Governor's East Hawaii Council of Advisors Meeting

[loffelkopffl]

the answer is "mass transit" we need people with foresight in government planning, and also to convince us to drive less. whether it would be light rail or regular buses or??? so many of us are addicted to our cars and it will be difficult to convince many, however the benefits would be great.

[Kelena]

Royall,

No one will jump on you for your views, which are most welcome. I do think that mass transit would be wonderful for an island that basically has one main road, it seems like a circular monorail would be great. But America, of which Hawaii somehow became a part, doesn't like mass transit.

We Californians and other mainlanders appear to have brought a few problems with us. I expect them all to get resolved island style: not at all, or chaotically.

[Beachboy]

quote:

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the answer is "mass transit" we need people with foresight in government planning, and also to convince us to drive less. whether it would be light rail or regular buses or??? so many of us are addicted to our cars and it will be difficult to convince many, however the benefits would be great.

---

mass transit....what do you mean adding a bus system to Puna? I can see it now, some big, huge, God awful eye sore humongous bus going down the highway. Seriously, mass transit is not the answer, at least not in my opinion..

[bystander]

Once a long long time ago there used to be a train running right through HPP. To bad those days are gone forever.

[Hotzcatz]

I don't think there is any one answer but a whole lot of little ones which will be required to solve the problem.

To slow down traffic, post lower speed limits and put officers out to enforce it. You would at least then get more revenue for the state from speeding tickets. There would, however, be much howling from the general public who considers it their inalieble right to drive fast.

How about 45 mph along the entire length of the Pahoa highway? A ten mile road driven at 45 miles an hour would take about thirteen and a half minutes, wouldn't it? The same ten mile stretch at 55 miles an hour would take eleven minutes. So lowering the speed limit would increase the travel time by two and a half minutes per every ten miles of driving. How far is it from Pahoa to Hilo? Twenty miles? By the math, it would seem lowering the speed limit to forty five miles an hour would increase travel time by five minutes. Hmm, lower the speed limit to 25 mph for a month and then raise it to 45 mph. Everyone will then seem to be going really fast when the 45 mph speed limit is allowed.

Many folks leave late for work, though somehow hoping to "make up" the extra five minutes along the way. I think a lot of speeding is caused by the initial leaving late in the first place. Having a traffic bulletin in the newspapers with the current driving times posted in it might help folks plan their driving times better. Having a donut shop or some other possible stop before they get to work would allow them something to not do before work to save time if they did leave late. A state sponsored cafe with fifteen cent coffee and a dollar menu for things like toast with eggs or fifty cent doughnuts would give the folks some place to go before work and would put them in town before they had to be there. Of course, your more expensive breakfast cafe's would then howl.

Some other things might be staggered starting times so the entire workforce isn't trying to all get to the same place at the same time down only one road. Or having work areas scattered throughout the residential areas or closer to the residential areas. Jobs where folks can work from home would also lessen the lemming horde each morning.

Encouraging folks to find work closer to home wouldn't hurt either. If houses were less expensive, folks wouldn't need to work two jobs to afford them nor have to work expensive jobs further away from home. However, even if you get the houses affordable, then folks will spend the "extra" available credit on something else and still need to work to pay their credit cards.

When gas gets to six or seven dollars a gallon, then there will be a lot less cars on the road. Still, if we were to tax the heck out of gas (even more so than it is now)and put it at those numbers and use the money to make some sort of mass transit there would still be much howling.

[Kahunascott]

quote:

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I don't think there is any one answer but a whole lot of little ones which will be required to solve the problem.

To slow down traffic, post lower speed limits and put officers out to enforce it. You would at least then get more revenue for the state from speeding tickets. There would, however, be much howling from the general public who considers it their inalieble right to drive fast.

How about 45 mph along the entire length of the Pahoa highway? A ten mile road driven at 45 miles an hour would take about thirteen and a half minutes, wouldn't it? The same ten mile stretch at 55 miles an hour would take eleven minutes. So lowering the speed limit would increase the travel time by two and a half minutes per every ten miles of driving. How far is it from Pahoa to Hilo? Twenty miles? By the math, it would seem lowering the speed limit to forty five miles an hour would increase travel time by five minutes. Hmm, lower the speed limit to 25 mph for a month and then raise it to 45 mph. Everyone will then seem to be going really fast when the 45 mph speed limit is allowed.

Many folks leave late for work, though somehow hoping to "make up" the extra five minutes along the way. I think a lot of speeding is caused by the initial leaving late in the first place. Having a traffic bulletin in the newspapers with the current driving times posted in it might help folks plan their driving times better. Having a donut shop or some other possible stop before they get to work would allow them something to not do before work to save time if they did leave late. A state sponsored cafe with fifteen cent coffee and a dollar menu for things like toast with eggs or fifty cent doughnuts would give the folks some place to go before work and would put them in town before they had to be there. Of course, your more expensive breakfast cafe's would then howl.

Some other things might be staggered starting times so the entire workforce isn't trying to all get to the same place at the same time down only one road. Or having work areas scattered throughout the residential areas or closer to the residential areas. Jobs where folks can work from home would also lessen the lemming horde each morning.

Encouraging folks to find work closer to home wouldn't hurt either. If houses were less expensive, folks wouldn't need to work two jobs to afford them nor have to work expensive jobs further away from home. However, even if you get the houses affordable, then folks will spend the "extra" available credit on something else and still need to work to pay their credit cards.

When gas gets to six or seven dollars a gallon, then there will be a lot less cars on the road. Still, if we were to tax the heck out of gas (even more so than it is now)and put it at those numbers and use the money to make some sort of mass transit there would still be much howling.

---

The problem with an increased gas tax is that it effects “All” driving!
Many retired people who don’t commute and drive only for recreation or to shop for food would be effected. Furthermore, many families are just getting by and the additional cost of fuel in the hands of a government that is inept at best would be like flushing it down the toilet. As it stands now we pay the highest gas prices in the country and a large part of that are taxes.

[JerryCarr]

Ah, the roundabout campain continues. Having driven them on frequent trips to England and Scotland, I eventually adapted to them. They can save time and fuel if used in the proper context, usually where a four-way stop sign would be in place otherwise. On busier highways, synchronized traffic lights work better at controlling the flow. Their success in Puna would depend on re-educating a driving public that is already under-educated. One of my English friends said, "This country is littered with the damn things, and they only work about half the time. The heavier the traffic, the worse they work." We even saw roundabouts with traffic lights! It turned out that some of them had to add lights after traffic increased beyond a certain level.

Just some thoughts on the subject. I actually do think they have a limited place in our efforts to deal with traffic.

Cheers,
Jerry

[Carey]

There are mass transit buses already running down the road in Puna. To be exact, on Hwy 130 there are 3 round trip routes into Pahoa with a big mass transit buses and 3 roundtrips that use a smaller route bus, 2 of these roundtrips going out to Pohoiki and Sea view every single workday & one roundtrip on Saturday PLUS the one round trip that goes up from Kau through Volcano & down through Puna on Hwy 11. They are free, and now mostly on time. Beachboy, my comment is that if they haven't been noticed, they are obviously not that much of an eyesore.
The rail system in Puna was installed for Sugar, not for people, and as such was not set up for mass transit of people (the rail lines missed any area of high habitation, even today the rail bed is not in high habitation areas of Puna).
If you want mass transit, Please use the system we have. The county council does monitor the use & is making decisions based on the current usage. If you want more access, contact the council. This is an issue that they do take seriously & have invested a lot of money on (a new fleet of buses have been ordered & will be here late summer....now is the time to have your voice count, and filling the current Puna routes is a huge step in that direction.
Aloha, Carey



Edited by - Carey on 01/26/2007 07:05:33

[Hotzcatz]

The other nice thing about riding busses is that you don't have to be the one paying attention to the road. Reading a book, doing a sudoko, crossword or even knitting is possible and allows you to have some relaxing time on the way to work.

[Les C]

For a while, when I lived in CA, I commuted between San Jose and Palo Alto for work. I used CalTrain, which ran all the way up to the City. It was nice to be able to read or write and not have the stress of driving in traffic twice a day. These are significant benefits. I really missed that commuting option when I moved away from that line and other bus routes.

Many people may be "addicted" to driving their own cars, but we are not dumb, we can learn new habits. Mass transit should be considered among several good partial solutions.