Big Island Traffic

[sinjin]

Re: Big Island Traffic

I just think because the county seat is 100 miles away , problems on the west take a backseat to the problems they can see .

Are not the most congested roadways on the Kona side part of the State's network and not the County's responsibility?

[drewb]

Re: Big Island Traffic

state highway begins 3 or 4 miles north of the airport. I have seen traffic backed up all the way to the Hualalai resort (four seasons) which is about 6 miles north of the airport and there is no relief once you get to the airport. That line of traffic was at least 20 miles long with just one lane to travel and no alternate routes. Yes, the county seat is in Hilo and yes they have beautiful 3 lanes of MOVING traffic all bought and paid for by west Hawaii tax revenue. Yes, Hilo will suffer huge losses when we finally split into two counties but west Hawaii is sick and tired of sending our money off to improve the east side. Oh, did you hear that east Hawaii's land fill is at capacity and they will start trucking their rubbish to west Hawaii come March. Take our taxes and send us back trash!!! West Hawaii citizens plan human road blocks when the first truck load rolls out of Hilo. Any rebels want to come over and help just for the sake of rebellion.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: Big Island Traffic

state highway begins 3 or 4 miles north of the airport. I have seen traffic backed up all the way to the Hualalai resort (four seasons) which is about 6 miles north of the airport and there is no relief once you get to the airport. That line of traffic was at least 20 miles long with just one lane to travel and no alternate routes. Yes, the county seat is in Hilo and yes they have beautiful 3 lanes of MOVING traffic all bought and paid for by west Hawaii tax revenue. Yes, Hilo will suffer huge losses when we finally split into two counties but west Hawaii is sick and tired of sending our money off to improve the east side. Oh, did you hear that east Hawaii's land fill is at capacity and they will start trucking their rubbish to west Hawaii come March. Take our taxes and send us back trash!!! West Hawaii citizens plan human road blocks when the first truck load rolls out of Hilo. Any rebels want to come over and help just for the sake of rebellion.

Waaaiiiit a minute...

If you look at the economy of the Big Island over the last 50 years:
• the BI always was in the black
• but a closer look on a district level is that the sale of cheap land in PUNA kept the revenues high enough when all the other districts were bleeding

And have you seen the infrastructure on that side lately?

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Big Island Traffic

East Hawaii is growing exponentially with cheap land and ever-increasing job opportunities.

One has to remember that there are still a lot of East Hawaii residents working in West Hawaii, so yes West Hawaii may bring in good size of the county's revenue however some of that revenue is generated by land taxes from East Hawaii residents.

Now that the BI's economy is growing, jobs are becoming more and more available in East Hawaii and residents that made that long trek to Kona are now working closer to home in Hilo.

The traffic mess you see in West Hawaii may soon subside to a more tolerable point as more residents find work in East Hawaii.

The lower Puna area is developing quite rapidly and I wouldn't be surprized that the Puna/Keaau area will become the center of the BI's economic engine being located between Hilo and Kona. Lots of land available for all kinds of construction from Ag to residential, commercial to industrial. This area is wide open for development maybe that's why the Pahoa Highway is slated for widening. The weather in lower Puna is dryer than Hilo yet not as vog-entrenched as Kona. And since going thru Puna is longer than Hamakua we don't get the transient traffic going to Kona. But because of the volcano route, we get a fair share of tourism to keep small boutiques thriving.

I honestly believe funds that were used to build the extensions towards Kaumana in Hilo should have been built to serve the Hilo-Puna routes instead to accomodate the growing commerce in that area.

Construction of roadways in that area would have allieviated the traffic heading towards Waimea and ultimately Kona thru Waikoloa.

If there's one island that needs a rail project, it's the Big Island. With a high-speed passenger/freight rail cutting thru the saddle people and product can get to each end faster and safer than what's currently available.

[alohabear]

Re: Big Island Traffic

East Hawaii is growing exponentially with cheap land and ever-increasing job opportunities.

One has to remember that there are still a lot of East Hawaii residents working in West Hawaii, so yes West Hawaii may bring in good size of the county's revenue however some of that revenue is generated by land taxes from East Hawaii residents.

Now that the BI's economy is growing, jobs are becoming more and more available in East Hawaii and residents that made that long trek to Kona are now working closer to home in Hilo.

The traffic mess you see in West Hawaii may soon subside to a more tolerable point as more residents find work in East Hawaii.

The lower Puna area is developing quite rapidly and I wouldn't be surprized that the Puna/Keaau area will become the center of the BI's economic engine being located between Hilo and Kona. Lots of land available for all kinds of construction from Ag to residential, commercial to industrial. This area is wide open for development maybe that's why the Pahoa Highway is slated for widening. The weather in lower Puna is dryer than Hilo yet not as vog-entrenched as Kona. And since going thru Puna is longer than Hamakua we don't get the transient traffic going to Kona. But because of the volcano route, we get a fair share of tourism to keep small boutiques thriving.

I honestly believe funds that were used to build the extensions towards Kaumana in Hilo should have been built to serve the Hilo-Puna routes instead to accomodate the growing commerce in that area.

Construction of roadways in that area would have allieviated the traffic heading towards Waimea and ultimately Kona thru Waikoloa.

If there's one island that needs a rail project, it's the Big Island. With a high-speed passenger/freight rail cutting thru the saddle people and product can get to each end faster and safer than what's currently available.

Brah, run for MAYOR of Hawaii county! You got my vote.

[pzarquon]

Re: Big Island Traffic

If there's one island that needs a rail project, it's the Big Island. With a high-speed passenger/freight rail cutting thru the saddle people and product can get to each end faster and safer than what's currently available.

No way. What good is a rail system with only two major stops? I'm a fan of rail, but it makes more sense in a place with a congested urban corridor like Honolulu (where there are residents and businesses all along its route) than over the middle of the Big Island, where it's basically Hilo and Kona and nothing in between.

Developing Saddle Road to handle more traffic I can see -- why not improve flow between two points rather than having all traffic run around the island's perimeter -- but not rail.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Big Island Traffic

No way. What good is a rail system with only two major stops? I'm a fan of rail, but it makes more sense in a place with a congested urban corridor like Honolulu (where there are residents and businesses all along its route) than over the middle of the Big Island, where it's basically Hilo and Kona and nothing in between.

Developing Saddle Road to handle more traffic I can see -- why not improve flow between two points rather than having all traffic run around the island's perimeter -- but not rail.

I think a rail would work but it has to be in conjunction with satellite transit buses that would move those people from the depots to their approximate destinations.

Why rail? Simply because it takes a friggin long time to get from one end of the Big Island to the other. A high speed rail could cut that time to maybe less than an hour. Imagine tourists staying in Kona and blitzing it over to Hilo and back. Imagine freight being transferred from Kona stores to Hilo stores or from huge warehouses in Hilo feeding retailers in Kona. Imagine doing your Costco run and getting home before the ice cream melts entirely.

High speed will allow East and West Hawaii to meld into one like it is on Oahu because transit times would be reduced to spending the morning in Kona and getting back before lunch time in Hilo.

High speed will allow parents to not having to worry about their driving keiki when they go to da odda side for a party.

Speed is the factor in closing the gap between East and West Hawaii. Unfortunately speed is the reason why cars get into accidents on those connecting highways because it is important that point A to point B transit times are short.

I think a rail system on the Big Island will improve commerce and make the Big Island one big happy county instead of East vs West.

[pzarquon]

Re: Big Island Traffic

I suppose. I wonder what the minimum distance between terminals is for the "bullet train" in Japan? I still think financing a project like this would never happen if there wasn't commerce along the route to make a train practical. And we're a long way off from people willing to rough it in the "middle parts" of the Big Island.

I also think that "speed" and "freight" are unlikely to go together. A freight link seems more likely to me than a high-speed passenger line.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Big Island Traffic

Like most highway systems, I think this type of rail would be heavily subsidized by the Federal government. Local support would probably come from the rail tax levied on the Big Island.

As for freight and passenger service, I'm sure they can set up a few runs throughout the day to handle freight. I'd think most of the runs between Hilo and Kona would be primarily freight. Japan's bullet train can go 125-mph making the Hilo to Kona run at just under an hour at that speed.

Imagine a few stops along the way to introduce commerce in areas that normally wouldn't be considered. You could populate areas in the saddle area and really make the Big Island truly the land of opportunity because of cheaper land costs than Oahu and Maui.

With the state's increasing population sizes, the Big Island is the only place where growth can occur without too much of an environmental impact due to it's sheer size.

With two major deep draft ports at each end of the Big Island and a high speed rail to interconnect the two, the Big Island could see tremendous growth. That coupled with cheap land prices and an abundance of natural resources to fuel the growing economy I can see where the Big Island could be the answer to our state's problem with it's population.

But you gotta integrate the entire island to make it work. Right now that's not an easy task with animosity between East and West. By shortening the distances between those two points, with a rail system that vision can become a reality before it becomes a nightmare when Oahu cannot cannot sustain itself for the sake of it's residents there.

The answer is the Big Island and really that's why I'm here, I see trends and I follow them, entrenching myself into it before it becomes mainstream.

I own land here on the Big Island, and it will pay off in time, it's already more than doubled in value since I bought it two years ago. Oahu is quickly becoming old news with developments occuring on the Big Island. There's a lot of us Honolulu Expatriates that have come here and reaped the benefits of the Big Island. We live better, lives both mentally and financially. It's such a better place and it can be even sweeter when the county get's it's act together and create a master plan for the Big Island that works.

[drewb]

Re: Big Island Traffic

Someone mentioned that a good portion of the wonderful east side infrastructure was paid for by tax revenue generated by east side property taxes and in the same posting they mentioned that the east side is fast growing due to cheap land....now that really doesn't make since. Compare land value and taxes paid on such lands between east and west Hawaii. Lots in Kona are smaller than the big 3 acre ag lots in Hilo / Puna and 5 or 6 times more in price and therefore pay way, way, more in property tax. The same writer mentions that more and more jobs are becoming available in east Hawaii and that may be true but $9.00 an hour or less just wont cut it. Hilos mainstay is the university and recently the development. The big island needs to be divided into two counties because west Hawaii just isn't getting their fair share. I write all of this from kona as I own in puna...by the way that lot is for sale complete with engineered plans for a 1488 sq ft 3 bed 2 bath home and a county building permit. You can see the complete ad on http://www.hawaiiinformation.com/REsearch/ The Mls number is 163724 it is listed for 60k but I will consider all reasonable offers. I also have it listed here on the for sale thread check it out. Oh and the taxes are ONLY $100.00 a year!!!

[Konaguy]

Re: Big Island Traffic

I believe it is very unlikely that we'll see Hawaii County split into
two counties. Why I feel this way is because only the legislature
can create new political subdivisions (Counties).

http://www.hawaii.gov/lrb/con/conart8.html

CREATION; POWERS OF POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS

Section 1. The legislature shall create counties, and may create other political subdivisions within the State, and provide for the government thereof. Each political subdivision shall have and exercise such powers as shall be conferred under general laws. [Ren and am Const Con 1978 and election Nov 7, 1978

Since the Legislature is predominately controlled by Oahu. It is very unlikely
they would approve such split. They wouldn't want Kaneohe or Kapolei
split from City and County of Honolulu to form their own county.

[mel]

Re: Big Island Traffic

There is a site on the internet that has a lot of information about the Saddle Road on the Big Island:

http://www.saddleroad.com/

It seems more than likely that whatever improvements are made in the area, it will continue to be a roadway for motorists. A train line will probably not be practical or affordable despite perceived economic benefits.

I think 3 major obstacles to large scale development of any type of transit (road or rail) in that corridor:

• Military - I think the Military would actively oppose a rail system due to their continued use of the Pohakuloa training area. Safety issues may be at hand here, as they are even for a widened roadway. Also the military needs a roadway more than a rail line to move their equipment in and out of the area.
• Environment - I think a railroad would do more damage to the local environment there than a road; of course it can be argued that the military does a lot of damage already.
• Mauna Loa - While it hasn't erupted in more than 20 years now, a lava flow going down between the saddle would cause more destruction to an expensive rail line vs. a roadway.

Long ago in the first half of the 20th century, the Big Island enjoyed regular passenger train service between Hilo and Paauilo along the Hamakua Coast. My Mom told me stories about riding the train when she was a lot younger. She liked it.

On April 1, 1946 most of the bridges than spanned the great gulches along the Hamakua Coast for the train were wiped out by a large tsunami (that killed many in Lauaphoehoe point and Hilo). After that happened, the bridges were never rebult and the railroad went out of business. Focus after that changed to the automobile and the highway along the Hamakua Coast was modernized to what we have today.