woolie

I mean the building and its owners, not the subdivision.

Sigh. Hard to believe that those parking lots were once things of value.

This is awesome. I will definitely check out the tours.

No, I've always been an atheist. But invoking the supernatural to explain observations is human nature.

Probably due to residents complaining about UTMB people parking on street. It's the same in neighborhoods bordering TMC.

Sorry, I meant Main.

Perhaps we can relax some of the signalling limitations now that people are finally used to the trains. e.g. let them run through on green again without four-way red, and take out the swing arms. The four-way red and swing arms are the principle thing hurting Wheeler/Fannin.

There's room for a two cars in the lot-parallel orientation or a single car parked street-parallel on the alley.

I live near Wheeler station. Pretty much every single time I go through the MAIN/Wheeler intersection, someone going northbound on MAIN does not make the lane change indicated on the pavement and goes onto the tracks. They go for about half a block before realizing their error. It's most amusing when several cars follow each other onto the tracks. Oh, and people are ____ing stupid and don't read signs. The BIG SIGN that says "STOP HERE ON RED." No, they pull as far up as they can, well past the swing arms and ONTO the tracks. Any metro cop that needs to meet their quota could fill it in an hour at this location. Edit: MAIN not FANNIN

I stopped going to this area after Diedrich's was forced out of their space. That was one of the worst days of my life. Winlow Place and anyone connected to it is dead to me.

Actually it's the fact the xbox has a weak selection of J-RPGs combined with a good bit of antiamericanism/japanese nationalism. The original PS2 and current PS3 are not small machines. The PS3 is double functions as a space heater. (I have a PS3 and a Wii.)

Oh, no, just a house that's in the family we'll have 50% stake in a few years from now via an eventual inheritance. It's very modest, I'd say $75k at the absolute top, although I haven't done any research beyond the tax assessor. Actually if you could give me a ballpack valuation in PM by looking up sales prices, I'd be grateful. Do you do residential or just commercial nowadays?

let me clarify, "relatively more favorable than when gas prices were low," not "absolutely favorable in all scenarios"

that's a good idea but at this distance from the job centers we're necessarily talking about commuter rail or express service. in this exercise I was mostly concerned with local streetcar service. express service requires knowledge of ROW corridors and existing heavy rail lines, which I just don't have. I'll start thinking about it for the next version. (edit: I've spent a good amount of time in these areas in Pasadena and am familiar with the demographics of the area you're describing. Actually we effectively own real estate out there...)

yes, I tried to make options for middle- and low-income communities and job areas in my map. That's why I chose to extend the East line to Hobby instead of the SE line. In the next version, I am going to extend the SE line up through the East End and to the NE loop area. Also why I strengthened the connections to Gulfton, and started extension of the Red Line down A90 for middle- income home development.

Light rail is just semantic sugar for streetcar/tramway/trolley. But really I think that's how you should start the system -- local service first, add express service later. Aggie: the democratic process is unfixably messy and prone to corruption, it's true. Of course, we could be like China. They have two invisible hands. Things get done very quickly. There are costs, of course.

That's what I'd expect, frankly. As are most suburban backyards even without alleyways.

of course there are many variables, it's a complex system. but generally speaking, if someone has the choice between either rail or truck and isn't fundamentally tied to one or the other for logistical reasons or time sensitivity, high fuel costs make rail more favorable. I'm amenable to heavy investment in our freight rail infrastructure... maybe even electrified... but everyone here already knows I'm afraid of the peak oil and climate change boogeymen.

BRT is only equivalent to LRT if the level of service is equivalent. If we're constructing dedicated corridors, I say go ahead and make it rail. And it's loud, disgusting diesel to boot. Much of the Paris metro has rubber tires. Is it BRT? The Red line is of utility to few people atm because it is so limited. Any single line out of context of a proper Metro system is very limited, in any city. When I rode the Baltimore subway last year, it was almost completely empty, except for the "homeland security" agents harassing me for taking photographs. The point about inflation isn't just from a matter of monetary and commodity inflation -- it's the fact that the city will become denser and more congested either way, making it more complicated, expensive, and disruptive to build when instead of planning and building ahead we're trying to mitigate an already desperate situation. I'll wager it'll be easier to get things accomplished when we're not already in 'crisis mode.'

gas prices tip the balance. rail is far more fuel efficient.

http://www.earthhour.org/

Most heavy rail subway lines go above ground in lower-density areas.

Freight rail is only going to become more important in the future as trucking becomes less efficient.

Ideally I'd put parking in alleyways in the back, or onstreet.

I've been going to UTMB every other week for a while now to work with a collaborator. Typically we'll walk through the neighborhood to a nearby restaurant for lunch. I'm trying to imagine if Houston had 2 million units of stuff like this instead of the soulless sprawl. Are row houses with yards in the back just not family friendly enough? Is it the lack of SUV parking? Please enlighten me.