IronTiger

If the 290 route is a certainty, then the clearances shown in a 290 plan I saw really are true and a lot of buildings are gone on that side. Goodbye rice mill.

Wow, I thought this was years ago, didn't know it was relatively recent. I wish they were lit up. It would make the area look so much cooler.

A few years back on the HAIF, there was much talk on the Heights historic district, which embodies much of the controversy in this article.

Rats. I knew I saw it...I think in one of the topics I started...but I can't find it. I'm not going crazy, am I?

One of the more fascinating things I've read on HAIF in recent years is the existence of green neon tubing along the overpasses at Beltway 8 and Interstate 45. While I can visualize it decently, I'm wondering when it went away (when North Belt Road became a full highway?) and if anyone has any pictures?

Oh wait, I got it! An indoor park might not be the most cost-efficient way of doing it, and that it's realistic to have an admission price then. We could fill it with theme park rides, shows, and snack booths! It has to pay homage to the 'dome, of course, so let's call it: Astroworld! ...too much?

College Station is a better choice than Waco, because Waco's growth patterns aren't growing much, and while College Station-Bryan is a bustling 200k area with a massive university, a growing biomedical industry, and a lot of potential. What this will mean is it will probably sprout some very upscale bedroom communities for those going to Houston.

Latest post is up, regarding food deserts.

Holiday Inn abandons their Houston downtown hotel two and a half decades ago and returns to the area with a new hotel two blocks down. Classy.

Bad news--I don't think I have the book anymore. I turned it in a few weeks ago, but I may have gotten scans. I'll see what I have.

Well, I don't have any Whataburger listings at the moment, there are certain to be some cool ones but the only ones I have are: - a strip mall location near Almeda Mall - a location on the Katy Freeway that was torn down in 2005, tried to find the address in vain but couldn't find it - a location in A&M's "Underground Food Court", which despite its name is only half a floor underground. ...and that's three locations. Chick-fil-a I can at least name malls, plus that location on I-45 in the Baybrook Mall area that moved due to freeway construction. It doesn't mean Whataburger will never be added, it just means the "adding its page" will be delayed.

Man, A&M is doing great! Kenny Hill is the new Johnny Football.

The Wikipedia article mentions that Lanier was behind the term limiting rules (although Whitmire could've won against Lanier), but Lanier was undone by those same term limits.

I'm going to scratch Whataburger because I have so little info on it...and do Chick-fil-a instead.

A/C isn't just to keep you in comfort, it does keep down mold that likes warm, humid climates, which is why when you leave for a week to turn the A/C to 81° or so, not off. I don't think a park is that out of the question, you could still add stuff like fields, a playground, and all that even without natural grass. Since the lighting panels won't provide enough energy for real grass to grow, we could develop some sort of artificial turf to go in there. We would name it after the dome, and call it: astroturf.

You misread the article... It will be a lot closer to that. 40 miles away from The Galleria area would be Sealy or Conroe.

Well, this topic's going nowhere fast. The original question was how much METRO made on tolls. After informing that it was HCTRA and not METRO that ran the toll booths and gave some links that may be helpful, I expected that the topic would be answered and fall to the bottom of the list, not continue re-popping up like a bloated corpse. Some things to keep in mind: 1) No one at TxDOT or HCTRA said that the tolls would go away once it was "paid off". That did happen to a turnpike in Dallas, but not here. That was a rumor and established as such. 2) HCTRA doesn't give out their numbers, so there's no proof that they're pocketing a huge profit or losing money every day. We just don't know. 3) The Hardy Toll Road isn't "paid off" either way. They may have reached self-sufficiency now, but they were still losing money in the first years of opening. Can we please move on now?

Uh, no. The original highways, built before ~1970 had bigger budgets, fewer restrictions (such as environmental studies) and a tendency to just plow through neighborhoods without a lot of thought.

Yeah, that was uncalled for, but the point was "perpetrating misinformation", which you've done before (whether accidentally or deliberately, either way).

But there is room in the Westpark ROW (which IIRC METRO owns, after it split the other half with HCTRA), no strings attached, and it could hook up with the University Line. Bonus: a lot of the transit centers line up already with the ROW. As for the 290 ROW, they could in theory scrape up some ROW along the existing freight track for new trackage. But since I haven't seen trains go up and down and there nearly as much as they did prior to 2009, they might be able to share it this time around. Either way, a 290 railroad would be difficult since it could only go downtown, and isn't conducive to connecting to the Northwest Transit Center, where the light rail/BRT would terminate. Even if your plan was to build on the HOV/HOT lane was valid (and any questions of stability were solved), there's pretty sharp turns in the system and the whole transit center would need to be redesigned. Remember, the ramps from the transit center to 10 East were rebuilt about 10 years ago as well. I'm not against commuter rail, but I seriously question its viability and use in the HOV/HOT lanes.

Ok, so you were wanting to eliminate the lanes. But...why? Both relieve congestion, both serve different functions.

Yeah, but that's not what you said: you said replacing the HOV/HOT lane with rail, and that's not going to work because: - not all HOV/HOT lane drivers go to places that you mentioned - not all HOV/HOT lane drivers would want to ride on a train and some people just prefer driving - converting a HOV/HOT lane to rail would require tons of infrastructure improvements, only the I-10 line is built to hold light rail and even then a lot of work would need to be done on building stations - I-10 I could see the inner lanes being converted to rail, but because of the agreements made in Katy Freeway, new stations would have to be built, and METRO would have to buy or long-term lease them.

That would only work if the trains went the same places drivers did, which isn't necessarily true. Unless of course, you wanted to build new managed lanes, which in that case, you would be better off building the train separately. Again, both trains and managed lanes have their place in helping relieve congestion. It isn't an either/or scenario.

By the way, 94 E Crosstimbers St is still a Jack in the Box, it was torn down and rebuilt in 2011. 9602 Houston Dyersdale E Rd. is actually 9602 Mesa Road (probably old name for such) and...still a Jack in the Box! If I added every rebuilt McDonald's, I'd have a very long list, for instance.

I definitely think that rail is needed for the future (as well as widened freeways and all that), but I'm not sure what the best course of rail is. How far should light rail go? If the University Line gets done, they should use the remaining Westpark ROW for light rail. How far should commuter rail go? Where should the transfer spots be? I feel like light rail should reach the Beltway in most directions (not just the loop) while commuter rail should stretch to the entire Houston-centered "solar system", with lines going out to College Station (unless HSR goes through, which it probably will end up doing), Lake Jackson, Beaumont, Galveston. Undoubtedly, others will disagree on where I think they should go. But do we need rail? Yes. Better roads? Yes. Wider freeways that make sense? Yes. I think that if you're forward-thinking in terms of congestion futures, rejecting freeway widening and HOT/HOV lanes is foolish (until they've reached their maximum capacity--realistically, Katy Freeway is the widest they come)