More buses won’t help with traffic
More buses won’t help with traffic
Will the insanity of this dream world solution to fixing our traffic problems never stop? Would any logical person ever believe that if 500 more buses were put into operation financially or logistically they could ever service all the people who live in areas far from a bus line.
Or does any person really believe that the mass of the people who use their vehicles for work, shopping, pleasure or whatever will ever abandon them for a bus, bike, shuttle or walking? Today over 90 percent of people who own a vehicle exclusively use it for their transportation. And our government officials predict that by the year 2035 80 percent of those with vehicles will still be using them thus dispelling the myth that the majority of the commuting public will ever abandon their vehicles.
Certainly we need buses for those too young to drive or have a disability. But we have enough buses for those needs if they are organized properly and used where they are needed. The Hanamaulu bus yard is never empty so all buses are never in use.
Testimony was once given at a council meeting telling how the Big Island uses a contracted taxi service to take people to their destinations and take them home. Why hasn’t this idea been pursued on Kauai? We are subsidizing our bus system to the sum of $8 million a year and with a taxi service (both paratransit and regular) a huge amount of money could be saved in fuel and upkeep of those big buses.
We either accept the fact that we have to live in the real world of today and not believe that the clock can be turned back 100 years to keep Kauai historical or watch total gridlock happen because we aren’t making Kauai conducive for our major means of transportation — our vehicles.
A recent story in TGI told how 50 people used their bikes to get to work. So while a thousand other commuters battle the traffic in their every day path to work a few (in the Lihue area) bike — is this supposed to prove that biking is our answer to traffic? Ironically one member of this group, Lisa Gelling, said that, “if there were a safer pathway, I would love to bike to work in the spring and summer.” We are spending $6 million per mile to build such a path on the Eastside and yet these bikers will never use it — great planning!
Vehicles and bikes in the same area are a deadly mix and should not be happening. Only more lanes and alternate routes will alleviate our traffic problem and I ask anyone to tell me another realistic answer.
Glenn Mickens, Kapaa
