Pedestrians and drivers managed to share Oahu thoroughfares in December without adding to the island’s pedestrian death toll after three walkers were killed in a span of weeks in October and November. The informal online goal of no pedestrian deaths last month is a challenge to continue month by month in the New Year.
Here’s another goal -- significant progress on the Honolulu rail project in 2011’s first quarter.
That would include final signatures by all concerned parties on the (historic preservation) Programmatic Agreement, issuance of a Record of Decision by the Federal Transit Administration and groundbreaking!
Developments like that, one after one, would a great start to ’11 for everyone who wants congestion-free travel through the city using fast, frequent, reliable and safe elevated transit.
7 comments:
As we begin the new year, one has to wonder what happened to your post several days ago about the co-opting of students for a poster contest on the wonders of rail. It seems to have disappeared.
Indeed it did disappear, and now news of the poster contest winners that the post announced awaits formal release by another entity.
Continuing my response to your comment, Anonymous, your "co-opting of students" remark betrays your low opinion of the younger generation's members' ability to think on their own. I think it was you who asedk if I had "no shame" for "recruiting students as propagandists." Although the post in question was taken down and my response to along with it, my comment in response to your own was not lost. Here it is again for your reading pleasure:
"Let's talk about shame. It's a shame you have such a low opinion of Hawaii's youngest generation. You seem to believe young people can't form their own opinions and must be spoon-fed to create a vision of the future. Is that how the young people in your circle are treated? It's a shame you lack a vision for Oahu's energy production decades into the future. Do you think oil will continue to be the fuel of choice 10, 20, 40 years from now? It won't. Honolulu's train will be powered by renewable energy -- ENTIRELY powered by wind, hydrogen, biomass, solar and ocean resources within four decades is my prediction. It truly would be a shame if Oahu's infrastructure were planned and shaped by people with no vision for the changes that inevitably will be required to end our near-total dependence on fossil fuel. Young people will be the drivers of our new transportation and energy policies. It's a shame you don't see that."
I know that young people can form their own opinions, but is that what is reflected in their posters? Did they decide to make them on their own, based solely on their own research, or was it the creation of some public opinion-minded consultant? I suspect the latter.
And as for Oahu's future energy production, considering the effects of peak oil and global warming, fossil fuels will/better be little more than a novelty in far fewer than 40 years. As I mentioned in the comment you removed, it's a shame that you and the city administration have not chosen to devote even a small portion of the rail PR efforts to further alternative energy. And now you're using a double standard, touting the future of alternative energy for trains while using the rising cost of oil and gas ("Breaking Through the 'Nobody Will Ride' Mindset" [Dec. 14)]) to try to justify projected rail ridership numbers. Rail will be completely dependent on fossil fuels for a long time, and alternative energy will be available for personal vehicles well before it is ready for use by trains.
Anonymous, here are short answers to your three questions, in order: Yes, Yes and No. You should lighten up on your suspicious nature.
As for your energy argument, that's easy, too. I can imagine the howl you and your anti-railer friends would throw up if you suspected rail funds were being used for an entirely tangental purpose, such as to "further alternative energy." We all can do that on our own; I've been doing that at my HawaiiEnergy Options.blogspot.com blog for nearly three years. I also hosted a show on HPR called "Energy Futures." How 'bout you?
You suggest the high cost of energy in the coming decades will NOT be a reason for people to ride rail? What fantasy. The anticipated high cost of oil will in fact speed transition to renewable energies even further out. And just because a car may be powered by electricity or hydrogen is no good reason to crowd our highways with them when alternatives such as public transit can reduce the growth in the number of vehicles on our small island.
It truly is a shame you can't get through your anti-rail blockages, but thanks for visiting.
So you're saying that the students decided to hold the poster contest on their own?
Don't be ridiculous, Anonymous. You know that's not what I'm saying. What I'm denying is your clear implication -- that the students were not capable of appreciating rail's contributions to the community and had to be "spoon-fed" by the project. I think that was your quote. I'm saying it's a shame you think so little of the next generation that you believe its members have to be spoon-fed. Get real. The next generation is going to make every preceding one look like under-achievers.
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