Honolulu passes Los Angeles as worst city for drivers

I attribute our traffic problem to incompetence, not conspiracy. Our leaders have done next to nothing to upgrade our traffic infrastructure for 20 years now! Obviously, if you do nothing, traffic will get worse. And contrary to popular belief, we can upgrade our traffic infrastructure and improve traffic congestion. In 2005 a new highway was proposed from Aloha Stadium, over Ford Island, to Kapolei. It was approved by the Navy commander at the time, but stupidly shot down by Mufi Hannemann. Other ideas include a flyover for H1 or double decking Nimitz. These ideas are a fraction of the price of the ridiculously expensive rail. Unlike rail, highway infrastructure benefits all manner of emergency vehicles, freight vehicles, military vehicles, commerce vehicles, commuters, etc. etc. etc.

The only fact about rail is that it will bankrupt the state...add a couple lanes for buses only...and add buses...cut the cost exponentially. Funny how the "rail-crowd" just doesn't get it.

True, but no sense lamenting past decisions. We need a solution now. I don't think there is a magic bullet here, but we need to get more drivers off the road - whether it's using alternate forms of transportation or raising gas prices to pay for infrastructure upgrades or rail - we need to do something.

Mitigate? No. Avoid, bypass, provide a reliable alternative? Yes

The Federal Transportation Administration and the City and County of Honolulu has ADMITTED that Rail will not reduce traffic!

Now who's the conspiracy theorist?

Good luck doing that...aren't they not supposed to be on the road to begin with??

Please stop with the nonsense. Traffic congestion will get worse because there will be thousands of cars added to the mix in the next twenty to thirty years. There is no solution to that. Rail gives people an alternative to being stuck in traffic.

Rail will not help. Exactly.

The traffic did not appear overnight. It took decades to get this bad during which time the transportation planners - same guys - did absolutely nothing to help or solve the problems. Think about that. The smae guys who want $50,000/foot for rail did not do anything to help traffic.

It may help a little, but this is not a solution. Yes, the infrastructure needs to be fixed but the congestion and sheer number of cars on the road won't be reduced. And an accident will cause the same problems as a water main break - especially if it's a fatal one.

Kalaheo1; AWESOME post!

Seriously Kalaheo1.................The reason people are asking for Ben's plan is because he said he had one. You are playing the typical change the subject political game.

They've been trying to sync the lights for years, and still can't seem to get it right. What also throws it off (at least in downtown) are the number of pedestrians who cross when the signal is already counting down. It makes turning cars wait and creates terrible backlogs. I wonder if pedestrian overpasses - especially in the downtown area - would help in this regard. And I'd love to see the city offices move out west, but I wonder how much traffic would help. I know traffic improves a lot when UH is on break, so I'd like to see if the West campus can be successfully implemented.

Thank you saveparadise. Our GREEDY politicians at all levels local, state & federal have thought more of thier bank accounts than the conservation of these beautiful islands. Especially Oahu. Over development contributes to over population along with crumbling out of date infrastructure and you have a recipe for "choke" traffic. I have never, nor will ever vote for my city council rep Nestor Garcia. He should really move to Texas where D.R. Horten Schuler Division homes originated. Aloha.

Yes that is what we need.

True, it's probably old people like you causing the congestion.

What time do you pop your ambient?

State Reps. are on record as to requesting the City change the traffic signal timing on Kal Hwy back because the City manages the signalling. DTS changed them for no good reason and State legislators spent weeks to get them to change it back because of the havoc. I don't like when politicians and their special interest lap dogs give WE THE PEOPLE the finger, because they can. Things need to change for the better. Kirk never pulled cr@p like that. He is a better second choice, in my humble opinion.

You mean the State and the City have planners? Could have fooled me! Isn't that an Oxymoron like City and State workers?

Rail - NO

Traffic relief - YES

People want traffic relief but rail doesn't do that. I's really quite simple. Imua Traffic Relief.

I am a proud independent thinking Democrat who clearly sees that corruption is rampant everywhere. The truth and the repetition of the truth will eventually make Hawaii a better place. The Rail is about moving money amongst special interest. It is not about moving people as the most efficient manner to decrease traffic. It will not go to UH or Waikiki as originally planned. Building a train for a decade along the worst traffic route in the U.S. in no way will make traffic better. That is quite simply the truth, and even Rail Nazis know it. Hawaii people are not stvpid and one can be a loyal Democrat without being a Rail fanboy. The best way to help all the people is develop the Second City so they won't have to travel for work. We need to build West Oahu into a University and turn Manoa into after-grad only. Smart self sustaining growth is the ultimate traffic solution; not what we have been doing. Hawaii won't have Uncle Dan to bring money back anymore in November. Time for us to stand up for our own future with no payback to special interests.

That's the key Jonas - lots of parts. I like bike lanes and think we should have the best in the nation to match our weather but bike lanes are sacrificed to pay for Frankentrain, Better bus service is good but rail is a money zombie, gobbling up bus funding. Why has no one done anything about the Middle Street merge in decades? Why no direct routes from freeway exit to Waikiki or Ala Moana? Incentives for small cars. Prosecution for on-insured drivers. Move offices and services to the second city. Stagger gov't work hours. Change UH rush time. More flexible bus sizes. Etc., etc., OK, you have heard all this before.There are many. many traffic mitigation things we can do without the train.

@NanakuliBoss: Actually there will be a point someday that we will literally run out of space to develop. What do we do then? Our costs to provide necessary infrastructure. water. electricity and other services will more than triple by then. At that point, the poor won't be able to afford to live here. If we keep developing at the rate that we are, it won't be a choice of whether or not we say to hell with the younger generation. Stop being selfish and bowing down to your masters that pay you to blog about promoting construction like there's no limit. The point is there is a limit! If we ever get to that point, we're all screwed anyways. If some people leave because they feel that Oahu is too crowded, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I dunno about you, but I don't want Oahu becoming a field of scyscrapers. We have other islands that we can build on too ya know. Stop being so small minded.

@NanakuliBoss: You know that's not 100% true. There are many departments that aren't micromanaged or that need to be in the office to contact people by phone or that aren't customer service related. Do all of the HR people need to be in the office every single day? Do computer programmers need to go to the office every day to write software programs or to provide technical support? Absolutely not! You talk about the rail opponents being closed minded and that rail is the future. Well, telecommuting should ultimately be a part of the future as well. You know that rail alone is not the magic bullet to solve all of our traffic woes. Telecommuting can take a huge bite out of our traffic problems and would not cost $5.3 Billion to implement. If you're worried about state and city workers slacking off because they have to work at home, you can have the managers provide work assignment quotas that would need to be met every week by these workers. If they don't meet those goals, they could be let go. Its time to think outside of the box. Not try to depend on your one trick pony of rail which really isn't cost effective. Did you know that the Federal Government has personnel in Washington D.C. and other high population areas that telecommute 2-3 days of the week? If the Feds can do it, so can the state, city, and private sector workers that don't necessarily need to be in the office every day.

Add an efficient BRT circle city system and it will work! Preserve the farmlands!