samagon

someone said once, I have no valid verification, but it was said that the easement for the railway is necessary to be empty for liability. if a rock is thrown from a railcar and hits someone or something within that easement, the railway is on the hook, so they just don't let anyone use it. there'd have to be agreements in place like what there is with the city and CPE for the powerline easements for bike trails. the problem is there's no incentive for the railways to do it. again, this is all what I remember from one comment years ago that someone said. so it could be completely off base.

Townhomes! Townhomes everywhere!

that's going to be good for pedestrians actually, it will allow for a bit of a pedestrian bump out, and narrowing the lanes will slow traffic. this will be messy when someone in a big vehicle wants to turn right onto Taft from Westheimer and there's a car sitting at the red light on Taft. not a lot of space for maneuverability.

I bet we are crazy high on the drivability study though. not to mention we have a very bright future momentum for drivability. /s it's great to compare US cities only against other US cities, but comparing cities of the world, that's far more valuable, just to see how far we all need to come in the entire country before we start patting ourselves on the back for being above average in the USA. https://pedestriansfirst.itdp.org/ it's interesting to see what is found to be important for the US for calculating the walkability score vs the global initiatives. https://pedestriansfirst.itdp.org/methods

the Houston Polo club is going to fight elevated lanes so close to their property. looks pretty cool though.

if someone has concerns about how another project and this one will intermingle then why wouldn't this be the place to discuss it? we're clearly not going to agree, and we don't have to, so please have the last word.

they are very separate and unique projects, but when you review how they will both interact with the local traffic flow the need to review them together is important.

we need to stop letting people run our various levels of government just because they have 'experience' being a politician.

the west belt project changes are very much intermingled with the i45 project so it is very much topical to this thread. siloing the data so you don't have to read it if you don't open the thread isn't going to make it less of a negative impact.

I would guess the foundation of the roadbed would be the primary constraint, I'd guess the foundation needed for the heavier LRT vehicles are probably more substantial than what would be needed for BRT vehicles. if the roadbeds are only designed to accommodate the BRT vehicles, then they'd probably have to redo the whole thing to switch to LRT.

rebuilding the Gulf/610 interchange was very recently just done. I think because this freeway (35) is eventually still planned they presume that when they do build it that it will relieve pressure on the Gulf/610 interchange and so they won't need to realign the main lanes of Gulf Freeway traffic to be more efficient once this is built, or at least it will relieve pressure for a bit and they can kick the can down the road. as far as what they do need to worry about from an interchange perspective, and maybe I'm not thinking about it logically, but it seems to me that when this extension is completed the more beneficial interchange will be at 610, rather than 45. my line of thinking is it will allow medical center workers an alternative to 288. 35 > 610 > Almeda, or Fannin exit. or 35 > 610 > 288 toll > Holcomb exit. inbound to downtown, unless the i45 realignment really changes traffic patterns seriously, currently, from the spur to 45 sucks for getting into downtown. if it were me (and actually, I did this quite frequently when I'd go from UH > downtown), spur 5, follow the signs for the 59 exit, then exit on Scott street and take the 45 feeder the rest of the way to Live Oak street and jog over to Leeland. and that was to get to my office in Chase tower. it was quicker to not even get on 45, and take streets through downtown to get to that area. once 45 is realigned, I just don't see how getting to that side of downtown on the freeway system is going to be any faster once you are in the area. exit as soon as you can and take surface streets. I really think if they want to have an additional freeway dump right into that, they will need to expand the main lanes on 45, at least until the 'downtown destination' exit. outbound from downtown, right now, no one uses the spur 5 exit, so traffic in that lane is easy to get onto spur 5, but once it goes all the way to old Pearland? maybe it gets more crowded. edit: I also think if they have an exit at Airport Blvd that it will also relieve a lot of airport traffic from 45, which as well will help immensely with the Gulf/610 interchange (and again, maybe a great reason for them to need to nail the 35/610 interchange).

yeah, I think the idea for Leeland grade separation and Cullen closure was tabled very early in the process. that it still exists in their documents though is very worrying.

I suspect that the F1 race later this year will pip CES for the #1 slot. but that's far afield of the Hardy extension. perhaps I missed other posts, but are they going to wait and time this with the i45 realignment, or are they going to do 9/10ths, and when the i45 realignment is ready to be connected, then they do the other 1/10th?

lots of action on just that block right now. awesome, and very cool that you have pulled some photos of how it currently sits, I'd guess one, or both of these buildings (402 and 406) are going to be gone. and then, they might be acquiring them so they have them now, rather than never (or much later for much more money). scoop rent from the current tenants. over the course of a few years, do some improvements and raise the rents. and eventually tear them down and build out something else.

4:16 sorry sir, doors are locked, better luck next week. but yeah, I think if you show up at 4, what is meant is that you might have to hang around until 4:15 for the veggie pack to be ready, but if you show up at 4:18, they will have been ready for at least 3 minutes.

we will call that a "nice rich patina".

yup, I have no hate for LRB, like I said, I hope they are very successful, I just don't think the bargain shopper is their target audience, and I don't think I would recommend a bargain shopper go there.

the problem with that route, that I don't think that was being grasped (either willfully, or maybe I didn't explain it well) is that if anyone (the bus included) that goes all the way to St. Emanuel in hopes of accessing the u-turn lane that is at Lamar are going to have a very hard time. below is a snip from the released schematic. what I have highlighted in red is the exit from 59. it replaces the current 59 exit to Polk street, this new alignment moves it farther north so that if there is a signal it will be at Dallas (but since there's no cross traffic, why would they have a signal?). the existing exit is 2 lanes and usually has more than enough cars. it looks like as the exit bumps to align with Dallas it drops from 2 lanes to 1, and then 300 ft farther up the street you have the u-turn. trying to access that from St. Emanuel will be difficult at best. anyone on Polk that dreams of getting into that u-turn should probably change their plan to turn on Hutchins (or more better on right on Emancipation) and the left on Lamar, rather than becoming part of St. Emanuel traffic that will not easily access that u-turn. anyway, buses are going to need to do the same. how this actually works in real life, as well as how the city and TXDoT treat Leeland WB traffic after 59 I'll be very eager to watch. sorry for taking this so far afield. but that u-turn lane that keeps getting tossed around as a boon for East End traffic on Polk to easily access downtown, it is not that, not unless the traffic exiting the freeway will be signaled to allow people on St. Emanuel a chance at accessing that lane.

being a visionary is only helpful if you are trying to fix freeways to make it where they might compete with other forms of mass transit. we need historians who can look at what other cities have successfully done in the past to move massive amounts of people around their metro areas. the problem there is that politics at various levels of government (which are lobbied heavily by the next group), and marketing from private companies are not interested in what's best for a city to thrive, they are interested whatever it takes to increase their own personal interests. I'm sure some will say I'm crazy and that it's a wild conspiracy theory, but the problem is for this to be a conspiracy it would have to be secret and hidden. the donations and actions towards personal interests are not at all hidden.

I'd think west of the Galleria area, maybe starting at Chimney Rock, Westheimer would be prime for BRT. Bellaire from 59 to highway 6 would be good too.

the probability of BRT, or LRT going through Afton Oaks is about 0. additionally, an alignment of any BRT, or LRT on Westheimer is about 0. east of Shephard the ROW is so narrow they can barely fit the traffic lanes. west of Shepherd River Oaks would be as welcoming as Afton Oaks was towards mass transit. it would be great to see the Silver line go along the same ROW as the University BRT, and then turn south on Chimney Rock, or Renwick. perhaps it could even do a circuit at that part, go west from the transit center, south on Renwick, east on Gulfton, north on Chimney Rock and then back to the transit center.

my gauge of a grocery store is to look at the milk eggs and various vegetables. and I guess because they only carry top brands, it's hard to compare to HEB, or Fiesta, but yeah. LRB 1/2 gallon of Borden $4.19, HEB Borden 1/2 gallon is only 7 cents cheaper. but then you look at the store brand (or in Fiesta's case, the off brand of Borden (which is Bluebonnet, and just as good as Borden I might add), the price is silly for what you can get at LRB. I'm paying about a dollar less for a gallon of milk at Fiesta, or HEB as what you can get 1/2 gallon at LRB. eggs are no better. compare vegetable prices and unless you're talking about potatoes, it's not really a contest there either. roma tomato prices, avocado prices. LRB can't compete. edit, and since Kroger is right down the street as well, they are even better priced than HEB on all of these items. anyway, no hate on LRB, I wish them success, I just don't think it's where I'd point the bargain shopper. and then they do take EBT and SNAP, so maybe the price is less relevant for some people, depending on things.

as I did in the other thread, I forget about that Kroger. there's also a Dollar General right next to Kroger that has a smattering of inexpensive food things. I guess there's also the Little Red Box, but holy F, the prices compared to other grocery stores make me think they have their items for display only.

I agree, you are 100% right, but it all depends on who is driving the narrative, and how it is framed.

I always forget about that Kroger, thanks, so less bad for sure!