to work and back. We spend so much time in our vehicles that they have become a place to conduct business (the cell phone) and to entertain (the DVD player), not to mention dine.

We accept this situation as readily as we do because it was not thrust upon us, but instead gradually, over the years, became part of our lives. If over a 10-year period our daily commute time increases by three minutes each year, we hardly notice the change.

No matter how many buses we buy or what kind of rail system we build, the fact is, we live on an island, and in the not too distant future we will run out of room for more roads and cars.

Next time you're stuck in traffic, look around and see how many cars have only one occupant. If we can get just half of those cars to double the number of people in them (to two!), it would eliminate 37.5 percent of the cars on the road. This alone would probably almost solve the traffic problems during rush hour.

I'm sure this solution has been proposed before, and I'm just as sure that the argument against such a solution has been that people are just unwilling to give up the convenience and suffer the inconvenience that this would require. However, just as we were slowly able to change people's minds about smoking, I believe it is possible to change people's minds about driving.

If the Legislature passed a law tomorrow that required two people per car during peak hours, there would surely be a revolt. If we begin the process now to bring about these changes slowly over the next 10 years, it can be achieved. How? Perhaps a cooperative effort between the government (a tax credit for ride sharing), business (50 percent off your parking fee if you bring someone to work) and the insurance companies (a reduced rate if you either take someone to work or leave your car at home twice a week).