Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.
City Councilman Herman G.P. Lemke — who envisions use of buses as an integral part of a mass transit system — said it is critically important for the City to begin preparations now for an acquisition of the Honolulu Rapid Transit Company.
He favors, too, a steep tax on cars — possibly in the neighborhood of $100 per car — to discourage their use and to encourage drivers to use buses which would carry them to the terminals of a mass transit system involving … a subway or monorail.
If the City is to resolve its acute traffic problem, it’s got to start now, Lemke said, to change the transportation habits of the people so that they’ll leave their cars at home in favor of mass transportation. …
Lemke holds that it is urgent for the City to begin plans for a take over of H.R.T.’s rolling stock, in view of H.R.T.’s petition before the State Public Utilities Commission for fare increases.
He said that if the fare hikes are granted, … many riders will shun the buses and more cars will be on the streets. …
Lemke would finance the construction of a subway or monorail from the $100 yearly vehicle tax. Such a tax on Oahu’s 200,000 cars would yield $20 million annually. …
Lemke said that the time has come when the profit-making aspect of the transit system has to be abandoned in favor of a facility geared to public service.
“It’s the practice today in nearly all of the major Mainland cities where the bus operations are government-owned,” said Lemke.
These cities all contribute millions of dollars yearly as subsidies to keep the mass transit systems going, he said. …
Honolulu, too, would have to consider subsidizing a bus operation if it were to acquire one, to cover losses.
Asked what would be the case if Harry Weinberg, H.R.T. board chairman and principal stockholder, refused to sell the company, Lemke said:
“Then we would have a problem.
“Weinberg would have a problem, too, if the P.U.C. refuses to grant him a fare increase.”
The proposal to raise school fares from 15 to 20 cents is “ridiculous,” Lemke said.
