Weeeeeeell, while it is a good read, I also find you can skew data for research to fit the point you want to make. Although this one seems to keep the facts straight. Houston never really engaged the idea of commuter trains and whatnot, so we'll probably never know what effect trains might have had along major routes (something parallel to I-10, I-59, I-45, 290, leading into downtown and the Medical Center, say). It would have been a very costly investment, sure, and this city is so spread out (hell, it's 42 miles from my place in Westchase to my mom in Humble) that there is no way you could have alleviated much of its traffic.
transit, of the type we're really discussing here, needs population density to be successful. to ROXTIA's point, Houston is simply too spread out for modest (in scale, if not real dollars) investments in transit to make much of a dent. that said, transit investment can help create density, by spurring development along the transit corridor, creating a kind of virtuous circle. but it's hard to retrofit, and cities where transit is successful, NYC, Paris, London, Moscow, have always been densely populated.
File this one under D for 'derp'. Houston's layout is not conducive to any kind of effective mass transit. Gotta stop encouraging sprawl first.
To this point: I called METRO to get help on figuring out a bus schedule for my wife to get from our place near Bellaire to SE Houston (almost Pasadena). Naturally you have to switch buses downtown. This girl gives me these directions (more or less): "Take Route X at 9:30 to Downtown Location A Cross street take Route Y at 10:15 to Downtown Location B Cross street take Route Z at 10:45...." I'm like, "I was just on the web site, I'm just making sure of what I read, I don't remember taking three buses. Can't she just skip Route Y and go straight from Route X to Route Z?" "Well, I mean, she'd have to walk a block or two...." Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez. I can understand people with health issues or knee problems or whatever who can't walk, but obviously most people don't have such a problem. Girl was giving me a three-bus option when the two-buses solution was just fine, just to save my wife five minutes (at most) of exercise and add another half hour to the trip? Again: Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez.
Transit has to be tied to changes in development. As property prices increase even in Houston it will get harder and harder to just expand roads while it will be more attractive for developers to maximize floor area, increase density. Even for Houston transit is the only long term solution for congestion.
http://www.ptua.org.au/myths/congestion.shtml https://theconversation.com/new-freeways-cure-congestion-time-to-put-the-myth-to-bed-13896
Amazing! I agree with at least one part of what you said! That said, transit has been "retrofitted" into every city ever created. Nobody has ever gone into a grass field and built transit in hopes that a city would pop up. Many Houstonians would willfully chose to move to a new location and forgo auto transport if other forms of transport were viable ...as has happened in every other city on earth. Houston will look very different 20+ years from now. The argument that Houston is this way now and it won't change is rather narrow minded. That's the mentality of a victim.
If they were truly biased they would be against public investments in both roads and public transit. We don't need public transit yet. Not enough marginal benefit for the cost.
DA1's links were good. Read the bit about: Downs-Thompson Paradox To be clear, we already have public transit so it's a misrepresentation to say "we don't need it". As the paradox illustrates, the more a city invests in roads (which is always to the detriment of other modes of transport), the more road congestion is generated. I liked the analogy, you can't fight obesity by loosening your belt.
i dont read all of da1's posts, but i think he targets the compliance of traffic and environment in concerns to public transportation
well, well, well. Another win for bigtexxx told ya so Although my specific beef is spending all this money on trains rather than having a world-class bus system. More roads + world class bus system for transit is the right way to do it.
I don't think we need more roads as much as we need to fix the ones we have. Excluding highways, of course. I'm skeptical that a world-class bus system would do anything to reduce my 150+ minute 25 mile commute via bus to either Houston airport.
Fix how? Do you mean by adding lanes to existing roads? Do you think even in Houston more lanes can be added to I-59 or any other freeway running through Houston? Possibly not buses if they are sharing the road with cars but I am pretty sure a high speed train from downtown to the airports would make it much easier to get to them.
Hempstead Highway, Telephone Road (out to Alvin/Pearland) and possibly Red Bluff need to become Toll Roads. Would help a lot on TOP of a mass transit system.