Hiatus

Haven't posted anything since August 2009.

Lets just say I have been doing other things. I plan to keep up writing stuff. Here is a sampling of what might appear.

Karen and I visited India this year, so you might read something about that.

We recently had a mayoral election in Honolulu with a clear choice between pro-rail candidate Kirk Caldwell and anti-rail candidate, former Hawaii governor Ben Cayetano. Cadwell was city manager when Mufi Hanneman and received bags of campaign donations from construction companies and unions.  My penultimate post in June 2009 was on "Honolulu Traffic". I re-read it, and don't see much I would change.
 
It looks like we will have Mufi's mickey mouse rail plan. Frankly, I support some form of rail transportation system in Honolulu, but this plan sucks. It does not stop where people need to go (eg the Manoa campus of the University of Hawaii). It will be constructed in the wrong direction (eg from Ewa towards downtown). It will include stops in places where there are no houses (eg the proposed Hoopili subdivision). The equipment supplier, Ansaldo, was recently fired by the city of Los Angeles.

I held my nose and voted for Cayetano hoping he might come to his senses and try to fix the rail plan. Now there is no hope.

Also who really believes that rail will relieve traffic congestion? Cities with rail have rally bad traffic. The purpose of public transit is to get people where they need to go.

You might read more about rail.

But Superstorm Sandy gives us something else to think about. Although most of Mufi's train will be on pylons  Will the route be high enough above sea level to stay dry? You might read more about climate change and Honolulu  urban planning.

Or I just might stay lazy.