Suing for not building rail?

[HouTxn]

I guess this is why they want the dedicated bus line
https://www.bisnow.com/houston/news/...ica--46526#ath

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

A rail line would have been less distructive to Post Oak imho,and connected to other rail lines in the city at some point. There are places along Post Oak that have zero space for widening except to plow the POST OAK trees, and I don't know what they will do about keeping the sidewalks. This problem is right next to the Cosmopolitan.Other spots have nice green barriers between the roads and buildings. They will be encroached upon.

Those express bus lanes will widen Post Oak only for those buses, plow trees, engulf green space and no one who lives in the area will use them anyway, nor the suburbanites coming in to shop/work/dine,so no real traffic relief. There's already Metro service on Post Oak, and it already serves the people wanting to get in and out of the area on a bus.

I don't understand why folks think that the light rail would "ruin" Post Oak any less than the bus lanes would. The widening and infrastructure for the street are virtually the same. The bus lanes don't require the overhead wires either. And Uptown's plans provide for way more left turn opportunities than what METRO has done on Main Street and elsewhere.

The bus lanes are meant to hook into the park and ride service METRO already provides for Downtown. People going to Uptown get off at the transit center and switch to the Uptown connector service, which is intended to be much much more frequent than the current 33 bus. And, because of the exclusive lanes along the freeway and the Boulevard, IT WON'T SIT IN TRAFFIC. Today, even if you've taken a park and ride bus from say Cypress and gotten off at the Northwest Transit Center to transfer to the 33, you have to wait for the 33 (max every 15 minutes I believe), then sit in traffic on the 610 feeder roads, then sit in whatever traffic is on the Boulevard. So you really get no time advantage over driving and sitting in traffic - good commuter transit service should offer some time advantage like it does for Downtown (as long as the HOV/HOT lanes are kept uncongested). Furthermore, if METRO implemented more frequent bus service without the dedicated lanes, how many folks would start complaining about buses screwing up traffic?

I support the project because it's designed to have minimal impact on regular traffic, will add much much better sidewalks, replant street trees (today they are live oaks by the way, not post oaks), and improve pedestrian crossings. Yes some surface parking areas in front of existing properties will be shrunk, but big growing cities generally lose their surface parking areas anyway, and there's nothing wrong with that. I don't understand why people get upset when a primary business district gets more dense, it's a natural economic phenomenon and good for the city in terms of retaining tax base and high-paying jobs. The improved commuter transit service will help Uptown retain its office market competitiveness, just like it does for Downtown.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by hbcu

I rode the rail the other day from mlk to museum district....I like it and makes sense but it takes 40 minutes to get from 3rd ward to museum district....an east west line is needed badly to cut the trip down

Build the U-Line.

[theone33]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

It was originally proposed on Scott but the residents had METRO move it to MLK.

So is only on one side of Scott? The East part? I thought they tore up the West part to put it there

[gwarnecke]

The BRT project is expensive, overly-disruptive, and will likely result in a transit line that is underutilized at first. But over the next 10-20 years, as Uptown keeps densifying and traffic/parking get worse, it may come into its own.

Personally I'd rather see a "lighter-touch" mass transit program for uptown - instead of completely reconfiguring Post Oak with the dedicated lanes, designate the rightmost lane on post oak (in each direction) as buses, carpools and right turns only during morning and afternoon rush hours. Then increase the bus service frequency. Wouldn't this accomplish 80% of what the BRT lanes offer, at a fraction of the cost? Plus commuters would be picked up/dropped off curbside, rather than in the middle of the street.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

The BRT project is expensive, overly-disruptive, and will likely result in a transit line that is underutilized at first. But over the next 10-20 years, as Uptown keeps densifying and traffic/parking get worse, it may come into its own.

Personally I'd rather see a "lighter-touch" mass transit program for uptown - instead of completely reconfiguring Post Oak with the dedicated lanes, designate the rightmost lane on post oak (in each direction) as buses, carpools and right turns only during morning and afternoon rush hours. Then increase the bus service frequency. Wouldn't this accomplish 80% of what the BRT lanes offer, at a fraction of the cost? Plus commuters would be picked up/dropped off curbside, rather than in the middle of the street.

Your approach is similar to the configuration within Downtown, which works there pretty well because there's so many parallel streets. Unfortunately, Uptown's streets were never as well planned, so you basically just have Post Oak Boulevard (S Post Oak Lane / McCue dead ends at The Galleria, and Sage ends up in Tanglewood) and the West Loop feeders. So the Uptown District has had to commit to not losing any general traffic lanes, resulting in this configuration. Most expensive for sure due to the right of way acquisition and new station construction, but it does keep the remainder of the traffic essentially as it is today during rush hour. (Not that it's so great today, as many are quick to note.)

And dropping off / picking up passengers in the median vs. curbside is a wash, since curbside means passengers would have to cross the street once a day anyway. And this way they don't have to cross the whole street, just half.

Construction will undoubtedly be disruptive. However, I happen to know that Post Oak Boulevard was going to have full reconstruction regardless of having BRT or light rail or not - the pavement had failed in too many places. So disruption was coming regardless.

All this said, keeping the buses out of traffic congestion will be meaningless unless the frequency is high, especially at rush hour but also at lunch time. I know many people don't like the Main Street light rail, but the most important thing about it is the 6 minute frequency. You don't have to schedule when you show up, it's always coming soon. Same goes for many of the park and ride routes.