Mass Transit

[eelimon]

I live near the rail line and I consider myself luck now that the price of gas is going up

[HumDrum]

I own a gas guzzler and I am proud of it. If I had to pay $20 a gallon I would not start riding our metro system I think it is lacking in convenience and cleanness. Too many homeless and poor ride the metro rail for my taste. I don

[YakuzaIce]

Someone is full of themselves, somehow you are better than the poor??? ughhh.

What do we vote if we ride it sometimes already?

EDIT: Oh yeah where are you from and have you ever been on metro busses or rail?

[nmainguy]

I live near the rail line and I consider myself luck now that the price of gas is going up

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I already use Metro. Almost every Thursday I'm on the bus to the UHD station, on the train to MFA [free on Thursdays], back on up to Foley's if I want to shop, CVS where I always seem to need something, a nice walk up to Mia Bellas for a late lunch then back on the bus to the stop across the street from my home. I don't have to take the car out of the garage. I can read half the Times on the way down and kill off the last half on the way home. It's my most stress-free day of the week and I get to have a great Italian lunch and see beautiful art for free. What's not to like?

[nmainguy]

I own a gas guzzler and I am proud of it.  If I had to pay $20 a gallon I would not start riding our metro system I think it is lacking in connivance and cleanness.  Too many homeless and poor ride the metro rail for my taste.  I don

[nmainguy]

I own a gas guzzler and I am proud of it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, aren't you the proud little guy?

[YakuzaIce]

I think it is lacking in connivance and cleanness.

Also paying $400 at the pump is very connivant and those fumes are preserving the envrionments cleanness.

[RedScare]

I must say, there aint nothin' worse than a lack of connivance....unless it's a small penis.

[nmainguy]

I must say, there aint nothin' worse than a lack of connivance....unless it's a small penis.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You said it man!!!!!

[HumDrum]

I must say, there aint nothin' worse than a lack of connivance....unless it's a small penis.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, RedScare I am glad I know a good plastic surgeon to make some corrections.

[nmainguy]

Well, RedScare I am glad I know a good plastic surgeon to make some corrections.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Spend your money on your brain first because apparently it's even smaller that your penis.

[skwatra]

i would ride it all the time if it came out to the burbs...

luckily i'm taking a class at UHCL rather then UH this semester, so i'll be limiting my drive downtown to the weekends.

but my little car does get 30+ mpg.

[editor]

Spend your money on your brain first because apparently it's even smaller that your penis.

Now now, boys. Let's settle down.

While I don't agree with HumDrum's sentiments about gas guzzlers, it's interesting to hear him say out loud what so many people think of people who drive SUVs and such.

It also illustrates that there is a source to the stereotypes that the rest of the country has about Texans. My grandmother once told me that all stereotypes are rooted in the truth. Even if it's only one person, someone at some time fulfulled a particular sterotype.

Of course, she also told me, "Kiss my ass in Macy's window." So you might take all that with a grain of salt.

[nmainguy]

Now now, boys.  Let's settle down.

While I don't agree with HumDrum's sentiments about gas guzzlers, it's interesting to hear him say out loud what so many people think of people who drive SUVs and such.

It also illustrates that there is a source to the stereotypes that the rest of the country has about Texans.  My grandmother once told me that all stereotypes are rooted in the truth.  Even if it's only one person, someone at some time fulfulled a particular sterotype.

Of course, she also told me, "Kiss my ass in Macy's window."  So you might take all that with a grain of salt.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK. I'm sorry. BUT RED STARTED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[he's such a trouble maker]

[sevfiv]

it must be a great feeling to rev up and peel out with the gas guzzler and know about ten bucks went down the tubes (or out the tailpipes)

while the sticker shock of gas prices is unnerving, the price is and will be in the budgets of more than a few people...

on the whole (in the past couple years) i have made it a point to carpool to work and trade for vehicles that get better gas mileage...

metro is a little tricky for me (timewise) but i use the rail when i need to frequent places along that one line...

[RedScare]

OK. I'm sorry. BUT RED STARTED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[he's such a trouble maker]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually, HumDrum started it, but I suspect that he did so with a wink and a nod.

While there may be plenty of people who can afford $4 gas in a vehicle that gets 12mpg, my question has always been, "why?". There seems to be a lot more fun things to spend that money on than an oversized unattractive vehicle used to sit on a Houston freeway (like lap dances, perhaps?). At $4, the average suburban driver will be spending $600 to $700 a month in gas alone.

But, hey, that's just me. I like to spend my cash on useful stuff.

[MidtownCoog]

I rode Metro again today and I am grumpy. I miss my car.

I've been park and riding it about 4 times a week for the last two months.

Before that I drove downtown every day.

Homer Simpson was right.

[pineda]

I talked with a woman yesterday who had been hit by a Metro bus as she was crossing the street. The bus had run a red light and plowed right into her. HPD showed up immediately, but within a few minutes, was told to leave by Metro police, who then wrote up their own version of events. When the woman got out of the hospital, and asked to see the officer's report, she saw that he had left out her side of the story and instead gone with a witness' version of events (someone who had apparently been on the bus and "seen everything"). She told the Metro officer (if you want to know his name, PM me, apparently he's done this over and over to people for about 20 years now on the Metro force) that the stories were incorrect, and his response to her was, "So, take us to court if you don't like it!" Anybody out there in HAIF land know any good lawyers who have actually taken on a Metro case and WON? This woman is going to need a good lawyer to win this case because of the self-policing actions of Metro cops.

[kjb434]

^^

Terrible tragedy.

I don't ride METRO, but that's mostly because they don't easily serve my trip to and from work. Using the bus to go against the normal traffic pattern is not too easy.

[MidtownCoog]

Why don't we have park and rides that surround the Beltway?

Seems silly to only have them on the freeways, especially since Houston is becomgin ever more dependent on the Belt.

[kjb434]

I'm thinking its an interagency thing. The belt is HCTRA (expressway) and TxDOT for the feeders. HOV and Park-n-Ride is METRO. METRO and HCTRA would have to partner up. It's a good idea though. If the ridership projetion would support it, they could have a bus service to the Engergy Corridor or Westchase.

[MidtownCoog]

Engergy Corridor or Westchase were exactly the spots I was thinking of.

I know a lot of people who live north east and drive over there every day.

Until METRO offers some REAL solutions, they will continue to struggule with ridership numbers.

[lowspark]

I will start riding metro if....

... if it will take me from where I am to where I need/want to go. Doesn't look like that will happen in my lifetime but if it did, I'd ride.

[kjb434]

I think they might make some assumptions (as wrong as they might be) that suburbanites won't generally use the bus. I know, look at the Park-n-Rides and how full they are, but these are people that would be stuck in traffic for a long time.

Commuting from the northeast to Westchase, although long in distance, is not too bad in time. I think a mass transit solution would be in the interest of saving money at the pump and driving in your car than a time thing.

[ssullivan]

There actually are some park and ride lots not on freeways. Gessner, Westchase (which is right on the Beltway) and Mission Bend all come to mind.

kjb434, you raise a valid point about going against the flow for bus service. The system works pretty well from most areas of the city to downtown and a few key areas like the Med Center, Greenway, and Uptown. However, there are a lot of key business areas in the city that aren't as well served. The time it would take for someone living in Downtown, Midtown, or the Museum District to commute to work in Westchase on Metro's local bus service discourages people from using the service. When I was living in Westchase and working near Uptown I took the bus to work some; the average trip was about 70 minutes, and included some backtracking. Most people, when given the choice of driving or taking an out-of-the way route on the bus that takes more than twice as long and includes two transfers, would never take the bus.

Here are some of my thoughts on things Metro needs to do to improve it's service, and make the system more user friendly:

1. Raise fares. Metro has been putting off a fare increase for a couple of years now, and as a result it keeps having to cut service. With the elimination of some routes and decreased frequency on others, Metro is shooting itself in the foot. The $1.00 local one-way fare we pay in Houston to use the system is less than the local one-way transit fares in all of the other 10 largest cities in the country except San Antonio. Metro fears losing additional riders to a fare increase, but it needs to weigh this against the numbers being lost to decreased service. A higher fare combined with better service could help stop some of the ridership losses the agency has sustained in recent years.

2. Get a real website! Metro's website is a joke, and there's absolutely no excuse for it. Every other major transit agency in the country offers live, online route planning on its website but Metro. When traveling to other cities I've often been able to put in a starting point and ending point and be given the best transit options, along with exact times a bus or train should arrive at a particular stop, and walking directions between transit stops and my starting and stopping points. It is ridiculous that we can't do this in Houston. The lack of this service makes the system harder to use, which discourages more people from riding the bus.

3. Improve bus stops. Many major bus stops have no shelter or benches. In some cases, major intersections where two bus routes intersect have no shelters, or a shelter for one or two directions but not others. I frequently catch the 4 Beechnut at North Braeswood and Kirby. The stop for the outbound 4 bus on Braeswood has a shelter, but the inbound stop does not. Yet, the number of passengers waiting to catch inbound buses at this location far outweighs the number waiting to catch outbound buses. The stops for the 18 Kirby Limited offer no shelter or shade. The agency really needs to spend some money on improving bus stops that have no protection from the elements.

4. Reinstate canceled park and ride service. Service cuts between the Katy and Northwest Freeway park and ride lots and Uptown/Greenway should be restored, along with service to these areas from Kingwood.

5. Add in-town express service between downtown and other major employment centers like Greenway, Uptown, and Westchase, with limited stops in between.

6. Buy some smaller buses to make less popular routes economically feasible. Many transit agencies have some buses smaller than the 29 foot buses that Metro currently uses on its least popular routes. Many of the time routes that Metro has canceled or reduced in the last two years could probably have been kept alive with smaller equipment that's less expensive to operate.

These are just a few ideas. I regularly ride Metro because it is convenient from where I live to get downtown, but I'm probably in the minority on this. Metro runs a good bus system in many parts of town, but there's a lot of room for improvement.

[jaseone]

Actually Metro must have just finally added the online route planning that was lacking previously and it seems to work fairly well even.

[ssullivan]

Actually Metro must have just finally added the online route planning that was lacking previously and it seems to work fairly well even.

Yes, it was launched around the first of October. A very welcome addition to their otherwise crappy website indeed!