I think a lot of the problem is the complete lack of familiarity of most Houstonians with light rail. If San Francisco and Amsterdam can have it without "wholesale slaughter" of innocent pedestrians, I'm sure Houstonians can adapt. Having said that, I have a feeling that Metro will learn a lot from this first project. There may need to be more "fine tuning" of the light rail line and future additions to it.
droxford. I think it's cool and helps the image etc.. but I don't really go downtown enough for it to make much of a difference either way for me. I live out in the suburbs so if I go to that area I have a vehicle etc. Also I'm still not sure how many people are going to take it if it does come from the suburbs. I for one have gotten reliant on a vehicle and don't know how many people are willing to ride the rail and not have a vehicle all day. If it ends up saving a lot of traffic time maybe.. but all the stops on the one just downtown annoyed me. Seemed like it took forever to get anywhere. I like the rail and I think it's cool, but I don't know enough about other possiblities to know if it was the best thing we could have done. I'm in college, but my parents live outside of the city limits (although they have a houston address)..do they pay taxes to build this at all.. or is it just people in city limits?
sorry for the double post.. I forgot this was metro that built this.. the city does give metro some money or no?
those who are following this... do you live Inside or Outside the Loop? I was raised outside the loop.. but came back to houston to live inside the loop... and given the current and planned paths... this rail makes complete sense. You focus your inner loop folks to create an urban feel with a short painless ride to nearby spots. The suburb rails on work if people truly give up their comforts of a car. I wouldn't use the rail in the subs cause I like stopping at place on the way home from work (when I worked downtown and lived in the burbs) to meet meet people... hang out.. shop... but once I was in the loop.. the rail made tons of sense.. so can we great a voting breakdown on zip code.. or people who cry how come katy/woodlands doesn't get the rail.. when it's more of an inner loop option until we can grow it?
I obviously live inside the loop. I also saw a chart on HGAC's website that illustrated that most of Houston's auto trips occur in an blob that spans downtown to the galleria to the Med Cntr and beyond somewhat. But roughly, that is it. These are the most densely populated areas, more so than the burbs, and thusly combined w/ the area businesses incur the highest # of automobile trips. If so, that also explains why it makes sense to build rail inside out. The 2025 plan services a substantial amount of those trips. For any updated freeway (such as 59N), traffic flow is pretty good outside the loop. Much of the reliable traffic occurs once you get in town. If you could eliminate many of the short trips that start & end inside the city (as LGGARCIA suggests), then it frees up the roads for the people coming from further out. I agree w/ LGGARCIA that many of the suburbanites wouldn't utilize a rail solution even if it were there. But if you can get many of the inside-the-loop cars off the road, that'll make room for the commuters. A couple side notes: The next line to be built services UoH and TSU and eventually extends to Hobby. All of which are great destinations that would be heavily utilized. Better freeways often don't benefit students. Also, the most heavily utilized bus routes in the city, historically, are between the Med Cntr and downtown...hence light rail line #1. Immediate demand.
Frankly, I live inside the loop and have very little use for the light rail. I work from home most of the time and don't really travel the routes the rail will run. Having said that, what I love about rail is that it provides an OPTION. When you live in a big city like ours, transportation is all about having options. Many like to drive, but there are plenty of people who would prefer to walk, ride their bikes, take the rail, ride a bus, hop in an HOV lane, etc. Opening up those options to people is what makes a successful, well-balanced city. It is no different from having a diverse job market, pro sports, museums, recreational activities, parks, the ballet, the opera, musicals, plays, live music, the symphony, restaurants and on and on. It is the range of choices that makes us stronger financially and strategically.
Judge lets expansion proceed on I-10 By LUCAS WALL Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Plaintiff's attempted to block the beginning of the Katy expansion so it could be redesign to make it more visually appealing (than a massive 500-lane behemoth) and include Light Rail. Denied.
Culberson needs a kick in the crotch. I grew up in the West burbs of Houston, but my children will not.
Yup, anybody opposed to light rail can just move to Katy. Rest assured you won't see a whiff of it for a loooonnnggg time. It seems silly that they are about to embark a complete reconstruction for 400 billion lanes and they can't take the time to accomidate any sort of rail into the plan. If you like ever expanding concrete with no greenery in sight, Katy is the place to be.
Although I'm a native and a frequent visitor, I do not and would not live in Houston. That said, I'll take an enormous, vicarious sort of pleasure thirty years hence when all the necks in Katy and beyond are b****ing about the fact that everyone else gets rail service and they have to sit in a 47 lane parking lot all the way to downtown. It's with a Tramp That Dirt Down sort of spite that I say I certainly hope I live that long.
But at least their savior Culberson got their freeway construction to end a year earlier......short sighted idiots....hope they all get Sirius cause traffic is gonna be a nightmare and Clear Channel is gonna kill all the local radio.
All the rail naysayers seemed to have gone silent now that I refuted every objection w/ solid facts about why they are wrong. It's still early, but the rail is successful...so far. BigTexxx, I've enjoyed hearing your silence recently.
Thought this thread had died (and I've been busy) I live inside the loop and work downtown. Bringing stats into the picture is tricky: the numbers can be spun to favor either side. When you say that there are stats showing that "most of Houston's auto trips occur in an blob that spans downtown to the galleria to the Med Cntr and beyond somewhat", not only does the source have to be questioned (and their financial backing), but also the methods in which the data was collected. Even if the numbers were correct, other things come to mind - "Most travelled does not necesarily mean most gridlock." "Does 'most auto trips' indicate time of trip, length of trip, number of cars, or number of people?" I'm not trying to refute your numbers, nor do I want to provide my own (which I can).. I'm just saying that the battle of the stats can never be won. 10, 45, 290, ... these freeways become parking lots during peak hours, and are over-crowded when it's not peak hours. What are they going to be like 15 years from now, when there still is no suburban rail? but at least we'll be able to ride that light rail to the Gulfgate. Joy! -- droxford
I can say that I've been conservative pretty much my entire life. That said, the rail came in 15 f-ing years too late! Lanier and his crap made me re-think my political views. To the idiots who think this is a bad deal? To hell with you! You are in cahoots with the same people who wanted to "save" Post Oak addresses because no one would recognize where they were anymore before they built Loop 610. Don't get me wrong, the opponents of rail now were the propenents of construction in one facet or another at one point. In fact! There is something you can do about it immediately. I told my Dad if he voted for the Rocket's Stadium, I'd vote against this ship channel thing he had a problem with, and vice-versa. I argued that we could either cancel each other out, or double our voting power. He agreed. Mine won. His lost. Didn't matter. The idea of collusion has begun. I truly hope I'm here 20 years later on this board so I can show this post and go....
Yes you will be able to drive to Gulfgate. Problem with me is everybody in Suburbia should live somewhere else. No train for you? that sucks. Shouldn't have bought property 30 miles outside of a city. People look at places to live. Short-sighted people (women) tend to like the big house waaaaayyy outside of town. You buy it. You're an idiot. Realize that proprty values have tripled in Bellaire in the past 10 yrs. Kingwood properties???? Woodland properties?????? etc., ad-nauseum. Of course you want a train that comes right to your idiot pricey home and takes you wherever you want. It's called a limo. When every person in your nightmare of a "master-planned" community decides they have a certain drop off in downtown, we will oblige. I'll pay for it myself. Until then, REALIZE THAT HOUSTON GOES TO SUGARLAND, AND BAYTOWN, AND PEARLAND, AND KATY, AND KINGWOOD, AND THE WOODLANDS, as well as countless others. Want to b****? Buy some freaking property close to a city, or shut the hell up and wait in line.
Uhh.... I hope you weren't directing your comments at me - as I stated previously (twice), I live inner loop. -- droxford
People who live in the suburbs are idiots? I'd like to see how you are going to fit all the people in the Houston suburbs into the actual city. Values have gone up outside of the city as well... and chances are most of the people in the suburbs can't afford bellaire if the values are rising that fast.
Drox: you were saying that a line to a specific suburbia was a better idea? Noooooooooooo. People in the suburbs ARE idiots. I cannot stress this enough. Want to live in a city? Great! Want to live in the country? Great! Want to live in a cities country area and tell us how to live? GO TO HELL!
I grew up as a kid inner loop (West U.). As a teen, and in my twenties, I've lived in suburbs (Jersey Village, 45 and 1960, West Houston), and I now live inner loop (own a house in Timbergrove). Before we go pointing our fingers, consider a few things... Not everyone can afford a decent house inner loop Not everyone can afford private school (and HISD is aweful) Many inner-loopers have a holier-than-thou attitude, and that's crappy. I've been in, and I've been out, and one person ain't better than the other. ... and I've been to hell. Some people call it Dallas. -- droxford
