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For generations people of hawaii have said no to big growth, resorts, mainland etc etc.
Except they are mostly dead now - now that the people of Hawaii got things like air travel, internet, cable - they realized they wanted to be in the major leagues and get out of the grass shacks.
Change can't happen in Hawaii by itself - it is driven by a local population wanting these changes - the small minority who don't like will just have to suck it up since it isn't stopping - they have been assimilated by the majority of the local population.
I don't need to anywhere - I love the changes to get Hawaii in the 21st century - the small minority who can't adapt will have to decide to embrace change or lead a miserable life feeling sorry for themselves.
One day whtviper1 you really need to go outside and pay attention to what you have instead of not have. Most people don't realise it til they move from Hawaii. One could wave a wand and bring every modern convenience to hawaii to bring happiness in ones life but in 5 years or so you will clamor for something different. Thats not life.
While the impact of the the "radical extremists" in the airline and rental car industries probably hastened the demise of the Superferry, it shut down because its business model was unsustainable without extensive government and military support.
Exactly. It's entirely unsustainable without government subsidies. I'm all for an inter-island ferry to shuttle people that are extremely tolerant to motion sickness, but to drag vehicles along with them just so they can enjoy a weekend on another island is pure idiocy. It is 10 times cheaper and a billion times more environmentally sustainable to simply rent a car.
Is it more convenient to have your car and belongings stuffed in them when traveling? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean it makes sense. What happens if the tradewinds pick up above 20 mph when you plan to return home? You are stuck. If you came with your car and belongings it's not practical to jump on a plane as an alternative because... ummm, your only mode of transportation (and likely many belongings) are stuck on another rock from the one you work/reside on. Many people that used the StupidFerry were stranded on islands and held hostage to their vehicles and belongings because of... a little wind.
It's selfish, mindless locals that just want convenience above all else. Hopefully the government has enough sense to ignore them.
Seattle has their transportation pretty well figured out, maybe we can send the planners over there to look at how they did it. You get one ORCA card which works on the buses, light rail, ferries and parts of the heavy rail, too. Flash your card at the bus/ferry/rail and get on. It automatically tracks if you need a transfer and the card can be refilled at many locations. The buses, rail and ferries seamlessly integrate so you can go from one to the other without effort. If they are going to have a ferry system, they need to integrate it with the existing bus system.
They have a similar system in London called the Oyster Card. There's a little chip in the card, and sensors on busses, underground, trains, and river ferries. You pay per journey until you've reached a daily maximum (3 bus rides, or a flat rate of £11.70). There are slightly higher rates for "peak times." You can top up your oyster card online, or link it to your bank account. London might have some of the most expensive public transport in the world, but it's pretty user friendly.
I can't tell you how many times I wanted to ride da bus on Oahu and haven't had exactly $2.50 in cash on me. They should have streamlined payment for da bus years ago. If they don't use a system like this, or what they have in Seattle to link payment for the rail and da bus on Oahu, they're just setting it up for failure.
Peoples of da Samich Islands! Tink BIG and vot 4 da interislands/interstate tunnels. Jus u weight, wun day dat I-10 going run from SoCali all da weigh to Kakoako. Can only use electric kine cars because clearing da car futs so u no dye stay hard. At least we no hafto worry about whacking whales wit fairies. (knot talkin about dat mahu kine, knat dat dere is anyting wrong wit dat) Betta no wake go go godzilla doh - stay moe moe you magnificent bugga.
Wea da undawata internet cables stay? Can put mo cables in da tunnels - get mo lower "latency" dan coconut wireless. (still not talkin about mahus) Mo ez to maintain/upgrade too - even kanakas want gigabit transfer 4 video wikikpedia.
If an inter-island ferry is such a great idea with so much demand, I would expect a private company would have invested in a boat and begun regularly scheduled service to meet the demand ... even if it was a passenger service only.
Because no private company has stepped in to provide the service, tells me there are serious problems with the business model to run the service and it cannot be run profitably.
Either there is not enough demand to make it profitable. Or the demand is there but only at a price point too low to be profitable. And because the cost to run the service is so high, the demand evaporates at the fair market price that would be required to run the business successfully.
If it can only operate with government support and requires public subsidation to push the price down low enough to attract riders, then it's not worth doing. There is not a compelling state need for a ferry system that I can see and so there is really no justification for the government to get going on setting up a buracracy to run an expensive money losing business.
Again, if there was a need for the service, and if that need could be met profitably, private business would already be finding a way to serve that demand. Since it's not happening, it's telling me it's a big time loser.
I also buy into the argument that enabling cheap travel between islands is probably not the best thing for the smaller population islands.
Exactly. It's entirely unsustainable without government subsidies. I'm all for an inter-island ferry to shuttle people that are extremely tolerant to motion sickness, but to drag vehicles along with them just so they can enjoy a weekend on another island is pure idiocy. It is 10 times cheaper and a billion times more environmentally sustainable to simply rent a car.
Is it more convenient to have your car and belongings stuffed in them when traveling? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean it makes sense. What happens if the tradewinds pick up above 20 mph when you plan to return home? You are stuck. If you came with your car and belongings it's not practical to jump on a plane as an alternative because... ummm, your only mode of transportation (and likely many belongings) are stuck on another rock from the one you work/reside on. Many people that used the StupidFerry were stranded on islands and held hostage to their vehicles and belongings because of... a little wind.
It's selfish, mindless locals that just want convenience above all else. Hopefully the government has enough sense to ignore them.
Not a resident and don't have a dog in the fight, but I agree that a people-only ferry makes more sense for the reasons stated above.
Having taken the Superferry once from Oahu to Maui, it wasn't convenient at all. Part of the reason was that it took so dang long to wait for all the cars to be loaded up. I enjoyed taking it once because of the views I hadn't seen, especially looking at Molokai and North Maui from the water, but it should feel more like getting on/off at a bus stop than a freighter.
If an inter-island ferry is such a great idea with so much demand, I would expect a private company would have invested in a boat and begun regularly scheduled service to meet the demand ... even if it was a passenger service only.
The Superferry was a private company - at this point it is safe to say private companies are scared off due to the Superferry fiasco.
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