Honolulu, HI is an island paradise, but it also has big city traffic problems. Sam Staley of the Reason Foundation says relief could come in the form of privately-funded HOT lanes.
Staley gives a nice overview of the state of Honolulu development and transportation. He sees public/private partnerships as the way out of the traffic snarl, and gives a thumbs down to the elevated rail project.
Staley writes, "An excellent candidate project would be to add high occupancy toll lanes, or HOT lanes on the H1, to boost travel times and give travelers a meaningful alternative to congestion paralleling from the H1/H2 split to the University of Hawai'i. HOT Lanes let high occupancy vehicles-vans, transit buses, and passenger cars with three or more riders-use them for free. Single occupant vehicles pay a toll for the privilege of ride that is guaranteed at freeway speeds, 24/7.
These roads have fully paid for themselves in other cities, and this may well be the case for Honolulu. This suggests private capital can supplement local funds to build these facilities while shifting the risk away from taxpayers and onto private investors."
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