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Still dodging
transit issue

Honolulu's transportation problem bedeviled leaders at city and state levels from Frank Fasi to John Waihee and continues to stalk Gov. Linda Lingle today.

After a decade of pushing, prodding and proselytizing, Mayor Jeremy Harris leaves office without a train, trolley or bus that moves Honolulu's citizens quickly, safely and cheaply, although his transportation legacy is filled with demonstration projects and prototypes.

Leadership has not been wanting; it is followers that Honolulu needs. No one has convinced either enough voters or enough political decision-makers to push Honolulu over the mass transit hump.

Last month, the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization released a September public opinion poll that shows Oahu's citizens want something done.

According to the Ward Research survey, "most residents appear to accept the necessity of tax increases to fund specific capital projects, such as new road-building, road widening and extensions.

"Between a Rapid Rail system and the BRT (bus rapid transit), residents do not indicate a strong preference for one over the other. There is broad support for either system, generally, with strongest support for the Rapid Rail system coming from the Ewa/Kapolei and Leeward areas of Oahu."

Rail has fallen flat twice before. A fixed-rail plan was rejected in 1982 and then again in 1992. Both times Hawaii's economy was in recovery and expansion. With people on the go there was more demand for a transit plan. Both times Honolulu's political leaders flinched.

Transit plans are not financed by sweet-bread sales; taxes must be raised. Lingle said so last year before she folded after discovering no one would back her tax plans. She and Mayor-elect Mufi Hannemann have promised to return with another plan, and Democrats in the Legislature are also making encouraging noises.

No politician, however, will find success by coming out for a tax increase.

One possible solution would be to copy the structure of successful transit authorities across the country. The Legislature might even show more statesmanship if it gave the dirty work of raising taxes to another group.

A special board created by the Legislature, whose members are either appointed or elected, could be required to fashion a transit proposal with voters approving the financing to pay for it.

The result would be a state that acted on Honolulu's traffic congestion crisis, with the voters, not Hawaii's timid politicians, deciding on the tax increase.

Until then, the question is not whether Honolulu will have a rapid transit system, but would anyone want to live in Honolulu without one.