Robbie+Marx

=__**Introduction**__= I have chosen this issue because I have a lot of personal experience with the traffic on Punahou campus. I notice anywhere from 7:00-7:50 in the morning there is a large number of cars packed into Chamberlin drive. Not to mention the line usually goes out on to wilder and causes traffic there. The afternoons are even worse. Sometimes when my parents come to pick me up, it takes them 20 minutes just to get from the entrance to the science center. I think there has to be fewer cars. A way of doing that is more people need to takes buses. I know there is a bus system. But does it come through every town to pick up people? Is it possible for everyone to use it? If so, this will really help Punahou, and streets around our school that suffer from our traffic everyday. Either way this is a problem that should be solved immediately.

 __Comments from Ms. Y__ (re: Step 1, Introduction) Robbie-This is a good start. Your personal connection to this topic comes through and I bet hundreds of families feel frustrated by this also. However, this is going to be a tough one for the Punahou community to solve and certainly not one that can be fixed 'immediately'. You ask a valid question: "is it possible for everyone to use the bus?" I would start to answer this by asking "why doesn't your family take the bus?". I would say that for our family, while it may be semi-possible, it would be totally impractical based on our schedule after school (like most families on our campus). We'd never make it to soccer practice on time and then to get home, could take hours and with small children this just isn't feasible or healthy. Perhaps a more doable option would be carpooling. However, this is currently challenging. But with more awareness and coordination it might be possible. Maybe you could look into what has worked for other schools. I'd be happy to brainstorm with you further if you'd like.

Step 2:

Title: Honolulu traffic congestion worst in nation despite drop in driving

URL: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081023/NEWS09/810230377/1019/traffic

Summary- This article is about the traffic in Honolulu. With gas prices rising up, and the economy getting worse, this means less traffic in not only Hawaii, but in the rest of the country. However, based on a study by INRIX, Honolulu’s traffic congestion remained the worst in the country. This shows that we need something new. We all need to take action and use alternatives such as carpools, bus systems, etc. We have to be careful about when we drive and use alternatives that will take everyone and get less people into one car or bus instead of on car for every person.

Reflection- From this article I think it is interesting that we beat every city in the nation, even big cities like L.A. and New York. This, to me is disturbing because it shows that an island with just over a million people has more traffic than a city with over 10 million people. It can mean two things. One, there are too many people on this island, and that’s something we can’t do a lot about. Two, we need a new strategy to get to where we need to go. I think people need to look at alternatives, buses carpools, etc. I truly believe if we want to reduce traffic on campus that means reducing traffic on wilder, which means reducing traffic on the freeway, which leads to reducing traffic everywhere. Altogether, this article shows how bad it really is.

My questions are- What other types of alternatives are there that I don’t know about? (Besides, buses, carpools, rail etc.) Will reducing traffic in Honolulu make a difference on Punahou Campus? Have other schools cities, done anything about the problem? If so what?

Title: Study Examines Traffic Congestion on a University Campus

URL: http://einside.kent.edu/

Summary This article is a about a study done by David H. Kaplan, (professor of geography at Kent State) and Thomas Clapper, (general manager of transportation services at Kent State University) about that studied the general characteristics about traffic on a university campus. They looked at all the different ways traffic on a university, such as Kent State is caused by. The article then goes on to show four different ways traffic on campus is caused by. One, traffic that would be there regardless of the presence of university. Two, traffic composed by faculty getting to and from work. Three, traffic composed by student, going to and from school. Four, traffic from students who travel with in the university, going from one class to another. The article then shows different ways on how to eliminate these problems. Schools can increase roadway capacity, or reduce demand using method such as parking management, class scheduling, placement and scheduling of special activates on campus, as well of the promoting of walking, carpooling, bicycles, etc.

Reflection The last part of the article is some examples of what Punahou can do. This is what Punahou should be doing. I think if we want to solve the traffic issue on Puanhou, we need to do many different things, and it will take some time before they will come into effect. If we can just do a least some of these methods, it may not only affect Punahou, but the state. It could also send a message to other schools.

Question Have the methods been put into use? If so, are they working?

Title Carpool a Day Keeps Carbon Monoxide Away

URL http://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=375&start=2&monthyear=4*2008

Summary This article is about Kris Schwengel trying to complete the goal of reducing faculty/staff parking by 75% for one day. They will do this by carpooling with other faculty/staff members who live in the same general location. The main goal was to see if one day of reducing staff transportation could leave a “footprint” in the carbon emissions problem. Whether it did or not, it still helped traffic on Punahou Campus.

Reflection The article was written before the experiment took place. Whether they reached their goal or not I’m sure it made a difference, and if the whole school did that, then we would see a major drop in traffic at school. Now, its not that entire simple, but the it’s the basic concept that needs to be taken into action. Another thing to reducing our traffic is that if we ever did, it would also help the environment, so we would actually be killing two birds with one stone.

Questions Did, it make a difference in the traffic on campus? Did it help the environment?

Title: Reopening of school prompts traffic alert

URL: http://archives.starbulletin.com/2008/08/19/news/story05.html

Summary This article shows that a lot of the traffic is caused by people trying to get their kids to school. It even shows statistics. Recent studies show some incidences, carpools can actually make a 45-minute car ride for others into a 25 minutes car ride. This shows that if we can get enough people to carpool we can actually decrease traffic by about 20 minutes if we get enough people.

Reflection This article made me even more for carpooling. If we can make a difference by 20 minutes, that will help so many people, inside our school and outside our school. This article shows that if we solve our traffic on Campus, we could actually make a good difference on traffic outside of the school.

Question How much of a difference would carpooling make if at least 75% of the school did it? What about bus system? How much of a difference would that make?

Title New Solutions to Traffic Congestion May Also Reduce Environmental Concerns

URL http://www.boozallen.com/consulting/industries_article/

Summary This article shows again many other ways to reduce traffic. It also shows good effects it could have on the environment. Some examples of reducing traffics, Automotive systems, Driver support systems, Traffic management systems, Road pricing, etc.

Reflection These are so things the state should take into consideration. Again, this will in the long run help our school with traffic problems on campus.


 * Interview with Randy Overton, head of Physical Plant, Punahou School:**

How big of an issue do you think Punahou Traffic is? It’s a big issue because not only the size of our campus but because it impacts community, therefore it is important that we manage it.

What do you think is the biggest contributor to Punahou traffic? Our reliance on cars. The number of people, Facility and staff, and students. Lack of alternatives, mostly number of cars we have, coming on campus. We need more alternatives.

What is the best way to fix traffic on Punahou? The answer is still out there. Try to reduce traffic by 25% by 2016. Facility and staff are initialed to a free bus pass. Last month, there were 49 users, a big increase compared to past months. Creating alternative, bus passes, car pooling, those who live closer might have to walk, not even allow them to park on campus.

What some are alternative ways besides this? Should we have a mass transit? Hawaii does have the most successful bus in the country. We would be a solid market for mass transit. More freeways and roads might put more cars on the road. How long would it take for these alternatives to take effect? Some would be immediate, bus passes, car-pooling, bike lanes, however, others like mass transit would take about 10-15 years.

How much of an impact do you think reducing traffic in the community around Punahou could have on traffic on Punahou campus? A lot! Every morning on the top of Manoa road (by Willcox) within a 45-minute period we have about 1300 vehicles in our campus. Out of the number of vehicle, about 13% have nothing to do with punahou. Some people us our campus as a short cut to get to other freeways.

Do you think Punahou should work with other schools, nearby, so that we could all have one system that fits all schools? Starting to do that with Maryknoll. With the new gym Maryknoll is building, that will create a huge traffic jam whenever there are events there. Maryknoll only has half the parking it should have, therefore if it gets crowed, we could let People Park on our campus it goes for if we have an event and they could let People Park on their campus.

media type="file" key="Traffic Interview.mov"

__Comments from Ms. Y__ Robbie- Again, you've submitted some great work here! It seems you found many relevant articles to widen your understanding of this challenging issue. You also asked excellent questions after the articles. It would add interest to add some pictures/graphics above. Lastly, it seems some of your interview is missing. I know you wrote out 10 questions as you showed them to me but I don't see all ten here. Even if you didn't get to ask all 10 questions (partly due to time constraints) you can still post them here. Also, do you have a video clip or image you can post to accompany this? If not, I still have the footage I can give to you. Again, I was so impressed with your questions and maturity in conducting your interview. You should see yourself on tape! (P.S. don't forget to post the expert's name, title, etc.-need to give credit...)

  Action Plan:    I will ask the class for ten minutes of its time to randomly brainstorm for ideas to solve Punahou’s traffic problems. I will get two huge sheets of paper and break the class into two or so groups. Each group on its paper will randomly write down their own ideas or thoughts to solve Punahou’s traffic problem. I want them to write down anything that comes to their mind eve if it’s not good. I want as many answers to Punahou’s traffic problem as possible. I will then take what I think are the best solutions and bring them to Mr. Overton so he could these ideas to the sustainability steering committee. Hopefully the sustainability steering committee will like the ideas and put them into action.

-People (with the exception of faculty) pay for their parking on campus -We need to make sure that people only park in parking zones rather than in the middle of the road -The Punahou bus system needs to cover all sections of the island -Students should receive a bus system schedule during the summer before school starts -Students will have a small discount in their tuition if they use the bus system

carpool video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R10Hd4JNE8

 Final Comments: Robbie-Overall, you have done a nice job with this project. You really stayed focused on your goals and asked for help when needed along the way. You also kept up with deadlines throughout, which is great. You did well with taking the ideas from our class and sorting through them to pull out what you thought were the top five ideas. This takes thought on your part, as well as organization in communicating this to others, especially adults/administrators. A few final thoughts: 1)Revising your work above, taking some of the suggestions I gave, would have made this even more complete. 2) It would have been clearer if you titled the "top 5 ideas" above on your wiki. As is, they are just sitting there and it isn't clear to a new reader what these are (that these are the results of your action plan, top 5 ideas proposed by your biology classmates). 3) Also, you could have titled the last two things you added above (what is this video link you've included and how does it relate to your project? what is the pdf you've embedded? (letter to the head of Physical Plant, someone who can help address this problem)). Still, this is work to be proud of. I'll bring your project up at the next Sustainability Steering Committee meeting and see what people have to say!