Rail Transit

[turtlegirl]

Re: Rail Transit

Most of us will not adapt to the schedule of the rail, we like the privacy of our own cars and not having to meet a bus or rail schedule.

Well, good for you, car people. Don't adapt. Stay in your private cars in freeway traffic. Makes no difference to those of us on the new rail!

[Karen]

Re: Rail Transit

Agreed! and you rail people enjoy the rail at the huge waste of billions of dollars, though I can't say it doesn't matter to me.

Joshua, too many jobs and people need to use their/our cars and be on OUR schedules which vary day to day and week to week. Not one vehicle that is commercially used can use rail when doing their jobs. There's too many people that will go without vacations and other "luxuries" to keep using our own cars, and Lord help us if crime gets very much worse...rail will be avoided to avoid the possibility of who may be using it, etc.

Mufi's rail is going to be a bust, but by the time this is clearly seen and known he'll be out of office and not having to publicly deal with the reality of it. That, and knowing the dang unions it'll probably go two billion over cost and they'll have more excuses than uses, for it.

[joshuatree]

Re: Rail Transit

Agreed! and you rail people enjoy the rail at the huge waste of billions of dollars, though I can't say it doesn't matter to me.

Joshua, too many jobs and people need to use their/our cars and be on OUR schedules which vary day to day and week to week. Not one vehicle that is commercially used can use rail when doing their jobs. There's too many people that will go without vacations and other "luxuries" to keep using our own cars, and Lord help us if crime gets very much worse...rail will be avoided to avoid the possibility of who may be using it, etc.

Mufi's rail is going to be a bust, but by the time this is clearly seen and known he'll be out of office and not having to publicly deal with the reality of it. That, and knowing the dang unions it'll probably go two billion over cost and they'll have more excuses than uses, for it.

On any given work day, what is the proportion of commercial vehicles seen vs the number of single occupant private cars? There is no such thing as a silver bullet transit solution. There are many people with the need to use their cars and there are many more that can skip using the car for a work commute if a decent alternative exists.

Remember the H3, double decking the H1 does not mean unions will not be involved and there won't be massive cost overruns as well.

Crime on rail, no different than crime on the streets, this argument plays more on the emotions that standing on solid facts. A lot of crime happens involving the use of cars, why not ban cars?

[Karen]

Re: Rail Transit

Crime involving cars? have you noticed how most often the people didn't lock their doors the moment they got into their cars? I did...it wasn't windows smashed in that gave the perp access, but overconfident people.

You said "There are many people with the need to use their cars and there are many more that can skip using the car for a work commute if a decent alternative exists."

People can...but will people? I won't bet with money while I bet if I did that I'd win some. The majority of us will stay in our cars, watch. We're the ones still not using the bus or boat.

H3 and unions? was it their fault? I wouldn't doubt it, as I have no need or use for any union and never did when I was employed, nor do any members of my family, immediate and extended. We became friends with a next door neighbor that moved here from Oregon to build H3 and he left when it was finished. He said without smiling that there was more to it "than meets the eye." He was on it from start to finish, hmmm.

Rail will not be widely used, while double decker hiways, if done literally on all 3 it then doubles the amount of hiway space long, long before the amount of autos on island doubles.

You want rail? you apparently are getting what you want.

Rail is a very bad idea and history many years from now will show this clearly.

[mel]

Re: Rail Transit

Rail: The Biggest Money Scam in Hawaii Politics

It's a humongous public works project that requires more tax revenue to be collected from as broad a base as possible, so as much money as possible can be raised and then spent on favored consultants, contractors, unions, etc. And in the end, not surprisingly, there will be more than enough campaign contributions filtering back to rail/tax supporters to keep these people in office forever.

The RailScam.com

[joshuatree]

Re: Rail Transit

Crime involving cars? have you noticed how most often the people didn't lock their doors the moment they got into their cars? I did...it wasn't windows smashed in that gave the perp access, but overconfident people.

You said "There are many people with the need to use their cars and there are many more that can skip using the car for a work commute if a decent alternative exists."

People can...but will people? I won't bet with money while I bet if I did that I'd win some. The majority of us will stay in our cars, watch. We're the ones still not using the bus or boat.

H3 and unions? was it their fault? I wouldn't doubt it, as I have no need or use for any union and never did when I was employed, nor do any members of my family, immediate and extended. We became friends with a next door neighbor that moved here from Oregon to build H3 and he left when it was finished. He said without smiling that there was more to it "than meets the eye." He was on it from start to finish, hmmm.

Rail will not be widely used, while double decker hiways, if done literally on all 3 it then doubles the amount of hiway space long, long before the amount of autos on island doubles.

You want rail? you apparently are getting what you want.

Rail is a very bad idea and history many years from now will show this clearly.

Yes, crime involving cars. It's amazing to see the false security blanket people get just because there's a locked door and a thin sheet of glass in front of them. Crime happens at all places and in all forms. I'm just asking for less of the irrational sensationalism about crime on rail. A higher crime rate on a rail is not the rail's fault but the failure of security implementation. There are many rails around the world with low crime rates.

As I've already mentioned earlier, when those gas prices keep going up and you have a viable alternative for your work commute, you will see more people switch. You may be steadfast and hardcore with your car but this was never about forcing everyone to get out of their cars.

So you're saying the union had no role in any of H3's cost overrun. Yet you are so confident rail overruns will be caused by unions? Can we say bias?

If you double decked the entire width of the H1, you are going to have to evict a lot of people. Building on and off ramps to get to the second level will require a lot of adjacent land. If you ever thought an elevated rail would be an unsightly view, a double decked H1 would be worse.

[Keanu]

Re: Rail Transit

Well, good for you, car people. Don't adapt. Stay in your private cars in freeway traffic. Makes no difference to those of us on the new rail!

The rail route doesn't go anywhere near Kailua. Are you going to drive your car or catch a bus to Kapolei just so you can ride the train to Waipahu?

[Keanu]

Re: Rail Transit

The City looked at managed lanes when it was working on its Alternative Analysis report to help the city council select a Locally Preferred Alternative for the Honolulu High -Capacity Transir Corridor Project. The manged lane alternative was not selected for a variety of reasons. Most notably was the fact that the managed lane alternative would not be eligible for federal funding under the Federal Transit Administration's "New Starts" program. Also, A good number of homes would have to be relocated under the managed lane option and a number of historic structures would be displaced as well.

I do however, agree with Karen on a couple of points. People like the freedom to be able to go where they want, when they want. I don't think the majority of people are going to change their car driving habits just because there is an alternative. Rail will benefit communities like Kapolei, Ewa, Waipahu, Pearl City etc. but it won't do anything for people who live in Mililani, Wahiawa, the North Shore, or Windward side of the Island.

The bottom line is that this project is an alternative but it won't alleviate traffic and it's going to cost a lot of money

[sansei]

Re: Rail Transit

hi this is sansei and my thoughts are that if they did put a elevated highway or tollway's that one first that a tollway would be like SF and that an elevated Highway would be like L.A. or los Angeles where you'd go round and round and couldnt find your way until if you had a GPS system in your car then it would take you to where you wish and for Rail,it would be good according to my eldest sister who live's in SF where a lot of people ride the bart and she say's it work's good there so why not here?

Well thank's for your time

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Rail Transit

I want rail to get me out of my car!! Driving downtown is awful!! I don't even care what the wheels are made of, so long as they do something!

I take it your new here. You haven't yet seen how our local politicians can mess up things that other cities do quite well. For starters, what is rail connecting? I haven't been watching closely, but at this point I don't think it's the airport, Waikiki, UH Manoa, or the Windward side. It's gets within a block of LCC. At this rate it will efficiently connect us to places we don't want to go.

[turtlegirl]

Re: Rail Transit

I take it your new here. You haven't yet seen how our local politicians can mess up things that other cities do quite well.

Yep, I'm pretty new. Shame about the politicians here. If I could design the rail system, It would be airport, Waikiki, downtown Honolulu, college, etc., and connect that loop to Ewa and somewhere on the Windward side.

To answer Keanu's previous question, I would indeed drive to the end of the line, wherever that may be, so I could park my car, and relax my way thru town. I've been doing it for years in lots of other cities. It's easy, especially compared with trying to park my car in town!

[Karen]

Re: Rail Transit

Good news on island today....the initiative to put rail to a vote! YES....I and others didn't vote Mufi in so he could dictate to us. We need the vote to find out where the majority lies on this. I think I already know and it's against rail, but.....watch Mufi panic and work hard to prevent US from being heard, in voting.

Sign the petition to bring this to a vote, and watch which politicians seem the most upset at the democratic idea of us all being HEARD.

[sansei]

Re: Rail Transit

hi this is sansei and in response to karen,if the mayor veto's the rail,yourself and everyone know's that we'd be in so much traffic gridlock that we'd become like L.A. and everyone would be in not such good mood's and we need this rail steel on steel without it,we the driver's suffer and it probably wont be until another 16 or more year's before rail is brought up again so i hope the mayor wont veto it,we need it.

Well thank's for your time

[Random]

Re: Rail Transit

I think there's money to be made to cater to the executive (your prize cows) and it will succeed where public transit will NOT get them out of their cars. But I also think more people would take mass transit if one can strip out the slimy types from the ridership. Politically correct? Not at all. But my interest is to get mass transit to WORK without spending a fortune. And that means tackling any issue the general public has with our existing system.

Fine. If you want to dedicate a few "boxcars" to privileged people (with fine dining), yet allow "us slimy types" to use economy-class boxcars (more like freight cars for cattles), I have no problem with that.

I just hope I'm sandwiched tight between two (anatomically correct) wahines.

[Random]

Re: Rail Transit

growing up in Texas I cannot remember if it is Dallas, Houston or which big city has the double-decker hiways, but that remains Oahu's answer to bad traffic. We all get to keep our autos, privacy, and if H1 alone were double decker we'd all be so less stressed, and not running late so often.

Double-decker freeway? I still have the image of a double-decker freeway crumbled to the ground because of the San Francisco earthquake.

Granted, Cali is the worse for being prone to earthquakes -- I wait with glee for the "Big One" ... I repeat, with glee -- and Hawaii rarely do, I still do not recommend stacking up the freeways.