You've Been Given $15 Billion

[dbigtex56]

yeah, there are planters going in (but not a la my dream world )...just hope the plants can withstand pee

Plants are nice.

So are pleasant places to wait - and you will wait, regardless of the means of transportation.

I'm thinking that transit stops could be improved first, before we start taking heroic measures.

Stop laughing. I'm serious.

We already have a pretty good public transportation network in place. The greatest flaw is that it's user unfriendly. If you wait at a bus stop...then what? Where's it going to take you? is it where you want to go? And how the hell long am I gonna have to wait?

I'd blow a lot of money on making public transportation safe, convenient and efficient. No kidding. You go to a transit stop and there's a (free) touch pad that tells you when the next transit option is arriving (in real time) and your alternatives (walk two blocks over to the train, you'll save half an hour....).

Impossible? I hope not. I do it in my head nearly every day. Why not also provide decent places to wait for a bus (or train, or hovercraft, or monorail) that are clean, safe and (gasp! climate controlled? Twenty-five years ago when I first visted Toronto, I was so greatly impressed. It seemed as if anywhere I went, there were helpful signs and maps. Even a chump like me never felt lost. Major intersections had heated stations.

For the money that was spent on the Big Dig in Boston, a person with marketing skills could make Houston a dream.

[zaphod]

Id take about half or whatever's needed, and build a huge elevated metro system like the one in miami. It would have lines that radiated from downtown and went between the freeway areas, and there would be lines going around the city too, making a spider web. It would be elevated the whole way so it wouldnt ever flood or crush cars.

Then, whatever's left, id take a bit of that and put it into buses, then the rest would go towards other things like police and education.

[VicMan]

I like the idea of a user-friendly transit system too. I would want electronic signs on the buses and electronic maps.

I would spend the money on connecting both airports and connecting major suburbs and Galveston.

[Jim Black]

I would tackle Houston's three major problems; traffic, flooding and air polution with a tri-level freeway system.

The below ground level through flow level 1 handles both traffic and water. Used mainly for through town traffic. It has entry/exits about every five miles with lower to mid level transitions halfway between them. This level is built on a constant grade making for constant flowing of both water and heavy cargos. During early flooding auto traffic would be directed to the mid level and then light trucks and SUVs during the intermediate stage clearing room for the heavy trucks thus allowing the easy evacuation of all vehicles from the flood waters.

The mid level is above ground and handles localized traffic. Built well above flood conditions, pooling water would flow to lower level allowing for fast safer traffic flow during rainy conditions. Entry/exits on this level would be much like our current system.

The third level would be for a dual mode personal transit system much like the Rapid Urban Flexible (RUF) system developed in Denmark. This system has a cost of about 7mio/mile for bidirectional flow bringing it in at about 20% the cost of light rail. Having a futuristic look, Houston would for sure live up to the name

[Houston1stWordOnTheMoon]

I would expand the light rail system throughout the city of Houston with all rail lines hubbing in dwntown. Build multiple mirrored glass highrise parking garages dwntwn and around the rail lines for people to park in. Also take the Pierce elevated and enclose it in beautiful mirrored glass covering. Both the cities major airports would be connected with downtown by light rail, by using the existing HOV lanes as the path to lay the tracks. I would spend a nice portion of the money to advertise the rail lines and enhanced transportation system, not only to the local population but to the world as a method of getting additional businesses to relocate to the city. For the trains heading to the airports, they would be high speed with no more than 2 or 3 stops at existing transit centers after leaving downtown......that way they can be timed for bi-directional use without having to add an additional lane of train rails :):):):)

Now if i was only computer savvy enough to create renderings of my plans.......