kdog08

Do you know how much Metro's ridership increased in the first twenty years of bus only options? The staggering, year by year, decreases in ridership come only after Metro focuses on building out the rail system to the detriment of the bus system. The numbers, of which you are so fond of, do not lie.

Metro's investment in buses bore fruit to the tune of 100 million boardings at it's peak. Metro's foray into rail empires has only produced resentment, bungling, scandal, low morale and decreased ridership.

Now only if our transit agency and city had the competence and foresight to simultaneously fund and expand both our bus and light rail system over decades.

haha so true!

but, "these people" pay taxes that not only pay for the bus/train/whatever and whatever they roll on, but also subsidize the riders of these systems.

so discussion, even argument, seems like an absolutely necessary exercise.

Of course it's necessary, but now is not the time to go cheap with exclusively buses.

Yes please. Distort your general reality by way of my special reality at my beck and call.

Haha. So you got nothing then...

I don't care. You were talking to Tory. Now I'm talking to you.

No you're butting in again and trying to change the discussion. The goal posts were set momentarily, as Redscare alluded to, but we can move them for you if you need,

"Look kdog08, I've respected your comments for many days but you are increasingly try to make the world fit into your own ideology. i'm not sure why you are stuck on promoting one form of transit besides that [Republi-crat-ian-ists] for whatever reason like [whatever you like as an individual]."

^ See, now doesn't that kind of a statement seem silly? You hold reasoned opinions, and so does Tory. You don't see eye to eye, and therefore each of you appears biased because you actually are both biased in favor of the opinions that you hold.

Well see Niche, there is something called context. In this context I was referring to the individual Tory who maintains a blog about Houston Strategies. A blog that I've read over the years and enjoyed. I was merely commenting about this individual's increasingly narrow focus. Considering I've spoken for finding a compromise between the sides I found it amusing you make such a comment since I don't maintain any sort Houston strategies type blog that I am aware of. But hey nice try butting in.

It is my opinion that abortions have the long-term effect of lowering crime, reducing mental illness, increasing wage rates, decreasing the cost of healthcare, and reducing demand for government services, which means that there can be less spending, and that we can expect lower taxes. It probably would be worthwhile to provide public subsidy. And the sorts of people that would most typically use abortion tend not to vote Republican; their children probably wouldn't either. So...any relevant political party should support abortion for the sake of both principle and reasoned self-interest. Instead, if there were an opinion poll, I'd be despised by all of America and would be labeled every which way, accused of bias in favor of my own opinion on behalf of the people that individuals have convinced themselves that they should despise.

It's a sad commentary on the state of affairs of this thread, interactive media, and our society as a whole that such a tremendous amount of oppositional thought goes toward subverting intellectual thought.

Kay.

I think METRO needs to ramp its PR and tweak it's plan to have city wide support in order to get the ball rolling. METRO needs to promote a solution that entails our proposed light rail and a greatly expanded P&R.

let's say I live on Mt Vernon near Richmond and want to go to the Galleria to shop or anywhere in Uptown to work or shop. I board, I must transfer south of Richmond on Westpark and I have no option but to transfer to an Uptown train b/c the station is essentially in the middle of nowhere at the intersection of Westpark, the Westpark Tollway, and the 610 feeder. Then I ride the train north on Post Oak.

Sorry, but it's simpler and more time & cost efficient to drive - 10-15 minutes max any time of day, especially since parking is not a significant problem in Uptown. In fact I may drive to Uptown then use the rail to move within the area. My info is that the 1 seat ride won't be available, at least on the existing plans. Stupid.

I would just drive personally. Then again, the point of rail/transit isn't to make all your trips easier or serve everyone; it's about providing options for you to take or not take.

Actually, I think Metro and other transit agencies are the ones stuck on a single form of transit - rail. They all have New York envy.

Perhaps. But you are certainly with them. It's not New York envy, it's just that buses aren't sexy. But let's not act like rail is some on size fits all solution or that BRT is.

I'm just trying to work out the most efficient and cost-effective solutions. Occasionally, that's even rail, witnessed by my support of the Main St. and Universities LRT lines. But generally, for a decentralized, low density, post-WW2 city like Houston, it's not.

Yes but are you focusing on today or tomorrow? I don't have any notions that Houston will develop New Yorkesque. But I actually do see LAesque in its future. We don't have the overall density or geographic constraints, but we do have a mini LA inside the beltway.

Personally, I believe Houston needs to finish the rail expansion (I could have certainly done with only Main St, University, and Uptown Lines), at least double P&R (expanding it to Westchase, Energy Corridor, and Greenspoint for starters), and increase bus service. Not to mention our highway and road infrastructure needs to get upgraded and expanded. It will cost a lot of money, no doubt. I don't see the point in your strategy Tory, it's stuck in today. I'd rather bet that Houston will continue to grow and bet for the future.

That's my point. We need a better lane network that can sustain higher speeds to non-downtown job centers and better nonstop options, optimally provided by private operators rather than Metro.

http://houstonstrate...-for-metro.html

Look Tory, I've respected your blog for many years but you are increasingly trying to make the world fit into your own ideology. I'm not sure why you are stuck on promoting one form of transit besides that libertarians for whatever reason love buses.

- BRT gets you more miles for the same money

No doubt. I favor BRT for many routes, especially Gessner and Westheimer. I favor BRT to supplement the University and Uptown Lines while we figure it what we are doing going forward. BRT is just one mode of travel that Houston needs.

BRT can't unload and load several hundred passengers and be on it's way in two minutes like it does in Downtown and the Med Center. I would imagine Uptown and Greenway Plaza would have similar rush hour requirements, although with less riders.

- We are unlikely to ever densify near to what LA has. It has geographic constraints and a strong desire by people to live near the coast. Houston will, for the most part, continue to spread out. Our core will densify to some extent, but nothing like LA.

Well of course. But our inner core, again, has significant employment density (Downtown, Uptown, Greenway Plaza, TMC, and our higher education institutions) and is certainly increasing in residential density in the general vicinity of the proposed Uptown and University lines. Not to mention the parks, cultural centers, and major sports venues are all within the core and proposed lines. Lastly, as Houston grows the events (Rodeo, festivals, etc.) will grow; especially, as Houston host more college games, all star games, super bowls and hopefully World Cup and the Olympics.

- Main St. LRT has not transformed its immediate neighborhood (i.e. blocks on either side) after 8 years

I notice how you have to qualify that claim by limiting it to blocks on either side. You know full well that Midtown is adding more residential that is within 1/2 mile of the rail and is increasingly getting closer to the rail as land runs out. Phase 2 of city place (5 blocks west of the rail) is about to start up. Not to mention the amount of construction that would be near the University and Uptown lines.

- The HOV investments we need involve connecting up other job centers (esp. Uptown, TMC) and making it a true network instead of pure downtown-centric. If we don't, employers will continue to leave the core and move to the suburbs, like Exxon is doing.

Agreed.

- Here's why commuter rail doesn't work in a city like Houston

Who said anything about commuter rail? However, I did find your commuter rail idea, "the brain train" that goes from Galveston to College Station a great step forward. We need to first get Metro funded and with a plan.

- LRT connect major employment/activity centers: as the Universities line would have done, but the 3 lines under construction don't

Yes I wish it was the other way around, as BRT would have been a perfect fit for those 3 lines.

- The capital consumption also includes the 3 lines currently under construction

My mistake. I still stand by my statement that it's a shame.

No, it means the transit solution should be tailored to the city. Houston is a decentralized, low density city where the key issue is rush hour traffic congestion. Rail is a bad fit - the solution should be a more comprehensive set of express lanes and commuter buses to more job centers.

Yet, Houston's inner core resembles LA in many regards (relatively dense residential with large, multi-polar job centers.). Otherwise I'd agree with your assessment. I don't see why you seem to make it a bus vs rail issue when it should be a multimodal issue. Rail inside the core that serves our major employment and activity centers connected by an expanded park&ride system.

The Main St. LRT was a fine investment with many destinations on a short route, but I don't have much faith in the new lines (the Universities line might have been a different matter) - they have consumed a couple decades of Metro's capital building capacity and are likely to yield very little.

That is simple not true. If one single 7.5 mile line in a metro of 6 million people consumes your capital building capacity then your issues are funding and not enough of it.

Great news, more density for midtown.

I'd say most of those graphs are pretty flat. I wonder how Denver got a big spike in bus ridership? Metro's billions went to the existing and new LRT lines (which haven't opened yet). Those dollars could have gone to expanded bus service, including many, many more miles of cheaper BRT.

LA is one of the few cities that might be able to justify a massive rail expansion over the very long term, based on their incredibly high overall density, complete freeway and arterial gridlock, and year-round excellent pedestrian weather. Although they too would probably be better off with more miles of BRT than fewer miles of LRT or subways.

So we should wait till those conditions to exist to finally expand our public transit in any meaningful way?

To connect this thread to the METRO .25% tax thread, how can METRO show that the startling 12 year decline following a 3 year increase will reverse for some reason other than simple population increase over the time to build out the system? The point of mass transit is to make headway against single vehicle congestion, pollution, and other "quality of life" issues, not just spend billions to keep the status quo (public transit, subsidizing transportation for people who cannot otherwise transport themselves is a different issue, but METRO pitch to complete Solutions has become almost wholly about mass, not public transit).

Can you honestly say that mass transit in this city has been funded and given the support needed to make headway against single vehicle congestion, pollution, and other "quality of life issues". Texas and Houston (hell this country as whole) spends little on mass transit infrastructure and this is what we get.

Spieler's style and presentation of his information is different now then when he was at CTC and was writing for a very small community. Not very surprising that he is now making his audience is an entire metro area.

Wow indeed. I love that building. Considering the University light rail is shown in this video maybe it will be built within a decade.. and a half?

If these people were really "pro transit" they would realize that Metro is a bus system operating ONE rail line and not a rail system operating one bus line. For transit to be "good" in the city of Houston the bus system must be maintained and expanded as it is the core of the transit apparatus and does all of the heavy lifting. But when someone dares to say, "Hold on, let's not throw all of our eggs in the rail basket just yet, let's ALSO improve bus service," it's as if you spit in their cafe latte.

Whoa, whoa, whoa..... WHOA. So you'are telling me that an effective transit must be planned and funded properly..... I had no idea. So all that bus talk early was just bullflurf because rail can in fact do things better than a bus when properly planned and funded. How about that.....

Bad, or simply mediocre systems, much like Metro, have rail also. Rail and good transit system are not mutually exclusive as the horrible Frank Wilson era proved. And once again I say that most in the pro rail crowd don't really care about how "good" Metro is, they just care about walking out of a cookie cutter condo unit that was a crackhouse eight months ago, riding a railcar a few block to the local Starbucks, sitting among other young, hip, urban professionals all smiling smugly and being pleased with how "Euro" it all is.

Haha, you've found us out.... But seriously... bias much?

In New York there are routes that are on 1 minute intervals. Metro has run downtown and TMC shuttles on 5 minute intervals. Before the truncation of the 2, 4, 8, and 15 you had four routes (along with the 1 Hospital) that operated between downtown and the TMC at intervals of 6-10 minutes during rush hours making your wait time for a bus less than current wait times for a train and providing alternatives in case one route was late, delayed etc.

Once again you have not provided an example of an issue that light rail can solve that investment in the rehabilitation of the bus system cannot. Frequencies and trip times can be adjusted and dispatchers can be placed along bus routes to make sure they are operating as expected.

What can rail do that other cheaper options cannot?

Look better and be more appealing for the masses. All the cool cities have it.

Seriously though, Houston has the dense employment centers and activity centers (all of which have been growing in some fashion) all lined up to be connected by mass transit. Do you honestly believe a system of all buses would be more popular than a system of LRT, local bus, and Park&Ride?

Neither idea will work without proper funding and proper conditions. There's a reason why light rail works well in cities with decent transit and some density (Boston and LA comes to mind). Light rail can't function in a vacuum so I don't see the point of comparing light rail to buses. It simply is a progression of transit based on demand (yes Niche) that comes along with increasing density, city form, and development pattern. Why doesn't Boston just have buses and commuter rail and not light rail? Why is LA building light rail and not just subways? Simply put major cities need multi modes of mass transit, along with multi modes of roads in order to function in the present and the future. There is no one-size fit all approach and I believe our LRT alignment added with a good dose of P&R and bus will function well with Houston's multi polar form. Houston's future has a good chance of becoming LA-light with semi-dense pockets along multipolar spines, eventually you won't be able to fit all those buses and cars on the same street.

It's sheer madness that we can't cobble together the funding needed to balance the transportation needs of one of the fastest growing metros. We need more highway and road infrastructure as well expanding mass transit options. Concerning our mass transit options we need to be build our light rail system plain and simple. It could connect our largest employments and activity centers together with suburban commuters on an expanded park&ride system. Houston could actually build a transit system where commuters use express bus to get to connect to destinations in uptown, greenway plaza, st.thomas university/menil, museum district, HCC central, Med Center, Reliant, Minute Maid, TSU, UH, Rice, BBVA Compass Stadium, Downtown, and major parks.

I see all the points about the competition nearby, but i'm not sure about the reasoning for wanting to drop the retail?

I mean, isn't that what we want? Multi-use/Mixed use developments with retail? If there's no retail, then its bland.

Well there is already a development next door called High Street that is under construction and will have retail and apartments as well. I don't think the retail needs to be nixed completely, but at least cut by half and replaced with apartments.

So...after spending beyond our means forcing undesirable tradeoffs in the level of service, then (many years later and presuming that we still have those buses or that they still run) we can spend even more beyond our means on vastly more services. No, that doesn't make any sense at all.

The fact of the matter is that Houston needs to do something in order to fund that vast amount of infrastructure it is going to need. Houstonians are going to have to decide how much, if any, of that cheapness quality Houston offers they will want to give up in favor of quality of life that comes with more parks, superior transit options, etc..

Man it seems they reconstructed the interchanges not to long ago. Hopefully they try and preserve the remaining trees that have grown mostly on the western portion of the interchange.

so... where are all these developements?

Look several blocks west of the light rail and you'll see lots of apartment complexes, several townhouses, and retail. Look several blocks east of the light rail and you'll see HCC, some retail, and quite a bit of townhome development. All the larger, cheaper lots are being taken up and now it's time to focus on the larger, becoming scarcer, lots near the light rail.

Rode my bike to Rice Village and took some shots of the progress...

Ashton Rice Village updates:

photos by me

Entrance by dv1033, on Flickr

Entrance2 by dv1033, on Flickr

IMAG0389 by dv1033, on Flickr

IMAG0390 by dv1033, on Flickr

IMAG0391 by dv1033, on Flickr

IMAG0392 by dv1033, on Flickr

IMAG0393 by dv1033, on Flickr

IMAG0394 by dv1033, on Flickr

There's a sizable courtyard area:

IMAG0396 by dv1033, on Flickr

IMAG0398 by dv1033, on Flickr

InsidetheCourtyard by dv1033, on Flickr

DeepCourtyard by dv1033, on Flickr

Courtyard by dv1033, on Flickr

This is definitely going to be a great addition to this area.

There is a sign that says a stir fry place is coming soon.

http://www.kublaikha...y.com/#/welcome

I dare someone to watch the entire "learn how to make a bowl video". It's pretty bad.