Houston: METRO wants your help reimagining your transit system!

I just quoted the article. That's not me. It's a very respected transportation consultant actually.

 

The biggest cost is the cost of acquiring land, which goes up over time.

The bottom line is at some point we will come to a point of absolute gridlock, so it's better to be proactive and build the system now.

Now please give me such REASON and LOGIC texx.

 

You're wrong. The population will double soon. Our public transit sucks. Traffic is already bad but will only get worse. Freeway expansion only helps for a few years and then the traffic fills up those lanes too.

I'm not some fanboy, countries all around the world are investing billions in rail. Malaysia, Laos, India, Turkey, England, China, Japan, the list goes on and on. But in your stubborn, thick head you think Houston is somehow so different that it's not necessary here.

Or maybe you're just afraid of blacks which is more likely.

Still waiting for REASON and LOGIC.

 

After a brief hiatus, the big bus is making a comeback on Houston streets later this month.



Metropolitan Transit Authority will soon roll out the first seven of 70 articulated buses, said Andy Skabowski, Metro's vice president of operations. The 62-foot buses can carry 59 passengers, 22 more than the conventional 40-foot model.



"It is a good, new bus that is reliable and going to move more people," Skabowski said.



Drivers started training Monday on the buses, said Tom Andree, manager of Metro's maintenance and operations facility off Hiram Clarke Drive.



Each of the new buses costs $677,000, according to the contract board members approved in August 2012. The 70 larger buses are expected to replace roughly 100 conventional buses.



On lines like Route 163 on Fondren in southwest Houston and Route 2 along Bellaire, Metro can handle growing demand without using more buses. During weekday commutes especially, the buses can be very crowded, Metro spokeswoman Margaret O'Brien-Molina said.



Riders waiting Monday morning agreed, noting that sometimes buses are so crowded they must wait for another.



"I can't be standing there with an armload of groceries," Minh Nguyen said as she waited for the next bus near Bellaire and Hillcroft.



The Fondren and Bellaire lines are Metro's most used, according to the most recent ridership report. Nearly 8,000 people hop aboard Route 163 buses each workday, based on figures for the October-to-June 2013 period. Along Route 2, daily weekday ridership averaged 7,766 during the nine-month span.



Both are also among the top five routes on Saturdays and Sundays.



The articulated buses can travel most of the same places the conventional buses can, Ska-bowski said.



"They actually have a better turning radius than a 40-footer, but you've got to know how to handle it," he said.



The new buses can't, however, handle every challenge Houston has to offer. Along Westheimer in the Midtown and Montrose areas, for example, it would be too tough to navigate a 60-foot bus.



"It's not going to work everywhere," Skabowski said.



Metro last used articulated buses in 2011, after it decommissioned the last of its bigger buses and focused on a fleet of 40-foot buses for the sake of efficiency. In the past year, however, the agency has shifted back to running various sizes of buses.



Forty smaller 15-passenger buses debuted on 13 routes in March, after Metro officials decided the routes didn't warrant a conventional bus but still needed service. The smaller, gasoline-powered buses reduce fuel costs because they are more efficient than the larger diesel fleet.



Over the next three fiscal years, officials plan to buy 360 buses to replace aging coaches as part of a larger plan to phase buses out as they reach the end of their 12 years of use. Metro will also transition gradually to a compressed natural gas fleet. Plans call for the first 40 conventional-size natural gas buses to arrive next year.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...r-buses-to-handle-its-4803563.php?cmpid=btfpm

 

Houston's population is expected to double in the next 10-15 years. Tell me what happens when millions more hop on the roads. What will happen?

Again would you rather be proactive or wait for stuff to hit the fan?

Come on Texx waiting for your LOGIC and REASON.

 

Not surprised.

 

I take the 18 sometimes, it's never ever on time.

 

It's grown by 65% since 1990.