City issues
traffic SOS

It asks for public input to develop
a plan that could include fixed rail

By Star-Bulletin staff

The city is planning a series of community workshops to get public thoughts on ways to reduce Oahu's traffic congestion, including construction of a fixed-rail mass-transit system.

A rail system was killed by the City Council in 1992, but city Transportation Director Cheryl Soon yesterday said it will be among "some new ideas and some old ideas" that would be presented at the meetings to see if a consensus can be reached.

"Fixed-rail transit could be an added benefit, but we have certainly learned from our past that any project of that magnitude would have to have community support, and would have to be part of many other improvements that would be happening," she said.

Among the other options the director listed were exclusive bus lanes, ferries, car pools and van pools, bicycle facilities and bus shuttles.

The administration does not have a position on rail transit, and believes any major project should result from discussions with residents, rather than coming from the "top down," she said.

"We're not trying to push anything," Soon said. "We're trying to listen."

Councilman Steve Holmes, who chairs the transportation committee and is a member of the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, said revival of the rail-transit idea by Mayor Jeremy Harris' administration is "news to me. I'm very surprised that that discussion is occurring because Jeremy had made it clear when he was running for office that rail was dead for the time being," he said.

Holmes in 1992 was part of a 5-4 majority against an excise tax increase that would have helped fund a $1.7 billion system running from Waiawa to the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus.

He questioned many aspects of that proposal but added that a light-rail system with greater federal participation, while not a panacea to Oahu's transportation woes, "is certainly worth discussing."

Soon said Hawaii's congressional delegation was approached at the start of the year to earmark $5 million in federal transportation funds for environmental impact reports that may be needed for any plan that emerges.

Soon said the workshops would begin in late summer or early fall, with the planning process taking six to seven months. The Council approved spending up to $100,000, with 80 percent coming from the federal government, she said.