DRIVE TIME
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If all politics are local, then all local transportation planning is politics. And everywhere you go on the roads these days, political interests are clashing.
Not the big political interests like the governor and the mayor, either. Unlike in the past, they seem to be getting along pretty well when it comes to transportation. The honeymoon is still on.
Instead, it's the real people who live and drive in Honolulu who can't seem to agree when it comes to transportation.
Pedestrians vs. drivers. Highway commuters vs. neighborhood shoppers. Speeders vs. slowpokes. Autos vs. buses vs. rail. County vs. county.
All of us have our priorities.
If we're in a car, we get impatient with the pedestrians moseying across the street. If we're in a carpool, we're angry at those selfishly riding alone in the HOV lane. If we're in a bus, we're scornful (or maybe jealous) of those people in their private cars. If we're lucky enough to walk to work, we're always on the watch for the driver speeding through the intersection. Bicyclists don't get any respect. Neither do truck drivers.
All of this comes to mind because a number of high-profile projects have been in the news lately that clearly pit one transportation segment against another:
• In front of Honolulu Hale, the city is talking about removing a pedestrian crosswalk so that drivers on Punchbowl Street won't have to wait as long to make a left turn. Some walkers, though, will have to wait through three traffic light cycles to get from one corner to the next.
• Some Makiki residents say they are being asked to pay a price to help East Honolulu commuters. The state says its closing of the Lunalilo off-ramp has saved those commuters up to 10 minutes driving time each morning while not seriously disrupting local traffic. The Makiki residents see it differently: They think they're being asked to spend more time behind the wheel to make that possible.
• It's likely that a lot of people are going to be asked in the near future to pay more taxes to build a rail system that will help a relatively small segment of the population. "Why me?" they want to know. "Why aren't we spending the money on more roads that are used by more people?"
There aren't any easy answers to those types of questions and conflicts. Traffic planners have to deal with such issues every day, trying to balance the needs of all those different transit communities and hoping to come up with a solution that helps everyone and displeases no one.
It can't be done. The best they can hope for is a successful compromise that helps someone and displeases some. That's politics.
The least we can do to make their job easier is to step lightly and speak reasonably whenever they have to make an unpopular decision.
That's politics, too.
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
