Paper’s Comparison of Claims Misses Mobility

[Note: The City’s booth at the Food & New Products Show is on the ewa side of the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall next to the florists’ display. A new 4-minute computer-generated “flyover” video shows the route from Kapolei to Ala Moana Center, and City representatives are available today to answer questions.]

Today’s Honolulu Advertiser continues its extensive coverage of Honolulu’s proposed steel wheel transit system by comparing the claims of the City and rail opponents. What's missing is a comparison of claims about travel times for commuters, which is the heart of the matter.

As we’ve noted here many times, Mobility is the key issue. Honolulu residents have no true Mobility today because their travel can be interrupted without warning by heavy congestion on surface streets and highways. Our post last Tuesday showed what drivers experience on freeways, streets and – where they’re employed – HOT Lanes, too. As they say, it happens.

A travel-time comparison between the steel wheel system and the critics’ alternative HOT Lane proposal would have been useful. The City's Alternative Analysis notes that users of HOT Lanes eventually have to return to surface streets, where rush hour traffic would await. Here’s the AA’s finding on that point:

“In general, however, the two Managed Lane options would increase traffic on the overall roadway system and create more delay for buses. While bus speeds on the managed lanes are projected to be relatively high, the H-1 freeway leading up to the managed lanes is projected to become more congested when compared to the other alternatives, because cars accessing the managed lanes would increase traffic volumes in those areas. Additionally, significant congestion is anticipated to occur where the managed lanes connect to Nimitz Highway at Pacific Street near Downtown. Nimitz Highway is already projected to be over capacity at this point, and the addition of high volumes of traffic exiting and entering the managed lanes would create increased congestion and high levels of delay for all vehicles using the facility, including buses. Hence, much of the time saved on the managed lane itself would be negated by the time spent in congestion leading up to the managed lane as well as exiting the lanes at their Downtown terminus.”

The system is intended to restore Mobility and reduce travel time for commuters, and we hope the Advertiser will make that specific comparison in a future article – 40 minutes between Kapolei and Ala Moana Center during rush hour (and any other time) compared to car and bus travel during rush hour no matter the route.