wilcal

Do they still have to pay to ride? No trying to ask a leading question, just honestly don't know if they have a special deal worked out. Also, Smith Lands is only 13.4% if you count those passengers both ways. It's a lot, but not insane. I think it's crazier that we have NRG's lots sitting empty so much of the time and the med center built their own. At least it could be converted to more office space/hospital space eventually and they could go garage.

So much potential ridership lost. Blah. Also, I'll bet another bridge is in the future to go over those tracks. Gotta cross it somewhere though. They did have concerns about environment stuff, just like in the East End. I mean, the current rental car centers are kind of clustered right there. Maybe they just mean a stop that is accessible? I think the central rental car center at IAH has been pretty successful, but there are way more people to pay the high rental car taxes.

Revised combo green/purple extension to Hobby according to the Chronicle: Gulfgate stop is key. It's certainly the shopping hub for the area with Lowe's, HEB, etc. The stop right across 45 would serve the HCC Eastside campus, which would be awesome. They can make it free between Hobby and Rental Car Center. Still think that they should use Broadway, but I understand the resistance to not tear it up after it was recently redone. THERE'S JUST SO MANY PEOPLE. Sigh. New chron article: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/transportation/article/Metro-leaders-optimistic-about-shared-13799310.php The key: Original Green and Purple extensions would cost $1.8 billion. Combined will be $1.1 billion.

I...... kind of love it? Although it does look like someone built it in MInecraft in those renderings.

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what is announced. I would assume we are looking at: 1) Start of construction of a chunk of Third Ward network. 2) Start of construction of Austin Corridor. 3) Announcement of designs of remaining third ward network (Gray/Polk) 4) Start of construction of MLK portion. 5) The closing of the north side of Main Street and conversion to bike/pedestrian usage only a la Las Ramblas in Barcelona (ok maybe not this one, but a man can dream).

Connections suck and people don't like them. Going BRT to a train is not ideal.

And because I was curious to see what other projects the city itself applied for, they only received funding for 1 of the 11 (2 additional were withdrawn, including major Waugh reconstruction). The 1 that was funded is Antoine expansion from 4 to 6 lane from 290 to W. Mount Houston with bicycle path, turn lanes, blah blah blah for $80 mil in 2025. Rank: 31 Rejected: Rank 39: Widen Aldine Westfield from BW8 to Little York from 2 to 4 lanes. Rank 68: Uptown/Memorial Park connector path and bridge. Construct 10,000 feet of pathway. Rank 74: Lower Westheimer Corridor Rank 83: Fiber Optic Cable integration bnetween Transtar and Houston Emergency Center Rank 96: Reconstruct broadway from 45 to SH 3 with widened sidewalks, buffered bike lane, left turn lanes, etc Rank 100: West Fuqua city limit to Chimney Rock. Turn lines, intersection, relocated bus stops, etc. Rank 108: Construct 10' path from Richmond to San Felipe (extension of previously funded path?) Rank 113: Construct bike route from Northwest Transit Center to Memorial Park/Heights Rank 123: Reconstruct Gelhorn Dr from 610 to 10. Sidewalks, bike lane, crosswalks, etc. Rank 144: Reconstruct Memorial @ Gessner Withdrawn: Diary Ashford from I-10 to Westheimer reconstruction Withdrawn: Reconstruction of Waugh/heights/Yale

Here's the PDF: http://www.h-gac.com/2018-call-for-projects/documents/2018-call-for-project-tpc-rankings.pdf "Project limits: 'S. Main to Shepherd'" Description: "RECONSTRUCT AS 3 LANES WITH EXPANDED SIDEWALK WIDTH, INTERSECTION IMPROVEMENTS WITH DEDICATED TURN LANES, NEW TRAFFIC SIGNALS . ACCESS MANAGEMENT INCLUDING NEW BUS STOP AND ON-STREET PARKING" Requested funding was $45.7 million dollars, and it was requested for the 2026 fiscal. I'll bet that they have the partial funding, but if they were gonna get it from the feds, then use your own money elsewhere. The project was ranked 74/188 and only the top 34 were funded with separate special funding. It's pretty opaque, but they were ranked by a cost/benefit ratio (I'm sure a road diet fit into that formula REALLY well) and a "planning score" which I could not find any info at all on. It's actually surprising that even 34 were funded as I believe they only had funding for between 10 and 12 of these smaller projects. There was an "extra" $175 mil available because the county had requested hempstead highway to be reconstructed from 610 to Little York, but the city of Houston told them they weren't on board, so they nixxed those plans.

Note: City applied for federal funds for lower Westheimer reconstruction, and the final list came out and funding for the project was not granted.

Honestly, the "slowness" is from them being overly cautious in regards to community outreach. People are much more likely to be upset when they aren't heard. They've done stuff from pop up bike lanes, to community meetings, to parking studies, etc and they all take time. They did tell me that they expect all of these projects to be completed by the end of the summer. It's been a slowly but surely thing so far 😕

Bicyclists killed in a hit and run at Hutchins/Alabama last night. https://abc13.com/bicyclist-dead-after-hit-and-run-involving-pickup-truck/5237354/?fbclid=IwAR0yOtizE_bVFJjCEHO8hgwnLJHbyK_snG-yYD6stQGzDHFZEgj4C4rTckk

Could easily be used for both. I received a memo when it opened to direct cruise passengers for pickup there if their cruise company didn't have a rep in the baggage claim area 🤷‍♂️ I thought UA shuttle picks up on the west side though? Again, they've changed a lot of that over the last few years. They've done a piss poor job, especially with Uber/Lyft. All of the signage for ride-sharing was labeled "TNC - Transportation Network Companies" No one knows what the hell that means Houston Airport System.

One of those old Chron articles about the train said that a train from Galveston would have to be split into Galveston to League City and League City to Houston sections anyway. I definitely think it could be successful.

It's this thing (may have to switch to street view if it doesn't drop you in immediately) Screenshot: People keep running into the existing bus shelter. I believe it's currently back to being a shelter again. I asked them to install a safetly bollard but they said that the "sidewalk" wasn't wide enough. JFC, it's freaking at level. There's no curb and no one is walking down the sidewalk. So dumb.

And this intersection is a prime example. They have had meetings in the last year about making changes, but people are clearly driving well north of the 35 MPH speed limit, and it's four lanes wide. Yet pedestrians have the right of way to cross at 10th to get to the bus stop via the unmarked crosswalk. That would be absolute suicide for a large portion of the day. Part of it is that most drivers assume that pedestrians don't have the right of way unless there is a lit signal. It's a giant design fail and really sad that things like this continue to happen. Haven't seen it discussed in this thread, but I've seen some internet comments about how the driver was actually driving the wrong way down Shepherd when the accident happened. Another frequent issue on this road.

Texas law says that pedestrians do not have the right of way when they are at a crosswalk with pedestrian signals that say don't cross, and when they are crossing a street with no marked or unmarked crosswalk. Note: that due to there being an intersection at 10th, the pedestrians would have the right of way. Here's the applicable Texas state law . And yes, pedestrians would only be held partially at fault because drivers don't get the right to plow into anybody/anything that is doing something illegal. They have the expectation to mitigate any damage/incident. Speeding could easily be part of a reason to hold a driver responsible for hitting an illegally crossing pedestrian if they weren't able to stop in time, for instance.

I don't think it would be anywhere near the majority, but there is a lot of potential commuter traffic from suburbs along 45. I volunteered at IAH for several years, and I would put the number that were flying into IAH for cruises in the several hundred range per weekend. Enough to where IAH built a bus shelter at terminal C to protect them from wind/rain while loading luggage/etc. I would imagine Hobby would have more than that because of how much closer it is. Private shuttle services like Island Breeze have popped up as well. So passengers would have to take the light rail into the far east end (15ish minutes) then take a 75ish minute train to Galveston. People would probably do that, but would need to be a bit cheaper than the $30-$35/person shuttle cost. Probably not gonna happen for IAH passengers. BRT to downtown, then get on greenline (possibly via red line?), then get on train.

I just dug this article out, from *groan* 12 years ago, that talks about utilizing rail to Galveston again: https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Houston-Galveston-passenger-train-could-roll-again-1827339.php Another article from 2012 says that they abandoned the Union Pacific plan and the revised one required laying a new set of rail on most segments for $650 mil: https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Houston-Galveston-passenger-rail-may-be-revived-3747946.php Looking at the map in the 2012 article, the train into downtown would use the track that goes over Broadway at Erath St. That's right in an area where the Green line would extend to. No idea how much land would be required to build a train station, but it seems like you could put it a few places in that area? Also, green line going underneath the train line on Broadway right there would be a big positive. Here is my option 2 from above with the 2012 recommended train line marked in blue: It's kind of futile to talk about this of course, since Metro has all of four months to finalize their plan 😕

Who would use the UH golf carts? They have a bunch of signs saying that the north half of the trail is for golf carts only, but whatever, just happy that the trail is there. It's still not fully connective there which again, is annoying.

Hrmm. That is certainly an interesting idea. It's currently listed as John R. Harris Park, but there are zero amenities developed. Could see that being good for Astros/Dynamo parking as well (with half of the astros giant lot potentially going away if 45N expansion happens). Dynamo already have a promo with Metro where the rail is free with a game ticket.

I believe Metro is handling this project, so maybe approach them? I'm not sure how much Midtown is a part of the project. My basis of thinking Metro is handling it is that is what I recall hearing during the Austin St bikeway meeting, but that's a minor detail I could have misheard.

I played with some possibilities of how to connect the green and purple lines before it made the run to Hobby. Not wonderful. I think I like 3 or 4 the best. 3 is only feasible if TxDOT right of way along 610 is possible to acquire, which I have absolutely no idea if that is feasible. The Metro board was hesitant to go down Broadway since it was just gussied up for the Super Bowl a few years ago, but there are SO MANY apartments that the density almost demands it instead of sticking to Telephone road. Option 3 would allow you to make the diverging point at Gulfgate, which I think would generate lots of local (non-airport) traffic. Option 1: Option 2: Option 3: Option 4:

Yup, that's a typo. Two way will be on Austin.

At the meeting in December, they said that they would have another public meeting this spring. I contacted them last week and they told me that it had not been scheduled yet. I would imagine design work is just about complete and that they'll show of finalized stuff. I wonder what prompted this story to come out. It's been months since we had any real updates.

I think it's going to take more time, too. City wanted to do a bike lane up Austin and down on Caroline, but due to the extended construction schedule on Caroline they are doing a two-way on Austin instead. Thought I heard a timeline of 2-3 more years for Caroline to be done.