Houston: METRO wants your help reimagining your transit system!

You say it adds to current traffic issues because it uses the same lanes that cars do. But adding rail means taking away lanes totally from cars. That also adds to current traffic issues.
I don't know what the bus traffic was like back then along the same lines that rail is using right now, so I can't comment. I would be curious to see though.

 

Buildup starts south of the beltway (both southbound and northbound)... And will extend to 610 by rush hour.

This exists on the weekend as well. They've been doing expansion work for years and the problem continues to grow.

 

They don't have to build the rail to use up existing freeway space. Busses will, however, always need roads.

Current Hov/bus only lanes haven't made a dent.

 

That may be so, I don't know. But da1 says 24 hours. That ******* is so prone to overexaggeration and race card throwing that I can't take anything he says seriously.

 

But it's not a foregone conclusion that rail will either. You need to look into why it hasn't made a dent. Theoretically it should be able to provide the same services that a rail can. Why are Houstonians not using them?

 

Yeah. Apparently the rail discussion around here gets pretty bipolar. I won't be here long.

 

I think he's a young kid. He's clearly in love with trains...and will simply make stuff up to defend it.

 

Probably because they'd rather sit in their own cars in a Hov lane or regular lane with potential traffic than a bus? Because rail could (and should) be more efficient/reliable/faster?

I wonder why light rail has exceeded the bus ridership as well.

 

That's not even a valid argument. The Park and Ride and the current Rail line serves different purposes. The same people who use Park and Ride might also use the Rail line once they reach Downtown. That would inflate the rail numbers.

 

This is a common misconception.

Light rail is specifically designed for significantly easier access to reduce door to door transit times. For example, there are multiple points of ground level access and less seats which results in faster/easier filling and emptying. People new to transit are much more likely to utilize rail as opposed to buses (stigma).

Come to the TMC during quitting time and all the design aspects will be readily apparent. A nearly empty train shows up to the Dryden/TMC station, becomes absolutely packed within one minute and drops the majority of those folks off 2 stops down at the Smithlands station.

Single train = ~200 riders
Double train = ~400 riders
Total transit time? 5 minutes.
Missed the train? there is another one coming in 6 minutes (at the absolute latest)

I challenge you to find me a bus or any number of cars that can replicate all that within one lane from door to door.

 

that's nice. What happens the other 22 hours per day? and weekends...

 

If you had a dedicated bus line like rail does then it could come close. I see how multiple points of access is pretty awesome for filling up the rail faster. But a ton of people not paying probably attributes to that speed to. But what happens during off hours. What do you do with those trains? With buses you can reallocate them somewhere else.

 

TMC relies on public transport for its workers due to the absent of close and affordable parking.

And yes, hospitals are still open after hours and on the weekends.

 

Heavy rail would be able to depart every 5 minutes with hundreds of passengers.

I can't speak for Nick, but I am not suggesting to replace the P&R system. We've spent a ****load of money on it already. I am suggesting building a few heavy rail lines to bolster the P&R system, and to allow commuters who DON'T work downtown to use P&R then hop on a fast and reliable method of transport to their final destination.

 

What Houston needs, is to continually build the rail up in the inner-loop area. Imagine being able to go from downtown on a train and into a stop that takes you right inside the Galleria. Right now Houston isn't too dense even inside the loop where tearing it up and building rail wouldn't be nearly as expensive. Build it inside the loop and the area will become even more dense.

Once that is done, at that time Metro can look into expansion out in the suburbs, but it has to start from within.

 

Exactly. Unfortunately Houston is an urban planner's nightmare. Without zoning laws or really much of anything to influence how the city develops, the transportation grid is pretty much the only thing that can be used to influence where people live.

Beefing up the transportation network of the inner loop is the way to go. Having light rail (or even heavy rail) out to the suburbs is just reinforcing Houston's already terrible growth patterns. The system of perpetual suburban growth just isn't sustainable and will become a financial disaster in the long term. Not to mention TxDot is broke due to years of chronic underfunding so there just wont be the money to continually pay for highway expansions. The gas tax doesn't recoup the cost of building highways and people who live in the cities have been subsidizing suburban highway projects for years.

We need to re-orient how the city is growing. I understand the desire for suburban heavy and light rail but I dont think its a winner in the long term until you build up density in the loop. Dallas's light rail strategy has been built around reaching suburban networks and it has been a pretty big flop compared to Houston.

I live in Minneapolis/St Paul which is going through a similar light rail expansion. The difference here is that the growth of the city was far more controlled than it was Houston so designing rail networks is so much easier than it is in Houston. They even tried heavy rail here to some suburbs and its more or less been a failure. Even though the heavy rail system gets you to downtown Minneapolis, there isn't enough of a public transport system from there to get you anywhere else. Heavy rail requires strong and efficient public transport in the city (since people clearly won't have any other way to travel around the city). Houston doesn't have that so until we get a strong public transport system in the city, we shouldn't waste our time with big suburban networks.

 

The vast majority who ride in between these stops utilize the Smithlands Park and ride. Paying for the Smithlands Park and Ride includes free transit in between the TMC and the Smithlands stop.

http://grist.org/transportation/2011-04-05-bus-rapid-transit-a-transit-fast-track-without-the-track/
Regarding a bus system: What you are suggesting is BRT. Curitiba (Brazil), Bogota and Guangzhou have very successful BRT systems (even featured in the Netflix documentary Urbanized). On paper, it has nearly all of the advantages of light rail without many of the disadvantages.

The uptown district is scheduled to construct one as early as 2015. It would run in between the Northwest transit center and a new one located at Westpark and South Rice. They hope to be ready by 2017 for the Superbowl.


http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/1372437818-Uptown-Bus-Rapid-Transit-Gets-Green-Light.html
However, all indications seem to be that this system will only be in place until the plans for light rail are approved. Part of the plan would be to widen Post oak by 16ft and add two dedicated bus lanes. Thus, some of the infrastructure would already be in place.

Now you may ask why would they scrap a perfectly good BRT and replace it with costly Light Rail. The fact of the matter is that no one is convinced that Houstonians will ride a bus. BRT is viewed as a 3rd world solution and will likely only attract current transit riders. Even Judge Emmett preferred an elevated monorail.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...ew-rail-line-champion-4699470.php?cmpid=btfpm

Let's wait and see.