Starting in March, a 3:48 a.m. bus will be added to the city’s Route 93 that runs from Makaha Valley to downtown Honolulu — a move to ease overcrowding. The day’s first 93 bus now starts at 4:03 a.m.

It will be a welcome addition for early risers on the Waianae Coast. The route uses a 40-foot single bus, which can seat 40 people but often serves 55 to 60. Lack of a turnaround area near Makaha Valley Towers forces the city to use a single bus rather than a longer, articulated bus.

City Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, who represents the Leeward Coast, is talking with private landowners to see whether they would be willing to work with the city to build a turnaround. Next stop: addressing overcrowding on Route C, the “country express” bus from Makaha Beach Park to Ala Moana Center.

Keep airfares for homeless a private matter

Don’t cry that state legislators last week killed a proposal that would have forced Hawaii taxpayers to buy return airline tickets for homeless people from the mainland.

Sure, it’s something that the Institute for Human Services and the tourism industry has been doing for a while — they paid $28,374 between October 2014 and November 2015 to send 133 homeless people back to their homes on the mainland, freeing up shelter space for other homeless people — hopefully enabling more help for Hawaii’s needy. An IHS official called that expense “a good return on investment.”

But having the state pay for tickets as official policy would be like hanging out a sign and inviting homeless people from around the nation to buy one-way tickets to get here. Such news would be on the Internet in a snap and the amazing offer would spread through mainland homeless communities like wildfire.