ILLUSTRATION BY KIP AOKI / KAOKI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Diversifying Hawaii's economy is a goal of every local politician, but doing it isn't easy. With most of the state's people living on Oahu but most of the land and natural resources on the neighbor islands -- and long stretches of blue water in between -- the "Price of Paradise" asks: How can we connect the islands?They can grow economy | Can we really do it?BACK TO TOP
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PHOTO COURTESY INCAT AUSTRALIA EVERY civilization -- be it the Roman Empire of 2,000 years ago or the British Empire of two centuries ago -- is defined by its technologies of communication and trade. Vehicular ferries
can grow our economy
from the inside outBy Gordon Trimble
Today, as always, the goods we eat, drink and use are transported using technologies that consume varying amounts of energy. The lower the energy cost for a given payload, the higher our standard of living and the broader the reach of our civilization.
Hawaii is no different. We, too, need to transport products cheaply and quickly, but we lack a way to bridge the ocean channels that separate our island communities.
Vehicular ferries can inexpensively bring our islands closer together. The long-term potential economic, social and psychological benefits of a marine highway of vehicular ferries are truly profound.
Our businesses, residents and visitors are constrained by an ocean transportation system designed to serve the needs of yesterday's sugar and pineapple plantations rather than today's middle-class society.
The Big Five's plantation days are gone. It's time to officially recognize that our needs have changed and move forward to grow our economy to the next level by improving our transportation infrastructure.
Sept. 11, 2001 highlighted the need for additional interisland transportation choices.
With a vehicular ferry option, you could leave home in the morning and arrive at your destination on a neighbor island in time for lunch in the same car or delivery vehicle. Ferries would expand the reach of every small business from Barking Sands to the Black Sand Beach.
Currently, the only choices Hawaii small businesses have are at two extremes: a barge that comes once or twice a week and handles container loads or an airplane that charges by the pound.
COURTESY INCAT AUSTRALIA
The Cat ferry carries up to 900 passengers and 240 cars across the Gulf of Maine at highway speeds, making the 100-mile crossing in about two hours.
These are the only choices now open to Hawaii small businesses. Consider how your life would be different if your only transportation choices were a bicycle or a city bus.
YOU MIGHT wonder, why are the "big box" stores so successful in Hawaii? Modern information technology -- the same technology that gives consumers cheap, timely and accurate access to voice, video and data -- has allowed them to increase efficiency dramatically.
This technology gives them the ability to control far-flung operations. Local businesses have access to the same information technology. However, they do not have access to the same cheap, reliable ocean freight system statewide as the "big boxers" have worldwide.
A fast, reliable, efficient statewide ocean ferry system would provide the missing link to enable our local businesses to expand statewide.
Large, efficient auto carriers have been developed to negotiate rough ocean channels. The Cat, which uses wave-piercing technology on the route from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, is a good example. It carries up to 900 passengers and 240 cars across the Gulf of Maine at highway speeds, making the 100-mile crossing in two hours at speeds of up to 50 knots.
In the 1980s, a promising ferry design technology was developed in Hawaii called the SuperOutrigger. Tests showed it could deliver fast, stable service statewide, and it promised to be cheaper to build than other vessel types.
A MARINE highway would make our state more self-sufficient, expanding the market for goods and services for most businesses from one island to the whole island chain.
For the cookie maker on Kauai, it means a market of 1.3 million consumers instead of 75,000. For the fish jerky processor in Lahaina, the market suddenly increases ninefold. For the grower in Puna, the market can grow eightfold.
A marine highway of ferries connecting our state highway system would further unify our state economically, socially and politically. Best of all, it could be an engine of growth, broadening opportunities in Hawaii for the people who live here.
Just as in Maine, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland or Alaska, the major beneficiaries of a vehicular ferry system would be our small businesses and residents. The costs of these systems, however, are borne to a large extent by tourists.
The goal of our Statewide Transportation Plan is the "efficient movement of people and goods statewide."
Local businesses will grow and prosper when they can move goods statewide as efficiently as other businesses can worldwide.
Gordon Trimble is an economist, lecturer, asset manager and former administrator of Foreign Trade Zone No. 9. His public service career began in the Peace Corps in the Philippines. BACK TO TOP
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THE Star-Bulletin's Russ Lynch last month recounted the checkered history of ferries in Hawaii (see "Ferrytales" at https://archives.starbulletin.com/2002/09/15/business/story1.html). Although the economic need for a marine highway is indisputable, so far this vision has been too difficult for Hawaii to realize. Can Hawaii really
develop a marine
highway ferry system?By Scott Allen
The key question is the one posed by Lynch: Will the passengers be there?
To build a marine highway through our archipelago is not a trivial matter. The waters between the islands are not only legally high seas -- they are high seas in a physical sense as well. They demand ships large and fast enough to cope with open waters, but small enough to serve our population economically.
Such ships may not yet exist anywhere in the world. Unlike the interisland airlines, which simply imported a tested technology with wide international support, a Hawaii ferry system may have to develop its own technology.
Besides specialized vessels, there are other difficult questions: What schedules and tariffs will be acceptable? What shore facilities are usable? How should the system be financed and administered?
Should it be a public utility or should it be private and open to competition? Can it succeed without the subsidy every other type of public transport enjoys?
Can the ships be built in an American shipyard, or should we seek a waiver of the Jones Act and the Passenger Services Act of 1886 to acquire the best designs at the lowest cost? Are federal monies available?
IT WOULD take great political courage to support such a project, even though it could increase the state's tax base by several times its cost. These three planning rules will help:
>> First, the vessels, crews and shore facilities must be dedicated -- devoted exclusively to their marine highway mission. We shouldn't be tempted to create a system on the cheap by granting privileged access, such as waterfront development rights. Hidden costs are still costs. Our focus should be providing the service we want -- and only the one we want.
>> Second, the new system must be adequate. Schedules must be convenient and frequent. Our highways and bus system run around the clock. Our marine highway should, too.
Land and air transportation must be integrated with the water-born system. Terminal facilities should provide everything the passenger needs: safe parking and convenient transfer to other modes, such as buses, light rail and airports. These three parts of our Hawaii transportation system should be seen as interdependent and complementary, rather than warring competitors.
On-board amenities, including food, communications and office support, should let passengers use transit time as effectively as they would ashore. Overnight routes should offer staterooms so passengers can arrive refreshed and ready for work.
>> Third, the system must be adaptive. It must keep pace with new technology. The system itself will drive ever-increasing demand, so it must be easily scalable to meet it. Itineraries must change promptly to meet public needs. The system must be designed to anticipate change before it happens, not after.
THESE PRACTICAL problems all can be solved. The insurmountable problems so far have been those of ocean policy and political leadership.
Ocean projects not accompanied by federal grants have been eliminated from the state budget. Decades ago, the office of the state marine affairs coordinator was removed from the office of the governor. Its functions were assigned to an office lacking power to initiate projects or make decisions.
In the Legislature, chairmanship of ocean committees is routinely delegated to junior legislators. The myriad ocean interests of the state are strangely comfortable with their parallel state bureaucracies, safely isolated from intrusion or change.
In short, Hawaii lacks a unified ocean policy. Our leaders have not articulated a vision of an oceanic future. The possibility of a marine highway depends on our next governor and the leaders of our next Legislature.
But there is hope. Attitudes can change. Learning can occur. With wisdom and leadership the state of Hawaii could bridge the seas that divide us.
After 21 years in U.S. Navy intelligence, Scott Allen joined the Law of the Sea Institute where he worked in the area of ocean law and policy from 1977 to 1997.
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The Price of Paradise appears each week in the Sunday Insight section. The mission of POP is to contribute lively and informed dialog about public issues, particularly those having to do with our pocketbooks. Reader responses appear later in the week. If you have thoughts to share about today's POP articles, please send them, with your name and daytime phone number, to pop@starbulletin.com, or write to Price of Paradise, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana, Honolulu, HI 96813.
John Flanagan
Contributing Editor
