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City leaders
visit Brazil to study
lauded bus system

A U.S.-sponsored transit
conference will look at Curitiba's
system, said to be the world's best

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By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, City Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura and others are heading to a transit conference in Curitiba, Brazil, and will look at what many consider the best bus rapid-transit system in the world.

The conference, which runs from Sunday through next Wednesday, is being sponsored by the U.S. Federal Transit Administration and the Brazilian state of Parana.

The Honolulu City Council voted last week to proceed with a $1 billion-plus bus rapid transit system on Oahu.

Yoshimura will be joined by two Council colleagues -- Transportation Chairman Duke Bainum and Romy Cachola.

On the administration side, Transportation Services Director Cheryl Soon, transit division chief Paul Steffens and Transportation Commission members Christina Kemmer, Paul Leong, Claire Tamamoto and Donn Takaki plan to go.

Harris, Soon and others in the contingent are expected to leave Hawaii on Thursday.

Besides attending the conference, the group will meet with Parana Gov. Jaime Lerner and Curitiba Mayor Cassio Taniguchi and tour a Volvo bus plant.

The cost of the trip is between $2,700 and $3,500 for each person, including airfare, ground transportation and hotel rooms.

Council members will be footing the bills for their own trips, although Council staff say there is a possibility they could be reimbursed partially from a federal transit account from Soon's department.

Harris' expenses will be paid by his travel account budget, according to spokeswoman Carol Costa.

The costs for Soon, Steffens and the commission members are being picked up by the Transportation Services Department's operating budget.

Others expected to travel with the contingent include officials from the state Department of Transportation and the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, and a handful of representatives from private businesses and professional organizations.

U.S. transportation officials have, for a number of years, looked at Curitiba as a model for bus rapid transit and noted that despite having an average of one car for each person, an estimated 70 percent of the city's commuters use transit daily.

Like the bus rapid transit planned for Oahu, the Curitiba system involves smaller neighborhood circulator buses feeding onto express buses -- with fewer stops but higher frequency -- that travel to and from town.

In town, the bus rapid-transit system runs along exclusive lanes in some areas and gets priority on traffic signals.

Supporters of bus rapid transit hail it as a cheap and efficient alternative to rail. Critics call it a glorified bus system and are skeptical that it would be able to get Oahu motorists out of their vehicles.