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January 1993 | February 1993 |
President's MessageIn answer to a challenge to come up with a viable alternative to rail transit, a new group, the PEOPLE'S ISLAND TRANSIT COALITION OF HONOLULU (PITCH) has recently been formed by the League of Women Voters and a number of community organizations and individuals to promote a bus rapid transit system along the lines of Ottawa, Canada's. PITCH intends to undertake a broad public education program to explain what bus rapid transit is, how it could be applied to Oahu's needs, and what should be done to establish such a system. Ottawa's bus system carries 80 million passengers a year, attains average speeds, including stops, of 27 to 35 miles per hour and costs only a fraction as much to build as projected for Honolulu's rail. It has shown that traffic congestion can be managed without bankrupting a city, and that transit doesn't need rail to be rapid. PITCH is calling on the Legislature to support measures to integrate the island's road and bus system into a high capacity bus rapid transit system, to support engineering of State highways for HOV, contra-flow and bus lanes only during peak hours, and eventually exclusive busways -- and not to support further expenditures to plan and engineer rail transit. PITCH is also calling for the City to ask the federal government to reallocate all or part of the 700 million dollars earmarked for rail transit construction to bus transit improvements. Call the office if you're interested in PITCHing for Bus Rapid Transit. Arlene Ellis |
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President's Message (Arlene Ellis)