[ OUR OPINION ]

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Clipped BRT a disgraceful
exhibit of political inertia

THE ISSUE The city's truncated bus service will begin operations tomorrow.

After years of planning and millions of dollars spent, the city's ambitious BRT project ends up as a single route along which 10 expensive, though environmentally friendly, buses will run.

It is a shameful testament to political bickering, selfish obstructions by naysaying interest groups and a driving public unwilling to consider traffic solutions aside from getting other people off the road.

BRT wasn't conceived as an all-encompassing antidote to Oahu's ever-worsening traffic headache. It was supposed to be a small, curative dose, all that could be injected into a comatose lack of will among a rank of leaders averse to tackling the formidable issue and a community blind to the fact that transportation solutions come with a price tag.

Barring any more unforeseen hitches, the city will launch the first -- and likely only -- leg of BRT tomorrow using a hybrid vehicle that Mayor Harris says will run 90 percent cleaner than conventional diesel buses. The $750,000 electric and gas bus may be the only bright spot in the once-touted system Harris had fought for.

The failure is not Harris' to bear alone. The City Council, which approved the project two years ago, slowly lost its nerve in pushing BRT past hurdles. Confronted with NIMBY complaints, the project's shaky support began eroding as it moved closer to reality. State legislators picked at it. Governor Lingle withheld her approval, preferring plans that would have her imprint. Transportation and business groups lobbied hard against it, carping on elements large and small.

BRT was the first attempt to break through the inertia on transit that has held Oahu in gridlock since a light-rail plan was blocked when the Council refused to approve a tax increase to pay for it.

Ten years later, traffic problems continue to tighten the noose on Honolulu, slowly strangling the economic lifeblood of the state's capital.

Last year politicians gathered for yet another summit, which elicited happy talk about state and city officials working together, and in October 2003, Lingle proposed a light-rail project again as the centerpiece for her transit plan.

It will take four years for the state to lay new groundwork over the city's initial rail design and at least another 10 years for construction. No source of funding for the $2.6 billion project has been identified and although increased fuel, vehicle weight and excise taxes have been suggested, it will take incredible political courage to convince the community to pay up.

At the summit last year, Harris astutely pinpointed the hurdle for transit projects -- mainly, sustaining "political consensus long enough to get through the whole planning process."

Oahu can only hope there are no further detours.