Jeff, we're talking about the Main Street line. Remind me, what were the voting results on that one? It seems to have slipped my mind...
The point is that whether travelling by train or car there will be accidents. Apparently, even an 18 year old from Ohio can comprehend that.
I rode the monorail at the Texas State Fair in 1961. I rode the monorail at Disneyland in 1971. The first Maglev train ran in Britain in 1980. Space City, 19th century mass transit...nice Texx, Houston would have had a monorail system if you guys didn't use it as a hatchet job issue just to get at Kathy Whitmire! I think I'll just start referring to this stupid train as Big Bob's Boondoggle.
did you know....Houston was the first city to consider monorail??? they set up little "test track" here in Houston for a while....and city council ultimately rejected it. my mom always talks about how different this city would be today had they not rejected it...here's a little blurb about it: http://www.nau.edu/~soc-p/ecrc/peoplemovers.html In actuality, the electric streetcar system developed in 1891 in Houston, Texas is really what started the phenomenon of electric mass transit. There were 50 miles of track built by 1910. The downfall occurred in the 1920s when Americas became fascinated with the automobile. As a result of the automobile phenomenon, Houston developed a monorail system in 1955. In 1956, Houston opened their system and called it the trailblazer. In its first weekend, 6,500 people received free rides. However, due to the expense and the lack of enthusiasm on behalf of the city officials, the trailblazer was transported to the state fair and city use was discontinued. http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112600/mono.html In 1956, the Skyway Monorail was built in Houston, Texas. It was only a test track and it was taken apart after months of testing. It was rebuilt at the Texas State Fairgrounds and ran for many years.
I guess conservatives just like old timey stuff. Why in the world do the Astros, as in astronauts, play in a freaking train station?
hey, that ballpark is fan freaking tastic!!!! lay off the ballpark!!! but i hear ya...i really wish we would have committed to monorail too...and perhaps we will when we start talking about bulding some extensions. by the way...i don't think conservatives were rallying for a new ballpark or a new trolley system! the conservatives would have been fine with the astros playing in the space age Astrodome forever
Well, you bash LTR because it interacts with cars. How does bus rapid transit fix that problem? So who is babbling blinded nonsense? The typical republican stance is people should have personal responsibility...except in cases of drivers. In that case, we need to coddle the public because they are too stupid to learn how to drive properly. (BTW, Houston has the highest insurance rates in Texas...because Houston has the worst drivers. Why don't we spend a little money on more Driver's Ed programs and more traffic cops? If we could lower Houston's overall accident rates, that is a Win-Win for everybody...including Metro. )
Why? That was actually the most relevant comment in this entire thread. 100 accidents means nothing. If there were 50,000 car wrecks during this time and 5000 major injuries, what does that say about safety issues? Or what if there were 0 car wrecks? All we know is: In about 500 days, there were 100 light-rail related wrecks and 0 major injuries. To make any argument (pro or con) about light rail safety issues, you'd need to know - at the minimum - the following: average daily traffic on the light rail average daily car traffic average daily car wrecks average injury levels from car wrecks (whatever measure) total person-car miles travelled daily total person-train miles travelled daily "irrelevent" is hardly the appropriate response unless you're only interested in ranting about light rail and have no interest in the actual facts of the matter.
You seriously do not read anything I write. Bus rapid transit does not interact with cars. Educate yourself, then come back to me with a reasoned response. See the Curitiba, Brazil solution.
Ahhh, thats right. I do recall that. A drunk man ran a blatent red light at a cross street (he wasn't even making a turn) and ran right into the side of the train. If this guy hadn't hit the train, he would have hit somebody else. It's better the hit the train so he only killed himself as opposed to hitting another car or pedestrian. Some light rail accidents are good (in relative terms).
I lived in Los Angeles for 12+ years, and I can tell you that the city of Houston has some of the stupidest drivers I have ever encountered. That stupidity is reflected in the accidents with the light rail line. Have any of the accidents been caused by the train rather than the driver?
The bus rapid transit system we are planning DOES. So if you are going to bother bringing up BRT, then be more specific. You didn't say Brazil...you said only BRT. Metro's solution will have BRT driving on normal streets as well as driving on future LTR lines...both of which interact with cars. So if you were going to build a BRT system with dedicated lanes that don't interact with cars, where would you put the right-of-way here in Houston? Don't forget the most dense areas in Houston are downtown, med center and the galleria. Also don't forget that people are WALKING off so the bus stops need to be near the destination. So where do you put right-of-way? Don't forget that purchasing right-of-way costs money...probably more than building LTR itself. I can't wait to hear your reasoned response...lets hear it.
The only thing to like about Enron is that the roof opens. The configuration is goofy, there are lots of crappy seats, that stupid hill with a flagpole. You could have done a great looking intimate stadium with a modern look like the Gerorge R. Brown, with no obstructed views and a real outfield that would have been the in the image of space city instead of trying to look like every other retro field in America. but I digress.
Here's an interesting read. Houston has more train accidents than Dallas because, in part, the Dallas-metroplex has 11% fewer automobile accidents. Houston has more accidents than New York City, Chicago, LA and Philly. But yea, lets not hold the drivers accountable...lets blame Metro.
Why weren't my comments valid? I have been to Houston after the thing was built. I remember always seeing on NBC 2 that like 2 or 3 people would be crushed by semis a day.
