I lived in Dallas for a while and used the train 1 time. I am pretty sure it runs fine and fairly efficient, but the problem is that it is a commuter train that is slow. I would guess going from Plano to Downtown during normal rush hour traffic you could beat the train by 10 minutes, not to mention you would have your car, and arrive exactly at your destination. They are competing against the highways and really have no chance.
That is not what that post means. Most places that have subways or elevated trains have express trains during prime commuting hours. That eliminates the stops and gets people to the end destination quickly. That stops being possible when the train is built on street level. You are so anti rail that I would swear you make your living selling buses to Metro.
nope. your reading comprehension is poor the real problem is people are going to spread out locations within the metroplex. People working downtown are only a small fraction of total employees
Texas is too spread out for a rail to really work, you need people wanting to ride it daily instead of once a month (at which point it's no longer a habit and most people just prefer to drive).
doent houston lead the nation in ridership per square mile or something like that. which means people are riding the rail. there are people who take advantage of it daily. my sister for example, attends uhd and works in tmc, the rail extension is a block away from her home, so when thats finished she wont need anyone to take her to school or work anymore... sometimes she took the bus, but shes looking forward to the rail extension.. its never going to replace your car, but its an option and people are using it.
anecdotal evidence is the weakest it's convenient for some people, but nothing like the scale of a dense city like NYC bottom line is that it's an expensive luxury for Houston, at best. A complete waste of money at worst.
let's face it people in Tex love their cars. I don't drive so I would love these things all over the place. But instead we get more highways
According to statistics from the American Public Transportation Association DART has an estimated 7.11% increase in ridership for the first quarter of 2013. FYI The biggest increase for light rail systems is LA MTA with a 17.88%. The biggest loss is San Diego Metro Transit at 15.00%. The total for all US light rail systems is a 1.34% loss of ridership. Houston Metro had a 1.85% increase and MN Metro Transit a 1.82% drop. http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2013-q1-ridership-APTA.pdf
I think it has more to do with limited options than loving their car. You don't have choice in Sunbelt cities.
If you died today, you'd be right. But in thirty years from now? I figure you gotta start somewhere. Unless you think a system of on-demand, driverless cars are a legitimate future?
His first point wasn't anecdotal ...which you promptly ignored. Houston is becoming more dense by the day. Cities are not static. You constantly fail to accommodate that cities change and evolve. Residents constantly relocate and reshape.
How does anecdotal evidence compare to 1+ year old data? How do you think DART is running now compared to the stats in the year old article you posted. According to rocketjudoka's findings, ridership has increased in the first quarter of this year.
that's because DART has opened new lines. you need to point that out when showing statistics like this
weak effort one needs to prove the case for rail -- and it hasn't been done. Quite the opposite, actually
