Part of the problem with widening freeways is that it leads to more development in the area which is why freeways are then congested again after a few years. I mean look at the development boom that has happened in the Katy area. Similar **** happening in 290 as well. Essentially you are promoting growth in areas where widening is happening since you are adding more capacity to the system. I do believe there is effective way to add commuter rails and such to reduce the amount of people on the road, the problem is convincing those individuals to be willing to walk to their final destination. You can always create parking lots (or parking garages) in areas to promote individuals to use public transit (similar to park and ride, infrastructure is semi there already). The issue is, are those individuals willing to walk the final few blocks to their destination. Also, Houston has several work areas. It’s not as if you can come to downtown and the majority individuals work there. You have downtown, you have the energy corridor, gunspoing, westchase, uptown, etc. If you make downtown the central hub where everybody has to come in and then have a local system to service to all the work areas, that would be great. However, everything is so damn spread out and honestly, light rail is not the greatest option. It’s damn too slow. So if it’s going to take someone an hour+ to get to work trying to use public transit, it’s just going to discourage people from using public transit. Our public transportation issues are not easy to resolve. It doesn’t mean I don’t think we should try, but I wish we could transport people much quicker. This bus rapid transit and light rail BS are bandaids in my opinion. If they didn’t want to build below ground, they should of built above ground. Unfortunately for Houston, they should have started planning this a loooooooong time ago and now building anything meaningful is going to take a **** load of money. If I wish they were doing anything with this I45 project, I wish they would leave ROW for future commuter rail. I am pretty damn sure that corridor is going to be congested once again in a few years, especially since Houston just keeps growing.
Lack of zoning made Houston what it is, for better and/or worse. Can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.
