A call for ‘real traffic relief’

Dear Editor,

Sen. Will Espero’s article “Rail Will Help Accommodate West Oahu’s Growth” misleads the reader into believing that rail will help relieve traffic congestion. It will not. Traffic will be worse with rail than before.

Sen. Espero knows that his district will not have a single rail station. The ground zero of traffic congestion, Ewa Beach, does not even have a rail station. The prospective development Hoopili, with 11,000 homes, has two stations planned, even though they have never received a single permit to build a single home. To say that he wants rail to continue with a line to UH Manoa and maybe even Ko Olina, does not even take into consideration his own district of Ewa Beach. The real problem is that our politicians are letting commuters believe that rail will help relieve traffic congestion instead of working on real traffic relief with more lanes and other solutions.

Garry P. Smith
Ewa Beach