Submitted by Maria Lebron
I love my bike. Love, love, love it. If I could marry it I would. It is my first, my last, my everything.
I used to live in Lake Tahoe , and I can say I have ridden my bike at least once in every single month of a calendar year. The second that the sun came out and the streets were clear, I would ride in the cold, cold, sun of January, February you name it. In the summer, I rode every single day. It was the happiest time of my life. I knew every inch of the ground in that town, every pot hole, every hill. I knew exactly how my bike and I would react to all of it.
When I decided to move to Hawaii, one of the draws was 365 days of sun (not true, btw) and, therefore, 365 days of riding. Well, in theory this is possible; however, much to my gut-wrenching heartbreak, I see absolutely no evidence that anyone can safely ride anywhere around here. I have lived on two islands, one "city" and one "country", and neither one of them has anything even remotely resembling a bike path or a safe roadway for cyclists.
On the west side of Maui , the highway shoulder is what everyone uses for both to walking and biking to work. Yes, that's right: I said the highway shoulder, not the other side of a concrete buffer or guardrail, not the sidewalk, not even the other side of a chain link fence. You are out there in the blistering sun (all the trees have been knocked down), one foot from city buses, manic half-drunk tourists who don't know the roads, locals who are late and exhausted from the 60-hour work week that keeps them from sleeping on a park bench, (oh wait, what park? this is Maui). You are pounding the pavement, totally exposed just because you want to be a physically active, environmentally-conscious, frugal member of the community. Don't forget your helmet!
That’s Honolulu where it’s “easy” to ride your bike. On O'ahu, it is more like a death-defying, cop-dodging, construction zone obstacle course, eyes in the back of your head, suffer fest. Unless, of course, it is winter and then it is all that and a water park louge ride. Tell me: does watching your life flash before your eyes as you pedal along in the pouring rain in rush hour city traffic inches away from cars, only to have someone open a car door five feet in front of you forcing you to choose between slamming on your brakes and skidding out or hoping you can squeeze in between the cars and the open door… count as extra heart-pounding cardio?
If only they would stop complaining about traffic here and build a commuter bike path system!
Photo Caption: Bicycle-shaped bicycle rack in Honolulu. (Photo courtesty of Yukihiro Matsuda via Flickr)
John D. says:
I live in Honolulu. I think you are quite aware Honolulu doesn't fit easily in the indexing assumptions of your study at sustainlane.com
Our middle position 17/50 in your study is being heralded here as "proof" of great sustainability and good island energy and waste disposal management, even though we are heavily dependent on fossil fuel, and our tourism (now down 17.3%) is almost 100% dependent on airline (concentrated) fuel.
You report: "Honolulu could greatly increase its sustainable factor once it develops incentive programs for green building and harnesses more energy from ample sunshine and wind."
But we are building on scarse agricultural land, now. We are the only State (in USA) where judges can lawfully consider impact on aesthetics in their rulings, to protect tourism - our form of sustainability.
Honolulu also has one of the shortest BUT most time-consuming Rush-Hour commutes to work in the Nation (your highest weight of 1.5). Our Rail Transit is on the Ballot.
Also, your measure of "sustainability" does not make a distinction between Cities that recently adopted its first Sustainability Plan, and those that have done more than just "plan". Honolulu just adopted it last year!
Your definition of City area vs. Air Quality area: "Regional public transit ridership, roadway congestion, and metro area sprawl... data were collected on a metropolitan area basis. Air quality data was gathered on a county-wide basis."
So, Air & Water Quality gets the highest score. Yet, groundwater is contaminated by decades of old-fashioned insecticide agriculture. And Surface run-off goes into the ocean, not the fresh water supply, but affecting our fishing. Even our sewers drain into the ocean sometimes.
Almost Paradise, on the "surface."
May I please have a list of your sources and interviews for your Honolulu data? I happen to live here, and we need more than just clean air to be "sustainable."
ALOHA
J. DeVilbiss, PhD.
Please@hawaii.rr.com
John D. says:
Aloha,
An article by a Sierra Club local leader, pointing out some City sustainability management faults for Honolulu City & County can be found with keywords:
Hannemann Randy Ching
http://www.starbulletin.com/editorials/20080924_Environment_cant_take_much_more_Hannemann.html
Also, this article at sustainlane.com is badly misquoted at:
http://www.starbulletin.com/editorials/20080926_City_merits_ranking_for_sustainable_living.html
it is now being used POLITICALLY, because the current Mayor is losing registered votes as time progresses, and wants to be re-elected.
No,.... not everyone here in Paradise is a Saint.
Lulu L. says:
John D, Thanks for your comments and concerns. For the list of our third-party sources, please see our Methodology page. Additional information was acquired through primary research. Interview excerpts, where available, will be posted on our site later this month.
Ken O. says:
Hi John,
Thanks for your feedback. As you know, we have no control over what newspapers, politicians or activists do with our study. The study is a public service to America's largest cities. We are non-partisan since sustainability is a very serious bag of issues affecting millions. We stand behind our study and believe it to be the best national scorecard available today.
Please remember that our study is a relative ranking of peers. Based on over 2000 data points, interviews, surveys and research, we believe that Honolulu -- as bad as you may think it is -- is still better off per capita than many other US cities. This should not be surprising, as the US is dangerously car-dependent, as Atlantans are now finding out. Not to say that Honolulu is not, but relatively speaking, it has much higher rates of public transit commuting, carpool commuting, and walking/biking-to-work than the other 49 most populous cities.
For example, over 10% of Honolulu residents take a bus or ferry to get to work. Over 15% carpool to work. Nearly 7% walk and nearly 2% bicycle to work. These data points are taken from the widely regarded US Census Bureau. Feel free to look over their data. You may be mixing up modes of commuting with time spent in traffic. Note that while related, these are two separate study categories with separate data sources.
As for traffic congestion, residents in the 40 cities below Honolulu spend more hours per year sitting in traffic on city streets and on freeways. Again, this data comes from a reputable third-party source, the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M. If you disbelieve the data, take it up with them.
How are you getting that Air/Water quality receive "the highest score"? Our Tap Water Quality ranking is based on data from the Environmental Working Group. Unfortunately, EWG did not rate Honolulu's tap water. We did not officially rate HI tap water quality. Groundwater is imperiled everywhere, not just Honolulu.
John D. says:
Many thanks for the replies, Ken
It is easy to shift back & forth from the concept of "sustainability" to that of "quality of life", today.
"we believe that Honolulu -- as bad as you may think it is -- is still better off per capita than many other US cities"
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I guess we are afraid with rising costs of fuel, things will change so much here, as would be expected.
I like your explanations, and yes, we have to go with published, official sources; and I am totally confident you are looking at the best data available.
It's very difficult to undersand what is meant by "sustainability", comparing an island in the middle of the Pacific with other cities than can sprawl, or build bridges. Yes, it is comparative, and that's why biases can easily affect the ranking.
Will check the details further.
Thanks
J. DeVilbiss
Honolulu