08-29-2007, 12:12 PM
We visited Portland Oregon over the summer and they seemed to have a real workable transit system. There was light rail bringing people into town from the sub-burbs, then trolleys would shuffle folks from one end of town to the other. The trolleys were free in the downtown area. They also had passenger heavy rail trains which went out of state, too. We rode a train from Portland to Monterey and it was lovely. Slow, but scenic.
I think light rail (or even heavy rail) would be lovely especially if they could manage to get the new train to follow the old train tracks along the Hamakua Coast. That was supposed to have been one of the most spectacular train rides ever. There is a train museum in Laupahoehoe which has loads of the old Hawaii train information. One of my neighbors used to ride the train everyday small kid time to go to high school in Hilo. He rode from Pauuilo to Hilo. At the time, Pauuilo was the end of the train line. They also had some sort of passenger sampan car which would run on the rails as well as the train.
When gasoline gets way too expensive for regular folks to buy, then having a train - perhaps even a wood burning locomotive - would keep the people able to get themselves to work and supplies home.
Other than rail systems, having bicycle and moped paths would also get a few cars off the road. How about electric golf cart paths? Be kinda slow and you'd want to charge the batterys with solar chargers, but hey, when gas gets to $10 a gallon then other methods of transportation start to look workable.
I think light rail (or even heavy rail) would be lovely especially if they could manage to get the new train to follow the old train tracks along the Hamakua Coast. That was supposed to have been one of the most spectacular train rides ever. There is a train museum in Laupahoehoe which has loads of the old Hawaii train information. One of my neighbors used to ride the train everyday small kid time to go to high school in Hilo. He rode from Pauuilo to Hilo. At the time, Pauuilo was the end of the train line. They also had some sort of passenger sampan car which would run on the rails as well as the train.
When gasoline gets way too expensive for regular folks to buy, then having a train - perhaps even a wood burning locomotive - would keep the people able to get themselves to work and supplies home.
Other than rail systems, having bicycle and moped paths would also get a few cars off the road. How about electric golf cart paths? Be kinda slow and you'd want to charge the batterys with solar chargers, but hey, when gas gets to $10 a gallon then other methods of transportation start to look workable.
Kurt Wilson