Letter: City paying too much for new Handi-Vans
I just read the article in Friday’s newspaper about the city purchasing 48 new Handi-Vans for $9.7 million (“Honolulu buys 48 vans for TheHandi-Van fleet,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 13). That comes to $202,083 each! They’re not even electric or driving themselves for that price.
I also read that with the current 209 vehicles in the fleet, they service about 3,000 people per day. That breaks down to about 14.35 people per vehicle per day. I don’t know a lot about the Handi- Vans service except through the news, and it sounds like it needs to improve quite a bit. But maybe some smaller, cheaper vans would suffice, since you’re taking so few people per day.
I did a quick internet search and found brand-new 2023, eight-passenger, two-wheelchair models for $82,900. Is anybody with authority paying attention?
Giovanni Sclarandis
Wilhelmina Rise
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