Would Metro ever consider larger commuter buses for P&R routes?

[BEES?!]

I was thinking about it when I was reading about METRO’s service changes for June. P&Rs are pretty popular, and I believe they seat about 55 people on these commuter-style buses. (Someone correct me if I’m wrong)

Some of the P&Rs got crazy busy pre-COVID, and the buses would fill up fast. Now, even with WFH a popular option, these routes are steadily recovering their ridership. And now, with the skyrocketing price of gas, I’m willing to bet we’ll see a jump in folks who can’t WFH use the P&Rs to save money on gas. 

So my question is, would METRO ever invest in larger commuter-style buses for their P&R routes? I know they can easily put more buses on a route, but I do wonder if there would be advantages to switching to a higher capacity bus on some of these routes.

Furthermore, do articulated commuter-style buses exist? I know some places use double-decker commuter buses when they want higher capacity on certain routes, but they have their own disadvantages. 
 

 

[editor]

There are three-segment articulated buses that hold about 150 people.  I think they're generally used in controlled circumstances, like moving people around an airport.  But I guess Metro's busways would count. In Berlin, they share the tram lines on regular city streets, but I don't know if that's legal in Texas, since even UPS can't use its triple-trailer trucks here.

Here's a picture from the PDF linked to above:

There used to be double-decker articulated buses in the 70's, but I don't think they exist anymore.

I think if we're at the point where adding more buses to a route isn't going to work, it's time to convert that route to a train.

 

[tigereye]

We’re over here asking “if Metro would consider using larger commuter busses” when the obvious damn answer to this city’s traffic issues is using RIGHT OF WAY SEPARATED COMMUTER RAIL to all major suburbs. Not more buses that contribute to and also get stuck in traffic. 

Cmon Houston. WAKE THE F*** UP. 

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by tigereye

[august948]

14 minutes ago, tigereye said:

We’re over here asking “if Metro would consider using larger commuter busses” when the obvious damn answer to this city’s traffic issues is using RIGHT OF WAY SEPARATED COMMUTER RAIL to all major suburbs. Not more buses that contribute to and also get stuck in traffic. 

Cmon Houston. WAKE THE F*** UP. 

 

That's one idea.  Another would be to put in 4 lane HOV on every highway, including all the loops, much like the Katy freeway and then run the longer P&R buses on those.

[BEES?!]

I don’t know how economically feasible commuter rail to the suburbs would be here right now. It seems like there isn’t a whole lot of constant demand (outside of commuting hours, I mean. Don’t most P&R routes not run on weekends?) for commuter service into town that would justify the billions and billions we’d need to make it happen. I could absolutely see the arguments for prioritizing certain high-frequency, high ridership local bus routes for conversion to BRT or rail before commuter rail to the suburbs. 
 

not to say there’ll never be a time where that’s the case, of course. I’m just not sure that time is today. We have really good road infrastructure that can be useful in the short-term to run busses on. Traffic issues can be pretty easily dealt with by separating a lane of traffic out (or like august948 mentioned running busses in HOV lanes) or having the busses on a guideway like Inner Katy (which will also benefit the p&r buses too, incidentally)

[chempku]

As people may know, METRO is mostly funded by sales tax revenues from Harris county. Why would they ever bother funding the mass exodus from the inner city which shoot themselves in the foot? 

[editor]

19 hours ago, chempku said:

As people may know, METRO is mostly funded by sales tax revenues from Harris county. Why would they ever bother funding the mass exodus from the inner city which shoot themselves in the foot? 

Because very little of Harris County is the inner city?

There's a reason it's called "Metro" transit, and not "City" transit. 

As transit demand, routes, and agencies grow, they often merge and become larger organizations. 

[Jay123]

Would metro have any interest in restarting the project to start a new pr service to pearland after several futile attempts the last decade?

[Ross]

1 hour ago, Jay123 said:

Would metro have any interest in restarting the project to start a new pr service to pearland after several futile attempts the last decade?

A good start would be for Pearland to vote to institute the METRO sales tax. We can talk once that happens. Until then, Pearland is free to restart its own Park and Ride service.

[august948]

4 hours ago, Ross said:

A good start would be for Pearland to vote to institute the METRO sales tax. We can talk once that happens. Until then, Pearland is free to restart its own Park and Ride service.

I recall hearing that Pearland is already maxing out the sales tax rate (capped statewide at 8.25%).  They'd have to cut their budget or find new revenue sources in order to join METRO.

[Ross]

7 hours ago, august948 said:

I recall hearing that Pearland is already maxing out the sales tax rate (capped statewide at 8.25%).  They'd have to cut their budget or find new revenue sources in order to join METRO.

Hmmm, the sales tax in Pearland depends on what part of the city you are in. Pearland is in 3 counties, Brazoria, Fort Bend, and Harris, and also has management districts that affect the rate. That's pretty bizarre.

Sales tax rates https://www.pearlandtx.gov/departments/finance/city-tax-information/local-sales-and-use-tax

Pearland map https://www.pearlandtx.gov/home/showdocument?id=11679

[editor]

Perhaps Pearland could get a federal transportation grant to subsidize a private park-and-ride or ridesharing service.  My parents were involved in this sort of thing a long time ago. 

More recently, some cities are actually building municipal parking lots to act as park-and-ride Uber hubs for bringing group of commuters into cities.  If Pearland already has old park-and-ride lots, then this could be a quick solution.