Council members Some City Council members are asking if the first phase of Mayor Jeremy Harris' $1 billion Bus Rapid Transit project is ready for prime time.
question funds for
Bus Rapid Transit
project phase
Some members do not feel
that the system will improve
traffic efficiencyBy Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.comCity Councilman Gary Okino and Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi say they may not support a $35 million bond appropriation that is part of the mayor's $475 million capital improvements package.
Okino told Transportation Director Cheryl Soon at a Budget Committee meeting yesterday that he is not supporting the funding until he is convinced that the proposed system will be efficient when it shares lanes with other vehicles on 4.5 miles of the 5.6-mile first leg of the in-town system.
"For this system to have any advantage over a normal bus system, you have to have exclusive lanes, you have to have some advantage over regular traffic," Okino said. "More and more, this system is deteriorating into just another bus line. Any choke point in the system will delay the whole system."
About 2.8 miles of the line would be on semiexclusive lanes, where the right lane would be only for vehicles that must turn right and buses. The system would share the road with all vehicles for the remaining 1.7 miles, Soon said.
The project would cost about $66 million. The Council is being asked to issue bonds for only $35 million because the city is getting $12 million in federal New Start transit money this year and hopes to get $20 million more from that same source next year, Soon said.
The first leg, known as the Iwilei-to-Waikiki alignment, is proposed to run 5.6 miles from a transit station near Aala Park to the Kapahulu Avenue end of Waikiki.
Transportation Chairman Duke Bainum, who supports funding for the project, said that while some compromises may have been made to address community concerns, the project still reduces the commute time for bus riders by between one-third and one-half. Transportation officials say it would take under 22 minutes for the line to run from Iwilei, primarily along Nimitz Highway, Ala Moana and Kalakaua Avenue to get to Kapahulu. It would make just eight stops on the way.
"The alternative is almost total gridlock by the year 2020," Bainum said. "Or we do what the state wants to do and keep building more roads. They want to double-deck Nimitz Highway from the airport to downtown."
Kobayashi said after the meeting that she is also troubled by the questions raised not just by Okino, but by those living in her Manoa-Ala Moana district. "I really have concerns about whether the construction money is needed at this time," Kobayashi said. "That's a lot of money we're going to be spending."
City & County of Honolulu
