Aloha HBL member supporter believer!
As we begin the beginning of a new year, I personally have to acknowledge that the year 2020 is a numerically special year, at least for me. Is there anyone else who had lofty expectations for this particular year? I remember thinking surely by 2020 we will all be wearing jetpacks and using rocket propulsion to get around from floating city to floating city. I imagined we would have connected with every country through incredible social media resources and we would all be working together to solve major world issues such as hunger and homelessness. I thought undoubtedly by 2020 all world leaders will be able to facetime each other and become decently better acquaintances than ever before and possibly even best friends. That these same leaders the world looks up to for future inspiration, would be focusing all their country’s energy and resources on creating better world-wide policies and solutions to benefit all inhabitants of the earth, including mother nature first and foremost. If nothing else I thought, for sure bicycling infrastructure will be so user friendly and futuristic, people will question why we ever drove 2000 lb. vehicles to get around a few blocks. They would incredulously wonder why one would choose to deal with rush hour traffic, pricy parking and challenge their sanity with auto maintenance expenses, DMV lines and ridiculous gas prices on a daily basis, when all of this could be avoided by simply riding a bike on the floating bike paths.
So here we are, exactly 2 months away from the year 2020. I don’t have a jetpack yet and there aren’t floating cities. Hunger and homelessness are ongoing challenges, as is the communication by most world leaders with one another. Dennis Rodman has better relations with Kim Jong Un than most world leaders, yes the all-time ultimate rebounder for the Chicago Bulls who liked to dress in costumes as often as he wasn’t on the court piling up rebound stats- that guy! Mother nature has taken some major shots and continues to take them and is now in desperate need of our attention and care. Well what about bike infrastructure; where are we on that you ask? Surprisingly we do not have floating bike paths, however, bike lanes and sharrows are being laid down all over our heavily used roadways making them safer for bikers and drivers using them to get around this beautiful island we call O‘ahu! Best yet we are slowly making our way to actual construction of the Leeward Bikeway to offer riders an exclusive path that would allow them to ride comfortably without motorized vehicles from Aloha Stadium to as far west as ʻEwa! Imagine that, because that my friends is the near future!
Focus your thoughts on what you want to see happen, and get involved with HBL’s Advocacy and Education teams!
CL3
