Commuters rail about options
A Council survey finds half would ride the bus if the city were to make improvements
When it comes to transit surveys, one trait is common among Honolulu commuters no matter who's asking the questions: They're looking for more than just one solution to ease their commute.
Four months ago, a city administration survey found that 45 percent of respondents favored rail over other solutions. It certainly brightened Mayor Mufi Hannemann, a rail supporter.
A more skeptical City Council commissioned its own survey, which was released yesterday. It also found similar support for construction of rail transit.
But the big surprise, to some: More than half of the respondents said they would not ride rail at all. But 50 percent said they would ride the bus if the system was improved dramatically.
Councilwoman Barbara Marshall said she was surprised by the "sizable jump" in the number of people who would ride the bus if Oahu had managed lanes.
But she said the results support what Hannemann has been saying: that solving the island's traffic problems will require more than one solution.
The Council survey of 1,003 Oahu residents was conducted by QMark Research and Polling between Nov. 9 and Sunday. Full results showing how people on different parts of the island responded are expected to be available by the end of the month.
Among its findings:
» If the city improved bus transit times and made more buses available to more places, for example through a toll road only for high-occupancy vehicles, 50 percent of the respondents said they would ride the bus (37 percent said they already ride it).
» When residents were asked whether the city should build a rail transit system, the percentage who said yes matched the results of a recent administration-sponsored survey.
» 30 percent of respondents to the Council survey said a rail system should be built whatever the cost; 14 percent said the price should be capped at $3.6 billion; 32 percent said the system should not be built; 18 percent said it should be built only in conjunction with more highway lanes and/or a toll road; and 7 percent said they didn't know.
In the administration survey of preferred transit alternatives conducted from Oct. 27 to Nov. 6, 45 percent chose rail. That survey didn't ask respondents whether they would ride it.
This is the second time the Council commissioned a survey to ask residents what they thought about issues facing the city. Some of the questions, like those related to trash pickup and recycling, were asked in the 2004 survey. This year's survey added questions about transit and the city's neighborhood board system.