Shuttle service could clear traffic
I have come to three conclusions about Kauai’s roads.
One, except for an occasional cosmetic improvement, they’re not going to get much better. Two, Kauai’s population, both resident and tourist, will continue to grow. Three, because of one and two, traffic problems will get worse each year, as they have for the last 30 or more years that I have been observing them.
The only solution that makes any sense is to reduce the number of cars clogging the roads. Most residents aren’t going to change habits. Those that now drive will continue to drive, and ditto those riding the bus.
So, it would seem that the only wild card in the deck is the visiting tourist. The question is, how to get that tourist out of his or her rental car. The only answer that might succeed is to expand the bus service to accommodate tourist needs.
Regular express “shuttle” service to popular tourist destinations, for example. Service to and from hotels to the airport for tourists and their luggage is another.
I’ll wager many tourists wouldn’t spend hundreds daily renting cars to get around the island if there was a reasonable alternative. Sure, the rental car industry will fight the change. Too bad. They’ll still make lots of money off of the holdouts.
Bottom line. If you aren’t going to expand the road system, then you better make the buses tourist friendly. Otherwise the gridlock is only going to get worse.
Come on, Kauai leadership, lead us out of this mess!
Raley Peterson, Waimea
Kauai’s honeybees are thriving
Yes, the Kauai honeybee population is among “the world’s healthiest bees” as stated by a representative of KCC’s Apiary Program in a recent radio interview. The talk show host subsequently asked “What is the greatest development in the honeybee industry as of late?” A very good question.
The correct answer is the selective breeding of genetically disease resistant queen bees to bacteria brood diseases and Varroa Mite infestation. You see this around the world in using “survivor stock” that have become tolerant to mite infestation (a bee uku) and various bee larval diseases.
Relevant to Kauai’s honeybees as being the world’s healthiest bees, it is not by happenstance that this occurred. Rather it is by the beekeeper’s practice of past decades here, who have responsibly managed their colonies in a holistic manner without the use of antibiotics. This has allowed the local bee population to naturally develop resistance to bacterial brood diseases that have decimated other regions.
Kauai also has had these referenced bee diseases but our bees have become naturally resistant. It was the adept leadership of the Kauai Beekeepers Association President Marge Ferguson who invited a world-renowned apiculturist, Charles Mraz, to Kauai for a presentation. With his professional instruction, we the beekeepers accepted his premise and thus managed our colonies over the years in a holistic manner.
Thanks to Marge Ferguson, Oliver Shagnasty, Melvin Dickens, David Maki, George Mukai, Matt Moore, Hideo Teshima, Steven Dubey, myself and many others, along with the marvels of nature, the island of Kauai now does have the healthiest honeybees in the world.
Chester Danbury, Kauai Island Honey Company
