The first mistake was that the City should have done an extensive, long-term transportation-land use scenario plan 15-20 years ago that analyzed the macro costs and benefits of a number of different land use and transportation infrastructure scenarios that compared the costs of transportation (both public and household), other infrastructure (sewer, electricity, etc.), and housing over a 30-40 year time period.  I believe grade-separated rail, transit-oriented development, and other policies aimed at achieving meaningful mode shift (from cars to alternatives) would have been clearly shown to save Oahu residents $50-100 billion over a 30-40 year time horizon. This would have meant the rail project was a piece of implementing a larger plan with larger policy goals, rather than just a stand alone project with often ambiguous objectives.