Kansas City’s “smart technology streetcar system,” described in Time magazine last month, must be an inherent feature of our rail system.

Digital kiosks display local attractions, take visitors’ pictures and measure air quality. Responsive traffic lights reduce vehicle transit time and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by lowering the time cars idle at red lights. Data collected by sensors on streetlights assist in fixing potholes and other problems.

Our rail system must employ similar measures so that Central, Leeward and North Shore residents will enjoy the quality of work and family life that is impossible with our present disaster zones. Kansas City’s progressiveness has made life livable there, and similar enlightened solutions must be adopted here.

Locals know that thousands of our ohana (including many of my own) have emigrated to escape the daily commuting and quality-of-life horrors that we have faced for decades.

Auwe.

John Hoshibata

Mililani

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