Las Vegas Monorail Vs. Houston Monorail

[nmainguy]

The Katy Freeway will lose the need for a train when the construction ends.  The HOT lanes will provide higher volume transit that the raill would provide.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But what happens the week after construction ends? [HOT lanes=higher volumne of cars] kjb, you seem absolutly addicted to more and more lanes of freeway. Do you have a vested intrest in hiway construction or are you just way out of the loop? [no pun there]

[Talbot]

Isn't Golden Nugget now Tilman's casino? Belagio is nice but too expensive for my taste.

Houston really needs trains going around the loops of Houston and meeting somewhere in the middle. Aside from Katy Mills Mall, what's out in Katy?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A lot of commuters that trek the car filled wasteland that we know as the Katy Freeway everyday.

[kjb434]

I live in the loop. I don't see how living in the loop either should mean I'm anti-freeway.

All freeways have a maximum point of expansion where it doesn't become feasible anymore.

Katy Freeway will hit this mark with its final configuration. US 290 will hit that mark when the companion tollway and widening of the free lanes takes place.

I-45 is the next candidate for HOT lanes.

Trains can't solve the sheer volume our highways move. The HOT lanes are just improving a currently very effective mass-transit corridor. Go to the CTC website. They give a very good rundown of how Houston already has an effective commuter rail concept in place with the Park-and-Ride system. Just a different name. The Katy Freeway expansion is just upgrading the Katy to the current urban freeway layout of 8 main lanes and 6 feeder road lanes to put it on par with other freeways in town. Placing rail instead of widening the freeway wouldn't have solved anything. Sure it would be cool, but not effective.

Crying wolf everytime freeway expansion occurs and claiming the unfounded accusations about problems freeways cause is from the same playbook that has been thrown around for years. After four years of college which included courses in transportation and transit taught by the former assistant minister of transportation of Britain, I feel I have some background to my opinion.

Everyone claims how Houston is just building freeway and won't build rail and be like other world cities. Other world cities in Europe and Asia are building freeways left and right because the mass transit can't handle everything. Houston and TxDOT aren't doing anything different. We are also still commited to rail, but in corridors that truly need it. The US 290 and US 59 (SW) corridors are the first major candidates. I 45 (gulf frwy) is the next corridor. These corridors are experiencing high demand with no immediate relief. The Katy Freeway will provide much needed relief with little or no need for rail now. Maybe in 15 to 20 years the need may materialize.

I can't support only rail or only freeway. I want to support the best option. The Katy Freeway expansion was the best option when everything is considered.