TRAFFIC SAFETY

CARS MADE NO EFFORT TO STOP FOR PEDESTRIANS

You have heard about pedestrians who lost their lives crossing the street. And you may have thought it was their own fault. (Although you might not admit to feeling that way).

I almost thought that way, too, until I found out differently.

On a recent Monday, I had a meeting at the Pagoda Hotel. When I came out at nearly noon, I attempted to cross the street — in the crosswalk — to get to the parking garage with two other people.

The first car flew by. OK, maybe the three of us weren't in the crosswalk. We stepped into the crosswalk. A dark blue SUV with a CAB sign on its top saw us all looking at it, wondering if it would stop.

From 100 feet away, it sped up and flew past us, only to be stuck at the traffic light by Wal-Mart.

What's going on here? We should have reported its plate number, but where does one do that?

POLICE MUST ENFORCE LAW AGGRESSIVELY

Your paper has done an excellent job about covering stories concerning pedestrians being injured or killed by automobiles.

Other cities have experienced the same problems, but their law enforcement agencies took the matter seriously and started to enforce the safety laws by issuing tickets to drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians. Some cities employ decoys.

As reported recently on MSNBC, Chicago police recently stopped 78 vehicles in two hours and told drivers they had violated the law when they failed to yield to an undercover police officer deployed to cross a busy street.

In Pittsburgh, the compliance rate went from 2 percent to over 80 percent.

I think that the power of the press could be used to get law enforcement more involved in solving the problem and, as a result, lives will be saved.

RAIL DEBATE

CHARLOTTE COMPARISONS ARE VERY MISLEADING

Let's not get confused by drawing comparisons between Charlotte, N.C., and Honolulu, especially when it comes to rail systems.

The two fine cities are so unalike that we may as well compare ecosystems.

First, the obvious difference: Honolulu is on O'ahu, which is an island where the most precious commodity is land and its scarcity. Charlotte is on a continent.

Second, Charlotte is home to nearly twice the 377,000-plus residents of Honolulu as of 2005, when the last statistics were available. At that time, Charlotte was ranked the 20th most populated city in the U.S., and Honolulu was 27 places back at 47th.

And then the differences become clearer. Honolulu's chief industry is tourism, while Charlotte has a booming banking industry as a major U.S. financial center.

Charlotte is also a major hub for U.S. motor sports, especially NASCAR, while Honolulu couldn't even keep Hawaii Raceway Park alive.

So before we start making these kinds of misleading comparisons, let's look at the differences first, and you might see there truly is no comparison at all. And mahalo Akua for that!

IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED IN THEBUS OPERATIONS

Roger Morton, the president of TheBus and Handi-Van, argued in his June 5 Island Voices column for "an integrated bus-rail system" of which fixed rail would be "the backbone."

TheBus, presumably, would be the limbs of the system, but Mr. Morton does not reveal how he plans to change its operations to make an integrated system convenient, comfortable, affordable and appropriate.

There is room for doubt that TheBus will or can make such changes. Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi told Manoa residents a few months ago that she had asked TheBus several times why it continued to operate mostly empty 40-foot-long city buses every 20 to 30 minutes, 16 hours a day, on the narrow winding roads of O'ahu's valleys.

Such behemoths are inappropriate for the task: They guzzle gas, rip up roads not made for their weight, barely make the turns, and are excessively noisy for a residential area. (Mr. Morton pointed out in his article that an accelerating city bus is noisier than a modern rail system). A vehicle the size of the Handi-Van or an airport rental car shuttle would be more appropriate.

Councilwoman Kobayahi added that she had never received a satisfactory answer from TheBus to her question.

Mr. Morton should tell us more about his plans for practical changes to improve operations in the future rather than spinning bromides to support a fixed-rail system and to tout TheBus' current operations.

MANY MORE ANSWERS NEEDED ON RAIL SYSTEM

Thank you for the recent articles on the Mainland rail systems. Here is what I get from the numbers you gave:

Charlotte — 13,000 rides a day is 6,500 people (most people when they go somewhere, will return, two trips equals one person). With a population of 1.7 million, that is less than half of 1 percent of the population using the train. At a cost of 462 million, that is $272 per person.

Portland — 104,200 trips or 52,100 people out of a population of 2.18 million makes about 2 percent of the population using the train. And at a cost of $1.65 billion, that is $756 per person.

Washington, D.C. — 43,750 people out of 5.31 million is less than 1 percent of the population. A cost of $5.1 billion comes to about $1,000 per person.

Honolulu — You forecast 87,500 trips, 45,000 people or about 5 percent of the 900,000 population. The cost of $3.7 billion, the lowest of the many numbers tossed about, comes to a whopping $4,100 per person.

What does the $3.7 billion buy? Does that cover the design and construction of the right of way, the rails, the stations, the rolling stock and the land purchase?

How many employees are needed to run the trains and the stations 24 hours a day? How many maintenance workers for the tracks and equipment? What is the estimated payroll?

Answers to questions like these and many more are needed if we are to vote intelligently, if we are ever given the chance to vote.

PLANNING

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE VISION OF A SECOND CITY?

Our city and state government officials and private developers had great vision in pursuing the dream of a second economically powerful and self-sustaining city, Kapolei.

With beautiful homes within the price range of young families, jobs, schools, shopping galore, developers building more shopping complexes and a new university campus on the way, I would think there would be enough jobs to sustain the community.

But our second city is no more than another bedroom community.

If Kapolei was developed to be a second city, why all the traffic to Honolulu? What happened to the jobs that could support these good citizens and offer them the quality of life we all desire?

Mind you, this letter is not about the rail or public transportation. This letter questions the master plan for Kapolei.

What happened?

MILITARY HERO

JOHN MCCAIN SERVED HIS COUNTRY IN VIETNAM

I have to take exception to Jesse Lipman's letter of July 8. In asking us to ponder the complexity of the "context" of John McCain's capture by the North Vietnamese, he makes many subtle implications that infuriate this former A-6 Intruder bombardier/navigator and Vietnam veteran.

John McCain did not choose to bomb a civilian target away from the battle zone as implied. He neither chose it, nor was it civilian. Targets in North Vietnam were assigned to Navy aircrews by U.S. Air Force higher command as approved by the Pentagon and the White House.

The target was "strategic." Aerial bombardment consists of attacking the enemy in three areas: at the battlefront; roads and bridges that supply the battle front; and strategic targets that support the war effort such as factories, port and rail facilities, airfields, and electrical power generating plants. His target was in fact military.

His heroic "rescuers" were civilians who, no doubt, were inspired at least a little bit by the rewards offered by the North Vietnamese military for the "rescue" and turnover of military capturees. Historically, the actions by those involved during such civilian captures were not pretty.

John McCain was serving his country in Vietnam. It amazes me that there are still those out there who vilify Vietnam vets.

TAXES

MIDDLE CLASS IS NOT SUBSIDIZING THE RICH

In regard to Ms. Roxanne Fand's July 2 letter about taxes:

She cites the middle class as having to subsidize the rich, when, in fact, the opposite is true.

The facts from the IRS show that the top 5 percent of taxpayers pay 59 percent of all taxes. The top 50 percent pay 96.9 percent of all taxes. The top 50 percent is defined as making more than $100,000 a year. The bottom 40 percent pay no taxes. So who is supporting who?

Also, who are the "undeserving rich?" Is that the people who made money with good investments? Or is it people who by their birthright are given everything?

On capital gains taxes, the U.S. has the highest capital gains tax rate of all the industrialized nations. Barack Obama wants to raise it even higher to "punish" investors.