Some one

He views biking as recreational, has halted or paused many bike lane (or bike-friendly) projects, such as Shepherd-Durham and Montrose, ordered a pause on any road projects that includes road diets or lane width reduction (including bike lane projects), likely ordered METRO to halt the BCycle program, and has referred to people concerned about the Houston Ave median removal as "anti-car activists." Even if he's not 100% anti-bike he sure ain't pro-bike.

So it's not longer METRORapid, but just METRORegular... Who asked for this change?

How long until Whitmire pauses this one for "further review."

I disagree with your claims but I'm going to try to say why in the nicest way possible. 1. Public transportation ridership has gone down because of a pademicand the shift to work from home. Even then it's steadily recovering. 2. The failure of the Green, Purple, and Silver Line is due to the lack of east-west connection, something the Inner Katy and University BRT would've solved. 3. That's inflation for you. Projects like the I-45 expansion have ballooned from $7 billion to $11 billion (or that roads and car-dependent infrastructure is arguably more expensive to maintain and that cars are arguably the least efficient, most dangerous, most polluting form of transportation). Also you'd be surprised at how mure more the government subsidizes roads and car-dependent suburbs. 4. The problem with a majority of the country's public transportation system is that billions of dollars are spent on building light rail (and BRT) in places where it's easier to build with little to no pushback than where the density and areas are at. Not to mention a majority of them are downtown-centric. 5. Self-driving cars will never replace public transportation. Trains have been automated for over FIFTY YEARS NOW! 6. Widening urban freeways is not the solution because urban freeways shouldn't even be there in the first place (freeways should go around the city not through it. Not the mention the amount of damages they've caused to community). Also, while LA has been expanding public transportation its also spent billions of dollars to widen its freeways, with not so good results. The reality is that public transportation across the country is severely underfunded and contrary to some beliefs, it has become more favorable in the United States, despite efforts to gut and keep it underfunded. METRONext, for example passed with 70% approval. The country continues to sprawl out and drain the available resources we have. When people argue for more public transportation option it doesn't mean that your car is going to be taken away. It means that we want to be able to get around without being forced to drive. IMO, public transportation is not only here to stay, but it will be expanded eventually whether by choice or by necessity. ETA: Some studies and articles to back my claims https://itdp.org/2024/01/24/high-cost-transportation-united-states/ https://www.kxan.com/news/hold-texans-are-seeing-less-traffic-in-every-major-city-except-for-one/ https://climatenexus.org/climate-issues/car-dependency-costs/ https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/11/2/the-negative-consequences-of-car-dependency

I'm sure he, err the city, got his money back from the church that paid him.

Whitmire's main priority with METRO seems to be to gut its funding and credibility and use it as a slush fund for non-transit projects.

It's a short 3 mile freeway that's likely not going to get extended beyond 610 anytime soon, or ever. Even the Hardy Connectors more useful than this. This doesn't begin to cover the houses and properties cleared for this, and the neighborhood that will have to deal with the added noise and pollution after its complete. A better alternative would be investing in actual alternative transportation, like commuter rail. We can only add "just one more lane" so many times.

I'm hoping that this freeway can get stopped before it finishes construction. Why we're still building more inner city freeways are beyond me.

Whitmire would've accused them of not being real residents and anti-car activists if they did.

Ooof that must've set him off considering how often he emphasizes that he's different from Turner.

Sounds like the mayor can't take what he dishes out.

Wait wasn't the Red and Blue paint added for safety? And now they're removing it.... for safety? Something doesn't add up 🤔 ETA: It seems like most of these decisions are being made without feedback, input, or vote from the board. Between the Red Lanes, University BRT, and now this, it seems like having a board is meaningless now if one person can just make a change without input whenever they feel like it. ETA2: Also seems like a certain someone (or certain people) seem to have a mission to make METRO as inefficient as possible.

I admire your optimism but we can't even get BRT built in this city let alone light or heavy rail Although, I always envisioned the university corridor as a heavy commuter rail line or elevated/below-grade heavy or light rail on Westheimer to compliment the University BRT.

What are you talking about?

I hate Whitmire and Brock so much right now...