Route 13 - UH Mānoa via Waikīkī (Unit 268) approaching stop 4131 in front of Market City.

#Photograghy #PublicTransit #TheBus #HOLOWithUs #Transit #Bus #BusSpotting #GILLIG #Hawaii #Honolulu #Oahu

I am not advocating for the removal of this essential part of our democratic process. However, it would be wise for our elected officials to recognize that public input it recieves should only be weighted as heavily as the participation in it. 13/🧵

Given that, it is reasonable to conclude that the public input process as it is right now is a discriminatory practice that unfairly benefits those with the time, knowledge, or understanding to participate in the public input process. 12/🧵

The Kuhio Avenue priority bus lane is a classic example of a group of people that are privileged, knowledgable, and understanding enough to be able to participate in civic engagement over-representing their own interests against those who cannot or are unable to. 11/🧵

Bus riders, cyclists, and pedestrians being a majority of traffic along Kuhio Avenue was one of DTS’s motivations for adding a dedicated bus lane in Waikiki. The Kuhio bus lane is a massive step towards addressing the very traffic issues that the testifiers were complaining about. 10/🧵

Many spoke of how their driving experience has been made worse by the bus lane. The overwhelmingly negative testimony against the Kuhio bus lane paints them as an “unpopular” and “bad” decision despite drivers actually being a slight minority of traffic throughput along that corridor. 9/🧵

That is to say nothing about the emphasis on the “public” part of the public input process, which means all testimony, regardless of intention or interest, must be considered. A good example of this would be the implementation of priority bus lanes on Kuhio Avenue. 8/🧵

The only measures that draw the masses in to testify are the ones that are big or impactful enough to either get reported on by news outlets or large social media pages. Outside of those, the same parties testify all the time, giving them an outsized impact on how our leaders make decisions. 7/🧵

My personal experience with transit bills in the Honolulu City Council is that few actually testify, and the only people that do are ones that either really support or really oppose whatever legislation they are testifying on. 6/🧵

Often times, these are the well off elderly and retired who lean conservative and are thus more often than not averse to change and vested in the preservation of their own assets. 5/🧵

The reality is far different. Less than a third of Hawaiʻi’s registered population vote. Even less of that population participate in the public input process. This makes public input heavily biased towards the minority of those who care or have the time to show up and participate. 4/🧵

If legislation proves unpopular or the public isn’t satisfied with certain parts of a measure, public input makes amending those changes much clearer for government officials. 3/🧵

In theory, public input is one of the best ways to increase communication and transparency, something that is of grave importance given the increasing mistrust in our institutions. It is a satisfactory compromise between direct democracy and representative democracy. 2/🧵

Skyline - Kualakaʻi East Kapolei Station (Unit 06) approaching the Hōʻaeʻae West Loch Station.

#Photograghy #PublicTransit #Transit #Train #SkylineHNL #RideTheSky #DriverlessMetro #RideTheSky #Hitachi #Hawaii #Honolulu #Oahu #Waipahu #Transitgram

As the DTS deputy director might put it, they need to “strike while the iron is hot” to improve our transport system to better last mile connections that make commuting on Skyline a truly viable option.

To view the official numbers yourself visit the site below:

www.honolulu.gov/dts/skyline-...

I expected December 2025 to experience a slump, due to many being on their Christmas vacation. However, this was not the case, with ridership being up 4%. This shows that momentum from Skyline’s phase 2 opening is still going, and that the city’s media campaign might be working. 3/🧵

Total ridership for December: 281,281 rides
On-time rate: 98.63%
Average ridership: 9,074
Weekday average ridership: 9,926
Ridership compared to last month: up +4%
Ridership compared to same time last year: up 279% (over triple)
Total ridership since opening: 3,462,879 rides

Went to Kilauea and was so dissapointed that it was so cloudy but Madam Pele cleared it up for five minutes right as we got to the lookout!