  The city of Honolulu, Hawaii is currently planning and developing a new rail
transit system. While Honolulu has supportive density and topography for rail
transit, questions remain about its ability to effectively integrate urban
design and accessibility across the system. Every transit trip begins and ends
with a walking trip from origins and to destinations: transportation planning
must account for pedestrian safety, comfort, and access. Ildefons Cerda's 19th
century utopian plan for Barcelona's Eixample district produced a renowned,
livable urban form. The Eixample, with its well-integrated rail transit, serves
as a model of urban design, land use, transportation planning, and
pedestrian-scaled streets working in synergy to produce accessibility. This
study discusses the urban form of Honolulu and the history and planning of its
new rail transit system. Then it reviews the history of Cerda's plan for the
Eixample and discusses its urban form and performance today. Finally it draws
several lessons from Barcelona's urban design, accessibility, and rail transit
planning and critically discusses their applicability to policy and design in
Honolulu. This discussion is situated within wider debates around livable
cities and social justice as it contributes several form and design lessons to
the livability and accessibility literature while identifying potential
concerns with privatization and displacement.
