Write On METRO

Looking for Smart Ideas, Smart Roads

Mary Sit — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:47:00 GMT

Want to win $50,000?

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America - along with I.B.M. - is offering an award for ideas for reducing congestion.

The winner could be an individual, a company, or a nonprofit group.

I.B.M. has calculated that traffic jams reduce gross national product worldwide by 1 percent - and that's a lot of money.

The object of the contest is to produce fresh ideas on how to create smart roads that speed up traffic.

Click here to read more.

The Business Insider, saying he restrained the second woman so the cougher could exit the train. He later caught the flu.

Transit agencies nationwide are reassuring riders that their buses and trains are disinfected - and urging commuters to practice good hygiene.

Here at METRO, we clean the inside of our trains every night, wiping them down with a non-toxic disinfectant. The environmentally-friendly, hospital-grade disinfectant is used to wipe surfaces inside the trains, including door pushbuttons, window surfaces, back-of-seat handles, floor-to-ceiling and seat-to-ceiling poles and overhead grab bars and handles, said Romeo Calderon, director of rail maintenance.

"Our established disinfectant and cleaning practices are consistent with reducing the spread of virus and influenza, whether H1N1 or not," said Calderon.

Bacteria can thrive on surfaces for hours or days, depending on the humidity, Laura Baumgartner, a microbiologist analyzing subways, told Mass Transit magazine. Germs typically live longer on plastics than on metal subway poles and station handrails.

What can riders do to protect themselves?

Cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough. If you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze in the crook of your elbow. Avoid touching your eyes, hands or mouth. Carry hand-sanitizing gel or disinfectant wipes.

Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after sneezing or coughing. Sing "Happy Birthday" twice while your scrub. If you're not near a sink, use an alcohol-based hand gel. Rub your hands until the alcohol dissipates.

If you have flu-like symptoms - a fever, plus a cough or sore throat - stay home and don't ride the bus or train until you are fever-free for 24 hours. Read more on prevention and treatment of swine flu at WebMD.

The Texas Health and Human Services department has compiled the latest information on swine flu at http://www.texasflu.org/, including the availability and distribution of the swine flu vaccine.

Rail Service to be Interrupted

Mary Sit — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:16:00 GMT

This weekend, rail service will be interrupted so we can perform track maintenance.

There will be no trains running between UH-Downtown and Preston stations during these hours:

Saturday, Nov. 7: 5:40 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 8: 5:40 a.m. to 3 p.m.

We will provide shuttle bus service, operating on Preston Street.

If you are traveling southbound from the Preston Station, you will need to board the train at the southbound Preston platform.

If you're traveling northbound from the Preston Station to UH-Downtown, you will need to board the shuttle bus service on Preston Street.

Regular rail service will operate between the Preston and Fannin South stations during this interruption.

here. The photo posted here was taken by Hazel Thompson for the NYT.

Britain's new rules state that if a driver uses a hand-held phone and causes a death, the offense will be considered a more serious one and lead to prison time. British judges have ruled that reading or writing texts over a period of time - and not necessarily at the moment of an accident - constitutes "a gross avoidable distraction."

Texting while driving is considered the same as driving while drunk or high on drugs.

Closer to home, a recent poll sponsored by the NYT and CBS News, indicates that 97 percent of respondents support a ban on texting while driving. Eighty percent support outlawing talking on hand-held cells while driving.

Seventy percent of the respondents said it was fine for drivers to use a hands-free phone while driving. But studies have shown that using a cell phone while driving - whether it is hands-free or not - is a serious risk.

Reach the complete survey here.

Here in Texas, drivers caught talking on their cells while driving in school zones can be fined up to $200. At METRO, we have a zero tolerance policy for all employees driving a METRO-owned vehicle. Anyone caught using his or her cell while driving is fired.

Should texting while driving be banned? What about talking on hands-free phones, using the speaker function or earpiece? When you're on the road, do you worry the driver behind you might be texting?

National Retail Federation and BIGresearch.

That's 5.4 percent more spending on Halloween than in 2004. The engine fueling this growth: Adults buying their own costumes.

"Halloween is no longer considered a children's holiday," Phil Rist of BIGresearch told USA Today. "It's one of those holidays where lots of people escape for a bit and become someone else for a day."

Transit agencies from coast to coast are adjusting schedules to accommodate all this partying.

In Boston, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (the T) is adding extra trains and selling special event round-trip tickets to Salem, MA - a town about an hour's north of Boston which has a museum devoted to the witchcraft hysteria during Colonial times. Salem has town-wide celebrations called Haunted Happenings and is urging partygoers to take the T.

On the West coast, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is adding extra cars to their trains to ease the crowds expected from Halloween parties.

Here at METRO, we'd like to encourage you to ride the rail if you plan on celebrating at the restaurants and bars downtown. The last northbound train from Fannin South departs at 1:40 a.m. The last southbound train departs from UH at 2:20 a.m. Click here for the rail schedule.

If you plan on drinking, the train is a safe way to get home or to your car where we hope you have a designated driver.

Happy Halloween - and stay safe around the ghosts and goblins.

David S. Wolff.

He'll be speaking at the Greater Houston Partnership luncheon next Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Hilton Houston Post Oak Hotel at 2001 Post Oak Blvd. The event is from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Consider METRO's achievements in the past year:

Negotiated a $1.46 billion contract for the expansion of its light-rail lines.
Secured federal funding in President Obama's FY2010 budget proposal.
Cleared another Federal Transit Administration hurdle in obtaining final design approval for the North and Southeast corridors.
Celebrated two historic groundbreakings in July.

But much more lies ahead. What is the current construction timeline in the corridors? What challenges does METRO face in creating a world-class transit system?

Find out at David S. Wolff's presentation, State of METRO: Reshaping the Face of Houston.

You can purchase a ticket at a special non-member rate of $65 by clicking here.

Boston Globe. The photo to the left was taken by Steve Klise for the Boston Globe.

The Boston Area Coalition of Reason, funded by an anonymous donor, has spent $11,000 to purchase placards on 200 subway cars at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, known as the T among locals.

The message on Boston's Red Line and Green Line says: "Good without God? Millions of Americans Are."

The point, says Fred Edwords, head of the United Coalition of Reason, is to let non-believers know there's a community out there for them. "They're inundated with religious messages at every turn. So we hope this will serve as a beacon and let them know they aren't alone," Edwords told the Boston Globe.

The coalition has already plastered its message on billboards in Dallas, Charleston, S.C., Des Moines, Phoenix and New Orleans.

The lead pastor of Vineyard Christian Fellowship in the Boston area said he's not upset with the atheist campaign.

"The message seems uncharitable and hopeless, but I do think it's possible to be good without God. Yet I think they're preaching to the choir in Boston. They'll find a lot of people who agree with them," said Dave Schmelzer, the pastor, adding, ‘It's a free country."

Schmelzer's church has been advertising on the T for the past 10 years.

At METRO, we have kept placards out of our trains and limited those in our buses to public information notices. Our trains have been wrapped to help promote our services and our partnership with the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Click here to view one of our wrapped trains, promoting Airport Direct.

Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority decided to change the warning beep to an automated voice that will be broadcast from stereo speakers inside and outside the bus, according to The Plain Dealer.

Research shows that people pay more attention to the sound of a human voice than they do to beeping.

The vocal warning system will be installed in the steering column and activated when the driver turns at 45-degree angles.
About 400 buses will get the new system, costing about $600,000, which is coming from federal stimulus money.

The message can be changed and the volume adjusted, depending on the noise level of the environment.

Texas Medical Center from I-45, your trip will soon get easier.

METRO is about to double the number of parking spots available at its South Point Park & Ride lot, located at 12410 Kurland at I-45 South.

Those of you who ride the 297 South Point/Monroe route to the Medical Center will find this a welcome relief.

At the METRO board meeting on Oct. 15, the board approved expanding the parking lot, adding 150 spots and converting 240 temporary spaces created last December to permanent slots. This will result in 766 parking spots.

The construction also will improve the infrastructure, including upgrading drainage and lighting.

"Reinvesting in our extensive bus system is one of our highest priorities and part of our effort to increase ridership and improve customer service," said John Haley, vice president of infrastructure and service development at METRO. "Increasing customer parking spaces, along with introducing 100 new buses into our fleet each year, is a customer-friendly way to serve key destinations like the TMC."

We expect to complete the build-out of the South Point Park & Ride by this coming spring.

Postcards from Texas, a weekly, 30-minute show that highlights historical sites of Texas, especially the southeast area.

This Sunday at 4 p.m., the show features three stories. The first is about a prisoner-of-war camp where Union sailors were incarcerated during the Civil War. Called Camp Groce, it was located just outside Hempstead.

The second story is on Freedman's Town, a protected historic district just west of downtown. Postcards from Texas highlights the heyday of the first predominantly African American neighborhood in Houston.

And finally, the third story features METRO and its roots.

"It's kind of a circle. It follows the demise of the street cars back to the rise of light rail," said Mike Vance, host and executive producer of Postcards from Texas. "The meaty, middle part of it is how the privately-held Houtran system had dropped into disrepair and how METRO was created and turned things around."

Some surprising facts you'll learn: "You'd be amazed how many people I talked to don't realize we had an extensive street car system prior to World War 2," said Vance, a former Channel 55 sports anchor with a degree in history and government. "The other thing people don't realize, unless they're of a certain age, is how bad the bus system had gotten. Even though it's only been 30 years, people take for granted that METRO's has always been here."

The show, produced in partnership with Houston Arts and Media, will rerun next Friday on Channel 55 at 1:30 p.m.

http://es.ridemetro.org/News/Broadcast/METROMatters.aspx

You can also view it on Channel 17 at these times:

Thu 10/15/09 9:45 p.m.

Sat 10/17/09 3:32 p.m.

Wed 10/21/09 8:30 p.m.

Sat 10/24/09 8:00 p.m.

Wed 10/28/09 6:15 p.m.

Fri 10/30/09 7:30 p.m.

Tue 11/3/09 6:45 p.m.

Fri 11/6/09 7:30 p.m.

Mon 11/9/09 8:15 p.m.

Wed 11/11/09 9:30 p.m.

Fri 11/13/09 7:30 p.m.

Mon 11/16/09 9:30 p.m.

The New York Times reports today that hybrid and plug-in electric cars have become so quiet that they are too quiet.

The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 would mandate a federal safety standard to protect walkers from super quiet vehicles.

A Toyota spokesperson told the Times the company realizes quiet hybrids could be a risk to sight-impaired pedestrians.

The Fisker Karma, a luxury plug-in hybrid scheduled to go on the market next year, will pump out audio from the rear bumpers. The sound is a mix of a starship and a Formula One car, according to the founder.

An official at BMW's Mini Cooper says one option would be giving drivers a choice of noises, the way cell phones offer various ring tones.

A study by the University of California, Riverside and sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind, showed that people in a lab could hear a conventional gas-powered car at 28 feet away - but could only hear a hybrid when it was seven feet away.

Should cars that glide quietly stay quiet, or do they need to emit warning noises? Read more here.

Our hybrid-electric buses are certainly quieter than our diesel-powered buses - but so far, no one is complaining they're too quiet. In an age when we're assaulted with traffic and construction noises, METRO's hybrids are a welcome addition - and subtraction in decibels - to the road.

Most Riders Satisfied with TMC Swiftline

Mary Sit — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:36:00 GMT

Most riders of the 426 TMC SwiftLine say they are very satisfied with the new route we introduced in August.

The TMC SwiftLine is an express service with five stops between the Texas Medical Center and the Southeast Transit Center.

On Sept. 23, 61 surveys were distributed and 56 were returned.

Here are some of the results:

About 70 percent of the respondents were using the TMC SwiftLine to travel from home to work.
77 percent transferred from one bus to the SwiftLine and half transferred from SwiftLine to another bus.
96 percent of riders were satisfied; 76 percent were very satisfied.
Most learned about SwiftLine by seeing the bus, hearing about it from family or friends, or from METRO bus drivers.
Six percent of the respondents were new riders to METRO.
About half of the respondents work at the TMC.

The SwiftLine buses are our new hybrid-electric Orion buses that are equipped with security cameras.

If you've ridden the SwiftLine, tell us what you think about it.

The Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMATA) has just installed a new software tool that allows customers to browse its Web site and hear text read aloud.

BrowseAloud is a free download WMATA is making available to anyone who wants to download it from http://www.wmata.com/.

For those who have difficulty reading computer screens - including those with mild visual problems, low literacy and reading skills, or those with limited English language skills - this new tool will make it easier to find information on WMATA's Web site.

Once someone installs the free software on his or her computer, he or she can move the cursor over any text and BrowseAloud will read the highlighted text aloud, said WMATA.

Here at METRO, our Web site has been designed to be accessible to the visually impaired. If you are a Mac user, software that reads aloud text is preinstalled in your computer. You can select the type of voice (bubbly or not) and the gender. If you use a PC, you will need to buy software, such as JAWS, to hear text read aloud.

"We hope people with all disabilities will use both MACS and MACS-Web (our automated computer system) to review their trips, cancel any they don't want and make trips that are in their history," said Mary Ann Dendor, ADA administrator at METRO.

Click here to read that story.

Romance and love can happen anywhere - and recently, an attorney who rides the bus in Chicago read a life-changing document at a bus stop.

It was an ad at a bus shelter that said in big, bold letters: "Rachel! I love you! Let's be a team forever! Will you marry me? XOXO, Eric."

Rachel Clark arrived at the bus stop last Wednesday and didn't notice it until her soon-to-be fiancé, engineer Eric Anderson, who was standing behind the sign, urged Clark to read it.

"I started giggling and laughing going, ‘Yes, yes!'" Clark recalled.

Anderson had wanted to propose in an unusual way and when he saw the available ad space, called the company that manages Chicago's bus shelters. He couldn't afford the $3,000 monthly fee, but company officials gave him a break for love, offering a discounted rate for one week. Read more here.

Sometimes bus shelter ads can alter your life forever.

Cutting Crime by Meeting Neighbors

Mary Sit — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:30:00 GMT

It's a simple concept: Get out on your front porch and meet your neighbors. Maybe throw a few burgers on the grill and share a meal.

It's called National Night Out, a national program designed to promote crime and drug prevention activities in neighborhoods. Sponsored by

The National Association of Town Watch, the night is observed on the first Tuesday of each August, but in Texas, because of our sweltering summers, we observe it the first Tuesday in October.

Here at METRO, we'll mark tomorrow by a display of some of our more unusual crime-fighting equipment. The event is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

You'll get to meet our bomb-fighting unit, including our robot outfitted with a camera and arm that can grasp and turn over objects.

"The robot is designed to go into hazardous situations where you don't want to commit a person," said MPD Officer Harold Hewlett, who is coordinating the lobby event.

The bomb truck used by our Special Operations Response Team (SORT) will be on display outside our main building at 1900 Main St., along with our Swift Water Rescue Boat.

We'll also have a four-legged, furry officer available for you to meet - one of our K-9 officers. METRO's K-9 officers specialize in either bomb detection or drug detection.

Hewlett said he hopes neighbors will get out and meet each other tomorrow night - along with the constables who patrol those neighborhoods.

"Let's hope this forms a bond so folks won't be so afraid to call the police when they have a problem. Folks just don't want to get involved with the police. It's always a negative situation - you're receiving a ticket or you're the victim of a crime," said Hewlett. "The important part is letting people know how they can be a part of the system that not only prevents crime but helps to apprehend."

Hewlett's tip to keeping your street safe: "If you see something that doesn't look right, don't be afraid to call the local law enforcement agency and let them know."

And if you are on one of our trains or buses and you see suspicious activity, say something. Dial #MPD on your cell phone.

Ray LaHood ended yesterday with a call for action.

The two-day summit addressed the dangers of text messaging and other distractions behind the wheel and included senior transportation officials, safety advocates, law enforcement experts and academics. It also featured young people and families whose loved ones were victims of distracted driving.

Today, LaHood said the conference managed to create a critical mass of people who believe distracted driving must be stopped, but it was time to take action. On Wednesday, President Obama signed an executive order, banning all federal employees form texting while driving on government business, driving a government vehicle, or driving in their personal cars while using a government-issued cell phone.

On his blog, LaHood outlined more action steps his department will be doing:

Permanently restrict cell phones and other electronic devices on rail operations.
Ban text messaging and restrict the use of cell phones by truck drivers and interstate bus operators.
Strip bus drivers from their commercial driver's license if they are convicted of texting while driving.
Encourage state and local governments to make distracted driving a part of state highway plans

"We won't fix this problem overnight, but we are going to raise awareness and sharpen the consequences," wrote LaHood on his blog. "In the end, however, we cannot simply legislate this problem away...Driving while distracted should feel wrong - just as driving while intoxicated now feels wrong to most American drivers."

Treasury Closing Early Wednesday

Mary Sit — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:42:00 GMT

A reminder: If you're coming here to take care of METRO Q®Fare Card business and need to go to our Treasury department - now called Revenue Operations - it is moving.

Tomorrow - Wednesday, Sept. 30 - the department will close early at 2 p.m.

It will reopen on Thursday, Oct. 1 in its new location on the first floor inside the RideStore. Hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"To better serve our customers, we have relocated our Revenue Operations (Treasury) to the RideStore," said Nicole Adler, revenue marketing associate. "Revenue Operations is there to replace lost and stolen Q Cards. If patrons have any issues with Web reloading or the correct balance on their Q Card, they can come to Revenue Operations inside the RideStore."

We hope you'll enjoy the new design of our RideStore, where one-stop shopping should make it more convenient for you.

city of Houston and the East End community, found a new home for the façade of the old Sterling Laundry and Cleaning Co. at 4819 Harrisburg.

The laundry facility is located a few feet away from the construction now going on for the light-rail line.

After meetings with Council Members Sue Lovell, Melissa Noriega and Ed Gonzalez - along with county officials, METRO staff and East End community leaders - the perfect answer was reached.

‘We respected that the community felt this building was important, and we wanted to do our best to supports its efforts," said Kim Williams, associate vice president of corporate programs at METRO.

METRO offered conceptual designs, engineering and pricing for various options - and the community accepted a solution that would remove the clock tower and later resurrect it at Eastwood Park.

Last week, METRO staff removed the clock tower. Then with the aid of the Greater East End Management District, the façade was transported and stored to a facility offered by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership. It will be stored there until it is later moved to the park.

METRO has made a financial commitment to help move the clock tower to the park, where it will be used to create a permanent monument or gateway to the park.

NYC Transit buses. Roaches have invaded city buses, and it's the high season for the repulsive creatures.

Although the buses are swept nightly and floor, windows, seats and exteriors periodically washed, the shortage of bus cleaners at the Big Apple's MetropolitanTransit Authority has strained the cleaning staff. The agency said it has hired an entomologist to improve its extermination process and will hire 40 new bus cleaners. Read more here.

Here at METRO, our buses are cleaned nightly. Click here to watch a documentary on what happens to our buses at night when most of you are asleep. "We have budgeted 159 cleaners for our buses and eight for our 18 trains," says Gwen Johnson, a marketing spokesperson for operations. "Our buses may have 10 people at a time working on it. Cleaners will get on it to clean it while it's in the fuel line."

Every night, the buses are swept and wiped down. On a rotational basis, they are soaped down and washed by our automatic bus wash. Less than every 30 days, they go through maintenance, including detailing.

"METRO is very environmentally friendly, and we're are on a rotation to clean exteriors. If mud or oil are on the buses, we will clean it immediately," says Johnson.

And as far as cockroaches go?

"We have a proactive program for roach problems. That's not to say you're not going to get a fly or bug. This is Houston. But we're not getting complaints about roaches," says Johnson.

Johnson, who stayed up all night to watch what happens to buses during the taping of our documentary, says the routine is amazing.

"By 3 a.m., all the buses have been fueled and cleaned and checked and ready to go out. By 4 a.m.,operators are coming in for their pre-trip inspection," says Johnson. "They're very serious about what they do - they've very focused because the cleaners have only so much time to do a lot of work."