Jump to content

ig2ba

Full Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    211

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

 Content Type 

Everything posted by ig2ba

  1. ig2ba
    I'm not sure why you think it would be easy though. If they split from the main line at Bagby, they'd have to do something other than overhead electric lines or knock down that part of Bayou Place. It wouldn't go down Smith either since that is the most important southbound street in downtown, or really the most important one within miles. It starts as a 2-lane exit from I-10 and is the southern terminus of the I-45 HOV lane; it ends at Spur 527 to feed onto 59. A skywalk, tunnel, or even people mover from the post office to UHD would be much more practical and much less expensive. What a coincidence that those are both the same thing.
  2. ig2ba
    Wait, will the Prairie Parkway "wander" across the prairie or "impose" a mile grid plan? The hyperbole seems to contradict itself. And where is this prairie you speak of? Do you mean farmland, because that's what I see between Brookshire and Waller. There's no shame in wanting to protect farmland near cities, which has real value being near people (locally grown food, experiences for kids, pick your own berries, a country feel, etc. etc.), but just be up front about it. It's not without precedent. I think Portland, OR and maybe the major Australian cities have such an emphasis, though I seriously doubt it would work the same here. A new 4 lane road WILL be built between 290 and I-10, and there's no such road there now. Why not focus efforts on private donations to buy and protect/restore the desired ecosystems, and submit comments so that the road bypasses the protected lands? I think that would be far more productive than trying to stop the inevitable.
  3. ig2ba
    The other parts of the Grand Parkway will be completed (from 290 to 249 to I-45) before the 290 expansion. Right? That should add traffic before 290 reduces it.
  4. ig2ba
    So 18,000 cars per day is what TxDOT is reporting for the first few weeks of use. Is anyone surprised? Higher than you expected? Lower?
  5. ig2ba
    It's not some archaic law on the books from the 1800s either. Assuming they are walking in the street, and not crossing it, I think the offense is "walking in road where sidewalk provided". Prostitutes are commonly charged with this when they are not actually caught act and the police want to charge them with something.
  6. ig2ba
    This is belated, but thanks a bunch.
  7. ig2ba
    No kidding. Getting people to discuss a rumor which is most likely false is one thing. Not the best thing, but HAIFers would sometimes rather discuss BS (this) or fantasy (what's your favorite transit plan for the exurbs?) then a new topic. I get that. Calling a person/place/thing a name with the goal of getting people angry and swearing, necessitating moderator intervention ... that's a whole 'nother level of unpleasantness. Pretty much the textbook definition of trolling. Oh, the irony!
  8. ig2ba
    When you get a chance, could you ask your source why Chevron bought the parcel bounded by Milam/Leeland/Travis/Pease just a couple weeks before announcing they are delaying the tower at 1600 Louisiana. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Chevron-buys-another-parcel-downtown-5112259.php Just spending somewhere around 10 million dollars as a head fake?
  9. ig2ba
    CM doesn't occur often enough for most Houstonians to be passionate enough about it that everyone's going to demand that CM be revenue-neutral or positive for the COH. So it's not like it's an emergency that needs to be solved now. That being said, I think the city is making the first move on this. It's not about the revenue so much as having a sanctioned event. Either paying the officers or a permit or something official, if they're going to let hundreds of people control the public streets which really belong to ALL of the general public, not just a few hundred bicyclists. Official sanctioning of the event would go a long way. That's why funeral processions or VIP motorcades are met with resistance on only very rare occasions. I was part of an escort related to work one time, but motorcycle cops didn't think so. One of them tried to crash my car with his motorcycle in the rain. They take it kinda seriously.
  10. ig2ba
    Yet somehow, the judicial system isn't crippled by others demanding a jury trial, including for driving offenses. It probably worked in San Francisco because San Francisco is San Francisco. That city is also much more ... "open" to aggressive panhandling, squatters, public nudity, and public sex than any other major city. Houston is a different kind of city. For whatever reason, Houston seems far less likely to have sports riots or any riots, and the Occupy Wall Street protests were very tame compared to other places in the U.S.
  11. ig2ba
    Uhh, they already do that. What planet have you been living on where a police officer witnesses a driver running a red light and will not pull them over - much less hundreds of drivers? Tu quoque FAIL.
  12. ig2ba
    Then collect revenue by ticketing bicyclists that run red lights. After subtracting court costs, three or four such tickets per police officer should be more than enough to cover their salary for a few hours work. Out of the thousand or so bicyclists who run at least one red light, the police should be able to collect this revenue in no time. The police would be operating completely within the law and as a bonus, most Houstonians would cheer them on.
  13. ig2ba
    So for a TMC worker that lives in Pearland, 1. driving to the train station, taking commuter rail with multiple stops to Fannin, waiting, transferring to light rail with multiple stops, then walking 3 blocks to work is preferable to 2. driving to the bus lot, riding the bus non-stop (save a couple red lights at the end) via the HOT lane, and then walking 1 block to work? Not only preferable, but worth 1 billion dollars? I just don't see it. I notice, though, that your suggested route still leaves the 288 median untouched by rail and therefore available for all planned HOT lanes from Reed Road past 610 to downtown. Two transportation corridors are better than one, but only if the costs can be justified.
  14. ig2ba
    Yeah, and that's why the overpasses on the Katy Freeway were constructed to support rail, so that it would be an option to add rail in the HOT lanes if this is eventually needed/wanted. I don't know exactly what they are rated to support, and heavy rail might not be an option, but at least light rail could be put here. Pearland can't even support commuter buses, by either a public transit agency or a private entity. It is fairly sparsely populated even inside the Belt. What makes you think that commuter rail (I'm assuming you mean capable of high speeds and high capacity) would be a wise choice in this corridor? Also, where are the obvious places to route this line to the Texas Medical Center or to downtown? I don't see any empty corridors for heavy rail. Not even close.
  15. ig2ba
    This is so obvious that it is tautological. It is important to note that future widening in some places will never happen again. What do I mean by this? Well, it was relatively easy to widen I-10 when there was so much available ROW or much of the adjacent properties were commercial. I don't see it being feasible to widen I-10 again in the future between Blalock and Antoine because of a cemetery and large, single-family homes. Widening 59 between Shepherd and Spur 527 would also be infeasible for the same reasons. So adding freeway capacity does reduce congestion ... where it is possible to do so, and it is close to impossible in some places.
  16. ig2ba
    I'd go further and say that I won't ride on/along/beside/adjacent to major roads like Westheimer at all unless absolutely necessary. Parallel streets are much safer and with barely any time difference. Little known fact: they also tend to be better shaded because the streets are narrower and live oaks often cover the whole street. Of course, most of my biking is inside the Loop, where there's a mature street grid, so maybe this isn't possible everywhere.
  17. ig2ba
    Raised bike lanes. It would make all the difference. Sure it's not for all roads (e.g., Westheimer west of 610), and there's upfront capital cost, but done gradually, street by street, we would eventually have a good system of bike lanes.
  18. ig2ba
    I drove the whole thing in the morning of the second day it was open, and was surprised by how many cars there were, considering it's such a new road and quiet time of the week. It looked like the traffic is about what you'd expect to see on I-10 east of Lake Charles. It certainly has many times more vehicles than Segment I of the Grand Parkway, and I think more traffic than I normally see on the Fort Bend Parkway (which I only drive on off-peak hours). I seriously doubt all the people I saw on Segment E were road geeks.
  19. ig2ba
    Sorry for not replying directly. Lafayette, Covington, and Henry Hub are all in the state of Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina did not hit Louisiana Street.
  20. ig2ba
    They have offices at Lafayette, Covington, and Henry Hub. The Covington one was built soon after Katrina, so it must be that one.
  21. ig2ba
    I don't think we should read into this too much as being a downtown- or even Houston-specific issue. The word is that they planned other buildings in Pittsburgh and Bakersfield, and these have been delayed (but I don't think cancelled yet). The expansion of their building in Louisiana, which was over capacity from when it was opened in 2008, has also been delayed.
  22. ig2ba
    "need to be" widened and "will be widened" are two separate things. I very much doubt that any part of Segment E or Segment D (besides the current work to finish overpasses) will be widened in the next 10 years. Maybe an extra merge lane for a short distance, but nothing else. TxDOT's budget is very strained. Tolls, even if sufficient along this section to support widening - very unlikely for a new-build exurban toll road - will be redirected to other toll projects. Segment E was deemed marginally viable by HCTRA in the first place. Need? That's a different matter. I could envision morning backups on SB 99 to EB 10 and in the evening WB 10 to NB 99. Do you think there will be more congestion than this by 2023?
  23. ig2ba
    Too often, threads turn into a non-ironic "2/10, Would Not Build" competition. Let's be thankful that we're in Houston and there are so many building projects throughout town, compared to pretty much any other place in the country.
  24. ig2ba
    Can't one agree that Metro needs to "get its act together" on rail without necessarily agreeing that more rail is needed? I think the competency/efficiency issue can be addressed separately from the debate on which mix of funding (to each mode of transportation) is the best.
  25. ig2ba
    It's not a competition in that the two agencies are literally competing. But in the minds of some in the public, it is a competition. Public sentiment leads to legislator (in)action which leads to funding, so it could eventually have effects. Way down the road. If the results are extremely different. Maybe. I think. I don't think they did have to close. They closed and mentioned that Grand Parkway as a reason why. It's as good a reason as any - better than blaming Obama, Bush, etc.
×
×
  • Create New...