Things Wrong with Honolulu Roads -- May 2009 Update

At least three things are wrong in the picture below:
(1) The wind has blown one traffic signal open.
(2) The sign is vandalized with stickers.
(3) Traffic has the right of way but the pedestrian is crossing against the light and outside the crosswalk.

At the same intersection, more things are wrong. Motorists can barely see the yellow light when it's on, and the red light is totally hidden by the overgrown tree branches. This increases accident risk and creates substantial liability for the city.

Historically there have been a lot of complaints about uncoordinated road construction projects. Here is an example: The new pavement shown below was constructed seven months ago and should have an expected life of good service of about 15 years. In a well-managed city that is. By Honolulu standard it'll be pothole patched for an additional 15 years.

This smooth pavement is about to be cut open for an underground installation.

These pictures were taken in one half hour period between Diamond Head and the UH-Manoa campus. No attempt was made to photograph the ruts and potholes along 22nd Avenue in Kaimuki. Although a massive pavement job was done on Kilauea Avenue from KCC to Kahala, busy 22nd Ave. (a bus route too) was ignored. The roughness index on 22nd Ave should be below 30, with 100 being the best and 75 being the point at which the road is entered into a repaving schedule so that it can be repaved before its roughness reaches 50.

The problem is that many neighborhood roads are much worse than 22nd Avenue, e.g., several low volume roads in Manoa and Kailua that I have seen. We still have no preventative maintenance and our catch up is too slow to catch up because of wrong priorities and budget allocations. Reduced tax collections will only make matters worse in the next bienium.

---- Update ----

Pleased to be 48 hours ahead of AASHTO, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials that on Friday, May 8 issued a report Rough Roads Ahead: Fix Them Now or Pay for It Later. Here's an interesting piece of information that affects us directly in the pocketbook:
Driving on rough roads costs the average American motorist approximately $400 a year in extra vehicle operating costs. Drivers living in urban areas with populations over 250,000 are paying upwards of $750 more annually because of accelerated vehicle deterioration, increased maintenance, additional fuel consumption, and tire wear caused by poor road conditions.

Sustainability Q&A

Recently I gave a presentation on sustainability to the Graduate Seminar course in civil engineering (CEE 691). Along with it I was given a list of questions and asked to answer them in brief. The presentation can be found h e r e. The Q+A is shown below.

1. What is sustainable development?

Sustainability is still not uniquely and comprehensively defined – sustainable development may be an oxymoron: For example, if Oahu is not sustainable as is, any additional development is a move in the wrong direction. Sustainable “anything” likely means minimized impact to Earth.

2. Give specific ideas on how civil engineers can contribute to sustainable development.

Recycle demolition materials, tires, pavements and all used materials that can be reused. Build only highly cost effective and necessary infrastructure and structures. Develop synthetic substitutes from waste. Treat and reuse water. Find low impact substitute for Portland Cement Concrete.

3. What does “sustainability” mean for the state of Hawaii?

Minimize energy dependence. Manage population growth and suburban sprawl. Make recycling and intelligent technologies a top priority. Produce methanol from biomass. Widespread usage of solar roofs. Facilitate electric vehicles.

4. What new policies of President Obama are related to sustainable development? Which of his ideas will benefit civil engineering specifically?

He seems to be putting too much emphasis on renewables and some of them are terribly cost ineffective. For the needs of this county, only nuclear energy is a clean substitute. I have yet to see any major policies that lead to sustainable engineering and development. On the contrary, his intercity high speed rail initiative is a mistake. (See previous blog poist, part 3.)

5. What new policies of Governor Lingle are related to sustainable development?

The agreement with Better Place for enabling electric vehicles is a major one. Better Place works like a gas station. It's an electric vehicle battery station. You buy the car, they supply the batteries. The more you drive, the more frequently you need charged batteries, the more you visit them to exchange spent batteries with charged ones. It's like buying gas with frequent user discounts similar to cell phone minutes. Better Place will install battery swap stations at selected gas stations. A battery swap will take only a few minutes; similar or shorter than a gas fill-up. The concept takes the fear out of running out of batteries, having to reach home for a charge, and having to replace expensive battery arrays.

6. Were communities 1000 years ago more sustainable than modern society is?

The pre-medieval hunger, disease and murder put strong pressures on population, and low population is one way to keep resource consumption low, but we are way past those times. Besides, the open fires of that age created much more pollution (per capita) than the current industrialization.

7. When we look at the human history, each individual has become more specialized and different countries also become more dependent on each other through trade and “globalization”. Is this a good trend? Shall we reverse it?

From the ancient times, trade among tribes was widespread. We now see the modern evolution of it. The globalization of trade is accelerating with more people, companies and countries involved in it every day. It is a natural flow impeded only by artificial protectionist policies. What many people resent is the globalization of culture. This is a less desirable byproduct of a rapidly interconnecting human race. It is up to individual regions to keep traditions of their cultures alive.

8. Some in America consider our dependence on foreign oil as a national security issue. Please explain the reasons behind their thinking. Do you agree with them?

For most any county, national energy production and consumption characteristics and the national energy policy are key inputs its nation's sustainability and by integration, to international sustainability. Energy supply from abroad is a vulnerability (e.g., U.S. dependency on Saudi Arabia for oil, EU dependency on natural gas from Russia, etc.) It is a major political and economic challenge but it is debatable whether it rises to the level of national security. On the other hand, France and Japan seem to think so since the former is 80% and the latter aims to 50% of nuclear energy, which makes them much less dependent on fossil fuel supply and pricing.

9. Some countries in the world do not produce their own food, cars or airplanes. Their main resources are oil. They sell oil and then import all other goods that they need. Is their dependence on other countries’ food, cars and airplanes also a national security issue for them? What are your thoughts?

The oil cartel is an established oligopoly with major power and a corresponding ability to destabilize international markets. The provision of cars, food and other consumables is neither an oligopoly nor a cartel. They can be obtained from several competing sources. Thus, oil producing nations are (currently) at a major advantage.

March 2009 Transportation News of Significance to Hawaii

The transportation news excerpted below come from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) weekly newsletter dated March 27, 2009:

• Mississippi State Joins Other States that Ban Red-Light Cameras
• FHWA Approves Express Toll Lanes for Dallas-Area Highways
• AMTRAK High Speed Rail Ridership Plummets

Each news excerpt is followed by my brief commentary making a connection to Hawaii.

(1) Mississippi Bans Red-Light Cameras but Hawaii Plans a Red Light Law

“Gov. Haley Barbour signed legislation last Friday prohibiting Mississippi localities from using traffic cameras to photograph and ticket motorists who run red lights. The state Legislature passed the bill earlier this month amid public outrage that governments are going overboard with the surveillance and using the cameras to generate more revenue. Many legislators said they were bombarded with requests from constituents to prohibit local governments from using the cameras to fine red-light violators.

Camera supporters unsuccessfully argued that the devices deter people from running red lights, reducing auto accidents and saving lives. At least six states have now banned the use of red-light cameras, according to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures.”

My comments: By looking at the root causes of most accidents in Hawaii, a qualified observer will notice that the following factors dominate and are responsible for over two thirds of fatalities and serious injuries: (1) pedestrians crossing roads outside crosswalks and inattentively, (2) driver intoxication or other substance-induced impairment, (3) excessive speed compared to surrounding traffic or speed limit, or speed that makes vehicle control difficult, i.e., around bends, (4) motorcycle and scooter riders without helmets, and (5) driver involvement with personal electronic devices.

A red-right running law is similar to speeding tickets given to parents and grandparents in minivans doing 10 mph over the limit; it’s a lawful penalty and contribution to the G-fund. With a red-right running law, the Legislature adds words to the statutes and enables contracts for special interests. Such tickets and such laws have little real improvement to safety and quality of life due to the disconnect between accident causality on one hand, and law, enforcement and penalties on the other.

(2) Federal Highway Administration Approves Express Toll Lanes for Dallas-Area Highways but Hawaii State Has no Authority to Provide New Toll Lanes

“The Federal Highway Administration said Monday that it has approved a request from Texas to build express toll lanes on four freeways in and around Dallas and Fort Worth. The two projects are the first given a green light under FHWA’s Express Lanes Demonstration Program, which permits tolling of new lanes being constructed to relieve congestion. Toll prices on the new Texas lanes will vary according to time of day or the level of traffic and will be collected electronically.

Toll lanes will be added to 28 miles of Interstate 635 in the Dallas region and 36 miles of Interstate 35W, Interstate 820, and Texas 183 in the Fort Worth region. The lanes will give drivers the choice to pay for the benefit of a faster and more-reliable travel time, according to FHWA. Texas previously received federal approval under a different program to add High Occupancy Toll [HOT] lanes to Interstate 10 and U.S. 290 in the Houston metropolitan area.”

My comments: Most cities with traffic congestion problems are being outfitted with road capacity for traffic relief provided by managed HOT lanes. The City rejected managed lanes as a competitor to the much more expensive rail system. The issue in Hawaii remains that the state does not have tolling authority and rumors have it that this is due to objections rooted in State Senate.

Whatever the source, Hawaii loses a major opportunity to deploy HOT lanes on Oahu and bypass toll roads in the neighboring islands. Let me remind the reader that one of the largest current deployments of HOT lanes is in the nation’s capital beltway: http://virginiahotlanes.com.

(3) Honolulu's Administration Can’t Wait to Start Rail but Amtrak Ridership Plummets

“Just as the nation’s attention to the subject of high-speed passenger rail increases thanks to the inclusion of $8 billion in the federal economic recovery bill approved last month, the number of Americans riding the country’s fastest train service is nosediving.

Amtrak reported this week that ridership fell 17% last month on its Acela Express service between Boston and Washington compared to the prior February. Amtrak blames the economic recession, which has eroded business travel, Bloomberg reported.

Ridership on slower regional trains in the Northeast Corridor also fell significantly in February, by 14%. On the flip side, Amtrak experienced a 9.2% increase in riders on long-distance trains outside of the Northeast in February. [ed: But those trains carry a relatively tiny number of people.]

Amtrak’s passenger counts for the Northeast are falling slightly more than those recorded by the nation’s airlines. Across the country, the number of airline passengers fell 12% in February, the Air Transport Association reported last week.”

My comments: I do hope that President Obama pulls back quickly from his plan to outfit the U.S. with (half speed) High Speed Rail. True high speed rail like TGV in France and Shinkansen in Japan is massively expensive even for compact countries suitable for it. Those trains travel at well over 200 mph whereas Acela tops out at 120 mph. U.S. metro areas are too far apart (compared to Europe and Japan), U.S. has no exclusive track that is required for 200 mph trains, and the U.S. already has a comparatively massive airport infrastructure. Hopefully the $8 billion allocated for half-speed high speed rail in the Recovery Act will be the last to be wasted in this endeavor.

The lesson for Hawaii is that mistakes and wrong priorities occur both in D.C. and in Honolulu. One big difference is that D.C. can print money to cover for massive failures (for how much longer?) whereas Honolulu’s taxpayer will be saddled with a useless multibillion dollar rail built largely with heavy local taxes (most of them are in the horizon.)

Feels Good to Be 8 Days Ahead of the Wall Street Journal!

WSJ, March 20, 2009 (excerpt)

Budget Woes Hit Mass Transit as Tax Revenue Falls

By SUZANNE SATALINE

Just as mass-transit ridership has reached a historic high, tax revenues that fund rail and bus service have dropped, leaving transit agencies nationwide with huge budget deficits and the prospect of boosting fares.

In the New York City region, state lawmakers are locked in a dispute over how best to close a $1.2 billion mass-transit budget gap. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs public transportation in greater New York, says that without an emergency cash infusion it will be forced to boost fares 23%, and severely cut service to meet its $11 billion annual budget.

Divided state lawmakers and government officials in Albany have been pitching various plans that might pull in more cash -- including bridge tolls and new payroll taxes -- but no plan has attracted a majority of legislators and the governor.

Transit agencies in Washington, D.C., Chicago and San Francisco are facing similar situations.

... [sorry, no link... subscription required]

Transit Ridership Baloney and the Kapolei Choo Choo

"Nationally, Americans made 10.7 billion trips on public transit in 2008, a 4% increase over 2007, according to data released yesterday by the American Public Transportation Association." Then, APTA suggested that America's transit usage reached a new 50 year high.

This is in the same class of misinformation like the Hannemann administration’s propaganda for the "benefits" of the proposed rail from Kapolei to Aiea. Aiea is right because it will take a miracle to reach downtown and Ala Moana Center. Basically no one east of Aloha Stadium is in favor of elevated rail, even if they are in favor of rail transit. It is too expensive, too noisy and too ugly for the communities to allow it to go through.

Headlines also showed up in the local press about the booming transit ridership. But what do these numbers really mean?

Remember that public transit in America serves only a tiny portion of people and most of them are served by buses. So, these numbers mean that in 1956 the average American took 0.26 trips per work day in a public transit system. In 2008, the average American took 0.14 trips per work day in a public transit system. Note that the average American takes more than three trips per day, and basically all of them are done on a road system paid with gas taxes and other user taxes, but not by general taxes.

Although the gas prices and the beginning of a recession boosted public transit ridership from 2007 to 2008, these statements are true:
(1) Most transit agencies expect a decline in 2009, largely due to general workforce reductions (larger unemployment), and transit service reductions due to budget cuts.
(2) Americans used public transit way less in 2008 than in 1956. The rate of usage is about half and the overall tend is declining. Similar decline applies to TheBus.
(3) Rail transit carries a tiny proportion of commuters in the nation. Something in the order of 2% commute by rail, counting all streetcar systems too.
(4) The nation has a huge backlog of maintenance of existing rail systems and cannot afford any "New Starts." In the last few months the U.S. taxpayers were saddled with an extra two trillion in spending, which is roughly an extra $4,000 taken from every American worker.
(5) Now more than ever Oahu cannot afford a multibillion dollar tax bill with phantom benefits for our general economy.

As you know, the excise tax went up and property taxes will go up, zoo entry fee and other fees will go up. Not to improve city services or to get more lions or to fix our terrible roads or to pay for the billion dollar EPA sewage treatment requirement. But to pay for the proposed Kapolei Choo Choo! Lucky we live Hawaii? For how much longer?