I have been a big supporter of Honolulu's Lite-Rail project from way back when. It has taken so long to get this system going, I now have to wonder why we are not simply putting in more freeways? Our transportation department drilled a hole through the mountain that runs down the center of the island (Oahu), three times and each time they did they connected it to the only freeway we had, which is H1. They widened the road from Hawaii Kai and also connected it to H1. A newer (H2 twenty+ years old) freeway comes down the mountain from central Oahu and guess which highway they connected it to? Yup...H1.
Needless to say H1 is a mess from 5 AM to 10 AM, anytime around lunchtime, and then from 2 PM to 6:30 or 7 PM.
I guess my question is, how much will a rail system help our traffic? Doesn't it make sense to to build a new freeway system, one where you can get from one freeway to the other without simply being dumped into an already snarled traffic situation on the only existing cross town freeway?
We can call the AR Express. It sould start downtown and end downtown and go all the way around the entire island. This will cut traffic congestion by 50% as long as it has four lanes in both directions.
Has rail worked to cut congestion in your city?
Cheers-
Mike
...sent via iphone, sitting in traffic...
They've studied building a new freeway from the west side into town -- ridiculously expensive. not so much the cost of the materials as it is the right of way. the state would have to buy all the land -- business, homes, churches, restaurants, etc -- and it woudl be a heck of a lot. With h-3, the land wasn't developed, so that why it was at least somewhat affordable. plus a new freeway won't help traffic, because while you may travel better on teh highway, when you get to town, many thousands more vehicles will be dumped into downtown traffic, jamming traffic up even more.
Ex-local boy who lives in the SF Bay Area and can testify to teh effectiveness of BART. I only catch BART to Giants baseball games and its much cheaper than driving and parking (does Honolulu's rail go to Aloha Stadium?). However, many of my friends and co-workers catch the BART and they swear by it.
Good insight. Wow, you actually wrote all that in stuck in traffic? If so, that's a pretty good indication that traffic is awful in Hawaii. Where did all these people come from???