Although I am a big fan of Portland’s MAX, I feel that grade-separated rail would better serve the needs of the people of Honolulu. Portland’s at-grade system benefits from geography as well as a relatively tight urban footprint, and as such does a splendid job of transporting its riders in and around the city in conjunction with the bus and trolley system. Unfortunately Honolulu lacks Portland’s layout, it’s trolleys and our bus system is lacking despite whatever awards they like to crow about. We are spread across the entire southern shore and a large part of our traffic comes from outside the immediate metropolitan area. This necessitates higher speeds to ensure that the cost-benefit analysis to riders from the suburbs, in particular the West Side and Mililani, make it so that the economic cost to commute to Honolulu without needing to incur the extra expenses of owning, fueling, and consequently sitting in the H1 or H2 parking lots, is less in terms of time and money than getting in your car. A MAX style system simply doesn’t provide that. Add to that increased congestion from an at-grade system and you have a train that doesn’t go fast enough and causes traffic. To put it mildly, I think the Council made the correct decision. Kamehameha Schools and and AIA are the worst sort of interference, johnny-come-lately’s who waited for the public discussion and debate to conclude before adding their two-cents. Perhaps the Council decided hastily, although I count the previous aborted attempts to implement rail as having relevance to the current debate. The Council spoke then and the Council speaks now.

What is really needed now is citizen and government oversight to ensure that the process going forward is carried out fairly, efficiently and with a minimum of waste. Engaging in continuing angst ridden pleas to consider the “other” system merely muddies the water. We elected the Council and the Mayor, voted in favor of the administration favored solution (even if the question was skewed and failed to present alternatives) and for better or for worse our elected representatives as well as the electorate have spoken. Bottom line? If they made the wrong decision vote them out. I suspect this issue’s ultimate referendum will be decided on whether the Council members (who aren’t termed out) are reelected and if Mufi Hanneman gets elected Gov.

(PS, I’m good friends with the programmer who writes all the code for the MAX, and I would dearly love to advocate for MAX if for no other reason than to give them a good excuse to move to Hawaii and get a good job, but I still don’t think MAX-style rail is right for Honolulu)