On Thursday, Sept. 27, 6:46 a.m., I caught the Route 42 bus from Fort Weaver Road in Ewa Beach to downtown. It took me an hour-and-a-half, reaching City Hall just after 8:15 a.m. I was able to sit for a little while, but most of the time I stood. I felt bad for some older passengers who were also standing a long time. Sadly, this is probably their only way to get to and from work, and that means they spend three hours a day, every day, on the road in traffic.
We must do better, and simply putting more buses into already congested traffic is not a solution.
My vision for the future of transit in Honolulu springs from a simple concept: People need to travel efficiently around town, and if they can’t, this city will stagnate. Two, three or more hours a day on the road is unacceptable, and it is ruining the quality of life for many families on this island.
Honolulu is now one of the largest cities in America, and growing. More than 60 percent of that growth will happen on Oahu’s west side, where the population has doubled in the past 30 years, and will double again in the next 20. That’s why we need a transit system that can move tens of thousands of people every day, at all times of the day, and on weekends, too.
That requires high-capacity rail, but also buses, better-maintained roads, HOV and Zipper lanes, and community planning that also provides options to walk and ride bikes safely. It’s not rail versus bus. It’s rail AND bus.
Now, if you are skeptical about rail, please hear me out. While I support rail, I do believe we can build rail better. What does that mean?
"Building Rail Better" is based on three principles.
The first is fiscal responsibility. We have to manage the money and contracts for the rail project much more carefully than has been to date. I have discussed this with Dan Grabauskas at the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation at some length, and he is in complete agreement.
The second is listening carefully to legitimate public concerns. Too many in our community have been shut out of the process. They deserve answers to their questions and consideration of their opinions. They will get that access from me as mayor.
The third is appearance. We need to pay more attention to rail’s visual impact, especially near our waterfront. In fact, I would review the placement and design of the Chinatown and Downtown stations to determine whether they can be combined, as they are just blocks apart and impact viewplanes for residents and visitors.
Rail is too important to the future of our city to ignore any way, big or small, that we can improve its construction or operation. That’s the entire attitude that drives Building Rail Better.
When I was the state House majority leader, former state Sen. Nadao Yoshinaga, a veteran of the famed 100th Battalion/442 Regimental Combat Team, would come to talk story with me from time to time. I always enjoyed talking with him and learned a lot about the days when Hawaii first became a state. Najo, as we called him, passed away in 2009, but, like Gov. John Burns, he was a true visionary at a critical time in our history, and he fought to pass landmark legislation such as the state’s Prepaid Healthcare Act and the creation of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. One year, on the Legislature’s opening day, I asked him to sit with me on the House chamber floor so we could recognize his service to Hawaii. And I asked him, "If you could go back in time and do it over, is there anything you would do different?"
"Yes," he said. "I would have dreamed bigger."
Today, we have an opportunity, perhaps our last, to build a truly complete transit system for Honolulu. This is such a great city, and we owe it to coming generations to step up and take responsibility for our destiny. I am asking the people of Hono- lulu to stand with me, look the future square in the eye, and dream big.
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Kirk W. Caldwell, former managing director for the city, is a candidate for mayor of Honolulu.
