Bus rapid transit system
draws opposition at forum

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By Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.com

Having a bus rapid transit system in Honolulu will be similar to living in New York City, said Honolulu resident Rich Miano.

"It's absolutely insane," he said.

More than 100 people attended a community meeting held Thursday at the Hawai'i Convention Center night on the proposed bus lanes for the Honolulu Bus Rapid Transit project.

Guest speakers included Tom Dinell, former director of the UH Urban Planning Institute, and Cliff Slater, a businessman and former adjunct professor at the UH School of Business.

The city hopes to relieve traffic congestion by dedicating two lanes for buses between Honolulu Airport and Waikiki and the University of Hawaii.

Last week, the U.S. Senate approved $12 million in funding for the $1 billion project, which includes a CityTram line and a hub-and-spoke network in urban Honolulu.

The city is set to begin the project in 2003 and hopes to complete it by 2010.

Like Miano, Ewa Beach resident Glenn Magbanua said the city is trying to turn Honolulu into a metropolitan area. "I think it's a bad idea," Magbanua said.

Dinell questioned whether the project would hurt other capital improvement projects in Honolulu such as playgrounds and bikeways.

"There's no drafting of that in the EIS (environmental impact statement)," Dinell said.

Dinell also stated the bus rapid transit proposal "is based on the theory if we have dedicated lanes and we can move public transportation faster, that they will then choose to shift from their private cars to the public transportation vehicles."

"How do we really view behavior modification theories of this type?" he asked. "I haven't seen any studies on that."

Cheryl Soon, director of the city Department of Transportation Services, could not be reached for comment.

Stuart Ho, president of Capital Investment of Hawaii Inc., said, "There's been too much macro-vision and not enough attention to the important area of Waikiki that connects Waikiki to other parts of the island."

Louis Pritchard of International Investors Realty in Waikiki said the project will cause congestion for shoppers at Ala Moana Center, thereby affecting tourism.

"If we have more congestion, we'll lose more tourism," said Pritchard.

Last night's meeting was hosted by state Rep. Galen Fox (R, Waikiki-Ala Wai), who has concerns about the project and said he wanted to hear from the community.