Let’s begin with the
unhinging, which is what the leadership of the Honolulu rail project’s
opposition appears to be undergoing.
Cliff Slater, who has fought
every mass transit project proposed in this city for decades, is intensifying
his accusations that city officials are just a bunch of liars about rail. He
called the anti-rail morning talk show host yesterday and said “the city lied
through its teeth” about rail’s effect on future traffic congestion in the
lead-up to the 2008 “steel-on-steel” election. He also posted on his website yesterday that City Director
of Transportation Services Wayne Yoshioka has been spreading “outright lies.”
Accusing others of lying is
a time-tested way to divert attention from one’s own dubious statements, so
it’s a logical tactic for the Obfuscator in Chief to adopt. We’ve
posted links to many of Mr. Slater’s more outrageous statements over the years
at our “aggregation site.”
Stopping Short
Mr. Yoshioka and all other
credible rail supporters truthfully say rail will reduce future road congestion
as many commuters and others who now drive through the urban core will take the
train instead. The city estimates there will be 40,000 fewer vehicle trips
through the core each day in 2030 than there’d be if rail were not built.
Mr. Slater acknowledged the
truth of that assessment when he testified before the City Council on July 14,
2010 and said: “We don’t disagree at all that rail will have an effect on
reducing traffic congestion from what it might be if we did nothing at all….”
But that doesn’t stop Mr.
Slater from calling Mr. Yoshioka a liar. Why? Because Mr. Slater believes city
officials like Mr. Yoshioka aren’t telling the rest of the story when they say
rail will have a positive effect on future congestion.
The rest of the story –
which is obvious to anyone without an anti-rail agenda – is that congestion
will continue to increase long after rail is built no matter what happens on
the island. It will be worse in 2030 (and 2040 and 2050) than it is today.
Congestion grows when the population and number of vehicles grow, and there’s
nothing remarkable about that fact.
A True Believer
But Mr. Slater is a
highwayman at heart and believes rail isn’t worth building if it doesn’t reduce
road congestion. It’s this mindset that leads Mr. Slater to come close to lying
in his gross misrepresentations about the project:
By implying in his speeches
(to the Rotary Club of Honolulu and many other venues) that rail should reduce congestion, he avoids telling his audiences
about one of rail’s biggest future deliverables – a way to travel that’s avoids
traffic congestion altogether.
Rail isn’t the “solution” to
traffic that Mr. Slater says it should be. Nothing will "solve" traffic – not even his beloved
high-occupancy toll lanes. Abundant evidence exists that congestion is a
natural consequence when the public is on the move. It happens.
Mr. Slater believes it’s a
lie to say rail will have the positive effect of slowing congestion’s growth.
The City is indisputably truthful in saying that, but since he wants congestion
to actually decrease, the statement is a lie in Mr. Slater’s world.
Such is the nature and
motivation of the anti-rail lobby that rail supporters must counteract with
their communications efforts.
Project Developments
The anti-rail lawsuit that
will be heard in Federal District Court in August was narrowed somewhat this week when the judge hearing the case removed some of the plaintiff’s challenges
from the case.
Judge A. Wallace Tashima
said Mr. Slater and his fellow plaintiffs, including former Governor Ben
Cayetano who’s running for mayor with an intent to kill rail, had no standing
to challenge environmental valuations of certain historic sites along rail’s
20-mile line.
Also this week, construction
workers began pouring the concrete foundations for the columns that will hold
up the overhead guideway. The work on the line is beginning on the west end and
will proceed over the next months toward town.
The Federal Transit
Administration gave its approval this week for the city to begin construction
of a pre-cast yard in Campbell Industrial Park. That’s where the overhead
structures will be cast and cured before being trucked to the construction site
for placement atop the columns, as detailed in a Honolulu Star-Advertiser story
(subscription).
That Elusive BRT Plan
The week ended without the
release of Mr. Cayetano’s bus rapid transit plan that he said in March would be
released by mid-April. It’s a remarkable situation we’re in – approaching an
election that might mean the death of rail without knowing what the rail killer
would launch instead.
We did learn on Wednesday
that turning highway shoulders into bus lanes apparently is part of that still-secret
plan. Anti-rail Panos Prevedouros was a guest on that same morning radio show and said
the plan will include BOS – bus on shoulder. It sounds crazy to us for obvious
reasons – including safety, slowness and being inadequate to meet Oahu's
transportation needs.
But that’s just our thinking
here in Yes2Rail, a “biased blog,” according to a TV reporter who gets all worked
up about rail’s public relations efforts (to combat Mr. Slater's misinformation) but ignores the biggest rail-related
story – Mr. Cayetano’s BRT plan, whatever it is.
Stay tuned for more healthy bias
next week.
This post has been added to our "aggregation site" under the Mr. Cliff Slater (and Friends) heading.
This post has been added to our "aggregation site" under the Mr. Cliff Slater (and Friends) heading.
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