Hawaii SuperFerry Impact

This last week protesters staged a traffic simulation showing just how congested the roads will be once the cars are unloaded.  They proved that getting through Kahului may take over 2 hours.  Right now you can drive through it in ten minutes.  This will be an everyday occurance.  And this was just demonstrating the Hawaii Superferry effect on Traffic when unloading.  Ponder for a moment on what will happen to the rest of Maui.  If you've ever driven to or from Lahaina during rush hour, you know it can be bad.  One lane on each side can cause major delays, not including the accidents.  You may think that Maui will compensate for the new influx of traffic by adding lanes to roads and new roads.  But have you seen the roads to Lahaina and to Hana?  It would take 20-25 years to build even one extra lane through the Pali and up to Lahaina.  And that's Mainland time.  Maui time will take closer to 35 years, without exaggeration.  Plus, with the new construction that's going on in Olowalu, it looks as though they're clearing right up to the road.  This road lines the ocean by mere feet; a new lane has no where to go. 

Hana residents will remain Hana residence.  This means they won't be able to get to the rest of the island without making it a 2 day excursion.  With 250 new cars a day, the road to Hana will take twice as long if lucky.  imagine the Road to Hana in stop and go traffic.  The people of Hana already hate the tourists, and in turn causes them to close off their natural gems to the public.  With all the congestion, they're going to get really upset.  This could lead to violence and more of Hana being guarded from visitors.

Then there's the homeless problem. Yes, we have homeless living on our beaches, many with substance abuse problems.  If you've been near one of their broken down car/tent shanties, you'll recognize the odors of makeshift bathrooms.  This can't continue on our pristine beaches.  With the Superferry bringing huge amounts of cars and people from all islands, and especially Oahu, how are we going to control the masses of homeless from taking over our beaches and making them into toilets.  With the substance abuse comes crime and violence.

Drug trafficing will never be easier.  Having an entire automobile to stash drugs will be easy considering the inspectors are projected to be having less than half a minute to inspect each car.

And what about the cars?  We already have a major problem with abandoned cars littering our roadside.  What's to stop people from other islands to come over, and leave them here?  They can always jump back on the ferry on foot. 

Then there's the environmental issues.  Our mongoose on Maui have decimated the low nesting bird population.  there will be little to no protection from them getting to the other islands.  Not to mention the invasive species of plant life and other animal life like coqui frogs.  And then there's the humback whale problem.  The routes that the Super Ferry take are parallel or intersect the humpback migration routes.  Even on the Hawaii Superferry website they show the routes as parallel from Oahu to Kauai and they intersect on the other islands.  Even if they went completely different routes, their would be whale collisions.  if you've been whale watching, you know that they're cruising around everywhere.  They don't stay along the same narrow path.  Whales come here to give birth, mate, and swim all around.  If the Superferry disagrees with this notion, than take a look at the mother and calf that got lost up a river a couple weeks ago.  These are huge mammals that travel all around the world and fuel our tourist industry.  It'd be nice if we could continue to have them come here without being slaughtered.  Seeing that at least one or two fatalities happen off of Maui per year, I can't imagine what this fast, huge Ferry will do. 

The pollution will certainly also become a problem.  It's a known fact that our Hawaiian sealife and reefs have decreased dramatically in the last 10-15 years because of human run off.  Having hundreds of cars spilling their toxic fluids off the side of the Super Ferry will cause irrepairable damage.  The SuperFerry itself will be unloading its own filth too.  The vehicle oils will saturate all parts of the island from the ferry and from the roads. 

On a positive note, it will bring us more business from the other islands.  But then again, our island is doing fine as is.  With over 2 million visitors to our island of Maui a year, our tourist trade is flourishing without the new ferry system.  Actually it could cause more of a problem seeing that many of our visitors will likely rent a car and spend half their stay on another island. 

That's about the only positive thinking I have on the Superferry situation, and even that is riddled with possible negatives.  Even if the owners and operators of the Hawaii SuperFerry felt compelled to address these issues in full, the price of a ticket would be raised hundreds of dollars, and it would take 10 hours to get from island to island.

All of this coming from one of the most positive guys on island.  I love Maui and all of our islands.  This is a special place to live and/or visit.  I wish what i've written was fabricated.

Even with all of its obvious impact, the Hawaii Superferry is scheduled to begin its routes later this summer.  Looks like big money talks louder than logic.