Local politicians want to engineer galleria bus rapid transit in a way that would NEVER allow rail

I got anonymous rep saying: "Not wanting to pay is a good reason not to have it." That's the closest I've ever gotten to hate rep. And, it left me scratching my head -- was someone trying to hit reply and hit feedback instead?

Anyway, anonymous repper, are you saying we shouldn't have our existing roads???

 

Nope, time to start building a rail to Katy, so we may evacuate....:grin:

 

buses make far more sense than permanent rail routes

 

It's actually happening according to the Chronicle

 

It really is sad to see where Houston is today with rail. Could you imagine how the city would have grown if the 1980s heavy rail plan was built? It would be completely different and a few light rail lines in the loop still would most likely have been built around this time.*

I just came back from St. Louis recently and took the train from their airport to my hotel in Clayton. Took about 40 minutes but I was fine with that. I'm going to Seattle next weekend and they have a link from their airport to downtown. Basically every major city in America (NYC, Boston, DC, SF, LA, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Philly, Baltimore, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, etc.) all either have a rail connection from their airport to downtown, or (only Denver on the list) are in the process of constructing it. Houston is of course the largest metro area and city without a link.*

If I could walk to the light rail station under construction near my apartment (or most likely get a short two minute ride there) and take that train to downtown, where I would transfer on another to the airport, I would do it. It's about options and we have none in Houston. Yeah, it would take 60 to 80 or even 90 minutes. But at the same time, I'm not driving 45+ miles roundtrip to and from the airport. I also would not have to watch my tank go down on that drive, or deal with traffic, or deal with the Parking Spot (which those off site lots take 20+ minutes themselves once you get into their lot and they take you to your terminal). Instead I could text, listen to music, talk on the phone and just bull**** on the train ride to the airport like I did in the other cities I have been to and utilized the options that those cities give people. Meanwhile, my cars keeps it miles driven low, less wear and tear, etc. It isn't all about saving time and for some reason antirailers seem to think that is all rail is good for.*

Right now, I am currently debating whether or not I really want to drive the 30+ miles to far west Katy and see a friend who bought a house over there. If there was rail, I would already be on the Blue Line-Katy train and tell my friend to pick me up from the Grand Parkway station. But nooooo, Houston was blessed with John Culberson and Bob Lanier.*

 

Agreed. It is much better to pay less in the short run with buses and pay more in the long run (wear and tear, maintenance, gas, sharing the lanes with vehicles).

Rail can not work alone and buses can not work alone. You need both to have a true mass transit system that works and actually give people an alternative.

 

I think houston is going to become unbearable when it comes to traffic in the next 5 years.

288 south already has traffic building up at 330pm. It used to be that 5-7pm was traffic time..not anymore.

Now that I moved inside the loop, I hate going to Pearland even more and dealing with traffic.

 

Another is the Katy Freeway. When it expanded, there was a clear rush hour flow in the mornings going inbound and outbound in the evenings. Now, it is bumper to bumper both ways, mainly around the Energy Corridor. In the evenings, I would get stuck from Eldridge to Gessner in bumper to bumper and then it would move a bit and go back to bumper to bumper from 610 to TC jester, and again right after Heights until 45.

Houston is going to continue to get denser with or without proper mass transit options. It's too bad we have idiot politicians who block funding and what the PEOPLE voted for.

 

Stupid traffic on 59 already... Bring the rail.

 

How would rail lighten up traffic on 59?

 

Precisely, we're gonna end up like L.A. very soon. Traffic everywhere, all day, all night. The key is viable alternatives to driving, whether rail or otherwise. Right now, we got squat.

 

It wouldn't, but it would give people another option to use to get home. Not even cities with great transit system, NYC, Paris, London, etc., have zero traffic. That is just unrealistic to expect and a bad argument from antirail folks.

 

We got terrible roads. There's always freaking construction...but I have yet to benefit from it. Kirby was jacked up for a while and then they tarred that road...but it's already coming apart.

The med center roads are TERRIBLE. main, fannin etc.

We have no mass transit option in this city other than some busses that no one wants to use. NONE.

Add MOAR LANESSSS PLZ. Idiots.

 

Houston absolutely needs to get 100% aboard rail (pun intended)

 

The type of customer that the Galleria and Post Oak area businesses are looking for are customers who can afford cars. The last type of customer they want in their upscale stores is one who doesn't have much money. Neiman Marcus would have to double its security budget if light rail went to the Galleria.

 

I think this is a good point. An equilibrium will be struck between traffic on mass transit and traffic on the roads. The amount of traffic on the roads will probably not get better than it is now, because commuters will mostly choose the less onerous mode, and things aren't too onerous yet -- commuters will keep choosing to drive until things are a deal worse than this. But, these cities you mentioned are absolutely paralyzed without their mass transit. My wife was living in Paris (years ago) when they had a transit-workers' strike. The streets were so packed, it was faster to walk if you had stamina enough.

But, I don't think we'll ever get there even if we don't build mass transit. It'll cap the city's growth instead. As traffic increases, companies will find different cities to put their offices and residents will find less congested towns to live in. We'll grow to some maximum potential and plateau. Paris and London and NYC are the great metropolises that they are because they've had good transit systems that have allowed them to continue to grow beyond the potential a road network would allow.

Lol, plenty of 'undesirables' manage to find their way to the Galleria anyway. Meanwhile real shoppers (like me occassionally) who have cars can choose to go to other, more distant retail centers because they don't want to deal with the traffic on Westheimer and then the parking at the mall.

 

I have never used the HFD. I think people that get their house caught on fire better be footing the bill, exclusively.