Honolulu, Aloha Rapid Transit: Ep. 16

Introducing the US's latest, greatest, delayed, and cost-overrun rapid transit project: Honolulu Area Rapid Transit. Oahu has been attempting to build a metro for many decades (since the Great Society programs of the 1960s), but the island was not able to assemble, fund, and break ground on a project until 2011. We introduce the history and geography of Oahu, talk about the success of Mayor Fasi's bus system, and tour the past, present, and future of the HART project. The first phase of Honolulu's much-needed metro system is right around the corner!

Links and stuffs

Timestamps

00:00 Intro
00:24 Theme song (no news today)
00:56 A big project for Honolulu's size
02:41 Oahu's geography [7]
04:21 History of public transit in Honolulu [5]
07:40 Mayor Fasi
09:54 TheBus
10:37 Success & ridership
12:11 No space to expand H1
12:29 How HART got its start
12:55 High-capacity transit attempted since early on
13:45 Reagan
14:48 Cheese
15:57 Light rail not suited
16:33 Fasi returns
17:44 The HART project of today
18:29 EIS purgatory
20:24 2008 recession
21:49 The project finally starts
23:18 Fully elevated
24:40 Tourism & surfboard racks
25:31 Light metro features
27:10 Ridership
28:14 Cost overruns, delays, et cetera
28:33 Cost overruns
28:46 Huge delays
29:45 The American cost snake
31:48 Initial cost estimate
33:01 Protected wilderness
33:43 Human remains
39:12 Usual NIMBY nonsense
39:45 Cost of total elevation
41:59 Moral of the story
43:00 Outro

References & notes

[7] There are other freeways on Oahu, but H1 is the principal freeway, covering the main urbanized area. H2 and H3 connect through the mountains to outlying suburbs.

[meijiishin]

Great video! I'm from Hawaii, and here are some notes I had while listening (I'm not finished yet, so this will be updated as I listen lol).

1. There's actually 4 freeways on Oahu. H-1, H-2, H-201, H-3.

2. A large part of the population will be served, but definitely not everyone. I wouldn't even say 90%. There is a very large suburban population on the East side that will not be served, for example. The rail isn't even slated to go through all of Honolulu yet.

3. Honolulu first greenlit rail for transit in 1878. By the time of the Coup rail was already well established. (However, streetcars were not.)

4. The streetcars stopped in 1941 due to the economic factors of the war such as material shortages, but if I remember correctly they were suffering pretty badly before this and it was just the nail in the coffin.

5. I've never heard anyone call the bus "Uncle Fasi's Limousine Service", but I went to high school on Kauai and didn't move to Oahu until college. The bus is still extremely popular with high school and college students because they essentially get unlimited rides for really cheap.

6. One of the notable things about Honolulu is that stuff has changed...a lot in the past 15 years due to much better city design. I think this is because we don't have the luxury here of saying "brrrr build more suburbs", lol. If you want to check this out, go on google maps and look at "South King Street", and compare the 2009 pictures to the current ones. The difference is very clear. They have a goal of having a year with no pedestrian deaths by 2035 (Look up "Vision Zero Action Plan" for more information on this.)

7. As someone who is into transit and city planning, living in Honolulu is very interesting to me right now. There are some really radical changes going on, and the most interesting part is seeing the culture change. Despite the ridership numbers, Hawaii actually suffers from some pretty bad car-brain in the more conservative areas, and even inside Honolulu. I have noticed subtle changes in this mindset over the years, and taking transit/biking as a working adult has become way more socially acceptable.

8. The no parking thing is so true. I had a car for a couple of years in Honolulu, and it was more trouble than it's worth. Traffic is also terrible too. I averaged 5-10 MPH getting home every day on the freeway, and I was working in the suburbs and commuting from Honolulu. It's even worse going in the other direction.

9. The surfboard racks are not rumored. It is in fact, real and confirmed. It's also for luggage, though.

10. Another thing that is causing the delays is that they keep finding structural problems in the testing phase. Every time they find one of these, they have to fix it and then start the testing phase all over again. This is compounded by the fact that since this is the first project of its kind in like 100 years they have to hire experts from the mainland to fix these things. It's a lack of experience and a lack of personnel to clean up the mess.

[Ranman]

Timing it so the Trax train passed right by you making the turn, now that's a treat!

[trademark]

I've been looking for a good breakdown of Keep it up!

[Ranman]

It does look like the fields by Hart's western end are rapidly suburbanizing, so the cool look of viaduct over crops won't last forever. Here's to Hart's success!

[jackbates]

So far the only 21st century american heavy rail systems have been on islands (HART and San Juan's Teen Urbano), wonder where the next one will be...

Ironically by density the next metro lacking heavy rail is Providence, Rhoad Island

[artlewellan]

As an advocate for (and designer of) public transit systems, I've followed the Honolulu HART project since 2004. My principal stance on light rail is how transfers from rail to bus routes is a neglected element in design. Moreover, project construction, operating costs and financing are last on my list of metrics that determine merit and support or opposition. I celebrated voter rejection of Portland's SW Corridor MAX extension in Nov 2020 because it met none of my list of basic metrics, not even close. First on the list is public safety, then public health, then environmental impact, then before after physical impact and property takings, gains in transit patronage, development potential and lastly costs after other metrics are reasonably met. I like the HART design and expect it has potential to successfully operate and serve travel needs. I recommend Honolulu transit agency cancel plans to purchase GM/Ford paratransit lift-vans and begin fleet replacement with new model short-wheelbase lengths for 15- 20- 30-passengers, built from the ground up for electric drive and easy-boarding low-floor for seniors, disabled and all transit patrons.

[alankovacs]

there is H-1, H-2, and H-3 to be correct