I noticed the BULLSHIT posted on the front page of  HonoluluTransit.org and the GoRailGo.org Rail Propaganda Websites, and decided to offer a rebuttal to these false claims.  Thank goodness the people at StopRailNow.com are suing the City into providing TRUTHFUL information to the public.  Until that happens, it's up to us Conscientious, Educated Citizens to spread the truth about Rail. 

What's Good about Rail? 

Good for MOBILITY
One train can move 300 people which equals 6 buses or 300 cars!  That means one rail line equals 6 lanes of cars.

Oh really?  This is an over-inflated claim.

If one train can move 300 people, and we can push a maximum of 20 trains per hour (one every 3 minutes), that means one rail line can only transport a maximum of 6000 people per hour.  One lane of Freeway Traffic is estimated to move over 2000 vehicles per hour (33 vehicles per minute, or about 1 vehicle every 2 seconds).

At 60 MPH, vehicles cover 88 feet per second (60 Miles Per hour = 1 Mile Per minute; 1 Mile = 5280 Feet, so 5280 Feet per minute = 88 feet per second).  A common factor is 1.467*Speed in Miles Per Hour; so at 50MPH, vehicles cover 73.35 feet per second.

To sustain 1500 Vehicles per Hour at 60 MPH (1 vehicle every 2.4 seconds), vehicles must be no more than 211 feet apart (2.4 seconds * 88 feet per second); with average mid-sized vehicles like the Toyota Camry having a length of about 15 feet long, that leaves 196 feet (about 13 car lengths) between a vehicle and the one in front of it.

To sustain 2000 Vehicles per Hour at 60 MPH (1 vehicle every 1.8 seconds), vehicles must be no more than 159 feet apart (1.8 seconds * 88 feet per second); or about 9.5 car lengths between a vehicle and the one in front of it.

As you'll notice, both the 1500 and 2000 vehicles per hour rates are within the two common "Safe Driving" rules of thumb:  1 Car Length per 10 miles per hour; or the "2-second distance rule".

If we also factor in a higher number of Express-Buses and High-Occupancy Vehicles travelling those same freeway lanes, we can yield a Net Average of 2, or possibly 3 People per Vehicle in those lanes:

( (50 Occupants x # of Buses) + (5 Occupants x # of High Occupancy Vehicles) + (1 Occupant x # of Single Occupant Vehicles) )

divide that by the Total Number of Vehicles to yield the Average Occupancy Factor.

Thus, 1500 or 2000 vehicles can transport 3000-4000 people with an Occupancy Factor of 2; or 4500-6000 people with an Occupancy Factor of 3.

Thus, the maximum yield of one rail line REALLY translates to the maximum yield one or two lanes of cars, not six.

More traffic-congestion formulas can be found at  http://www.krellinst.org/AiS/textbook/unit2/flow_solution.html