Businesswoman lobbies
for Sand Island bus

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

Sand Island couldn't support a city bus route in 1980, but times have changed, says one area businesswoman.

"We have 94 businesses at the Kapalama Military Reservation and a beautiful beach park but no bus service," said Sandra Kamanu of Military HQ. "This area has developed so much in the last two years.

"When I come to work at 6 in the morning, there are at least 100 people walking in from Nimitz Highway toward Kilgo," she added. "It's about a mile in to Kapalama Military Reservation."

Bus service would make Sand Island Park more accessible to the public, Kamanu noted. "It would definitely be a plus for the area if the park were accessible by bus," she said. "The point is that bus service would not strictly be for the benefit of businesses.

"If your car gets towed to Sand Island, you've got to take a cab to go get it unless you've got a ride," Kamanu added. "A cab fare is like adding insult to injury."

Following the advice of city officials, Kamanu notified the Kalihi-Palama Neighborhood Board about her request for bus service. The matter was addressed at the September board meeting.

Glenn Moir of the city's Public Transit Division told the board that the Service Review Committee will gather information and evaluate the request.

Sand Island is one of about two dozen requests being evaluated, said city Department of Transportation Services Director Cheryl Soon.

"We get requests constantly for new routes," she said. "Our budget is fixed a good year in advance for number of service hours so we cannot make service adjustments without adjusting routes somewhere in the system."

Currently, the budget calls for 1.335 million hours of bus service and Soon does not see a significant increase for the 1998-99 fiscal year.

Priority is given to routes with high ridership.

There are some exceptions. For example, late bus service is maintained for outlying districts such as Waianae.

"The Sand Island woman made a good case so we're looking at it," said Soon, who added that the route there was discontinued in 1980 due to low ridership.

"We'll consider what changes have occurred to determine if we're dealing with a peak-hour issue or something around-the-clock," she added.

Since the number of service hours is fixed, transit officials cannot simply create a new route, even if the evaluation determines service is merited.

"It has to be revenue neutral, meaning it can't cost anything," Soon said. "So we would have to determine how much time would be added by a new route.

"There has to be a balance between benefits added and inconvenience created for riders (on the adjusted route)," Soon added.