U.S. transportation chief: Houston needs to 'get its act together' on light rail

You are right about that, and yet those European cities have managed to maintain their tight-knit urbanity while also being able to appropriate car-culture. Maybe they just have a more progressive approach to city-building. Houston is a successful city that attracts a lot of transplants and immigrants, and eventually you're going to have to build the kind of infrastructure that accommodates all of those newcomers. With the fiscal failures of other cities, places like Houston will only continue to look more and more attractive. Public transit is a healthy and obvious solution.

Or maybe you'd prefer an influx of third-world immigrants with barely passable driving skills on your freeways.

 

Just got back from the scene of an accident involving my wife on her way home from work. Lady who hit her who was at fault didn't have a drivers license, didn't speak english and had an expired insurance card. LOL

 

Dallas has been a nightmare

that's not what Houston should aspire to

 

Houston and Dallas are basically the same city. Miles and miles of strip mall shopping centers connected by freeways.

 

This isn't exactly true - Amtrak is profitable even on its low-speed service in the Northeast Corridor.

 

sorry you were too poor to live anywhere but the suburbs of Houston

 

A house inside the loop in 1995 was less than 200k so I don't know what you are talking about, but no one wanted to live in the city cause it was ghetto.

Plus if you were actually rich why would you want to live in Houston?

 

LOL. It's all the same - one giant parking lot.

 

Sugar Land or Alief bro?

 

I love this generalization that if you happen to prefer driving to work, well, you obviously hate poor people and people of color. Such a rational well thought out conclusion. No wonder Metro and it's supporters are so out of touch with what Houston wants/needs...

I rode the park and ride to and from work for almost 5 years but I recently went back to driving. It's not because I'm scared of poor people.....it's because I prefer a 30-mile commute that doesn't take 2 hours.

Park and Ride:

4:30 - get off work
4:50 - soonest bus arrives at my workplace (assuming it shows up at all)
5:15 - bus arrives at my stop downtown from my workplace on Allen Pkwy
5:25 - park and ride bus arrives
5:35 - bus finishes meandering through downtown and enters HOV lane
6:10 - bus arrives at Kingwood park and ride
6:25 - ima arrives home

Driving my car:

4:30 - get off work
4:45 - enter HOV lane (now available to single passenger cars)
5:15 - ima arrives home

This is why I prefer driving. Has nothing to do with my lack of civic pride or not wanting to mingle with the common man... (LOL)

 

SF son

 

this. time is money

 

you weren't raised there son

 

And wanting privacy also equates to hating poor people.
I've ridden public transportation before and its how I get around in Austin. I don't hate it, its fine. However I prefer driving in the comfort of my own car in comparison to it.

Why is that ****ing wrong? Public transportation is not needed. Houston is growing out.

 

fungus grows vertically.. why cant we?

 

Carpool.
Lease a car.
Buy used.

The one thing in Houston I wouldn't mind are Car2Go or Zipcar systems. Those are INCREDIBLY efficient in Austin. It wouldn't work suburb to city, but innerloop it'd be pretty great.

Also btw. 4% of people in Houston do not own a car.
Not nearly enough to spur an investment in public transportation.