Councilwoman Yukimura’s Guest Commentary April 2, “Long-term solutions to traffic congestion — is there such a thing?” was nothing but hollow words without factual substance. In my opinion, Ms. Yukimura’s concepts are flawed because she rejects practical answers and instead
Councilwoman Yukimura’s Guest Commentary April 2, “Long-term solutions to traffic congestion — is there such a thing?” was nothing but hollow words without factual substance.
In my opinion, Ms. Yukimura’s concepts are flawed because she rejects practical answers and instead pursues “feel good” issues because they make good sound bites.
Her “multimodal land transportation plan” is just another feel good plan without practical application for usage on Kauai. It is supposed to be a plan to get people out of their vehicles by using bikes, buses and walking as substitutes for “getting to work, to school, to senior centers, to shopping, to appointments to visit friends and to go to concerts, games and other events.”
If this is such a great plan to spend thousands of dollars on for planning as JoAnn has done for years, then why has she not sold her car and used one of these alternate means for transportation? Isn’t leading by example one of the best ways to get something done? Not her or any one of her colleagues will abandon their vehicle.
We offered county employees free bus transportation for a month and it was a disaster — only 50 people out of probably 1,000 employees used the bus. Sure, we need buses for those who don’t drive or have ADA problems but why haven’t we investigated using taxi contracts to shuttle those people to and from their destinations like other municipalities have done — far cheaper than sending a huge bus to pick up one person?
As a recent TGI story so pragmatically noted, “The multimodal land transportation plan won’t ease our traffic problems significantly now or in the future. Sorry but this is a society that likes to drive, no matter what the cost of gas. We love our cars and changing that lifestyle is generations down the road.”
Bike lanes were built on our island as was the multi-million dollar path. But these are recreational projects and all one has to do is look at what usage we are getting for the cost factor and see that the result is outrageous.
TGI also wisely said that “there must be a plan to better our highways and roads — paving, widening, aligning, and even adding lanes.”
We may not need freeways on our small island but with continual growth and visitors being our bread and butter, we must have alternate routes to move around AND to alleviate traffic.
With 95,000 to 100,000 vehicles on our roads each day our “roads and transportation system are crumbling under the weight. The present infrastructure wasn’t made to handle that kind of car count.”
And since these vehicles make up 95 percent of the usage of our roads, they must have the majority of the funds used for fixing the problem — not the buses, bikes or walking.
To distract attention from the real issues, JoAnn praises preservation of our rural character when she lacks meaningful solutions.
We live in the 21st century and must adjust our style of living — people demand to have the convenience of today’s world, not of the past. We could get off fossil fuel tomorrow if we wanted to go back to the horse and buggy days but this is not going to happen. We need our vehicles and will never give them up.
The H1 or any of the Mainland freeways may not alleviate all traffic problems but think of what a total “parking lot” those municipalities would be if all those vehicles only had the surface streets to commute on — utter chaos!!
With funds being the major factor of doing any project then it is paramount that each of them be prioritized as was pointed out at the recent SDOT meeting. Resurfacing our roads and alternate roads must be at the top of this list and not multi-use paths or bike usage.
• Glenn Mickens is a resident of Kapaa.
