The Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization (OahuMPO) last week approved a 2045 Regional Transportation Plan (ORTP) that would spend nearly $27 billion on a massive transportation infrastructure overhaul, including climate change measures.

The ORTP puts forth 119 projects at a total cost of $26.92 billion to cover everything from infrastructure building and improvements, to multimodal transport development, to climate change protection and mitigation. The wide-ranging projects are split into short-term (2022-2025), mid-term (2026-2035) and long term (2036-2045). They are guided by the ORTP’s seven stated goals of transportation safety, increased public transit use, public transit equity, system resiliency, maintenance, efficiency and environmental protections.

Short-term projects are primarily infrastructure overhauls, from small roads, to freeways, to bridges. About $1.8 billion is earmarked for a fully connected, computerized traffic control system throughout Oahu. The plan also commits $39 million to the Transportation Alternative Program (TAP), a grant program that “provides funding for programs and projects defined as transportation alternatives, including on- and off-road pedestrian and bicycle facilities, infrastructure projects for improving non-driver access to public transportation and enhanced mobility, and community improvement activities.”

A total of $16 million is earmarked for a “freeway service patrol” to help with services such as towing, responding to crashes and removing debris. The Oahu Bicycle Master Plan gets $2.75 million to make bicycle paths more robust. There is also $45.55 million earmarked for the Statewide Shoreline Protection Program; those funds will go to the island of Oahu.

More than $1 billion will be directed to the beleaguered Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) light rail. So far, HART has run $10 billion over budget due to delays and internal restructuring, from $4 billion to $14 billion; last month the new interim director fired half of the organization’s staff.

Mid-term projects focus more on maintaining and tweaking the overhauled infrastructure, along with traffic data collection. There is $83 million earmarked for a “high-frequency electric circulator bus system” named the Honolulu Urban Bus (HUB) Circulator System, which would service the entire urban Honolulu area in one big loop, from the central business district to Waikiki and slightly up into the mountains to the University of Hawaii. The bus system would also be expanded to the tune of $474 million, with an additional $9 million for a separate transportation service for “disadvantaged populations.”

An $11 million plan would develop a “Transportation Demand Management” program (TDM) to solve smaller and niche cases. The plan notes that TDM would provide free, real-time carpool matching, an “emergency ride home program,” employer commuter programs and a vanpool; it would lend aid for “major special events” and encourage transportation strategies such as bicycle- or car-sharing.

Long-term projects would additionally improve infrastructure, this time with a keener focus on optimizing traffic flow and reducing delays. More than $10 billion would go to maintenance for this timeframe, with tens or hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for the expansion of the bus system and more multimodal transportation and ride-sharing programs.

When compared to a “no build” scenario in 2045, the ORTP argues the projects would reduce vehicle miles traveled (by 5% (15,200,000 miles to 14,400,000)), vehicle hours traveled by 16% (515,000 hours to 431,000), delays by 42%, and would increase mass-transit boarding by 71% (240,000 boardings versus 410,000). Most of those benefits would go to suburban and rural commuters, who often face driving times of one hour or more into and out of the central business district.

Beyond the ORTP’s hopes for a quicker and more efficient transportation system, the plan examines equitable distribution of investment through the ORTP’s Title VI and Environmental Justice (T6/EJ) analysis. The plan examines areas with low-income and racial minority groups to define “census block groups” (BGs). About 23% of BGs fall under the T6/EJ classification and would be targeted for 30% of ORTP investment.

The OahuMPO is a federally mandated body in charge of the continuing, cooperative and comprehensive — or “3-C” — planning process, doing so in conjunction with Hawaii Department of Transportation, Honolulu Department of Transportation Services and HART.

MPOs, as federally mandated organizations, do not implement or construct projects, but provide oversight in prioritizing funding. Regional transportation plans are required by federal law to be financially constrained, meaning projects are only listed if funds are available to pay for them. In addition, no transportation project can receive federal funding unless it is in the ORTP.