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I have to say, you guys have the magic fortune teller lady beat, hands down. Rob, as a native Southern Californian who remembers when Irvine was rural, I have to agree with you that more roads begats more cars which begats the need for more roads and so forth. Also could not agree more that ingress and egress need to be improved on the main highway. I saw TWO car crashes in my short time in Puna, both where people were trying to enter the highway and got whacked.
John R - yes, haven't they done a wonderful job with Honololu traffic planing! : )
John D - thanks for the link to the plans.
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The main reason that I have heard for the alternate routes on the Puna plan were for emergency egress. At one meeting in HPP there was even a suggestion to make the alternate (Railroad or such) route an emergency gate route, much like the Airport Tsunami route for Keakaha. There is a mass transit system on the Island. The HeleOn bus runs from Pahao to Hilo 7 times a day (about every two hours). Since it is now free, a couple of the buses may be filled each month. Not every day, not even any route is filled. In Keaau we have an eighth option with the Kau bus. Before it was free, many of the buses were almost empty.
I usually ride the bus to the University. I have heard a lot of peoples excuses for not riding the bus. Most boil down to that riding in ones' car is more convientent. The county has increased most of the routes this year, the Puna route now has some of the buses going out to Seaview & Pohoiki. The main routes go all the way down into Hawaiian Shores/Rec/Beaches. Anyone wanting a stop along 130 can get it (sometime just by waving down the bus, but it is best to call dispatch). Considering that the bus does travel along most of the PUBLIC roads in Puna, it is free, and is now fairly dependable (usually on time) it is amazing to me that it is not packed. If you want to add your bike on for the ride, it is only $1.
SO, all of you Puna webbers that are saying we need mass transit. Use the system we have now, or continue to complain that there are too many cars. It really is your choice. We have chosen to ride the bus as much as we can. (I know there will be quite a few on the forum that will say that the bus doesn't come anywhere near them, I also know that it does come by many on the forum. To ride mass transit is a choice. We have a nice, fairly new high MPG car, and chose to buy our house based in part on the convience to a busstop.)
Aloha, Carey
Edited by - Carey on 12/08/2006 18:38:12
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Carey, thanks for the information about the bus running 7 times per day between Pahoa and Hilo. I will have to catch it some time. I think more transit is a lot better than more driving.
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SO, all of you Puna webbers that are saying we need mass transit. Use the system we have now, or continue to complain that there are too many cars. It really is your choice. We have chosen to ride the bus as much as we can. (I know there will be quite a few on the forum that will say that the bus doesn't come anywhere near them, I also know that it does come by many on the forum. To ride mass transit is a choice. We have a nice, fairly new high MPG car, and chose to buy our house based in part on the convience to a busstop.)
All fine and good for lower puna. upper puna seems to be ignored. You need a bus that goes to town in the am and one after work. It also needs to be on a regular schedual. I rode on mass transit all the time and would love to continue to do so if it were more dependable.
