Changes Are Coming To Honolulu’s Bus Routes, And Not Everyone Is Happy
Honolulu is constantly trying to deploy buses more efficiently and to deal with changes, such as the new rail line. But adjusting routes can disrupt daily routines.
August will see an unusual number of changes to Honolulu’s bus routes as the city deals with the extension of the rail line and demographic changes like fewer workers downtown.
鈥淭his August is going to be pretty, pretty huge,鈥 said Jon Nouchi, deputy director of the Department Transportation Services.
As always when the city discontinues routes or adjusts them, some riders are likely to feel that their daily routines are disrupted.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 be everything to everyone,鈥 Nouchi said.
Though the number of changes next month may be unusual, TheBus is constantly making adjustments to stay on top of commuting patterns and demographic changes.
Bus route modifications can happen four times each year, per the city鈥檚 contract with its drivers, and are determined through a committee-led process that considers whether routes are redundant, how to increase bus frequency and how to ensure neighborhoods don鈥檛 get left behind.
It鈥檚 an imperfect process. Compromises sometimes have to be made. Routes are modified to ensure better access for more people, but it can also mean some passengers lose out on a service they depended on.
In August, Routes 9, 18 and 24 are being discontinued, 2, 7, 9s, 20, 23, 200, 307 and 544 are being modified. Some modifications will help fill the gaps left by discontinued routes.
The modifications are part of a larger shift in Honolulu. Cities around the world are reckoning with their downtown areas losing the gravitational pull they once exerted as centers of employment, and Honolulu is no exception. At the same time, Honolulu transit officials are aiming to construct a route map that meshes TheBus with the new rail system Skyline as it advances toward its planned eastern terminus in Kakaako.
A Mauka-To-Makai Focus
TheBus system is huge but can’t be everywhere. Ridership averaged more than 122,000 trips per day in May, and there are over 500 buses serving over 100 routes on the island. Almost 1,000 drivers work for the system.
But there are a limited number of buses, each of which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Making improvements means shifting more service to one area at the cost of another, and mitigating that can require a series of complex adjustments to other routes to fill the gaps.
Changes to TheBus originate with the department鈥檚 Service Review Committee and subcommittee. They deal with all kinds of changes, from increasing bus service in a certain neighborhood to 鈥渟omething as innocuous as temperature on board the buses,鈥 Nouchi said.
He gave an example of one recent route change.
Previously, busy Route 2 connected Kalihi to Waikiki and looped around Kapiolani Park.
But the loop around Kapiolani Park didn鈥檛 serve many people compared to the rest of the route. Precious time was lost sending buses around the sparsely populated area.
So the city shifted Route 2 to serve Kapiolani Community College and Leahi Hospital, and had another, less frequent route take its place looping around Kapiolani Park.
In August, Palolo鈥檚 Route 9s will be discontinued, its path absorbed into a new Route 200. That route will loop around Kapiolani Park, meaning that Palolo residents will have a route into Waikiki that doesn鈥檛 require making two transfers.
That鈥檚 part of the city鈥檚 overall strategy of expanding access beyond just downtown.
The thinking used to be that routes should bring people in and out of downtown, an approach similar to New York City鈥檚 subway system, whose train routes are designed to bring people in and out of Manhattan.
The analogy in Honolulu is routes that bring people from the valleys and ridges to the main east-to-west routes that can shuttle them downtown. These east-to-west routes are well-established, Nouchi said, but they aren鈥檛 consistent with future land use goals of giving residents more destinations within their own ahupuaas, the traditional Native Hawaiian system of land divisions that go from the mountains to the ocean.
鈥淲e want to fortify our mauka-to-makai,鈥 he said.
Modifications Are Inconvenient For Some
Not all modifications are welcomed by riders.
Last year, following the opening of the first leg of the rail system, the city reorganized its bus routes in a bid to make Skyline and TheBus one cohesive system whose riders could transfer between the two modes of transportation.聽
Critics of the route modifications say that transferring between Skyline and TheBus is less convenient than sitting in one seat the entire way.
Next month鈥檚 changes are partially in preparation for the next leg of Skyline to open at Kalihi Transit Center, scheduled for late 2025.
One change is the complete discontinuation of Route 18 in order to have another bus available.
Route 18 brings riders from Ala Moana to the University of Hawaii Manoa. It also loops to Market City, giving students access to Foodland. All of these loops have become redundant over time as more bus routes have been added, Nouchi said, leading the city to eliminate it.
But some Route 18 riders aren’t happy about the change.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit disconcerting how quickly the transit system is removing a line that serves so many people,鈥 Reed Mershon said. He lives in Ala Moana and is a UH graduate student, so Route 18 is convenient.
Other routes to UH exist, but he doesn鈥檛 think that they鈥檙e adequate, especially to handle the volume of ridership on Route 18 during the school year. Route 13 moves through Waikiki, adding time to the journey, and Route A only serves the edge of campus.
On a recent morning, Route 18 was quiet but riders seemed to be in good spirits. Only a handful of people rode the bus between lower Makiki and Market City, but those who did greeted the driver warmly.
One young passenger, who exited out the middle door near the University of Hawaii, yelled 鈥淭hank you Aunty!鈥 to driver Kathy Paiva, who then kept the front door open for a few more seconds to talk to the exiting passenger.
Paiva has been driving this route for six months but has been with TheBus since 1996. Although route modifications are listed on a sign on this bus, and have been presented at neighborhood board meetings, she worries that not all of her regular passengers are aware that the route will discontinue in mid-August.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the hard part now, is that a lot of these guys, you can put up all these things you want 鈥 they鈥檙e not going to know. They鈥檙e going to try and catch this bus,鈥 she said.
Another young passenger, a student at UH, said that he鈥檚 not worried about the bus route changes because alternative routes exist.
But Carol Holverson, who got on in Makiki, shook her head in disagreement. She said that she has lived in the neighborhood since 1995 and uses Route 18 to access appointments at Kaiser Medical Center and to walk around Kapahulu.
鈥淚t is a main drag for me,鈥 she said.
