So why are they building that stupid Grand Parkway, which will induce more internal combustion motor activity, and generate more ozone? And they want to build it with Federal stimulus money?

Mary, a couple of things......

MAD ridership numbers and Metro projections before service began and the adjusted projections.  How long does this route have to prove itself before it gets the axe.  Also the costs involved with running this route.

Information on the QL service.  Will we ever see it?  Are the New Flyers still collecting dust after two years of sitting at West?  Will you scrap the TMC-Palm line for a Westheimer line?

Why did you sell off the classic bus fleet to Peterbuilt?  Are your finances that drained you need a firesale?

As long as people desire to have more babies (aka population growth), and Texas continues to offer an enviroment to live in with no state income tax and great weather, and people choose drive a PRT rather than use mass transit, then the Grand Parkway is a necessary development tool that will fuel the stimulation of ecomonic models to grow the economy.

Those who currently drive PRT vehicles are using the existing roads and the addition of a third loop will simple mean that many of us will now drive on a different road than before.

I did not count the "4th loop", Hwy 6 / 1960, because it is the only loop that was a foolish mistake and has led to congestive failure.

The Grand Parkway project WILL stimulate the economy far more than any mass transit line or converting HOV to HOT or fixing existing roads.

I still remember driving from ,y house at Kirkwood and Memorial up to clients in Champions Forest and having to weave and use a two lane street north up to around Tanner and then weave my way up.  It took half the day to travel round trip.

Now, that two lane road, is Beltway 8 that has a significant amount of our new office space, commercial properties and development.  I remember thinking, when they first talked about that beltway that it would be nice but that was all.  It has had a profound impact on movement for our area, expecially for offering faster ways to get to 45 North or South.

The proposed new light rail lines will essentially increase ozone thru the impact of restrictions to all other modes of PRT and bus movement.

The Main St line has doen little to stimulate the economy and the stimulus bill is supposed to be for stimulating growth, not for creating more governmental jobs (which are burdens on growth).  

The Grand will pay for inself with revenue from tolls as well as taxes-fees.

Mass transit still has yet to show anything close to a revenue generator and are reliant on sales taxes of goods and services not even related to the services provided.

My opinion on those who wish to make us denser and make us live in condos, apartments or townhomes, is that they should move out of their single family cookie cutter homes and move downtown or close to their work place (1-2 miles).

That's my viewpoint from living and working in Phila are, DC area, Boston area and Houston area (which I love the most).

I sure wish I had that "Guaranteed Ride Home" when METRO failed to run the last Saturday 102 trip last summer. I haven't used METROs weekend service since.

Real Quick...

mytransitblog.com :)  check it out and register. Send me some more ideas. I still have to add pictures an tweak a few things but it's fully functional.

DonL:

You're a dinosaur, man. There is no way that the sub-suburban development out by Grand Parkway is sustainable. There is no reason to waste money on that project -- it will be OBE -- overcome by events by 2015.

When the economy was clicking, gas was up to $4 a gallon in Houston and it's going to be up that high and then some come the economic turn-around. Do you really think that when the rest of the world becomes wealthy, when billions in China and India are lifted out of poverty, that they're just going to keep taking the bus? No way -- they're going to hop in their cars and burn the fuel we've been getting for a song for the last 100 years.

The US uses something like 50 percent of the world's yearly oil supply for 5 percent of the population. We do that because we build houses in the middle of no where out by Grand Parkway, Katy, the Woodlands, and Pearland. We did that because gas was cheap -- the next 50 years of your life are just not going to be like the last 50 years.

Some suggest that electric or ethanol-fueled cars are the answer, but the bottom line is that energy of all types is going to get more and more expensive and single-occupant cars use way too much of it to be sustainable.

As to the economic stimulus effects of transit -- you're just dead wrong that there's no impact. I'm sorry to hear that your father-in-law's property on Main isn't doing well, but he must be the only one. Downtown was a toilet for 30 years and now people actually live there, actually go down there at night. Your anecdotal experience is either a lie or an outlier.

Mary:

You said in the last posting, in response to numerous inquiries about QL 402, that Metro was working on getting Signature Bus Service out the door. Does this mean that QL 402 isn't going to happen?

What's going on with this service? How about a straight answer?

mytransitblog.com

I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Joannah

<a href="http://2gbmemory.net">http://2gbmemory.net</a>

I think these spam posts that always read the same could be filtered out pretty easily.

Wait---who is this Joannah person and didn't I read something like that before in another blog post?  F.Y.I., I'll be attending the Fresh Air Friday event.