Kobayashi proposes elevated EzWay highway for Oahu
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
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City Councilwoman Ann H. Kobayashi yesterday unveiled a $2.5 billion plan to reduce traffic congestion by building express lanes for an expanded fleet of buses and for private vehicles with three or more occupants.
The plan calls for 40 miles of new or modified highways and roads, including a 15-mile elevated fixed guideway with three reversible lanes.
Kobayashi called her plan a cheaper alternative to the city's planned rail system and a more effective way of reducing traffic.
The elevated guideway would provide three reversible lanes starting at the H-1/H-2 merge and ending Downtown for use exclusively by buses, private vehicles with three or more occupants, and fuel-efficient cars even if they only carry the driver. There would be no tolls.
The "EzWay" would be built over Kamehameha and Nimitz highways and include a tunnel and at least two underpasses.
The plan combines Kobayashi's long-held vision of a bus-based mass-transit system with University of Hawai'i engineering professor Panos D. Prevedouros' vision of managed traffic lanes that allow continuous movement during rush hours by synchronizing traffic signals and controlling the kinds of cars that can operate in different lanes.
"This is what I've been pushing all along, rubber tire on concrete," Kobayashi said. "Panos has been talking about managed lanes. It's the best of both worlds.
"There are many people you're never going to get out of their cars and we know that. This way we're accommodating those who drive, those who carpool and those who ride the bus."
RAIL'S HIGH PRICE CITED
Because of the fixed guideway, the project qualifies for money the city has been collecting from general excise tax and for federal funding from the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration, Kobayashi said.
The plan is a financially prudent and environmentally friendly alternative to Mayor Mufi Hannemann's proposed $3.7 billion steel-on-steel train system, she said.
Prevedouros, Kobayashi's senior infrastructure adviser, said the plan can be implemented immediately in pieces as funding permits. Each section will relieve congestion as soon as it is put together, Prevedouros said.
"The rail has a high price tag and very low economic and traffic relief," he said. "Right now economic times are poor. You cannot start (building) the rail."
Kobayashi said she and her campaign will work hard to educate voters about her transportation plan, but she will not try to persuade people to vote "no" on the Nov. 4 ballot question that asks whether the city should build a steel-wheel-on-steel-rail transit system.
"I always listen to the voters," Kobayashi said. "If they want steel on steel then what can I do about it?"
The Kobayashi/Prevedouros system focuses mostly on the island's most congested traffic corridor: the route drivers take in the morning heading into town from Central O'ahu, the Leeward Coast and the 'Ewa plain, and then back home in the evening. Among its proposals and planned changes:
The right lane of the guideway will be for buses only.
The other two lanes will allow vanpools, vehicles with three or more occupants and vehicles that get 33 miles per gallon or more, according to their EPA city mileage rating.
These rules will be strictly enforced with heavy fines, the plan said, and no trucks will be allowed on the guideway.
The plan said these lanes will move at a continuous speed of 60 miles per hour.
Other vehicles could use existing highways to get into town, but would encounter less traffic because of the EzWay, the plan said.
Other parts of the plan include:
Kobayashi pledged to build and implement her plan using the local labor force and the expertise of local companies.
'NOTHING NEW HERE'
Hannemann's campaign and rail proponents reacted sharply to Kobayashi's plan, labeling it a repackaging of old proposals.
A.J. Halagao, Hannemann's campaign coordinator, said the plan was "too little, too late."
"This so-called blueprint is one of the worst and least well thought out ideas to come down the pike in a long time," said Halagao, in a statement. "It's BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) all over again, something Councilmember Kobayashi has heretofore strenuously opposed, and with good reason. It's hard to believe that she has changed her position once again.
"The plan will not qualify to use the GET, and with no local funding mechanism, it will also fail to qualify for FTA funds. More buses are not the answer. An integrated rail-bus system is the superior option for Honolulu."
Rep. Kirk Caldwell, who has long favored a rail-transit system, spoke at the pro-rail group Go Rail Go's Bethel Street headquarters yesterday after the release of the Kobayashi plan. Caldwell, an attorney, said that as one of the architects of the general excise tax increase designed to pay for a transit system, he does not believe that the Kobayashi plan qualifies.
"In looking over this thing, there is nothing new here. It's a repackaging of old ideas," Caldwell said.
"It was done in the 11th hour. … The people of the City and County of Honolulu wanted the chance to vote on the technology and they are going to get that. People should be educating themselves on (the ballot question)."
Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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