Hawaii's mass transit may be electric

As if we needed an excuse to go to Hawaii!

The Aloha State, and former home to our President-elect, will soon be installing an alternative transportation system. The system will be modeled after similar technology used in electric cars.

The system will couple the Internet and multiple charging stations to reduce the number of issues that come along with the technology (slow recharging and not enough stations).

However, I think the most fascinating thing about the project is the funding. So far it has been private investments being poured into the project.

Shai Agassi of Better Place L.L.C. in Palo Alto, Calif is spearheading it but has also received support from national governments, regional planning organizations and one major car company.

It is interesting to see the private sector merge and overlap what will essentially be a public benefit. I cant say I believe that this is the best way to operate public needs, but it may actually work in this case.

"Better Place would become a major customer for electricity and was also planning to invest in renewable energy sources that would be connected to the electric grid," reports the NY Times.

Hawaii has been called the perfect place for such a project, but I still have some questions. For example, there are many remote areas inland (maybe not as much on the Big Island), making it problematic.

It kind of irks me that the majority of these innovative technologies are never really questioned. The article talks about "working through the difficulties" but never explicitly says what those may be.

This article doesn't really ask the questions of feasibility, it really just reads like a press release. Dont get me wrong, I'm all for environmentally-friendly changes. But Hawaii's economy depends greatly on tourism, which is said to be down 14 percent in October compared to the previous year

But Obama's election is apparently starting to increase the tourism to the state. Sure, thats my excuse too.


-Erin