Jax

I'm not denying that, I'm saying the reason there are so many accidents is possibly because so many of the drivers here are unsafe, not because the light rail is unsafe. Most of the light rail accidents seem to be due to the fact that people are not checking their mirrors before they turn across the tracks, and running red lights. That's not the fault of the light rail system. I am only guessing that drivers here are less safe than in other cities with light rail systems, but I could be wrong. I'd like to see some real stats on metro rail accidents and regular traffic accidents, if anybody has got any. Here's a video of some crashes (it's not a substitute for some real data, but it's interesting anyways). (can somebody help me embed this?)

I thought the situation was the following: There was another accident, the train was stopped. The the driver got the "all clear" from central command and put the train into full throttle. Technically the driver is allowed to pass the signal as long as he gets permission from the central command (LRV operators are not permitted to pass a horizontal STOP bar without explicit permission from METRORail Control). And then the cyclist rode in front of the train and clearly there was no way the driver could have seen her or stopped in time. Maybe I misinterpreted it, but I didn't mean to take anything out of context. The real question is: was the pedestrian signal telling her it was all clear to cross? And did the driver have permission to go through the signal? Without knowing those answers, we can't really do much but speculate based on the information we have from the article and the video. And I don't think this says much about the inherent safety of the rail system. To me, that's like saying highway 59 isn't designed well form a safety point of view, as evidenced by the absurd number of incidents that have occurred since it opened (probably more than the Metro Rail).

I guess the fact that somebody else crossed the street in front of the moving train could mean that the walk signal was up, or it could mean that this person was also crossing when he was not supposed to. In the article, the witness says, I guess that answers our question about the horizontal bar. It said the trains are allowed to pass a horizontal bar as long as they have permission from "Central Control". Doesn't sound like the driver proceeded with caution though. Sounds like we have a stupid driver and a stupid cyclist.

I am guessing the "Mix@Midtown" might include residential...

After looking at that photo, and the video again, it's really surprising that she was even able to get in front of the train in time to get hit. If she was one nanosecond slower she would have hit the side of the train. I wonder if the pedestrian signal said it was safe to cross. I also wonder if the operator had explicit permission to cross the horizontal stop bar, or it was an error. Either way, this just proves that its a good idea to look before you cross regardless of the signals. I see cars running red lights every day, as well as cars turning right into the street where it says pedestrians can safely cross.

Aw man, I have to register my bike? I hope I don't get that $5 fine!!!! Actually I registered my last bike with the RUPD, but I'm not sure if that's the same as registering it with the city at a fire department. And then it was stolen. My new bike is totally unregistered.

Yeah, I find that there are so few pedestrians here in Houston that you can often ride on the sidewalks to avoid busy streets and nobody notices. I know that you're technically not supposed to, but when nobody is walking on them it's hard to resist. The exceptions to that are probably the medical center, and downtown 9-5 on weekdays.

I agree with you on that. Park and Ride busses are nice, but I am talking about city busses. Unless somebody has suggested that we replace the proposed Metro Rail lines with park and ride busses that run every 6 minutes along the proposed routes. I totally agree with you on that. There is no way the congestion is ever going to be "fixed" but wouldn't it be nice to cruise by a congested street on the light rail at Christmas to go shopping in the Galleria, for example? Once I decided to take the highway (stupid I know) in December on a Sunday morning to the Galleria. It took me about an hour to get there from the Museum District, and 45 of those minutes were going from the 59 to 610 and exiting on Weshteimer, and trying to find a parking spot. It was a nightmare.

So just because Houston has worse drivers and cyclists than other cities, we need to built a specialized transportation system for them? I'm not saying the Metro Rail is perfect, but its at least up to the standards of other cities. I didn't see any special safety features on the trains and street cars in San Francisco. They did have dedicated bike lanes which was nice, but cyclists still had to cross over the tracks, and I am sure the same accident would have happened there if a cyclist didn't look both ways in San Francisco. My own personal experience has shown me that Houston drivers are less safe than in any other city I have driven in. That doesn't mean I believe Houston drivers should be required to drive special cars with padding on the outside though.

Don't forget that as stupid as this may sound, some people who ride the rail would never ride busses. I read somewhere that a high percentage of regular metro rail riders said they didn't used to take the a bus before the Metro Rail opened. I'm not saying that makes sense, but apparently it's true. I actually know many people at Rice and in the Med Center (grad students and medical residents mostly) who commute regularly on MetroRail and won't go near the busses. Last time the metro rail was shut down and we had to take a bus instead, everybody (even the poor people) were pissed off that they couldn't stay on the train. The fact is, the trains are all around more comfortable than a bus (not to mention faster and on time more often, and having a higher capacity).

Random thought: I just realized that the same company who makes these trains also makes the PET/CT scanners which are in use just inside the door of Memorial Hermann from where this accident took place. Siemens AG makes trains that harm people, which in turn increases the demand for PET/CT scanners in hospitals. Sounds like a conspiracy to me. But seriously, I don't think the trains in Houston are any more dangerous than the trains in San Francisco (which also run above ground in many parts of the city). I thought the article said she was in stable condition. Did I miss something? Maybe cars and busses should have been designed much better from a safety perspective as well. I wonder how many people get run over per year by forgetting to look both ways. I almost got hit crossing the street near Binz yesterday when a car failed to stop at a stop sign.

Here is a link to the video. http://www.khou.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=217019 This isn't really about the Metro, it's more about walking (or riding a bike) into the street without looking both ways. If there was no train she would have just as easily been hit by a car, a bus, a motorcycle, or another cyclist. It's unfortunate, I feel bad for her, and we all make mistakes, but I don't see why people make this about the Metro. The Chronicle article is littered with comments from people claiming it's the fault of the Metro. Chron comments are almost as bad as YouTube comments.

Yeah, I totally should have.

Here's what I got out of them. When I told them I was not interested in leasing space but simply interested in the project because I lived nearby, here's what they told me.

Nope. It's at least twice as big as anything on their website too. They said they would be announcing it in a few months. Interesting that it's already fenced off and it already has a big banner on the fence.

I emailed Crosspoint and they said yes, this is a new mixed use project, but that is all they had to say...

I would argue that Hermann Park in Houston's best park.

So what block is that with the sign "The Mix @ Midtown". It says 50,000 square feet available, that's twice as much as the project that is currently under construction. It also sounds like a good name for a mixed use project. I want to know more about this!

Right, and wasn't one a double mugging? The one near Rice Village was on Southgate, I think (last semester). I only saved the latest email from Rice so now I can't look it up. It's definitely happening more often than last year. I used to walk home along Rice to Cherokee then on Bissonnet to Dunlavy. So many of these muggings are happening right where I used to walk!

I found a pretty nice photo that shows HP taking its place in the skyline at night. I took the same photo over a year ago when it was still 3 empty parking lots, and it makes that part of the city look so much better now!

Have you seen the bridges in person? They seem huge! They just expanded the width of the bridge they built over San Jac as of last week I think. Anyways, I don't have any proof, but after seeing how wide those things are, it doesn't surprise me that they might put retail on them. The photos don't do them any justice.

I got this notification this morning from Rice's emergency notification system this morning (they send all students SMS/email/automated phone calls whenever something bad happens). The scary part is that I got a similar notification on Jan 28 about two muggings on Bissonnet on the same day, and a similar one a few weeks before that about a mugging on Cherokee. And some students were mugged on campus in December, and in November a student was mugged near Rice Village (a block from University). I think the residents of Southampton need to worry less about the Ashby Highrise and more about crime.

Looks like it says "The Mix @ Midtown"... never heard of that!

I drove by on Saturday and I actually had a really great feeling about it. An urban park doesn't need to be huge in my opinion. The skyline views are going to be really nice and I think the size is just about right to make it feel comfortable an hopefully not empty. Hopefully it will give people enough things to do to actually draw people there, in comparison to a huge empty field or wooded area (like Memorial Park) which might not have the draw that this park will - at least not in downtown. A park the size of Hermann Park in the middle of downtown would just be weird. Maybe you should think of it as a plaza or square instead of a "park". Like Washington Square in San Francisco without all the concrete.

I like the graffiti on the fence. "I like giants, especially girl giants" ?