04-13-2026, 08:26 PM
Team Dark Edge, with the "just one more lane bro"
Backstory:
I drove many years from HPP to Aloha Cargo in Hilo. I scheduled trips twice a week, which after work included any and all necessary shopping in Hilo. At that time Hwy 130 merged immediately after Keaau High School. When traffic was light the 22 mile trip took 25-30 minutes. Rush hour (unavoidable with schedule requirements) the “drive” might last an hour, even longer.
By my seat-of-the-pants calculation I estimated a drive of 22 miles requiring one hour consumed more gas than a drive of 22 miles in 30 minutes. Multiply that by a decade or two.
Given the high carbon requirements of asphalt, and the assumption that drivers gonna drive, seat-of-the-pants estimate again, an extra lane might result in a more-is-less situation. More highway lanes, less idling on the road, lower gas consumption. I don’t have a Puna>Hilo schedule anymore, and my EV car stereo is better, so I’m fine either way.
Now there is a better way, but we have to get around the rhetoric of short sighted temporary leaders and their gullible short sighted temporary (please) followers.
Backstory:
I drove many years from HPP to Aloha Cargo in Hilo. I scheduled trips twice a week, which after work included any and all necessary shopping in Hilo. At that time Hwy 130 merged immediately after Keaau High School. When traffic was light the 22 mile trip took 25-30 minutes. Rush hour (unavoidable with schedule requirements) the “drive” might last an hour, even longer.
By my seat-of-the-pants calculation I estimated a drive of 22 miles requiring one hour consumed more gas than a drive of 22 miles in 30 minutes. Multiply that by a decade or two.
Given the high carbon requirements of asphalt, and the assumption that drivers gonna drive, seat-of-the-pants estimate again, an extra lane might result in a more-is-less situation. More highway lanes, less idling on the road, lower gas consumption. I don’t have a Puna>Hilo schedule anymore, and my EV car stereo is better, so I’m fine either way.
Now there is a better way, but we have to get around the rhetoric of short sighted temporary leaders and their gullible short sighted temporary (please) followers.