I received what may well be the most expensive traffic ticket in Honolulu history this week. No, it is not the $152 that I paid. Instead, it is the tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue to Honolulu and Hawaii from my decision to never return unless I receive a formal apology and refund.

My wife and I were in Fiji in November, and are going to Singapore and Bali in May, and we do not stay in cheap motels and eat at fast-food places. However, we do avoid places where we are clearly not welcome!

For a place like Hawaii that is all but completely dependent on tourism, a diabolical speed trap targeting tourists is quite a poor idea. I had just gotten on a divided highway, a road which in southern California would have a speed limit of 65 mph. Instead, just after I saw the first speed limit sign indicating a bizarrely low limit of 35, there were two cops. By the way, we do not have people being injured or dying right and left in southern California, with our speed limits determined by engineers, not politicians.

F. Stephen Masek

Mission Viejo, Calif.

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