So let's get to it, and let's get off on the right foot by making this a first-person blog (as opposed to the others I've maintained; check them out under my "complete profile" at the bottom of the right-hand column). I'm a long-time believer in transit and especially the kind envisioned here in Honolulu. For a complete picture of what's planned, visit the project's website, but in a nutshell, Honolulu is closer than ever to actually building a transit line that will restore mobility to a population that has none in the traffic-choked 20 miles between west Oahu and downtown Honolulu.
This will be grade-separated transit line through the urban heart of this community. That's the engineers' way of describing a system separated from traffic, the bane of all commuters. In Honolulu, that means the guideway will be elevated; trains will ride on rails set into a concrete guideway running above major thoroughfares through town...and above the traffic.
A Predictable Arrival Time
When your mode of travel is separated from traffic, something wonderful happens: You can accurately predict your arrival time. The concept is so foreign in Honolulu that it takes some getting used to. But commuters the world over know what we're talking about. Grade-separated transit speeds you to your destination without having to contend with traffic jams, and that allows you to arrive at your destination according to a timetable.
What's wrong with this? Listen to opponents of Honolulu's proposed rail system and you hear all kinds of reasons, many of which come down to: "I'll never ride it, so why should I pay for it?" In other words, "What's in it for me?"
We're going to devote a fair amount of time and space out here in cyberspace addressing the objections as we see them -- in comments anti-rail people post below on this blog, in daily media coverage, in letters to the editor, on anti-rail websites, etc. We'll be civil and respectful of the opponents' views, even when they don't seem to reciprocate.
So let the second half of 2008 begin with this thought: Signing the anti-rail petition now being circulated to force an up-or-down vote on the project in November will register you as a member of the "what's-in-it-for-me?" crowd. That's hardly a progressive attitude.
Full Disclosure: I'm part of the City's public outreach effort; as a communications consultant, I'm hired by clients who want my help in telling rail's story. In this case, I've been hired to share my views with Honolulu residents on why building the City's transit project will be good for our island community based on my long-held convictions. I went on the team last October, but I've been writing without a client and without compensation about the importance of building a transit line here since the early 1990s. Google my name and "Honolulu transit" to find some of those uncompensated columns and letters. (In future posts, I'll link to those items, because the pro-rail arguments I made in the 1990s hold up today.)
4 comments:
Were any of your perevious comments on Rail ever documented? Conversations with Frank?
If you can pull anything off the net... & link....
Just a thought.
Bob
Well let see,if the rail is let to go through when should we expect completion 5 years I doubt it .Anybody driven down Puuloa Rd lately,over 4 years to redo a road that is less than a 1/2 mile long and its still not even close to completion.
Lets try 10 years,20 years,30 years well remember the H3?The approval to build an interstate through the Koolau's was approved back in 1960 and a route needed to be picked(about where rail is now)after many environmental law suits,route changes and huge budget overruns it only took 37years and that's without moving one house displacing one family,one business or rerouting any roads,and burial sights,we can only imagine how many years that will delay it.Originally the H3 was to be built through Moanalua Valley at a cost of $250 million(a six lane freeway)ended up costing 1.3 BILLION(four lane).So if we use the same formula for da rail it should end up costing us about 50 billion,and that's without even turning on the key,can you imagine how much it will cost us to run it.And what about technology?By the time its done,no doubt the technology will be obsolete.
So Mr. Mayor quit with the snow job and lets come up with some better ideas,we no that might not create as many jobs,but that's not what its all about anyway,right?Or is it just about the jobs.Let the people vote.
I'm not sure what to make of the comment by "Bob/anonymous" or what he's getting at. Google my name and Honolulu transit projects and you'll eventually find those columns and letters that were published in the Advertiser and Bulletin, so that should handle the "documented" question.
Re the other "anonymous," let's put his comment in the Boogey Man category -- i.e., imagining the worst possible scenario. His/her $50 billion dollar estimate for the Honolulu system says it all.
What most anti-rail letters and comments in the papers have in common is a pointed disregard of the main issue -- traffic avoidance. Honolulu's rail system will allow anyone who chooses to ride it to avoid traffic, unlike buses and cars that would travel on the so-called HOT lanes. That's the main issue that belongs in the big tent; all the others, including "anonymous's" wild speculation about costs and the project's alleged undemocratic governance, are in the sideshow tents. The anti-rail faction is trying to focus attention on these side issues and away from the main one -- increasing mobility in our community by providing a means to avoid traffic.
Don't the anti rail people realize it's not just the cost of the rail or the time spent in traffic. IT IS THE COST OF FUEL that will drive many people to use the system.
Many people make comments, "why should our taxes increase, when we won't benefit from the rail." Don't they realize that many of us pay taxes for State programs that we would never use.
I would like to hear them come up with a better solution to save on FUEL. Let's see what they come with.
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