Comments on: Newswire: February 16, 2009 http://www.neohouston.com/2009/02/newswire-february-16-2009/ advocating urbanism in the opportunity city Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:06:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: The whys and wherefores of bus rapid transit « Off the Kuff http://www.neohouston.com/2009/02/newswire-february-16-2009/#comment-157 The whys and wherefores of bus rapid transit « Off the Kuff Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:54:39 +0000 http://neohouston.wordpress.com/?p=495#comment-157 [...] He goes on in more detail from there. It’s good stuff, so check it out. Via neoHouston. [...] [...] He goes on in more detail from there. It’s good stuff, so check it out. Via neoHouston. [...]

]]> By: common_sense http://www.neohouston.com/2009/02/newswire-february-16-2009/#comment-156 common_sense Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:28:46 +0000 http://neohouston.wordpress.com/?p=495#comment-156 While I am extremely happy to see Metro finally squaring this down and (hopefully) starting work soon, I take the efficiency argument from Maryland with a grain of salt. Having lived up in the Washington area for several years, I can tell you that Maryland is hardly the gold standard for efficiency. They have been talking about the Purple Line for decades. It is still in the planning stages because of similar problems we have here; a decision to build heavy rail is made, then they change their mind and go with light rail, then they change their mind to BRT, then they change their mind again to just regular bus, then they go back to light rail. They wasted years and years and probably about as much money in “planning and review” as the cost to build the entire system. Anyway, my biggest complaint about Metro is that they set themselves up for failure. They make overly optimistic timelines (like building the initial system by 2012) and refuse to be straight with the public about the delays. This is particularly a problem here in Houston because unlike Maryland or DC, we don’t have an established transit backbone yet. There are still many, many people in this city (and this state) that are opponents of ANY transit, so any hint of failure simply provides fuel for their fires. While I am extremely happy to see Metro finally squaring this down and (hopefully) starting work soon, I take the efficiency argument from Maryland with a grain of salt. Having lived up in the Washington area for several years, I can tell you that Maryland is hardly the gold standard for efficiency. They have been talking about the Purple Line for decades. It is still in the planning stages because of similar problems we have here; a decision to build heavy rail is made, then they change their mind and go with light rail, then they change their mind to BRT, then they change their mind again to just regular bus, then they go back to light rail. They wasted years and years and probably about as much money in “planning and review” as the cost to build the entire system.

Anyway, my biggest complaint about Metro is that they set themselves up for failure. They make overly optimistic timelines (like building the initial system by 2012) and refuse to be straight with the public about the delays. This is particularly a problem here in Houston because unlike Maryland or DC, we don’t have an established transit backbone yet. There are still many, many people in this city (and this state) that are opponents of ANY transit, so any hint of failure simply provides fuel for their fires.

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