Report Title:

Reversible High Occupancy and Toll Expressway; Appropriation

 

Description:

Requires department of transportation to perform preparatory work to construct a reversible high occupancy and toll expressway in the leeward corridor in conjunction with an integrated bus rapid transit system.  Appropriates funds.

 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

3003

TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT


 

 

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR A High Occupancy and Toll REVERSIBLE EXPRESSway ON OAHU.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  (a)  The legislature finds that the only effective solution to Oahu's traffic congestion on the leeward corridor is a two- or three-lane reversible high occupancy and toll expressway with several ramps, a handful of in-town underpasses, and a bus rapid transit system.  According to Dr. Panos D. Prevedouros, professor of transportation engineering in the department of civil and environmental engineering of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the bus rapid transit system, running along King and Beretania Streets, will connect to the high occupancy and toll expressway at the Hotel Street transit mall.  This integrated high occupancy and toll and bus rapid transit system will provide flexibility to handle variable surges of traffic due to commuting flows, special events, or emergencies.

     High occupancy and toll expressways are primarily express high-occupancy-vehicle and public transit highways with the ability to move traffic along quickly at sixty miles per hour.  As a result, buses can travel fifteen miles in about fifteen minutes.  For example, it would take about only twenty minutes to travel from the Waikele shopping center to Aloha Tower or the Hotel Street transit mall at the height of the morning rush hour.  No other mass transit facility can provide such speed and efficiency sufficient to persuade drivers to commute via the express bus.  On high occupancy and toll expressways, all buses and vanpools would travel free of charge at all times.

     A two- or three-lane reversible high occupancy and toll expressway can serve several thousand vehicles per hour.  For example, a two-lane facility can serve about three thousand buses per hour.  Of course, Oahu does not have anywhere near three thousand buses and vanpools to use the expressway each hour.  Thus, the facility will have a large amount of capacity to serve low occupancy vehicles.  However, too many low occupancy vehicles using the expressway would jam the facility and greatly reduce travel speeds.  The solution is to charge variable tolls for low occupancy vehicles, for example, starting at $1 and increasing to about $3.50 at the height of peak travel hours.  These tolls will control the number of vehicles entering the high occupancy and toll expressway and help maintain overall service at sixty miles per hour.  A three-lane high occupancy and toll expressway can accommodate over four thousand low occupancy vehicles per hour together with city buses, tour buses, and vanpool vehicles at the same time.  Furthermore, vehicles opting to use the high occupancy and toll expressway will free up space for those vehicles choosing to remain on the H-1 Freeway, thus creating a ten- to fifteen-minute savings for the latter in peak hour travel time for free.

Seen from another perspective, these tolls would enable the government or other project operator to sell unused expressway space to low occupancy vehicles, generating a cash flow to pay for the facility.  This feature renders toll expressways appealing to private investors because they offer a reasonable return for their upfront investment in construction costs by generating a steady stream of income.  Tolls collected on all-public high occupancy and toll expressways are also used to retire some of the bond debt and support express bus operations, such as in San Diego.

High occupancy and toll expressway lanes also offer a form of traffic congestion insurance.  Studies have shown that travelers from all income groups and professions value having a fast and reliable travel option for those times when they most need it.

     (b)  The key to the success of a reversible high occupancy and toll expressway for the leeward corridor is to design the on- and off-ramps properly.  Ten ramps will serve as on-ramps in the morning and become off-ramps in the afternoon as follows:

     (1)  Four ramps to provide access to the high occupancy and toll lanes from the H-1 and H-2 Freeways and Farrington and Kamehameha Highways;

     (2)  A ramp to what, in Dr. Prevedouros' report, is referred to as the "Aiea and Hekaha business area";

     (3)  A ramp near Pearl Harbor to serve the heavy concentration of employment in the area;

     (4)  A ramp into Aloha Stadium to serve events and use the mostly empty parking lot as a park-and-ride facility for express buses.  This ramp may also combine a connection to the H-3 Freeway;

     (5)  A ramp onto Lagoon Drive to serve the airport and the Mapunapuna area;

     (6)  A ramp onto Waiakamilo Road to serve Kalihi; and

     (7)  A ramp onto Nimitz Highway, at the point where it widens to four lanes, to serve Honolulu's center and points beyond.

In addition, there will be a city bus-only ramp to and from the Hotel Street transit mall.

     (c)  The reversible high occupancy and toll expressway can be configured to work in four different ways, depending on traffic loads and traffic management needs as follows:

     (1)  Full inbound, from Waikele to downtown Honolulu, during the typical weekday morning travel period;

     (2)  Full outbound, from downtown Honolulu to Waikele, during the typical weekday afternoon travel period;

     (3)  Split inbound, from Waikele and downtown Honolulu to Aloha Stadium and the H-3 Freeway, before the start of a major event at Aloha Stadium and during most weekends.  This configuration will also facilitate traffic to windward Oahu in case of a major problem on the Likelike or Pali Highways, or other emergency; and

     (4)  Split outbound, from Aloha Stadium and the H-3 Freeway to Waikele and downtown Honolulu, at the end of a major event at Aloha Stadium.  This configuration will help relieve traffic congestion in the adjacent neighborhoods by half.

     (d)  Part of the proposed reversible high occupancy and toll expressway system is an in-town bus rapid transit system that will run on priority lanes along King and Beretania Streets.  The proposed routing connects the University of Hawaii at Manoa and downtown Honolulu more efficiently.  For example, instead of a 4.1 mile route through twenty-four traffic signals from the University to Tamarind Square via Kapiolani Boulevard, the King/Beretania route will be twenty per cent faster (about twenty minutes) along a 3.4 mile route through nineteen traffic signals.  Not only will the proposed bus rapid transit route be faster, but it will be able to provide the same frequency of service with six instead of seven buses, a not insignificant cost savings.

The high occupancy and toll expressway-Hotel Street transit mall-bus rapid transit integrated system can provide a largely congestion-free Waikele-University-Waikiki path on express buses at a small fraction of the cost for a similar fixed rail corridor.  It can provide a Kapolei-University connection in forty-five minutes, a full thirty minutes faster than that stated in Honolulu's alternative analysis for a fixed rail system.  Furthermore, traffic congestion in town can be reduced by at least thirty per cent by:

     (1)  Optimizing traffic signal operations;

     (2)  Eliminating several left turns that are accident-prone and that sap intersection capacity; and

     (3)  Constructing a few key underpasses to decongest "maxed-out" or gridlocked intersections.

     (e)  High occupancy and toll lanes are at the forefront of national policy for resolving traffic congestion and have been constructed in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Washington, D.C.  San Francisco is advocating an extensive high occupancy and toll network.  Houston plans to expand its existing high occupancy and toll lanes.  Miami-Dade plans to convert existing high occupancy vehicle lanes to reversible high occupancy and toll lanes to provide additional capacity.

     (f)  The purpose of this Act is to require the department of transportation to perform preparatory work to construct and implement a reversible high occupancy and toll expressway in the leeward corridor.

     SECTION 2.  (a)  The department of transportation shall prepare plans, designs, and estimate of costs to construct all phases of a reversible high occupancy and toll expressway in the leeward corridor with an integrated bus rapid transit system, based on the proposal contained in "A Design for a HOT Expressway coupled to BRT and Other Traffic Congestion Relief Projects for Oahu" authored and updated on October 20, 2007, by Dr. Panos D. Prevedouros of the department of civil and environmental engineering of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and as outlined in this Act.

     (b)  The plans and design shall include at least the following:

     (1)  An analysis of the optimum number of lanes to be constructed;

     (2)  A determination of the optimal start and end points of the expressway;

     (3)  A determination of the optimum number and location of on- and off-ramps to the expressway;

     (4)  A determination of which types of vehicles shall and shall not be charged a toll for use of the expressway;

     (5)  A proposal for a schedule of tolls to be charged and collected from non-high occupancy vehicles;

     (6)  An identification of all necessary rights of way to construct the expressway, ramps, and the city bus-only ramp to and from the Hotel Street transit mall;

     (7)  A full estimate of costs, including compensation to property owners when rights of way are needed to be acquired by eminent domain;

     (8)  Development of a plan to fund the construction of the expressway, including use of the state highway fund established under section 248‑8, Hawaii Revised Statutes, legislative appropriations, federal highway funds, bonds, private investment funding, and any other method of funding;

     (9)  Identification and solicitation of private investment to fund the construction and operation of the reversible high occupancy and toll expressway;

    (10)  Any necessary proposed legislation, including appropriations, to implement the construction of the reversible high occupancy and toll expressway; and

    (11)  Any other plan, design, analysis, evaluation, or determination that the department deems necessary.

     (c)  The department of transportation shall submit its plans, design, analysis, evaluations, and estimates outlined in subsection (b), including any necessary proposed legislation, to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2009.

     SECTION 3.  There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $        or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008-2009 to the department of transportation to perform preparatory work to construct and implement a reversible high occupancy and toll expressway in the leeward corridor as outlined in this Act.

     The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of transportation for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval, except that section 3 shall take effect on July 1, 2008.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

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