Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Craig Chester is a fellow at Smart Growth America.

Not all transportation in Honolulu, Hawaii is a walk on the beach.

Honolulu, one of the most congested cities in the country, could benefit from more transit-oriented development. Photo: ShowBus

Known for its breathtaking natural beauty and warm temperatures, Honolulu is also plagued by heavy traffic congestion and delays. High energy costs and a lack of transportation choices compound the challenges of getting around Hawaii’s state capital and most populous city.

To put it in perspective, Honolulu recently surpassed Los Angeles to become the city with the worst traffic in the nation. And on average, households in the City and County of Honolulu spent a whopping $13,598 each year on transportation alone, wasting an average of 58 hours in traffic during that time.

The good news, though, is that things don’t have to stay this way. Hawaii can and should put a renewed emphasis on expanding access to residents’ transportation options. Business owners and visitors would benefit almost immediately, as new economic development happens and older communities attract reinvestment.

That’s the verdict of a new collaborative report, “Leveraging State Agency Involvement in Transit-Oriented Development to Strengthen Hawaii’s Economy,” from Hawaii’s Office of Planning and Smart Growth America. Right now, Hawaii and its congested cities have a prime opportunity to implement plans for TOD, drive economic development, and restore the quality of life many expect from island living.

Best of all, Governor Neil Abercrombie has already set the wheels in motion, with the 2010 announcement of the New Day Plan, which envisions “livable communities that encourage walking, bicycling, carpooling, and using mass transit.” TOD can be key to meeting the plan’s economic, social and environmental goals.

Well-executed TOD reduces dependence on fossil fuels, protects open space and cultural resources through sustainable land use, helps advance education by better connecting students to educational facilities, and can allow retirees and elders to remain in their communities and “age in place.”

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Senate titan Daniel Inouye passed away Monday at 88. The Hawaii senator was the longest-serving member in the chamber at the time he died.

Sen. Daniel Inouye toured the site of the Honolulu rail transit project in August. Photo: Office of Daniel Inouye

As a fitting tribute, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood yesterday signed a full funding grant agreement with Inouye’s widow at his side, committing the federal government to $1.55 billion in transit assistance. The money will help build, at long last, the rail transit project Inouye had advocated for. Inouye had referred to the $1.55 billion offered by the FTA as “precious.”

Had Honolulu’s local election gone differently, yesterday might not have happened. Mayoral candidate Ben Cayetano wanted to scrap rail plans in favor of bus rapid transit. Sen. Inouye saw through Cayetano’s idea, saying the BRT plan “would force Honolulu to the back of the line, adding years upon years of continued traffic gridlock” since they would have to start from scratch to secure federal funding.

Hawaii’s first-ever rail transit system, already under construction, will include 21 stations along a 20-mile stretch and is expected to relieve traffic on Interstate H-1, “one of the most congested highways in America,” according to LaHood. In the 1960s, some suggestedbuilding a new freeway to relieve congestion on H-1, but the population rebelled. Fifty years later, their much better idea — rail transit — is finally inching closer to fruition.

Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff said the rail line will save commuters up to 30 minutes each way. More than 60 percent of Oahu’s population and 80 percent of its employment is located in the designated transit corridor, according to civic affairs journalism website Honolulu Civil Beat.

In addition to the $1.55 billion from the New Starts transit capital funding program, Hawaii is getting $209.9 million in federal formula funds and $4 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the project. The rail line is expected to cost just over $5 billion in total.

The signers of the FTA grant agreement left a poignant blank space where Inouye’s signature would have gone.

On the local level, the night’s biggest win for sustainable transportation was the victory of Kirk Caldwell over Ben Cayetano to be mayor of Honolulu. Caldwell had won just 29 percent of the vote in the three-way primary race, facing a steep uphill battle in the general election versus Cayetano, a popular former governor who had pulled in 44 percent of the primary vote.

Former Gov. Ben Cayetano failed to convince Honolulu to join him in killing a long-awaited transit project. Photo: KHON2/Facebook

Cayetano had come out of retirement and joined the race for the explicit purpose of stopping construction of a rail line that’s been decades in the making. Caldwell remains a staunch supporter of the transit line and promised to see the project through. He won 54 to 46 percent — handing Cayetano the first loss of his political career.

Meanwhile, Republican Carl DeMaio has just conceded the San Diego mayor’s race, which was still too close to call just a couple of hours ago. DeMaio held a slim lead through most of last night, but the balance flipped early this morning and U.S. Rep. Bob Filner pulled off a narrow victory.

As we mentioned in our story on the race, San Diego bike/walk groups did an impressive job getting the two candidates to fight over who could be the most supportive of active transportation. While DeMaio put together an admirable plan for making San Diego a top-50 bicycling city and creating an environment more conducive to walking, Filner has a decades-long record of supporting sustainability. His passion for active transportation and the need to reduce car dependency in San Diego came through in his at times acerbic debate with DeMaio on transportation issues.

It appears Filner’s offer to settle the mayor’s contest with a bicycle race won’t be necessary.

However controversial a rail project is, is it a good idea to pull the plug after construction has already begun? Honolulu residents have that question to ponder from now until Election Day.

Former Gov. Ben Cayetano is campaigning for mayor with a single-minded focus on jettisoning the light rail project already under construction. Photo: Yes2Rail

The city’s mayoral election has become a referendum on its controversial rail project. Former Gov. Ben Cayetano came out of retirement (and took a demotion) to save the city from building a light rail system in Oahu, passing through downtown, the airport, the state’s largest shopping center, and the proposed site of a new University of Hawaii campus. Pillars for the elevated track have already been built.

If Cayetano had won 50 percent of the vote in the August non-partisan primary, the race would be over. His 44 percent is still a formidable hurdle for challenger Kirk Caldwell, a former state legislator who briefly served as acting mayor when the sitting mayor resigned to run for governor. Caldwell lost the job to Peter Carlisle, another rail supporter, in a 2010 special election.

Caldwell did better than Carlisle this August, garnering 29 percent to Carlisle’s 25 percent, meaning that he will be the one to face Cayetano in the run-off. Though he won’t continue in the office, Carlisle pledged, “As mayor for the next four months, I’m going to do everything I can to get rail far enough along so that it cannot possibly be stopped.”

If Caldwell can win over the great majority of Carlisle voters, he could be victorious next month. Besides, August’s primary isn’t necessarily a precise indicator of how the general election could go, since turnout will likely be far higher in November.

Cayetano is a named plaintiff in an anti-rail lawsuit, which charges that the city “did not adequately consider viable transportation alternatives” and “decided to conduct the archeological inventory in four phases, rather than surveying the entire 20-mile route before starting the project.”

Cayetano’s counter-proposal includes bus rapid transit and new road capacity, including elevated express roadways and shorter bypasses. His platform‘s tagline says it all: “It’s time to get our city on the road to a better future” [italics added]. Cayetano says his plan would cost about 20 percent as much as the light rail system, and that it would take just six months to build (as opposed to 10 years for rail). But critics say it isn’t a sustainable solution to Honolulu’s traffic woes.

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How long do you have to wait for a bus in your city? How much does it cost? Does every family on your block have two cars? And tell us about your bikeshare program…

Mayor Thomas Menino: “The car is no longer the king in Boston.” Photo courtesy of the City of Boston

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has been asking questions like these to determine their list of 15 Smarter Cities – places with shorter, cheaper, and more efficient commutes.

They split the list into big, medium and small cities. Have a look:

Eight percent of Chicago is green space and they're planning 500 miles of bike paths. Photo: Chicago Tourism Bureau

2011 Smarter Cities for Transportation

Large (population > 1 million)

Boston, MA/NH
Chicago, IL
New York, NY
Portland, OR
Philadelphia, PA/NJ
San Francisco, CA
Washington, DC/MD/VA/WV

Medium (pop. between 250,000 – 1 million)

Boulder-Longmont, CO
Honolulu, HI
Jersey City, NJ
New Haven, CT

Small (pop. < 250,000)

Bremerton, WA
Champaign-Urbana, IL
Lincoln, NE
Yolo, CA

Philly got bonus points for its transit initiative to connect people to fresh food. Boulder scored high for its brand-new Transportation Master Plan, which incorporated the public in the planning process and indicates “a serious commitment to responsible travel within the county.” And Yolo, California boasts a higher degree of transit access – 91 percent of households – than any other similarly sized metro region.

It’s innovations like these that are going to light the way to a future of cleaner air, financially stable households, and healthier cities.