Comments on: It’s Governor Lingle versus Mayor Hannemann on Honolulu Rail Project

By: Thad

Thad — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:20:23 +0000

Well obviously we were talking about two different things. Street running on the eastern end of the line wouldn’t be a big deal but I thought you were suggesting that the WHOLE 20 mile route run in the street which is what the governor is suggesting. I’ve never been to Honolulu, but in the major cities I’ve lived in, downtown traffic congestion usually isn’t the problem, it’s the traffic along the highways and major routes leading to downtown. So taking away a lane in the downtown area doesn’t really impact commute times and the close proximity of the stations means that people can use it as away of getting around downtown as well as getting to downtown.

By: Thad

Thad — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:23:51 +0000

I live in South Florida, I know most of it isn’t Miami. And as a resident when I say random office buildings I mean there are litteraly random little office condo developments dispersed amongst strip malls and housing subdivisions along the street not office park clusters and no where near being considred a secondary downtown. The only real office park clusters are where the Burger King headquarters is on the otherside of the Dolphin across from the Airport, Dadeland, and around Aventura and Doral. For secondary downtowns I would probably look at Coral Gables, the Beach, and the Grove. I wish I was back at home so I could go out and take pictures so you could see what I’m talking about.

By: egk

egk — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:21:24 +0000

Access doesn’t mean ADA access. Access refers to how easy is it to get to the train or bus (for everyone). Subways and elevated lines are less accessible (in this sense), because of the stairs, escalators, gates, elevators, limited points of entry – things that make it inconvenient to take a subway one or two stops, but not a streetcar.

And yes, eliminating a lane or two of private vehicles in the central business district to speed street running is a good idea, and beats building an overpriced one-off system that is too expensive to expand.

That streetcar comparison study:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/assets/pdf/transit_kamehamehatransit_20090916.pdf (and if you read the city’s response you will note that the primary concern is the effects on vehicular traffic)

By: Thad

Thad — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:00:41 +0000

The station plans clearly show that these stations will be ADA accessible. The only way that travel times could be comparable would be if the street-running options had grade-separated road crossings and were in their own designated lanes with no cars.

By: egk

egk — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:44:29 +0000

You are definitely on the wrong side of this one. The Kamehameha School study comparing an at grade light rail alternative to the proposed elevated system shows comparable travel times, comparable capacity, half the cost, reduced visual impact, and – most importantly – significantly better access.

Access is really the key to successful transit. Access times for elevated and subways can be as much as two or three minutes, meaning that for many trips the at-grade system would be faster in total point to point times (according the the study’s estimates). There is a reason people love streetcars: they are easy to get on, and are right where you are, issues that are magnified for people with strollers, bikes and for the elderly and the disabled.

Elevated structures (and subways) are built not for transit users, but to avoid impacting other surface traffic, trading off reduced access for transit users for unimpeded automobility.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:15:54 +0000

Random office buildings on main streets are secondary downtowns, not edgeless cities. Edgeless cities consist of random office parks near arterial roads in the suburbs. Most of South Florida is not Miami.

By: Thad

Thad — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:37:29 +0000

You call random two story office buildings on main streets edgeless cities? They are just random little office buildings where people have their small law firms and medical practices. They’re not huge office complexes that pop up sporadically. Really I think that Miami should build projects along heavily trafficked main streets like Kendall Drive, Bird Road, 107th Ave, and so on.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:02:28 +0000

Miami is full of edgeless cities, which are like edge cities but less clustered. See explanation by Robert Lang and Jennifer LeFurgy.

By: Thad

Thad — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:52:34 +0000

My point about the transfers was that they aren’t inconvenient to riders; it’s not like you have to walk a block to make them, you just go to the next level.

I don’t know why you threw in edge cities, seeing how Miami doesn’t have a bunch of stereotypical edge cities (mainly because we have only 4 exressways that aren’t even sufficent).

Yes Miami should have rail lines connecting various destinations, that was my point. The lines should be built on major thoroughfares and resemble a web.

By: Davsot

Davsot — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:19:34 +0000

Parada = Stop

San Juan, Mayagüez and Ponce all used to have electric streetcars running everywhere. So they are trying to bring them back. It is rather peculiar how the numbered stop names are still used today to describe exactly where in Santurce something is located.

Here’s a good page on that

http://tramz.com/pr/sj.html

“Carros públicos” are independently operated vans that transport people all over the Island. There are no schedules or standards of service. The government plans to begin regulating them this year.

There was talk of a metro system for Puerto Rico since the 1960′s when the Federal government offered the money to build it but the Puerto Rican government wanted to reduce congestion by building massive highways instead.