I’m one of the “Dreamers” that Glen Mickens refers to when he writes letters about no one will abandon their vehicles for alternative means of transportation.
I would partly agree with the fact many of us who live and work here are not able to or in the position to use any other alternative means of transportation to help ease our traffic congestion. One thing is for sure, having options for our guests who visit could and I feel would make a huge difference in how their vacation turns out as well as the effects and impacts to our roads and environment if they were to know about those said options.
My first approach for the last several years was writing letters expressing a way to reduce the amount of rental cars on our roads daily through a sophisticated shuttle system that would meet our guests needs as well as residents.
The existing bus system we have is not going to ease our traffic. The county continually every year subsidizes its use with millions of our tax dollars with no traffic relief results. If it did there would be no reason for writing this letter and the daily traffic would not be getting worse as we can all see daily it is.
A morning news show covered a story about a couple of news reporters (man and woman) in New York who flew to Florida for a week to cover some stories and maybe some free time for whatever they wanted to do. They decided to book the same resort hotel in Orlando. They also thought since they were in a tourist destination area and would be going their separate ways on business, they then could compare what or which way was the better way to go.
When they arrived in Orlando the woman got on an airport shuttle bus and then proceeded to the rental car facility. Once there it took two hours to finally get the car she had rented and head toward the hotel.
The man called Uber while getting his bags and within 5 minutes a driver was in front of baggage to pick him up. Meanwhile the few hours wasted by the woman getting a car, driving to the hotel, finding a place to park, dealing with the full parking lot, fighting the existing traffic in the area, and the $40 a night to park on the property or the $30 to park at theme parks is no longer a happy camper.
For the entire week the woman wasted more time and money than what was a benefit to her work or enjoyment. At the end of their trip the man spent about $100 less the the woman and wasted very little of his time getting to anywhere he wanted, when he wanted.
The purpose of this story…. Uber is a great system for moving people anywhere they want, when they want, 24/7 365 days, quickly and efficiently. It will create hundreds of good jobs, many related businesses, and for the best parts it can and will fulfill all the transportation needs for out guests who currently waste their vacation time sitting in traffic, and for those who live here it will provide better management, relief, and get thousands of cars off our roads once it’s implemented.
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Steve Martin is a resident of Wailua Homesteads.
