Texas Department of Transportation refusing to fund Post Oak bus lanes unless guarantee of no rail E

mexico city has dedicated bus lanes..

it doesnt really do anything

 

Interesting. I know there is a major tenant in the market who renewed their lease recenlty with a rider contingent upon this getting completed (the expansion). Delay will cost the local area millions annually.

 

What are buses are trains of which you speak?

 

Austin and Houston are so completely screwed with traffic. Living in Austin off and on since the late 90's and coming here since the early 90's to visit it's ridiculous that there are mass transit plans.

People like bigtexxx always refer to Houston being south bigger then nyc/Chicago. But if they would have started this decades ago, or start now on a smaller scale and get bigger as time goes on.

I hope all the oil and gas company people like working 40 + hours a week and spending hours and hours in cars it sounds like a dream.

 

Good. Light rail sucks.

 

Nobody here has shown the benefits of light rail compared to buses.

we shouldn't default to a "me too" strategy that's not right for Houston. We need to think and actually have logic behind our decisions

 

If the light rail actually bypassed traffic instead of running along side with it... And had more trains it would work

But ppl like you in charge were forced to sign off on a halfass project just to appease the rail proponents


Hurrdurr slow down we needa logic n stuff yall

 

classic rail fanboy response

"Hey I saw trains in NYC work great - that must be the answer for Houston!"

let's use some common sense here, folks. take the time to think it through

 

While I am not the biggest light rail fan (I would much prefer heavy rail for Houston) light rail has higher capacity, faster trip times, better on time performance, and is significantly cheaper to operate on a per-rider bases than buses.

 

your logic assumes unlimited funds to spend on rail. That's not reality

 

I think you're missing my point like you usually do.

The problem is with the current rail, is that it wasn't thought through or given enough funding.

They built a halfass rail which doesn't work well.. if it had el tracks and more cars with better commuter routes then it would be a success.

I thought it through texx

 

Light rail isn't a silver bullet answer. A well thought out transportation system is normally "all of the above" and applied to address different issues.

A full transportation plan includes (but not limited to):
Freeways
Surface Streets
Buses
BRT
Light Rail
Heavy Rail
Ferries (where applicable) EDIT: Fairies could work too.
Etc.


I think building this bus line makes a lot of sense. Adding language that specifically forbids it from being converted to Light Rail to dumb. That just sounds like some butt hurt politicians.

 

Rail is not only to save time. Depending on where you are going and what time, it may take longer. And then a funny thing is when people against rail in this city say dumb stuff like "well if nYC has rail then Houston should too right derp derp derp sarcasm". Let's take a bigger look. Here are the major American cities with more rail miles than Houston and a connection to at least one airport: NYC, Denver, SF, LA, Boston, St. Louis, Miami, Atlanta, DC, Baltimore, Philly, Chicago, Dallas, and Minneapolis-St. Paul. Areas with more rail miles than Houston include New Orleans, Phoenix, Portland, Cleveland, and Charlotte.

Expand that to North American cities, and you can throw in Calgary (another big energy industry city), Toronto, Vancouver, Mexico City, Monterey. Expand to the world? Don't feel like typing that much, but with that Amsterdam is another energy industry with great rail connections. The point is, Houston is way behind numerous cities as far as giving residents an option other than driving.

It sucks that the 1983 plan passed, but Mayor Bob Lanier was dumb and diverted the funds elsewhere. Without his shortsighted decisions, there would be heavy rail lines where there are currently HOV lanes on 59 Southwest, 10 west, 45 north, where the first red line light rail line is, as well as one out west to Alief where the Westpark Tollway sits (and why it was built so small to leave land in the future for it). Both airports would be connected to, which is huge.

This city is so shortsighted nowadays. I want the leaders who thought about dredging the Buffalo Bayou for port, or building a collection of hospitals and medical research facilities together, or even came up with the first heavy rail plan. Noooo, we get people now who divert those funds for sidewalk reconstruction where it isn't needed or saying rail can never be put on these streets ever if funded.

 

The reason why the first line was built like that was because Metro built the entire line themselves with no funding thanks to Tom Delay and John Culberson. If federal funds were not blocked, you could have expected a better line. If Metro's leadership wasn't incompetent back then either, that would have helped.

 

Subways are the answer.

 

There are no single answers to complex problems.

Anybody who says ____ is (or is not) the answer is narrow minded.

 

You just said single answers are not the answer.

Narrow minded?

 

Y'all are trying too hard. The answer is so easy. Force companies to allow people with jobs that transition into telecommuting to telecommute. Done.

Business owners and managers assume it's the end of the world if people work from home, like having people at work is soooo important. Just pull the trigger now instead of 20 years from now.