IronTiger

Before you start to drag this topic away, that's not "way off in the future" or "their eventual goal". They're not talking about taking existing freeways and adding arbitrary stoplights to make them toll roads, they take existing non-controlled access highways, which often have driveways, small roads, and (sometimes) stoplights on them already, and then converting them to freeways, but the freeway part is toll, and the stoplights aren't added until they need to be. There's no stoplights at say, Antioch Drive and Beltway 8 because that's a tiny stub road because it only provides access to a recycling center and the back entrance to a subdivision. (Stoplights cost money) As it turns out, there are few highways like that outside of Harris County, because everything is already a freeway, except 288 south of Manvel, 90 east of Crosby, 290 west of Hempstead, and 249 north of Tomball, all of which (except for maybe Tomball) are safely outside of the core Houston commuter patterns.

By the "HOT hours", I assume rush hour ( Monday through Friday, 5 am – 11 am and 2 pm – 8 pm, eastbound and westbound), correct? According to HCTRA, it is free, so if you're not flat-out lying, you probably screwed up the times on the KML once and got billed some amount instead of going for free, hence this bitterness against HCTRA and repeating stuff that isn't actually true. Also his name is Houston19514. Didn't your mother tell you to not mock others' names?

I did not derail the thread, you did, and I can find out where that did happen. In any case, let me get this straight. - You ride your motorcycle for free on METRO's 290 HOV lane during the HOV times. Check. Got it. You do not ride it on the off-hours because it closed on the off-hours. - You ride your motorcycle for free on HCTRA's Katy Managed Lanes during the HOV times. Check. Got it. You want to ride it on the off-hours but it has a toll, making it "invalid" somehow. Along these lines, you've dragged a variety of issues into this, like how "HCTRA doesn't care about motorcyclists" or something along those lines. Based on everything you've said about the KML and the Beltway, I think the conclusion is because you ride a motorcycle, that you're entitled to ride free wherever, whenever.

First off, just because you found some like-minded folks doesn't mean you're right. Second off, you keep jumping between 290 and I-10 so many times my head is literally hurting, as well as constantly shifting between whether you ride during HOV or HOT hours. Are you trying to argue that you should be able to ride on the I-10 managed lanes for free 24/7? Are you trying to argue that you like the 290 lane because vehicles can't pass you? Hell if I know, that also changes. In any case, the center managed lane when METRO stepped in to help out TxDOT with some repairs in exchange for adding a center bus lane, which was indeed built with FTA funds. It was always done with TxDOT with contributions from METRO. When the road was rebuilt, HCTRA contributed to the managed lanes, and METRO got to run buses for free on it because of the original FTA funds. Unlike what "drfood" said on that forum, the overengineered center lanes were NOT done with federal funding, that was all METRO's doing, and that's probably one reason why any additional light rails beyond the 2004 Red Line took so long to come to fruition. http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-6688-1.pdf

I would never speed in downtown Houston though, because a) pedestrians are literally everywhere, light or not, and b, I don't want to get stuck in an intersection that has a train rolling down the tracks. But this "solution" just makes the problems worse, I think...

Why would they do that? In my area, crossing down countdowns are the main way I can accurately predict when lights turn yellow (when driving) and how many more seconds I have to wait until the lights turn yellow (when walking).

I wasn't trolling (well, if the "Tolluminati" image really bothers you that much, I can remove it) but let's not point fingers...you were the one who dragged this topic into how HCTRA is evil and anyone who says otherwise is probably associated with it.

The Midtown Sears survived this round...might be gone in six months, might last until the very end of the line.

In the Greenspoint thread, I found the picture of what that same perspective looked like a few years ago. It was quite depressing.

So if I have this right, you want the HOT lanes on 290 to remain single-lane so you don't have to worry about anyone cutting into your lane. Got it. A bit selfish, I suppose, but at least it kind of makes sense. Since now we've resorted to the "sheeple" argument, I'd like to show you this little thing that you inspired me with the other day. I'm thinking of making it my new avatar.

The unlucky winners in 2017 are going to be Greenspoint, Pasadena Town Square (open since 1962), and West Oaks Mall. http://investors.macysinc.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=84477&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2234057

Less than a year ago, taking I-10 in different parts of the day since my part time job was inconsistent in that department. And no, I still live in the state. And also I should point out how quickly you went from "Well, outside the HOV-only hours, the road is ALWAYS jammed," (the exact quote was "its clogged up because metro opened the lanes up to use as an HOT lane") to "No, of course no one is going to clog up the toll lanes in the middle of the day, don't be ridiculous." But that's not my point, if we're talking the Katy Freeway lanes, the original pre-HOT lanes were part of the old Katy Freeway, with the old single lane like the Northwest Freeway...built in the median. With the Katy Freeway rebuild, the new "Katy Tollway" was always open to HOT traffic as per the PDF linked above. Trying to compare traffic counts between the old Katy Freeway HOV and the current Katy Tollway is going to be very different. The only other major change is price hikes for single-occupant users. Not that I expect any of this to change your mind, of course--your disregard of it and accusations of me being part of the Tolluminati somehow gives me the impression of you'll refuse to believe no matter what. ("A .gov page? Remember, they claimed that we actually landed on the Moon in 1969. No way I'd believe ANYTHING from them.") And speaking of wild accusations, your "HCTRA doesn't care about motorcyclists" argument is crazy as well, because driving in heavy traffic at full speed often happens regardless of any toll roads. Motorcycling is inherently dangerous because you're less visible to other drivers and don't have the benefit of being surrounded by an exterior designed to crush in an accident instead of you (not to mention seatbelts and airbags), whereas motorcyclists just have a helmet and the clothes on their back, and I'm going to take the benefit of the doubt and assume that you do wear a helmet and aren't one of those guys that weave between lanes at higher speeds than vehicular (car) traffic. There is nothing HCTRA or TxDOT can do that will make it significantly safer for you short of a strictly enforced speed limit for anything with a motor.

The I-10 lanes weren't designed the same way the 290 ones were, they were funded differently, and after the I-10 rebuild, it was always designed to be a toll road with HOV benefits...and in my times driving on I-10 in peak and non-peak hours from roughly Gessner to 610, I never saw this off-peak congestion you refer to, and certainly it was always less congested than the main lanes. And indeed, looking at Houston Transtar's map for Houston...all green in the center lanes for Katy at 12:10 pm. Since it seems you clearly aren't interested in the facts and accuse anyone who disagrees with you as being an HCTRA plant, what's your point?

"Hardly anyone carpools during their commute/rush hour"? Gee, I guess when it's 7:00 and traffic is backed up, the 3+ only HOV lane is totally empty, isn't it? Show of hands for those who actually commute that way and think that's BS, right? I just checked Google's traffic site for the 290 HOT lane at 10:40 central time. All green, except for a little orange around the 290/610 intersection...and this is consistent with what I've observed in reality. I'm not sure where you get this "No congestion during peak hours but YUUUUGE congestion otherwise" talk. A little research shows that the 2+ carpooling pre-2000 had severe congestion problems, so much so that 3+ had to be used ([link]) in peak hours and the extra capacity allowed HOT lanes to be used in the first place, so this "No congestion until HOT lanes and BAM! congestion" thing happened. And remember, it's only one lane, so if someone stalls out, then the traffic is going to grind to a halt no matter how many toll or HOV users there are.

Wrong. I lived in Houston for three months, and have probably racked up more mileage on 290 than any other intercity highway, driving my own car. The lane gets jammed because it is one lane, so if someone is driving slower than the rest of traffic, gets stalled, or yields to a bus turning onto the lane, it mucks up traffic, irrelevant of HOT vs. HOV drivers. And while I don't live in Houston anymore, yes, that is a fact, I don't see how my opinions are any less valid than a toll road conspiracy theorist.

Lower Westheimer is narrow enough. The 4 lanes to 3 lanes set-up is good because the four lane set-up is/was useless in several cases (buses and larger trucks cannot stay in one lane). A turn lane would really help there.

The HOT lanes (which are not necessarily "toll lanes", by carpooling you can do it for free...I know a few times we've taken family vacations through Houston and utilized the lane). The single lane set-up is dangerous and often slow (if someone stalls, then everyone's SOL), but they couldn't widen the center HOT lane without completely rebuilding the five stack.

That kinda sucks. The H-E-B a mile or so north is a former Pantry store, and I don't think both will operate.

There were two buildings on that lot. The smaller building in the grassy area facing Richmond (closer to the shopping center) was demolished between the late 1970s and the late 1980s. The larger building sat flush on the corner of McCue and Richmond and still had cars in the parking lot (meaning it was either not the building or was occupied past the mid-1980s), and was demolished by 1995. I might be able to pull up something via newspaper archives.

The Santa Fe Big Chief has the exact same architectural features of many of the known former Safeway stores in the Houston area (Jumping World/former Academy off I-45, the indoor go-kart track/former Kroger at US-290 and Beltway 8). It was built in the mid-1970s, before Tab Watt owned it (otherwise the 2007 article would say 30 years, and besides, why would an independent store look exactly like a chain store?) though it's possible that it sat vacant for several years before it was reopened. If Big Chief was indeed franchised (and that looks correct, I found a Newspapers.com reference to a Big Chief in Baytown in 1969), then the possibility that Arlan's at Upper Bay Road was indeed Big Chief prior to 1991 BUT owned by Arlan, which would explain the whole discrepancy of Arlan's founding and Fiesta's opening. But if the chain was going by Arlan's in the early 1990s, then what were they doing (if they in fact did) with Big Chief buying the Seabrook AppleTree? That's the big question...

87,000 square feet for an H-E-B is not "mediocre". Just because it's not the top of its class doesn't make it "mediocre". It's not going to be super-nice like Tanglewood or Montrose, but I could've (and did!) tell you that before November 8th, and even so, that's no reason to be bitter.

I can't find anything related to "moving sidewalk" or "travelator" ban in Texas through Google.

Wait, what? Why?

Again with the whole "kickbacks" theory and "designed to be congested", etc. If it was "designed to be congested", then it would've been built like the Hardy Toll Road (and no, before you answer--it was built that way because they didn't have a lot of space to work with): a narrow road with few lanes. The southern part was underbuilt due to it just not having a lot of traffic at the time. It's the same reason why the northeast segment took so long to get ready, and even now, traffic on there is quite light compared to the rest of the Beltway. Furthermore, your "designed surface streets to take the traffic" is hogwash. One of those roads that you mentioned, Fry Road, didn't even connect I-10 to 290 until around 2005--many years after the Beltway was built. Secondly, if you were that dead-set against paying tolls, consider actually taking the frontage road for the Beltway, as it is free and well-maintained (concrete in sound condition, no trash)—which blows a hole in your "no tolls, no maintenance" theory.

Investigative work revealed that 18091 Upper Bay Road is the address for the whole strip and not any one tenant. So, technically you're still correct.