Leave it to Rod Tam. While others worry about how the city's rail project will look or how loud it will sound, the Honolulu City Council is concerned about how it will smell.

Not the smell of the train itself, but the potential stench of unclean riders.

Tam, the man who as a state legislator brought us the unforgettable "naps and snacks" bill to give state workers the comforts of preschoolers, has now brought us this gem.

Under the measure introduced by Tam and Nestor Garcia, stinky riders on city public transportation could be ordered to get off the bus or train and issued a citation by police. If convicted of violating the "passenger code of conduct," which includes the ban on stinking, a person could be fined up to $500 and/or spend up to six months in jail, which may or may not improve their personal grooming.

In explaining his reasoning behind drafting this legislation, Tam got himself into a familiar tangle:

"As we become more inundated with people from all over the world, their way of taking care of their health is different. Some people, quite frankly, do not take a bath every day and therefore they may be offensive in terms of their odor."

Whoa.

Look, stink isn't a cultural thing. Stinkiness is universal. We got our own homegrown hauna right here so don't go pointing your Bath and Body Works cucumber/melon hand sanitized finger at the "those guys." Gee, you'd think after the scoldings Tam got last year for using an ethnic slur describing immigrants, he'd learn something.

Yet somewhere in this goofiness is an actual concern. We all know what it's like to get on an elevator or a bus or be stuck on a plane with somebody who smells funkydoodles.

So maybe the city can set aside a hauna car. Like the old "smoking sections" on planes. Passage on the hauna car could be cut-rate, and if you're not hauna but don't mind people who are, you can ride in the car at a discount fare. All manner of smell-offenders could gather together in the car: smokers, women who wear too much perfume, guys who go heavy on the Axe body spray. And the adjudicator will be a dog, maybe one recently retired from sniffing fruit at the airport. Those little beagles are always looking for stuff to do after retiring from the feds. If the transit dog gives you a sniff and points to the hauna car, that's where you're riding. Wouldn't you rather trust that type of judgment to a dog than Rod Tam?