kaolelo/transportation

From the page: "The AIA, Kamehameha Schools and others contend a rail system built at least partially at grade would cost less and have less visual impact. The city maintains that a ground-level train would operate at slower speeds and generate lower ridership and higher long-term costs.

Just how much a partially at-grade train would cost and how many people it would carry is unclear. That's because the city eliminated an at-grade light rail system from consideration before conducting a key environmental impact study released this spring. Instead, the options explored by the city included an all-elevated train, managed highways and an expanded bus system."

Imagine Los Angeles without cars. A town where people ride their bikes and walk in the streets and the smells of tacos and veggie burgers drift through the air instead of exhaust.

Sound like a pipe dream? Not if a group called cicLAvia is successful. A volunteer coalition of bicycle advocates, transportation experts, artists and academics, cicLAvia wants to make Sundays in Los Angeles virtually car-free -- transforming the city's streets into giant bike lanes and creating a public space that connects every neighborhood in the city.

lots of hard, heartfelt work.

From the page: "More than 60 people, mainly women and children, are now feared to have drowned after a ferry capsized near the Pacific Island state of Tonga.

The vessel went down about 90km (55 miles) from the capital, Nuku'alofa, late on Wednesday, officials said.

Some 50 male passengers, travelling on deck, were rescued; many women and children, who were sleeping in cabins below, are feared lost with the ship.

Tongan officials say 117 people were on board the Princess Ashika when it sank.

On Friday, Tonga's Prime Minister, Feleti Sevele, said there was little hope of finding more survivors from the overnight ferry. "

From the page: "As part of his strategy to make the United States more like Sweden, our president has established an automotive task force of which he is chief executive officer, and a Mr. Steven Rattner is, at least for the time being, chief operating officer. Within minutes of their takeover, everything in the automobile business suddenly got unimaginably worse.

In all this madcap fun, nobody saw fit to offer me the job Mr. Rattner got. Although it appears the position will again become available, my phone is not ringing, and I feel terrible about it. In all modesty, I can only say that I would be a goddamn great car czar. I have the white hair that distinguishes all famous statesmen. I have the gift of gab, passed down from my fatherâ€s Welsh ancestors. I am a journalist, which is the same as saying that I am always correct in my judgments and I never lie. Finally, I love cars, pure and simple, which sets me apart from all of the people in our nationâ€s capital who are currently clamoring to be heard in the debates about and against the automobile."

From the page: "If you've spent time behind a slow car in the passing lane on H-1 Freeway, you might have suspected this: A national study released today shows that drivers in Hawaii are the third-worst in the country when it comes to rules-of-the-road knowledge."