If I Could Redesign the Light Rail

[RedScare]

i'm not the only driver out there. I know which streets are closed but from regular driving in the area, I still see cars going the wrong way or stop in the middle of fannin, not knowing whether it is ok to cross the tracks. I do know that my travel times have increased in this area, particularly south of 59 which is where i am most frequently.

I am in the area frequently as well. I have NEVER seen cars going the wrong way, stopping on Fannin, or traffic jams related to the trains. While it is possible that the tracks might cause this activity on occasion (certainly not often by my observation), a more likely explanation would likely be the tourists driving into Midtown to frequent the many bars and restaurants in the area...or, perhaps you've seen it once or twice in 6 years and are trying to make it sound far worse than it is. Given that you are the only one saying it, I suspect it is the latter,

[musicman]

I am in the area frequently as well. I have NEVER seen cars going the wrong way, stopping on Fannin, or traffic jams related to the trains. While it is possible that the tracks might cause this activity on occasion (certainly not often by my observation), a more likely explanation would likely be the tourists driving into Midtown to frequent the many bars and restaurants in the area...or, perhaps you've seen it once or twice in 6 years and are trying to make it sound far worse than it is. Given that you are the only one saying it, I suspect it is the latter,

like i said earlier, those that are unfamiliar are the problem, no explanation necessary. getting off of 59 onto fannin i still see people turning left on blodgett even though it has been one way, post light rail construction for years now. even downtown, 1-2x/month, i see cars going the wrong direction.

[RedScare]

like i said earlier, those that are unfamiliar are the problem, no explanation necessary. getting off of 59 onto fannin i still see people turning left on blodgett even though it has been one way, post light rail construction for years now. even downtown, 1-2x/month, i see cars going the wrong direction.

Go watch unfamiliar drivers in the Woodlands and get back to me. The trains simply are not the problem you wish them to be, no matter how many times you post a hyped up "problem".

[ricco67]

like i said earlier, those that are unfamiliar are the problem, no explanation necessary. getting off of 59 onto fannin i still see people turning left on blodgett even though it has been one way, post light rail construction for years now. even downtown, 1-2x/month, i see cars going the wrong direction.

Go watch unfamiliar drivers in the Woodlands and get back to me. The trains simply are not the problem you wish them to be, no matter how many times you post a hyped up "problem".

Going down the wrong way on a street is not exclusive to downtown. I've back in the early 90s I was hit by people pulling out of of the kroger on 11th. Street onto shepherd and smacked into me.

I've seen it downtown, galleria, and downtown.

The thing is people don't know to read street signs or aren't paying attention.

Hell, I've done it once.

[Houston19514]

Remember than rail runs between 6 and 20 mins depending on time of day so there seems to be some underestimation with your first statement and I really don't know any major bus routes that run every 30 mins during peak time, usually they are more frequent. Now that there's less of them thru the entire corridor, less options for everyone.

The train runs every 6 minutes during peak time and every 12 minutes most of the rest of the day. It only drops to every 20 minutes after 9 PM.

[jfre81]

Hell, I've done it once.

But idiots do it repeatedly.

One time, when I was young and just starting out driving really, I was in Stafford on Staffordshire turning onto ALT 90...it was dark, and I could not see the one way sign hanging on the traffic light and I turned left (west) and saw headlights coming my way. I only did that once.

Anyway, I digress...

So the idea about skywalks -> elevated stations at TMC wouldn't work? You're probably more familiar with the hospitals than I am. Out of all the TMC buildings I've only been in the St. Luke's towers.

[CDeb]

I turned left (west) and saw headlights coming my way.

I'll bet that was exciting.

[samagon]

I did that once, going down Jackson in midtown it is a 2 way street, after gray it turns into a one way going south. It was night and I didn't even realize I had entered the 1 way part until I got to pierce and didn't see any traffic lights.

Going back during the day there are 2 do not enter signs that I missed in the dark.

I think in instances like this it is easy to miss, and not well designed (or it could just be me justifying missing those do not enter signs), they should go through and make the 1 way portion move over to the right, and then put some big planters or something on the left so that you know for sure, you can't go in there.

I live in the area and I did it, I can imagine for people who don't travel downtown often that being in unfamiliar territory is confusing enough, but then throw 2 way streets that turn into 1 way streets with little to no warning other than a couple of do not enter signs, it is easily missed.

That is an example in my mind of poor planning, but I've also seen some extremely poor driving. anecdotally, I was at a friends house in midtown sitting on their balcony, I saw a car turn the wrong way onto their street and a car was coming the other way, there was a big show of light flashing and honking, a minute later the same exact car did the same exact thing. they were driving really slow and I am sure were looking for someones house, but still, how do you make the same mistake in rapid succession?

[TxDave]

Driver's confusion with one way/closed streets is a fact of life in a dense urban neighborhood.

Any direct effect from the Metro Rail would have passed after one, maybe two years.

[TxDave]

Back to the topic of a light rail redesign...

The red line was a brilliant start (even beyond any Super Bowl benefits). In a short distance it connects Downtown & The Medical Center (huge employment centers), as well as prominent entertainment/tourist districts (Museum District, Rice U, Hermann Park, & Reliant Stadium), plus it helps enhances the redevelopment of Midtown.

Once Galleria/Post Oak & the Airports are connected, the lines will be an invaluable backbone serving Houston's highest traffic locations. Any connection into the system can get someone (local or tourist) to & between the most popular locations fairly quickly & easily (and it will take even more of the "confused" drivers off the road)

Rather than redesign, I would suggest enhancement of the current line with the options already suggested: more grade separation through subway or elevation. Elevation isn't pretty but certainly an option in some areas. And a subway can certainly be built in Houston - the towers downtown go down several stories, so a train tunnel can work underground as well. Of course the cost only makes sense downtown or in the Medical District, but the option should be considered to increase service & ridership.

[Houston19514]

By implementing such a high-ridership route and using it as a proof of concept to the FTA (which only cares about ridership), METRO was able to convince them to massively fund lines that do not and can never have ridership even remotely close to what occurs on the Red Line. METRO was also able to generate sufficient good PR from the ridership numbers to counteract much of the negative publicity.

You are at least implying that Metro dishonestly got FTA funding for the new lines by projecting ridership comparable to that of the red line. That is simply not true. FWIW, the 2030 daily boarding projection for the Southeast line is 26,650, far below the current ridership of the red line (which, by the way, has FAR exceeded all projections). The daily boarding projection for the North line is 29,000, again far below the red line numbers.

[TheNiche]

Wrong.

The skyways are multi level and some are done to transport patients to and from surgery and other procedures, and are basically off limits to the general public.

Are you sure? I once did a comprehensive retail survey of the Fannin and Holcombe corridors of the TMC on foot, which required that I explore basically all the major interior corridors available to me from Basement 1 to Level 3. Many of the cafes, sundries shops, etc. are easy to find, others not so much.

There are both skywalks and tunnels, but I cannot recall any that were inaccessible to the general public, just that there were some that were so out of the way of activity nodes that they got very little use at all.

Driver's confusion with one way/closed streets is a fact of life in a dense urban neighborhood.

Any direct effect from the Metro Rail would have passed after one, maybe two years.

In all fairness: I think that the issue musicman brought up exists but is being overstated. RedScare is making a comparison to confusing layouts in The Woodlands as though that's a justification for confusing layouts in Midtown. And you're ignoring that young urban populations of mostly renters are relatively transient and that Downtown, Midtown, and the Museum District draw a wide variety of visitors from throughout the region such as are unlikely to be familiar with a confusing layout, so that new drivers are learning our streets every single day.

You're all wrong. Everybody is wrong except for me. I'm infallible.

[TheNiche]

You are at least implying that Metro dishonestly got FTA funding for the new lines by projecting ridership comparable to that of the red line. That is simply not true. FWIW, the 2030 daily boarding projection for the Southeast line is 26,650, far below the current ridership of the red line (which, by the way, has FAR exceeded all projections). The daily boarding projection for the North line is 29,000, again far below the red line numbers.

I've done a bit of microeconomic forecasting in my day, and had it been my job to offer an opinion of ridership for the Red Line prior to operation, a disclaimer would have been necessary (for my own legal protection as a consultant) stating something to the effect of that 'the incomparability of the alignment of the Red Line to any other place in the United States is a severe constraint on the the reliability of the projection; the estimate presented is the expected value (mean) based on the analysis of numerous probabilistic scenarios, and even a low confidence interval allows for significant variation over or under the expected value.'

I was not implying in any way that ridership projections for routes presently under construction were going to be at or near the actual ridership levels experienced by the Red Line. However, a good consultant acting in their client's best interests will use the Red Line as a comparable case study and will skillfully adapt all the good circumstances that affected the performance of the Red Line (i.e. effects on ridership of excellent localized employment growth, or excellent regional economic growth) into an innocuous-sounding calculus that yields an inflated ridership estimate. When FTA funds are at stake, that's his job.

[Houston19514]

I've done a bit of microeconomic forecasting in my day, and had it been my job to offer an opinion of ridership for the Red Line prior to operation, a disclaimer would have been necessary (for my own legal protection as a consultant) stating something to the effect of that 'the incomparability of the alignment of the Red Line to any other place in the United States is a severe constraint on the the reliability of the projection; the estimate presented is the expected value (mean) based on the analysis of numerous probabilistic scenarios, and even a low confidence interval allows for significant variation over or under the expected value.'

I was not implying in any way that ridership projections for routes presently under construction were going to be at or near the actual ridership levels experienced by the Red Line. However, a good consultant acting in their client's best interests will use the Red Line as a comparable case study and will skillfully adapt all the good circumstances that affected the performance of the Red Line (i.e. effects on ridership of excellent localized employment growth, or excellent regional economic growth) into an innocuous-sounding calculus that yields an inflated ridership estimate. When FTA funds are at stake, that's his job.

If you weren't implying that ridership projections were going to be at or near the ridership of the red line, what were the words "do not and can never have ridership even remotely close to what occurs on the Red Line" doing in your post? Just a non sequitur thrown in for your amusement?

We shall see in due time just how "inflated" those ridership estimates are.

[AtticaFlinch]

But idiots do it repeatedly.

I've never considered myself all that bright, and my wife does call me an idiot often, so yeah, idiot is an appropriate moniker for people like me. That said, I never drive the wrong way down one of those one way streets because of the train or a lack of familiarity. My pitiful driving is more directly related to the amount of box wine I had the evening before. When you log as many hours in the car as I do, you're bound to make a mistake or two, I guess.