Newstradamus

The H1 freeway/Honolulu Advertiser

A week of rest and relaxation can do wonders for one's outlook on life, even if you don't go anywhere. As it happens, however, I spent part of last week in Hawaii, where I used to live and work. It was my first return to the islands in about five years, and I found some differences — but new things, too.

Transportation, for instance. Those who view Honolulu through tourist eyes don't realize how much a traffic nightmare the city is. More than 75 percent of Hawaii's 1.2 million people live on Oahu, Honolulu's island, and the vast majority of them live or work within the narrow corridor between the mountains and ocean on the island's leeward side.

This means that the one freeway (H1) and the few other parallel streets that pass through this corridor are jammed much of the day. I used to live in Makaha on the west end of Oahu, and thank goodness I worked off-hours, when the commute downtown was 45 minutes. If I had to drive from 6-9 a.m. or 4-7 p.m., the trip could be three times as long.

The idea of rapid mass transit along this corridor has seemed like a no-brainer for years, but politics and the oil lobby have kept it at bay for decades as the projected cost has risen. I found on my trip, however, that a $3.5 billion project is now in the planning stage.

Of course, being a typical dysfunctional government, the city has little innovative thinking going on. Instead of a monorail, magnetic levitation, or rubber tires on concrete, a panel last week recommended steel wheels on steel rails. Just what you want to hear instead of tradewinds in the palms: ear-splitting screeches, a la Chicago's Loop.

To top it off, they are building the first leg from Kapolei in West Oahu — where hardly anybody lives. The city has been trying for years to get people to move out where there used to be sugar cane fields, before that industry (along with pineapples) moved to countries with cheaper labor.

No doubt the commuter train will be bait to lure new residents. But the Honolulu Advertiser ran photos of the landscape where transit stations are supposed to be by 2012, and nothing is there but hot, barren scrubland. Good luck...

On the plus side, the new H3 freeway, which connects Pearl City (near the airport) to Kaneohe on the windward side — through the middle of the Koolau mountains — is an engineering marvel, and cuts that commute to 20 minutes or so. And the politeness of Honolulu drivers hasn't changed, despite the commuter stress. Honking is so not Hawaiian.

Driving a car in Hawaii keeps getting more expensive, though, with insurance and gas prices always among the highest in the nation. But I was surprised when a woman at the rental car office warned me about the cost per gallon: $3.43. I told her that it was $3.50 in Humboldt County, and when I got home I see that regular is now up to $3.60. Take that, Hawaii — we're number one!