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Viewpoint12/24/90 Last August the City Council adopted a Resolution which called for an independent, action-oriented study of transportation measures which could be developed to improve the island's traffic and transit situation, irrespective of whether a rail guideway is eventually built or not. Among a number of community organizations and political leaders, we strongly supported this Resolution. Such an independent study would provide concrete proposals to alleviate transit problems during the years a rail system was being built; provide complementary proposals to be integrated with rail; and provide action plans should the rail transit development not be approved. What happened to this study? Has money to fund it been designated? Has the agency to implement it been determined? Have the scope and content of the study been settled? Has the independent private consultant been appointed to actually do the study? Has the advisory committee been appointed? If the answers to all these questions is "no", one of the first tasks the new City Council should undertake is to find out why. The technical and financial problems of rail transit are still unsolved. Even the City admits that rail will have very little effect on traffic volumes. It is essential that the City move ahead with full speed on the study the Council called for in August. 12/31/90 Last week we commented on the independent study of alternatives to rail which the City Council called for last August. Recently we saw a promising example of the kinds of measures that could be implemented right now if the City really wanted to improve the traffic situation. Honolulu's five major tour bus operators are jointly proposing a program they call "bus plus". In the morning and late afternoons, they would provide seventy deluxe express buses to carry commuters downtown on set time schedules, with seating guaranteed, for $40 per month. As it does for existing express bus routes, the City would have to subsidize the service to make it economically viable. Obviously, heavy automobile traffic slows even express buses. However, in a recent meeting of OMPO, a system of reversible lanes was proposed for several major freeways and arterial highways leading directly to downtown. These would be restricted to buses and high occupancy vehicles. Seventy buses in such "high occupancy lanes" could persuade several thousand commuters to leave their cars at home and improve transit time as well as traffic congestion. This is the sort of innovative thinking the island needs whether we ever build rail or not.
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