"My focus was on the baseball stadium and that's where I was headed," he said. "I saw the green light and no traffic oncoming, so we made a quick left turn. I never even saw the 'no left turn' sign." Now, who was at fault here? TJ, Big Texx, et al; if you hit me with your car because I pulled in front of you, is it your fault?
i'm sure TJ and Texx were rallying for a "better design." yeah...i'm sure you guys were out there rallying for some elevated system and the costs associated with that. what a joke. the masters of holding people accountable will brush off the fact this guy committed a traffic violation....cause and effect, fellas.
You are right! When these idiot drivers stop breaking the law and causing so much damage to our beautiful transit system?!
I'm not in Houston. How difficult is it to actually see the "No left turn" (or any other warning) signs? Is there a reason that there is not some sort of blockade preventing the left turns or at least something more obvious that should be constructed?
Yes there is a pattern, stupid drivers that don't pay attention and break the freaking law cause accidents. You are a GENIUS for coming to that conclusion on your own!
Actually I was rallying for a better design, had you been paying attention, friend. That design was called a ROAD. Yes sir it is a joke indeed. Let's see here: 1) Voters foolishly are duped into building a toy train because it looks cool, yet serves no useful transportational purpose in a city as sprawled out as Houston. 2) Construction drags on way longer than expected, bankrupting businesses and inconveniencing Houstonians for years. 3) Project costs skyrocket, thereby crowding out funds for more cost efficient public transit investment (i.e. the Trolley no longer serves Midtown and our roads & highways are in a state of disrepair) 4) Once finished, ridership is horrible. It is abysmal. I've never seen it crowded on days not associated with Super Bowl Sunday. The route really makes no sense either. There aren't exactly hordes of Houstonians wanting to make the trip from the Sam's Club Warehouse to the courthouse every day. And very few people live along the line. 5) The empty trains have now racked up a total of 50 accidents. If you can't accept by now that this thing is a danger, then I just don't know what to tell you. Put simply, voters were fooled. They thought they could build this ultra sleek light rail system that would revolutionize Houston's traffic. It hasn't. No one uses it. It causes accidents. It has wasted enormous sums of money. It was a mistake.
TJ you're much too smart to pretend you're that dense. no one promised that all of houston traffic would be "revolutionized" by the first line here. they simply said they had to start somewhere if they wanted to provide a viable rail system in this city. that's it. they started in a corridor that was already the most heavily used public transportation corridor in the city. the ridership numbers that we saw early on were quite good. with more and more residential development in areas surrounding the line, you'll see even more riders. and as the system expands to other parts of the city, you'll see more riders. reducing congestion doesn't happen overnight.
IIRC, hasn't it also historically been the case that you could never legally make a left turn at these intersections when driving on Main?
only when you reach downtown. there have been, and still are, numerous places where you can turn left in the Med Center area and through Midtown
i don't think so...i know you can turn left on holman, for sure. i'm thinking you can turn left all through midtown until you hit downtown...but i may be wrong.
But they said congestion would be improved. It hasn't been. It's worse now than ever. Well let's see here. Not only is what they have now no where near a "viable" alternative for commuters and other users of transportation, but it has in fact robbed more worthy causes of funding. It is not cost-effective. Not even close. Light rail is a sexy concept that enamours people because of the way it works in denser cities. Houston simply isn't suited for it. It's too spread out. People are too attached to their cars. It's not working. Here you are just intentionally attempting to mislead. Of course the initial numbers were good -- It opened during one of the busiest months in Houston's history -- the build up to the Super Bowl. Everyone wanted to ride in once, just to see what it was all about. Apparently they didn't like what they saw, because they haven't gone back. It's like a ride at Astroworld. You ride it once, then you're done. It serves no valid transportational function. In fact, it has snarled traffic for all these years during its construction and now it is the cause of 50 wrecks in only 7 months. The ridership now is HORRIBLE, which is clearly why you are only focusing on the early numbers. The problem here is that rail has failed. It has not even DENTED congestion. How could it? It addresses 1% of Houston's transportation needs, if that. You are going to expand this failed concept to other parts of the city? Oh that's just brilliant. It failed downtown, so let's build it in the 5th ward! What basis do you have to think that there will be "more and more residential development in areas surrounding the line"? Please share. I for one, do not want to live next to a train.
When perhaps its strongest supporter takes it less than three times per month, ladies and gentlemen, I'm prepared to call it a failure.
In my line of work, I do alot of accident reconstructions and scene investigations/observations for insurance companies. So I think can say the following with confidence: Even though the drivers were cited in all but 1 of those accidents, that doesn't absolve the city or Metro from culpability IMO. There are interesections layouts and light sequences out there that lead to a higher probability of accidents occuring. In fact, outside of my own neighbor hood, where Barker Cypress crosses over 290, there are accidents there several times a week because drivers turning left onto the 290 feeder have an unprotected green and because the intersection is so busy, they are constantly trying to quickly get in their left turn before cars coming from the opposite direction cross into the intersection. I see near misses every morning. Whenver there is an accident, it is absolutely the fault of that driver turning left in front of traffic in that intersection. However, if the city/county were to change that light from an unprotected green to a protected green/red light, then would that cut down on the accidents??? 100% ABSOLUTELY!! Coincidentally, I got word last week that the county is indeed going to change that light. Im not directly relating this intersection to the Metro Rail. Just trying to make the point that layout/signage/design can be improved to cut down on accidents.
As an aside, how many accidents to you see on Bammel North Houston and Klein(way?) in front of the Kleinbrook subdivision? We used to live there for 15 years and there was never a light put in. My brother was almost killed at that intersection. We asked and asked and asked for light there but Jerry Eversole's answer was always we're looking into it... or it's coming... for 15 years!
