Intermodality

Charles Kuffner posts ideas for two light rail lines — the already-in-the-long-term-plan Inner Katy Line and a line on Kirby — on Off the Kuff. It’s worth a read, and, more importantly, some thought. I believe that the best transit planning comes not from depp within the bowels of the agencies but from a well-informed, [...]

Just when you though the parking on lawns ordinance was dead, it reappears: Nettled by neighbors who clutter up their front yards with parked vehicles? You could work to outlaw this practice in your Houston neighborhood if the City Council approves a yard-parking ordinance on Wednesday’s agenda. The proposed law would allow civic associations to [...]

(Houston, 1912: Library of Congress.) This is post three of a three-post series. Post one discussed modern streetcars in general. Post two discussed the idea of rapid streetcar. So the question is: should Houston have electric streetcars? We’ve answered that question once before, in 1889, and the answer was “yes.” That turned out the be [...]

The Texas Department of Transportation announced today that the Trans Texas Corridor program “no longer exists” and has been replaced by the “Innovative Connectivity Plan,” which was described as “a series of individual transportation projects, tailored to the needs of the regions where they are located, and connected to the rest of the state.” What’s [...]

This is post two of a three-post series. Post one discussed modern streetcars in general. We’ve already the disadvantaged of streetcars sharing traffic lanes with cars: it results in slower and less reliable streetcar service. That’s not an inherent problem with streetcar technology; it’s a result of how that technology is implemented. Streetcars can also [...]

The Main Street Line opened 5 years today to a strange mix of high and low expectations. On one hand, it was the long-overdue product of nearly 25 years of planning since METRO was created, with an explicit voter mandate to build rail, in 1979. In a way that the HOV lanes never did, it [...]

From the Chronicle: Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director Amadeo Saenz said the state is working on a plan in order to meet the federal government’s September 2009 deadline for proposals. He said high-speed rail needs to be a part of the state’s transportation mix. “We need the flexibility to solve our transportation problems with [...]

Transit, like any other fields, has trends. And today’s hot trend is the streetcar. Portland opened a modern streetcar line in 2001, Tacoma followed in 2003, and Seattle’s Lake Union Streetcar opened last year. Austin, Atlanta, Fort Worth, Dallas, Oakland, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Northern Virginia, and others are studying new lines. In San Francisco [...]

David Kaplan asks 15 Houstonians to “offer ideas that would either benefit Houston or get the U.S. economy rolling again.” Some transportation-related responses, including mine: JAMES D. CALAWAY, CEO of Calaway Interests and former president of the Center for Houston’s Future: One of America’s greatest opportunities is to transform itself from a society dependent on [...]

METRO reports that massive police presence and retimed signals downtown has reduced light rail accidents. 30 days, though, is not much data, and the police deployment obviously can’t be permanent. The notable thing here is the signal change, which would be implemented on all the new light rail lines as well. The train gets its [...]

(By historical standards, our recent snow was nothing: see the excellent Houston Electric for photos of Houston streetcars plowing 22 inches of snow in February 1895.)

The Chronicle notes that METRO’s buses are only on time 61% of the time, and asks why. That’s easy. Yes, there are some avoidable reasons why buses can be late. Once, on the number 9, the bus driver actually got lost. But there are two major reasons why buses times are unpredictable: traffic and passengers. [...]

By now, we were supposed to be riding light rail to Northline Mall. The original schedule for the METRO Solutions light rail expansion looked like this. These schedules were not included in the referendum language, but they were published by METRO in 2004: The North and Southeast Lines, for which a public design process had [...]

Barack Obama is proposing a massive economic stimulus package including speding on “roads and bridges.” So naturally, cities and states are writing up wish lists. The Texas Department of Tranportation has one (pdf), totalling $6.2 billion, including $670 million in Houston-area projects. The City of Houston put $587 million in projects on the Conference of [...]

In Sunday’s Chronicle: Put Houston on the right track: Build these projects to prepare the city for the future By TORY GATTIS, CARROLL G. ROBINSON and CHRISTOF SPIELER The Great Depression was a tough time for America, but it left us with an enduring legacy of good infrastructure. Bridges built in the 1930s bring commuters [...]

Last year, I discussed the prospects of high speed rail in Texas. At that time, there were 9 countries that had built new 300 km/h (180 mph) intercity city rail lines: France, Germany, Belgium, Britain, Spain, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Since then, a tenth — China — has joined the list. This week, [...]

Last night, the United States elected a president who lives within walking distance of rail transit (and a Vice President who commutes by Amtrak.) Obviously, this is a minor point in the scheme of things. But it’s not insignificant. Even after World War Two, long after the country had become urban, presidents have hailed from, [...]

LIVABLE HOUSTON INITIATIVE Another View on Regional Commuter Rail Christof Spieler, Citizens’ Transportation Coalition Tory Gattis, Houston Strategies Christof Spieler and Tory Gattis recently got together to suggest a plan for the first step in pursuing regional commuter rail for the Houston region. They are reacting to several public statements made by Harris County Judge [...]

Tomorrow, the Harris County Commissioner’s Court is issuing contracts to proceed with design on Segment E of the Grand Parkway, the I-10 to 290 portion of a proposed 170-mile loop around the fringes of the Houston region. And I mean fringes: there’s nobody out there. Only 80,000 people live within 3 miles of Segment E, [...]

For 70 years, in a period where transit and railroads underwent massive change, one thing has remained constant: the propulsion of choice for any new American commuter rail line is diesel. But that was before $125 a barrel oil. If we build commuter rail in Houston, it’s worth asking how it ought to be powered. [...]