Light Rail Progress (Houston, Dallas, Richmond: transfer, casino, gated)

[SouthernBoy205]

What's the daily ridership of the mass transit system?

[DANNYY]

Originally Posted by A&M Bulldawg

What's the daily ridership of the mass transit system?

It actually has the 2nd highest per mile ridership in the nation after only Boston.

It's 40,000 people more or less daily ridership. Which is pretty successful considering that it's only a 7.5 Mile long line. That is incredible, and hopefully that momentum stays up for the other 5 lines being added too. Which I place my doubt on for a few of those lines since they are more out of the way from the direct core but I think 4/6 of the lines will be a definite success.

Just my hunch though, given the nature of how built up Inner Loop is, I can confidently say, I wont be too far off from the truth. And the projection ridership totals for it feed into my cause even more.

[SouthernBoy205]

That is quite impressive.

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by H'ton

Have you ridden to light rail at least 20 times to witness this 'complete waste of money' as you call it?

The Main Street Line is an overwhelmingly success by those who track these things. Do your self a favor and ride it during different parts of the day and witness the success first hand (if you can find a seat).

I've ridden it. It is NOT a success. The reason the ridership is so high is because Metro "forces" it. What do I mean? They feed all the bus lines into it. And they removed most of the bus lines that ran up & down Main. If you take the previous transit figures for Main St bus lines, and add in the number of riders who are forced to transfer to rail to connect to another bus line, it's not much different than before. Metro's own studies confirm this.

Remember the development light rail was going to bring? Have you driven/ridden up Main lately? It's like a vast wasteland. Empty storefronts, vacant buildings, nothing new in ages. Why? Because Main is unusable now. No one rides rail to get to these places, and there is nowhere to park on Main, and Main went from being six lanes to one lane each way. All it takes is one slowpoke, and Main comes to a crawl. I know, I drive it all the time.

Wait until rail runs down Richmond, thru the heart of Montrose, then across Shepherd and Kirby. Those are major, major traffic areas already, and once rail commingles, it will bring long red lights while the train passes thru. People are going to be pissed. Far more traffic in those areas than Main St. People have no idea how bad rail can be to street traffic.

BTW, I am not anti-mass transit. I am in favor of it. I just think our street level light rail is a joke, and a travesty. And we've blown tens of millions, with nothing to show for it (referring to the feds turning down our funding request).

[Dallas12]

Are there any TOD's planned, or being built right now?

[robertrulez]

Originally Posted by astrohip

I've ridden it. It is NOT a success. The reason the ridership is so high is because Metro "forces" it. What do I mean? They feed all the bus lines into it. And they removed most of the bus lines that ran up & down Main. If you take the previous transit figures for Main St bus lines, and add in the number of riders who are forced to transfer to rail to connect to another bus line, it's not much different than before. Metro's own studies confirm this.

Remember the development light rail was going to bring? Have you driven/ridden up Main lately? It's like a vast wasteland. Empty storefronts, vacant buildings, nothing new in ages. Why? Because Main is unusable now. No one rides rail to get to these places, and there is nowhere to park on Main, and Main went from being six lanes to one lane each way. All it takes is one slowpoke, and Main comes to a crawl. I know, I drive it all the time.

Wait until rail runs down Richmond, thru the heart of Montrose, then across Shepherd and Kirby. Those are major, major traffic areas already, and once rail commingles, it will bring long red lights while the train passes thru. People are going to be pissed. Far more traffic in those areas than Main St. People have no idea how bad rail can be to street traffic.

BTW, I am not anti-mass transit. I am in favor of it. I just think our street level light rail is a joke, and a travesty. And we've blown tens of millions, with nothing to show for it (referring to the feds turning down our funding request).

Right, like traffic is really bad right now down main? Light rail really does not slow down traffic.

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by robertrulez

Right, like traffic is really bad right now down main? Light rail really does not slow down traffic.

Do you drive much around the current rail line? I do (I live about a mile from the Hermann Park stop), so I consider myself an expert on the effects of light rail on local traffic. I also work & play around downtown, so I see light rail in action every day.

There is very little traffic on Main St, you are correct. That is because (1) in the downtown area, it is an extremely difficult street to drive on (no left turns allowed), so anyone with any sense just takes a different street, and (2) in the mid-town area, there is nothing worth driving to along Main.

Let's talk about light rail from lower mid-town (for example, Sears) to south of the Med Center. It's an absolute mess. For example, to get across the Museum area, any direction, along Binz, is not fun. You used to simply go thru the lights. Now, every six minutes, you have to wait one or two light cycles for a train to cross at Fannin or San Jacinto. What used to take about 30 seconds to get thru four lights now can take as long as 4-5 minutes. I drive it daily, I know.

How 'bout the Med Center? Driving down Fannin used to be pretty easy, even though you were in the midst of the largest medical center in the world. Now... every 4-6 minutes you have rail coming thru, and all the lights turn red. Every direction. Again, what used to take just 3-5 minutes to get from one end to the other (Hermann to Holcombe) can now take 8-10 minutes.

Don't tell me light rail doesn't slow down traffic.

And my real point is, wait until traffic on Kirby & Shepherd get introduced to this. Have you ever sat at Shepherd & Richmond at 5pm? It takes about 2-3 light cycles to clear the light. Traffic literally backs up to the SW Fwy. It's just a small, old intersection, with far more traffic that ever envisioned (as is most inner city Houston traffic!). But imagine this scenario: now every six minutes, the entire intersection will come to a complete halt for a couple minutes, while the rail moves thru. Traffic will backup worse than ever. Do you think any of the people stuck there will be light rail riders? Not a one.

Street grade light rail does not make sense in areas of heavy street traffic. Not in Houston. I've read your posts for some time, and know you are a big light rail fan. That doesn't change reality. It's a joke. Give me grade separated mass transit, with real parking ability at each station, and you will have the start of something big! Have you ever seen Atlanta's MARTA? It works.

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by DANNYY

It actually has the 2nd highest per mile ridership in the nation after only Boston.

It's 40,000 people more or less daily ridership. Which is pretty successful considering that it's only a 7.5 Mile long line. That is incredible, and hopefully that momentum stays up for the other 5 lines being added too. Which I place my doubt on for a few of those lines since they are more out of the way from the direct core but I think 4/6 of the lines will be a definite success.

You're obviously not including the Disney monorail system which blows away those figures at over 130,000 per day average on it's 14 mile system. Or the Las Vegas monorail which has even higher ridership and doesn't interfere with street traffic.

[DANNYY]

Originally Posted by DiverTodd62

You're obviously not including the Disney monorail system which blows away those figures at over 130,000 per day average on it's 14 mile system. Or the Las Vegas monorail which has even higher ridership and doesn't interfere with street traffic.

No I was only talking about the LRT systems in the USA. Monorail is a different mode of transportation altogether than LRT.

[DarkWolf]

I wouldn't count Disney's Monorail system as part of a Mass Transit systems , its a tourist / park rail system. The Tokyo and Seattle Monorails are Mass Transit , although Seattle just barely makes it into that category.