One of the founding principles of the 21st Century Ahupua'a is bringing green, clean transportation solutions to the people of our island. We don't have to search far for one of those solutions, because it is already widely used across the United States and the globe - rail.
The list of cities that have embraced rail reads like a who's who of world-class, environmentally friendly cities - San Francisco, Vancouver, Miami, Washington, DC, and London, to name a few. The Brookings Institute, an independent research and policy institute, found that these cities and their residents have the right idea; the institute's research discovered that cities with rail mass transit systems and densely populated urban cores have far smaller "carbon footprints" per capita than sprawling areas dependent on private vehicles.
Shrinking our carbon footprint is just one of the environmental benefits of rail. How else does rail improve our environment?
Reducing greenhouse gases In the groundbreaking climate change film An Inconvenient Truth, we learned that the average car in the U.S. releases about one pound of greenhouse gases for every mile driven. Greenhouse gases are a major cause of global warming. Avoiding driving just 20 miles a week per car can eliminate about 1,000 pounds of greenhouse gases per year.
A single rail train can eliminate the need for six highway lanes - up to 300 single-passenger vehicles on our roads each day. That is 300 fewer tailpipes emitting greenhouse gases. With rail, we can dramatically reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in Honolulu and increase our contribution to the fight against global warming.
Energy savings
Trains are more energy efficient than cars and trucks, using 27 percent less energy than passengers vehicles, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. International leaders are noticing the energy savings in a big way. When Germany, declared it wanted to become the most energy-efficient country in the world by 2020, one of its tools was to encourage residents to take rail and trains. The experiences of Germany are backed by studies that indicate per capita energy consumption declines with increased transit use.
We can achieve similar energy savings in Honolulu with rail, which will shrink our dependency on imported fuel. Our island ships in an astounding 90 percent of the oil we use for motor fuel.
Renewable energy
Hand-in-hand with reducing oil imports is increasing our use of renewable energy. Rail is powered by electricity, which can be generated by the Hawaiian Electric Company using biodiesel at its planned facility at Campbell Industrial Park. The trash-to-energy center H-Power can also bring power to the rail, and technologies like solar, wave and wind power offer the potential of someday generating power for Honolulu's rail system:
In fact, a recent survey of new transit commuters in Seattle revealed that environmental benefits were cited by riders as one of the top reasons they take transit, along with saving money and the convenience of transit service. Rail will help relieve traffic congestion, will be good for the economy and will help keep our environment clean and green.
