Will Rail Kill TheBus?
An aspect of devoting billions upon billions of dollars to rail is that it will reduce funds available for other forms of public transportation. This has already happened in many cities around the country to the extent that lawsuits are being brought to require full funding for other forms of public transportation, namely buses. The irony is that rail mostly services white, upper middle-class riders, while buses service the lower classes. Thus, rail is discriminatory. Is this what we want here in Hawaii? Isn’t there a better, more efficient way to spend our hard earned tax dollars? Background on this issue here and here.
Hat Tip: Out of Control
December 6th, 2005 at 5:44 am
Once again, building a rail transit system in Hawaii is NOT about relieving traffic congestion or improving our ‘quality of life’ as our Mayor likes to say. The rail scheme is simply about increasing the union stranglehold in Hawaii. Across the nation, union membership is around 15% and declining. In Hawaii it’s around 25% and growing! The rail scheme will add thousands of union jobs and take in more union dues to spread around to our politicians who vote for more union pay raises.
December 19th, 2005 at 10:48 am
I do not pretend to be an expert in transportation, however it appears to me that the possibility that rail will benefit white upper-classes over others is dependent largely upon where the rail lines are built.
If they run from Kahala and Portlock to Bishop Street, then there’s no doubt that the above statement will prove true.
On the other hand, if the rail is built to run from Waianae and Waimanalo to the UH Manoa campus, with a spur going to Waikiki, then lower income families will have a better opportunity to attend a wider range of college classes, and get a better education while working at the hotels that, quite frankly, are a source of income for those without such educational advantages.
Light rail could be a disaster or a boon to Hawaii, depending entirely on where the rail lines go.
I must confess at being quite bewildered at how anyone can think that eliminating driving lanes in the middle of the street and replacing them with bus lanes is going to relieve traffic congestion.
You entice people out of their cars by making it faster and easier to reach their destination through an alternative method. Busses are definately not faster and (at least on my route down Kapiolani Blvd) they are often not on schedule so they are not dependable.
I am not yet convinced that light rail is not a good solution for rapid transit to outlying regions. In town, it will never replace the bus, nor should it. But I do know that I can travel around Manhattan, London and Paris quickly, cheaply and ON SCHEDULE. There’s no reason that we can’t combine rail and bus service to give the citizens of Oahu better transportation alternatives than we currently have.
Thanks for letting me express my opinion.