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The Boulevard Project


zaphod

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I was wondering, are there any plans to build a light rail line to the "uptown houston" area? it would be really cool and with the west loop cursed by an ancient indian burial ground to have terrible traffic, i could see a lot of going to a park n ride and riding metrorail over there.

PS: how do i edit my posts?

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  • 7 years later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to put it, but it seems like buses are the current way forward. I'll be honest, I'm sad to see the median go. It's a great feature of Post Oak Blvd. While the street isn't exactly "pedestrian friendly", having a few trees and plants is preferable (in my opinion) to adding another two 12ft lanes of pavement. That said, I fully respect the need for transit development, and prefer it now before we add another 5,000 local residents and 2M sqare feet of office space.

http://www.chron.com/memorial/news/article/Uptown-district-proposes-transit-project-3893349.php

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I think the loss of a median isn't a big deal, whether it's for rail or bus lanes. Most large cities don't even have medians in their core.

Glad to see more transit development in Houston. Hopefully the Uptown line will still be built eventually.

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Houston19514... your post forced me back into the interwebs to see if there was a report on it somewhere... and there is. From August 2012 (boo yah), and with every possible detail, alignment, and proposed schedule of construction. The trees DO stay, or rather, get relocated and sup'planted' with a bunch more trees.

http://www.ridemetro.org/AboutUs/Board/working_meetings/2012/082312/Uptown-POB-Transit-to-METRO-Committee082312.pdf

The image from Nantes may be a good goal... but I just don't see that much play-ground on Post Oak if they keep three lanes each way. According to the diagram on slide 35, the typical width for everything (non-intersection areas) would be three medians (10ft, 6ft, and 10ft) plus two 10ft bus lanes. 46ft total? I'm guessing they are going to eat up some more real estate on each side.

That said, I like this proposal. I live and work in the area, so I won't be going to the transit centers, but I would absolutely take it to get further south down Post Oak from where I live... though I can't imagine I'll still be here in 2017.

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's unfortunate that the second largest employment center in Houston is just going to get a glorified bus system, that will most likely not provide any meaningful improvements and not have as much of an impact as a rail line would.

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It's unfortunate that the second largest employment center in Houston is just going to get a glorified bus system, that will most likely not provide any meaningful improvements and not have as much of an impact as a rail line would.

It's unfortunate that we don't have Maglev. Maybe it's because we haven't the fortune to spend.

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Eh.. I get what you're saying, I just don't think it's very relevant. I just feel like what I said is reasonable enough.

What you said was whining. I demonstrated as much by whining back at you about something for which the proximate cause of the grievance was the same: a lack of money. There was nothing at all insightful that you communicated, and my response to you is a critique of your vapid rhetorical style.

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What you said was whining. I demonstrated as much by whining back at you about something for which the proximate cause of the grievance was the same: a lack of money. There was nothing at all insightful that you communicated, and my response to you is a critique of your vapid rhetorical style.

Fair enough. I'm dissapointed that Uptown is getting a second or third rate system. Had to tell someone. ;)

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Yawn. Nice way to give a condescending reply.

the reply to the initial link (story) was in fact vapid. "a glorified bus system" hardly begins to encompass the multi $$$millions Uptown and Metro will be spending on this project, the disruptions to mobility on Wpark, 59, and Post Oak while a Transit Center, a T connector to 59 in an already jam-packed 59/610 interchange, and the tear-up and widening of Post Oak take place.

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the reply to the initial link (story) was in fact vapid. "a glorified bus system" hardly begins to encompass the multi $$$millions Uptown and Metro will be spending on this project, the disruptions to mobility on Wpark, 59, and Post Oak while a Transit Center, a T connector to 59 in an already jam-packed 59/610 interchange, and the tear-up and widening of Post Oak take place.

This is why such work should've been done a generation ago

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the reply to the initial link (story) was in fact vapid. "a glorified bus system" hardly begins to encompass the multi $$$millions Uptown and Metro will be spending on this project, the disruptions to mobility on Wpark, 59, and Post Oak while a Transit Center, a T connector to 59 in an already jam-packed 59/610 interchange, and the tear-up and widening of Post Oak take place.

That's ironic, because that's what some call our light rail line.

So if it isn't a glorified bus system (by definition if nothing else) then what is it? BRT? I didn't see anything about it being BRT.

And if the Uptown line was supposedly going to cause hell in Uptown with the construction and operation, I find it odd that no one is complaining about this.

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That's ironic, because that's what some call our light rail line.

So if it isn't a glorified bus system (by definition if nothing else) then what is it? BRT? I didn't see anything about it being BRT.

And if the Uptown line was supposedly going to cause hell in Uptown with the construction and operation, I find it odd that no one is complaining about this.

I really like that the Uptown Management District is paying for such a large share of a lower overall project cost. Construction shouldn't take as long or be as disruptive as light rail. And I suspect that they'll do a better job on integrating signal priority and timing between the buses and regular traffic than METRO has done with light rail on the Red Line. And at the very least, they're securing right of way.

All in all, I'm fairly pleased at this point.

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I really like that the Uptown Management District is paying for such a large share of a lower overall project cost. Construction shouldn't take as long or be as disruptive as light rail. And I suspect that they'll do a better job on integrating signal priority and timing between the buses and regular traffic than METRO has done with light rail on the Red Line. And at the very least, they're securing right of way.

All in all, I'm fairly pleased at this point.

What's your source on this? I've seen standard street re-do's take years. It's going to be a huge project, and judging by all of the flyovers to 59 it will be even bigger.

Not saying it shouldn't happen because of this, but I'd say that the impact of construction will be somewhat similar.

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Let's also not forget that the final alignment (south end of post oak) is contingent on the 59/610 interchange partial reconstruction (linked here... http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/26657-59-610-interchange-partial-rebuild/). I was initially also surprised that it would take until 2017... until you consider the tree and utility movements required. Getting that accomplished, alone, by 2015 would phenomenal, with final construction thereafter. That said, it's obvious that the west loop and post oak are both going to be a cluster with existing congestion and construction for the foreseeable future.

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It's unfortunate that the second largest employment center in Houston is just going to get a glorified bus system, that will most likely not provide any meaningful improvements and not have as much of an impact as a rail line would.

it's really awesome because you get all the added congestion of a dedicated bus lane that takes up as much ROW as the rail would, but you don't get the same reliability of a rail system.

the best of both worlds!

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it's really awesome because you get all the added congestion of a dedicated bus lane that takes up as much ROW as the rail would, but you don't get the same reliability of a rail system.

the best of both worlds!

Actually...think about that.You don't have the money to build a rail line for the next 20 years. So, you partner with the Uptown District to purchase and set aside the ROW for rail, put buses on it to build traffic, and in 20 years hopefully it can be replaced with rail.

That's considered smart planning in some places. Apparently, not on HAIF.

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Actually...think about that.You don't have the money to build a rail line for the next 20 years. So, you partner with the Uptown District to purchase and set aside the ROW for rail, put buses on it to build traffic, and in 20 years hopefully it can be replaced with rail.

That's considered smart planning in some places. Apparently, not on HAIF.

Why wait 20 years?

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