TRANSIT

YOUTH IMPORTANT IN VOTE SUPPORTING RAIL

Please stop saying that rail transit has "divided" the city along "geographic lines." All across O'ahu, rail transit received between 42 percent and 66 percent approval. Nowhere was rail decisively rejected. Indeed, the real dividing line was probably youth and wealth.

An example of this "division by zero" is the Nov. 12 column by Jerry Burris, "Common good gets short shrift" (Nov. 12). While supporting the rail project, Burris portrayed the people in the districts that voted "no" as selfishly opposing any project that does not serve their neighborhood. In fact, in Hawai'i Kai and Kane'ohe, four voters voted "yes" for every five voters voting "no." That shows noteworthy aloha and public spiritedness.

Turnout partly explains the result. Nearly 11,000 votes were cast in the Waipahu area (District 41), and rail won by 66 percent. Around Wai'anae (District 45), barely 5,000 voted and rail lost by 51 percent.

What the media missed was youth support for rail. College-age and even teenage volunteers were vital in the "Yes 4 Rail" campaign, knocking on doors and calling phones, because they saw rail transit as our first step toward the "green economy" that President-elect Barack Obama wants to build.

RAIL IS A BETTER SOLUTION TO CUT DOWN ON TRAFFIC

The Honolulu Advertiser published a letter last Friday in which Mr. Bill Haig suggested a way to cut down on traffic.

By his plan, you would need your insurance card to buy gas, thereby eliminating uninsured motorists from the road. Isn't it weird to ask the gas merchants to enforce our insurance law? And it sounds like we're going after poor people.

In fact, the letter seems to suggest that people who cannot afford insurance are clogging the roads. How about the families who have insurance and a car for every family member? Should we limit every family to two vehicles? Just one for those with no dependents at home?

The train is not as aggressive as Mr. Haig's traffic solution. But trains are more becoming in a democracy.

AIRPORT ALIGNMENT WILL ADD COMMUTE TIME

Everyone understands that changing the transit alignment from the Salt Lake Boulevard route to the Honolulu International Airport route would cost an additional $200 million, and mainly benefit folks who work at and around the airport at the expense of Salt Lake residents. What's not being discussed is the impact of changing the alignment on the train's primary customers, Leeward and Central commuters who will ride it to work every day.

The city's environmental impact statement says the airport route will take two minutes longer to traverse than the Salt Lake route, because it's longer and has more stations. No big deal, right?

Well, think about it. That's four minutes more per day per roundtrip, which is 20 minutes per week, which is 1,000 minutes per year. This "1,000-minute penalty" would be imposed on every single one of the tens of thousands of commuters from Kapolei, 'Ewa Beach, Waipahu, Mililani, Pearl City and 'Aiea who will be the train's core ridership.

Does it make sense to spend $200 million more and make fare-paying and taxpaying commuters spend an extra 1,000 minutes a year sitting on the train, just to shift transit access from Salt Lake residents to airport workers?

NOISE

ROOSTER CROWING IS WORSE THAN COQUI FROGS

I fully agree with Cate Matsushima's letter (Nov. 11) about coqui frogs and roosters.

I recently stayed overnight in Hilo. The coqui concert was pleasant and no louder than birds.

I would trade that sound at any time against the horrible night and day rooster crowing that makes some parts of Hawai'i uninhabitable for sensible folks.

Enforcement of city noise laws? Try call — nothing works.

TRAFFIC SAFETY

JUST WHAT EXACTLY ARE CROSSWALKS FOR?

What are those white zebra stripes that cross streets and roads supposed to be? I understand if these markings are where there is a traffic light I am to cross on them when the little man appears on the light facing me. However, what are these markings for when they are between traffic lights?

We have two such sets of markings on Kamokila Boulevard between two sets of traffic lights. One is located by the Aloha station and the other by the credit union.

The other day as I tried to cross in the set of markings by the credit union, I noticed that they must not be meant to be crosswalks. I stepped off the curb within the markings but not a single car slowed down, including a police car. The car had no flashing light or siren, so I assumed it was not answering an emergency call.

I finally got safely to the middle of the road, but the traffic coming from the right did not slow down.

And would you believe? Another police car whipped by me without even slowing down, let alone stopping.

So my question is — what are these markings for? Or are they just another form of graffiti?