Rail transit hasn't seen huge success

I lived in the Washington, D.C., area from before its Metro trains opened in 1976. The multibillion-dollar and still-tax-subsidized D.C. Metro has facilitated urban development around its stations (and made nearby landowners wealthy). It has not reduced vehicular traffic in or around D.C.

Indeed, according to an article by Steven Ginsberg in the Washington Post on March 6, only 9 percent of area commuters use Metro — and the D.C. Metro is an extensive and highly spoked train system — unlike that which is proposed for O'ahu. It's also apparent that most of those users are individuals who work in downtown D.C. and reside in high-density developments that were mostly built only after a train station was sited nearby.

Despite being the second-most-used mass-transit system in America (behind New York City's), Metro fails to serve a large percentage of commuters because the D.C. area — like Honolulu, but unlike New York City — has few high-density commercial or residential neighborhoods. Indeed, most potential Metro users would need additional motorized street-level transportation at one or both ends of a Metro commute — adding to both commuting times and costs.

The bottom line, as quoted from Ginsberg's article: " ... there's the issue of personal choice. Many people say Metro is just too expensive, too crowded, too limited to get them to give up their cars."

We can expect the same result in Honolulu if a train system is built.

Vote was appropriate

Bravo to Sens. Inouye and Akaka for voting to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Instead of buying into the environmentalist hype, they chose America first. The Inupiat who live in the area want oil drilling for the jobs it will bring.

Arctic drilling good for Hawai'i, Alaska

I applaud Sens. Inouye and Akaka for their courage in voting to allow drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Hawai'i's economy is fueled by oil from Alaska. We need it. ANWR drilling would also boost Alaska's economy. Furthermore, oil drilling in the nearby North Slope has not adversely impacted the wildlife and environment.

I strongly advocate energy conservation and development of energy alternatives. However, ANWR drilling is a sensible immediate step to provide a domestic energy source and lessen dependence on foreign energy.

Archaeologists should forget about trash

Archaeologists today are digging up civilizations from thousands of years in the past to find out how our ancient ancestors lived. The archaeologists are finding treasures among the trash that was thrown away.

Archaeologists a thousand years from now are going to study our civilization by digging through our trash. They will expect to find treasures. Instead, they will find a lot of broken refrigerators, microwaves, TVs, baby strollers, etc.

I don't know what conclusions they will make, but they will probably be disappointed. It will serve them right for digging into our trash.

Don't underestimate immigrant students

Regarding J. Chen's March 14 letter: I commend you for wanting to do well in school and for being motivated to pass those end-of-year examinations.

However, if I read your letter correctly, you insinuate that immigrant students "just don't want to learn." Might I remind you that usually it is the other way around; American students have a lack of motivation, while immigrant students see their education as a privilege and are often much more eager to learn English than Americans.

I, myself, am an educator here in Washington where many of my students are immigrants from Latin America, and many of them understand and speak English far better than the students born and raised here. So, if anyone is looking for someone to blame for the poor state of our students' test scores, stop pointing the finger at immigrants, who not only struggle with the adjustments of a new school but also the daunting task of living in a new country — and succeed.

Instead, start taking a look at the American students who skip school, can't tell the difference between "their," "there" and "they're," and can't speak without using "like" every other word.

Norfolk Island pines also are beneficial

Thank you for your editorial on the tree tragedy in Manoa. Many things that we share our beautiful island with have dangers as well as benefits.

Many years ago, my father, Robert H. Lloyd, arranged for some field studies to be conducted on the island of Lana'i to determine the role played by the Norfolk Island pine trees in supplying water for that rather dry island.

The results of these studies confirmed that each adult Norfolk pine on Lana'ihale mountain above the cloud base was extracting from the air about 20 gallons per day per tree for the island's water table.

This phenomenon is called "fog-drip" or the "harp-effect." The water in the cloud condenses out on the pine needles and then drips onto the ground. I have personally observed this dramatic effect in a grove of ironwood trees at Kahua Ranch on the Big Island.

Clean Elections won't clean up our elections

Does anyone really think that public campaign financing will attract better candidates, let alone improve our elections system ("It's time to reform campaigns," letter, March 17)?

If reform legislation ever promised voters one thing but would deliver the opposite, Clean Elections is it. If voters want to clean up politics and stop corruption, contact your state senator and representative and urge them to vote "no" on this extremely deceptive legislation that appears to be designed for electing single-issue candidates.

Clean Elections is long on rhetoric but fails to deliver reform. Instead, it creates bigger problems rather than solutions. Campaign reform can be achieved by relying on complete disclosure of fund sources, and with almost-instant electronic disclosure, let the voters decide.

By the way, where would the money for Clean Elections come from? Public campaign financing would cost millions of dollars a year. How can state lawmakers square this new, expensive program with repeated promises not to increase the cost and size of government? It can't.

I don't mean to sound callous, but I don't mind when political candidates must work hard for my vote. Politics and political campaigns belong to the people, not to the candidates and certainly not the government.

Jimmy Carter didn't deserve the honor

Whoever chooses the names for our submarines sure missed the boat (literally) by naming our newest sub after Jimmy Carter (Advertiser, Feb. 20).

It makes no difference that he served on a sub; this was a president who weakened our country's defenses by reducing funding to the military to the point where some of our planes weren't able to get off the ground, or some of our ships couldn't get under way due to the lack of spare parts.

This was also the president who caused the prime rate to soar to 20 percent (5.5 percent today by comparison) and mortgage loans to our veterans at 15.5 percent (today at 5.375 percent).

In addition, thanks to Mr. Carter's performance as president, eight Americans were left dead in the desert of Iran because their helos couldn't function well enough to get off the ground. President Carter was such a wimp that Iran wouldn't release our hostages until power had shifted to President Reagan.

Mr. Carter may be a nice old man and a good senior statesman, but he in no way deserves to have this honor bestowed on him.

Stronger pedestrian law needed

The tragic story continues to repeat itself. A 73-year-old woman died after being struck while crossing a street in Kalihi. Two teenage girls are seriously injured after being hit by a hit-and-run driver at a busy intersection in Honolulu. A 12-year-old boy is hospitalized after being hit by a car while walking to school in Wai'anae.

These all took place within a recent one-week period. Each of these senseless accidents occurred while the pedestrians were in marked crosswalks.

In the past four years, 117 pedestrians died on our streets statewide. Twenty-three percent of these victims were in crosswalks at the time of the accidents.

So what can be done to help?

Policy-makers, law enforcement officials and the community agree that a combination of educational initiatives and tougher traffic safety laws will reduce the number of accidents.

One example of educational outreach is the "Walk Wise Kupuna" program sponsored by the state DOT, the city Department of Transportation Services and the Honolulu Police Department. Plans call for the program to expand to the other counties this year.

Through presentations at senior centers and other approaches, our older residents are provided valuable safety tips. For example, they are reminded about the importance of wearing bright or light-colored clothing and using retro-reflective materials when walking after dark.

They are also urged to cross the street at corners or in crosswalks, look for vehicles before stepping down onto the pavement, establish eye contact with drivers of oncoming cars, and be aware that vehicles may approach faster than anticipated.

For drivers, we cannot overstate the importance of staying focused and alert, obeying all traffic laws and speed limits, and never driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. In addition, particular caution should be exercised at dawn and dusk, when many traffic fatalities occur.

Among the common-sense public safety measures being considered by the Legislature this year like red-light running and excessive-speeding initiatives is a bill to help protect pedestrians in crosswalks.

Current law requires a driver to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk on the driver's half of the road. This vague language leaves too much guesswork for both the driver and pedestrian as to what is considered "the driver's half."

The measure before the Legislature would eliminate this guesswork and instead require a driver to stop for a pedestrian as soon as he or she enters the crosswalk.

With the collaboration of the Lingle administration and the House and Senate Transportation committees, these bills — House Bill 438 and Senate Bill 80 — are still alive in both houses and are headed to the Judiciary committees. We encourage the public to contact their legislators to let them know that you want stronger laws to protect pedestrians.