As a previous swimmer in the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, I’m asking the directors to consider changing the race direction to flow with the ocean current.

Most Waikiki swimmers know that the current usually, but not always, flows from the Hilton Rainbow Tower to Sans Souci Beach, the opposite of the current swim direction.

Just watch the boats anchored offshore to see the boats’ noses facing against the current.

Warmer climates dictate rougher seas, so it’s time to change the Waikiki Roughwater Swim direction. Someone once said that it is a tradition that traditions always will change.

It’s time to consider the swimmers’ safety. It would also solve the terrible parking problem for 600-900 people on the hotel side. You could then have an award ceremony plus luau in spacious Kapiolani Park, instead of the current poorly attended award session (no luau) because hotel parking is $30 a car.

Amy Brown

Kaimuki

HOV lane hours worsened traffic

The extended hours to the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane townbound in the morning have added a half-hour to my morning commute from Waialua to Kalihi everyday.

This change is counter- productive because people either carpool or they don’t, the HOV stops the free flow of traffic, and the HOV is not enforceable.

I have spoken to the police department’s motorcycle division that enforces the HOV laws and there is a long stretch of H-2 freeway that is impossible to enforce as there is no place to pull drivers over.

I don’t understand the logic of extending the hours when the state Department of Transportation knows the laws are not enforceable.

As I sit in stopped traffic watching the cars in the HOV lane fly by, every other car has only one person inside or their window tint is so dark you can’t see how many passengers they have. DOT has created a system that encourages breaking the law.

Celene Roberts

Waialua

New intersection a traffic danger

Without careful planning, the new intersection next to Lanakila Elementary School is going to endanger the elementary students.

The old misaligned intersection acted as a “traffic calming device,” forcing cars approaching Lanakila Avenue along both Kuakini and Keola to come to a complete stop before making a careful right turn, then left turn, to cross Lanakila. Now cars could speed across Lanakila.

Besides school zone restrictions and speed deterrents to protect these students, I’d like to see a phase of the traffic signal cycle in which all cars must stop and pedestrians cross in all directions.

Kent Bennett

Kamehameha Heights

Unions will get much of surplus

The naiveté of the editorial, “Budget surplus is rare chance to accomplish needed goals,” is surprising (Star-Advertiser, Our View, Aug. 28).

You opined that with union participation, “prudent steps must be taken to ensure the surplus is spent wisely and for the public good.”

As far as the unions are concerned, the only good is the “union good.” The unions want it all.

Given that organized labor owns most public officials via campaign contributions, the unions will get a substantial portion of the $1 billion. To illustrate this, legislators overrode the governor’s veto of Senate Bill 2077, which would have saved the taxpayers $260 million over 10 years. Instead, the politicians chose to appease the unions rather than see to the financial health of Hawaii.

Reportedly, total state debt is $7.78 billion. Unfunded pension liabilities are $28.74 billion and other unfunded post employment benefits are $11.18 billion, for a total unfunded debt of $39.92 billion.

Legislators plan this debt for “the children” — tomorrow’s taxpayers.

Arthur Warren

Keaau, Hawaii island

Why haste about Falls of Clyde?

Why is the state Harbors Division in such a rush to get rid of the Falls of Clyde?

Is it being influenced by someone who wants that space? If so, what is in it for the Harbors Division?

The windjammer on the adjoining pier has been left unattended and neglected for years. Harbors can remove that boat. However it would cost money and I understand that Harbors Division is now strapped financially. Why is it that?

Jeanette Ainley

Kaneohe

If Trump gets in, it’s fiesta time

News flash from the Trump campaign: Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and soon-to-be U.S. President Donald Trump have agreed that Mexico will become our 51st state, thereby eliminating the need for a wall or deportation. Fiesta time!

Now our No. 1 problem is dealing with the mass emigration of Americans to Canada.

Jeff Bigler

Wailuku

We were fooled into backing rail

Local politicians speak about getting money from the state or the feds for Oahu’s rail project.

Those tax dollars all comes out of my pocket, not somewhere else.

I hope Sylvia Luke and Jill Tokuda, chairwomen of the Legislature’s money committees, hold the line on any additional funding from the state.

I was not against a well-planned rail transit system but that was never the case — first evidenced by incorrectly choosing the steel-wheels-on-steel-rail system, and former City Councilman Romy Cachola attempting to have it routed to Salt Lake.

We were fooled into voting for that technology and Ala Moana; we thought it was going to University of Hawaii-Manoa.

Let’s get some dedicated planning and smart thinking here. Get the local government workers out to “Mufi’s Second City,” stop subsidizing their parking downtown, get uninsured drivers off roads, stagger University of Hawaii hours, have police officers actually direct traffic where needed and place proactive security in high predatory crime areas. It’s not too late.

Margaret Murchie

Kahala

Rail opponents saw this coming

Francis Nakamoto’s letter blaming the lawsuits against rail for its massive cost overrun is wide of the mark (“Lawsuits kept rail from moving ahead,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 1).

I represented Stop Rail Now at the time of the vote on rail. We sought to stop rail because the proponents — the contractors and the unions and the politicians in their pockets — were very deliberately grossly underestimating the cost and overestimating the projected ridership.

We believed that the public had the right to know that they were being lied to and that when the true cost was known, the public would rebel.

Ben Cayetano tried to tell the truth when he ran for mayor and we know how he was smeared.

Mr. Nakamoto should not blame us. It is those who were snookered by the proponents and voted for rail who are responsible. At least, those of us who could see the truth bear no blame for the white elephant rail turned out to be.

Earle A. Partington

Makakilo