08-13-2008, 02:00 PM
Thanks, Bob. We can always count on you to research the facts.
I love the primitive roads in HPP and am very disappointed that they are going to pave many of them, including my street. The primitive roads keep traffic speeds low and scare away all the right people (who weren't scared away by something else previously). On the mainroads out of HPP, people fly. It's a shame. You see bicyclists, pedestrians, children....and the cars are just flying by, imperiling those who are just sauntering down the road.
Our experience in Southern California echoes that of Oahu: If you build it, more cars will come. The easier you make it for drivers, the more cars on the road there will be until you are back where you began: crowded thoroughfares. Then you have to repeat the process. Nothing is improved and eventually everything is paved and you lose the natural beauty that brought you there in the first place. At some point we will have to let go of this notion that every person on earth should have a car and be able to go anywhere they want to in it. The whole idea that we need another fuel for these cars is ridiculous. Mass transit is the answer. Doing it on an island may be difficult, but if it is approached on a national scale, it will be more feasible. We need a comprehensive approach from the national level and funds from that level as well. Put the railroad back on railroad. And build stations where people can park and easily be out of the rain. Build a really comfortable form of mass transit that goes all around the island, and often.
As for roundabouts, anything is better than the death dash that takes place when you are pulling on to 130 from HPP. The intersection of 130 and Ainaloa has more ghosts than a civil war battlefield. Anything that is done there will be an improvement. The problem, if there is one, is cultural I think. Roundabouts work in England because of the English. Put one in China and they will manage to kill each other. In Hawaii, in one roundabout you have the following: 1) A mainlander who really really really wants to get where he is going and wants to get there fast, 2) One of the few remaining local ladies, who wants to take in the scenery, 3) An over compensating and angry young man in a rice rocket, and 4) Someone high on meth who hasn't had a driver's license in years. And then they merge. Shudder. So I agree with the above -- what works in one place won't necessarily work in another.
Here is what I would do if I were king of the island: 1) Build a train all around the island and forbid cars to travel on the belt road, except for emergencies. You have a guy at a kiosk enforcing this. Five kiosks around the isle. 2) Have checkpoints and make sure that every unregistered car and unlicensed driver is yanked off the road, 3) Shave ice for everybody!
I love the primitive roads in HPP and am very disappointed that they are going to pave many of them, including my street. The primitive roads keep traffic speeds low and scare away all the right people (who weren't scared away by something else previously). On the mainroads out of HPP, people fly. It's a shame. You see bicyclists, pedestrians, children....and the cars are just flying by, imperiling those who are just sauntering down the road.
Our experience in Southern California echoes that of Oahu: If you build it, more cars will come. The easier you make it for drivers, the more cars on the road there will be until you are back where you began: crowded thoroughfares. Then you have to repeat the process. Nothing is improved and eventually everything is paved and you lose the natural beauty that brought you there in the first place. At some point we will have to let go of this notion that every person on earth should have a car and be able to go anywhere they want to in it. The whole idea that we need another fuel for these cars is ridiculous. Mass transit is the answer. Doing it on an island may be difficult, but if it is approached on a national scale, it will be more feasible. We need a comprehensive approach from the national level and funds from that level as well. Put the railroad back on railroad. And build stations where people can park and easily be out of the rain. Build a really comfortable form of mass transit that goes all around the island, and often.
As for roundabouts, anything is better than the death dash that takes place when you are pulling on to 130 from HPP. The intersection of 130 and Ainaloa has more ghosts than a civil war battlefield. Anything that is done there will be an improvement. The problem, if there is one, is cultural I think. Roundabouts work in England because of the English. Put one in China and they will manage to kill each other. In Hawaii, in one roundabout you have the following: 1) A mainlander who really really really wants to get where he is going and wants to get there fast, 2) One of the few remaining local ladies, who wants to take in the scenery, 3) An over compensating and angry young man in a rice rocket, and 4) Someone high on meth who hasn't had a driver's license in years. And then they merge. Shudder. So I agree with the above -- what works in one place won't necessarily work in another.
Here is what I would do if I were king of the island: 1) Build a train all around the island and forbid cars to travel on the belt road, except for emergencies. You have a guy at a kiosk enforcing this. Five kiosks around the isle. 2) Have checkpoints and make sure that every unregistered car and unlicensed driver is yanked off the road, 3) Shave ice for everybody!