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.
Commuters who ride public transit are rightfully concerned about catching swine flu.
In New York, a woman who didn't cover her mouth while coughing caught the ire of another woman. The two launched into a screaming match, the cougher spat on the other woman, and she in turn, pulled the hair of the cougher, dragging her to the floor of the train.
Lawrence Delevingne blogged about the incident on 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.
Today, feels like California.
On a beautiful, sunny, no-humidity day like today, it's a perfect day to try bi-modal commuting. Grab your bike, pedal to a bus stop, load it on a rack and ride METRO to your destination.
Since we started installing bike racks on our buses in late April 2007, more and more commuters are getting to where they need to go using bikes and buses.
In October, we had 6,728 bike boardings - a 14 percent increase over the same month a year ago.
"We are constantly increasing bike boardings on a monthly basis, as well as on a year-by-year comparison. I think that's really good," said 
Marie Turner, operations management analyst at METRO who studies the bike numbers. "More bike riders are utilizing the bike racks and bike storage in the bus luggage compartment."
Commuters on Park & Ride buses store their bicycles in the belly of the bus where luggage also goes.
Local buses have racks that can accommodate two bikes simultaneously.
Total bike boardings since we launched our bikes-on-buses program: 96,992.
Last month, the top ten bike boardings by route were: 20 Canal-Long Point; 44 Acres Home Ltd; 50 Heights-Harrisburg; 52 Hirsch-Scott; 56 Airline Limited; 65 Bissonnet; 77 M.L. King Ltd - Liberty; 81 Westheimer Sharpstown; 88 Hobby Airport; and 137 Northshore Limited.
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.
When texting while driving kills, Britons land in prison.
That's what happened to 22-year-old Phillipa Curtis, who received 21 months in a high-security women's prison for ramming her car into the rear end of a Fiat driven by Victoria McBride, 24, who had pulled over to the side of the road with a flat tire.
In the hour before the crash, Curtis had exchanged almost 24 messages with at least five friends, according to the New York Times. Read more 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?
Halloween is not just for young kids, anymore.
This year, Americans will spend $3.3 billion on Halloween costumes, masks and decorations, according to the 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.
If you want to find out exactly what's going on at METRO, our current condition and where we're headed, come listen to METRO Chairman 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:
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.
Commuters in Boston will soon see ads in subway cars promoting non-belief.
Later this month, subway trains will sport ads for an atheist group that is conveying its message of non-belief in Chicago, New York and New Jersey, according to the 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.
Cleveland pedestrians on crosswalks will soon hear a voice warning them that a bus is approaching, the first vocal alert system in the nation.
After two fatalities in which pedestrians were struck by a bus while at a crosswalk, the 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.
If you commute to the 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.
If you're not a lifelong resident of the Bayou City, you may not know this: Before METRO, there was Houtran. And long before Houtran, we were a city of streetcars.
Find out about METRO's history on Channel 55's 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.
METRO is launching a Spanish-language talk show called Enfoque METRO.
The mini-talk show - about 15 minutes - makes its debut today on Comcast's Channel 17, Houston Media Source. The purpose of the show is to highlight METRO's new projects and developments and inform the Spanish-speaking public.
Enfoque METRO translates to "Focus on METRO."
"The title can also be understood to be a focus on all the things the agency is doing," said Carolina Mendoza, the host and producer, who is also our media specialist. "Another way to look at is - METRO is in focus with on-going transportation issues and in tune with our riders' issues."
The first show features Danicel Whitaker, a native of Puerto Rico, who is METRO's deputy director of revenue. Whitaker explains where to get the METRO Q® Fare Card, how to use it and the benefits of using one. 
Whitaker also mentions METRO's efforts to reach the Hispanic community through print ads, radio commercials and pamphlets distributed to key locations in the Hispanic community.
"We are very pleased to be able to convey important information through our new talk show, Enfoque METRO. This episode is a good way to tell the Hispanic community about the Q Card and our other services," said Whitaker.
Click on the link below to watch the show.
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.
Sometimes too much of a good thing can be dangerous.
Consider the automobile. Decades after Henry Ford designed the Model T, car manufacturers are building hybrid-electric cars that are so quiet, they are considered dangerous to pedestrians.
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.
If you have Spanish-speaking friends, pass the word: The Spanish version of RideMetro.org is up and running.
It was under construction for the past few months, while we updated the pages to this new system with a new vendor.
Simply click on En Español and it will take you to that exact page in Spanish. Techies call it "context sensitive page switching."
For users, it means the same page in Spanish pops up, rather than directing you to a Spanish-language home page, where you then have to navigate to the page you were on in English.
"Translations.com is one of the few companies that can actually provide the translations the way we have set it up. They have real people translating the site. They can customize their turnaround time to what we need," said Jesse Quintanilla, METRO's Web designer.
Check it out, and enjoy!
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.
Here at METRO, we've had a wedding on the rail and a romance blossom into marriage when two strangers met each other at a bus stop. 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.
Calling all students: Now's the time to renew your METRO Q® Fare Card.
Students who are in kindergarten through 12th grade must renew their Q Cards, which expired on Sept. 30.
Students - or their parents or caregivers - must come to the RideStore with one of the following documents: a current school ID, class schedule, enrollment form or a report card on school letterhead.
Active student Q cards total 9,000 - and as of Oct. 1, we have processed an average of 560 cards per day. 
This Saturday, the RideStore at 1900 Main St. will be open from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. to make it easier to process your student Q Card.
Regular RideStore hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.
We've set up a table in the lobby in front of the RideStore to offer express service for students this week. Today, there were no lines, and students were processed within minutes.
Pictured to the left are three METRO staffers who were processing student Q Cards today: Angelia Jermany, RideStore sales associate; Nicole Adler, revenue marketing associate; and Trina Thomas, retail sales associate.
"It's important to METRO for our students to continue to use and learn more about our Q Card program and benefit from our 5 for 50 loyalty program, as well as the 50 percent discount," said Danicel Whitaker, deputy director of revenue. "We've had great success with the student program, and are looking to expand it."
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.
The Distracted Driving Summit called by Secretary of Transportation 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."
Read more here.
If you're a METRO customer, you know that since April 2008, there have been only two ways to pay - the METRO Q® Fare Card or cash. So far, the METRO Q Card has been received by the public well.
But what's the future of the smart card? Jeff Linton, director of revenue, tells us just how smart the METRO Q Card can be - and tells us what other transit agencies are doing.
Click below to watch the latest edition of METRO Matters.
http://www.ridemetro.org/News/Broadcast/METROMatters.aspx
You can also watch it on Comcast Channel 19 at these times:
Sun 10/4/09 3:45 p.m.
Wed 10/7/09 5:00 p.m.
Fri 10/9/09 6:15 p.m.
Mon 10/12/09 8:15 p.m.
Thu 10/15/09 9:30 p.m.
Sat 10/17/09 3:45 p.m.
Mon 10/19/09 9:30 p.m.
Wed 10/21/09 6:15 p.m.
Fri 10/23/09 12:30 p.m.
Tues 10/27/09 6:45 p.m.
Thu 10/29/09 7:30 p.m.
Sat 10/31/09 8:00 p.m.
A section of the old Savoy Hotel is scheduled to be demolished between 6 p.m. Friday and 11 p.m. Sunday, Oct 4.
The historic, seven-story hotel, now an eyesore with visible cracks on one façade, is located at 1616 Main St. between Pease and Leeland.
During the demolition, rail service will be stopped between the UH Downtown Station and the Downtown Transit Center northbound platform.
Trains traveling in and out of downtown will run from the DTTC southbound platform. If you are traveling northbound into downtown, take the train at the DTTC southbound platform.
We'll also operate Rail Shuttles - buses which will run every 15 minutes if you are traveling between DTTC and UH-Downtown stations.
Regular rail service will operate between the Fannin South Station and the DTTC southbound platform.
Normal rail service is scheduled to resume on Monday at 4 a.m.
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.
A 1930-era building with a distinctive clock tower was purchased by METRO about two years ago with plans to demolish the building, making way for the East End light-rail line.
Community representatives wanted to save the clock tower - and recently METRO found a way to do so.
The agency, along with the 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.
The next time you're tempted to sneak a Starbucks on board a bus or furtively snack on a food bar while leaving work on a Park & Ride bus, consider this: Food crumbs and spilled drinks attract roaches.
Let's help keep METRO's buses and trains clean by following our rule of no food or drink on-board.
Pity the New Yorkers who commute on 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."
Carmakers are thinking small - prompted by the environment and today's austere economy where every penny counts.
Today, Ford Motor Co. unveiled the Figo - its first small car to be manufactured in India. The four-door hatchback is named after an Italian word for "cool" and will be sold first in India, and later exported to international markets.
Small cars make up 73 percent of the 1.22 million cars sold in India. Read more from the Wall Street Journal.
And while Ford has set up shop in India to help corner the emerging Southeast Asian auto market, India is coming to New York. The Reva Electric Car Co. of India said it is planning to build a multi-million dollar automobile plant in upstate New York, where it will build battery-operated cars.
Reva now produces the two-seat EV, marketed under G-Wiz in Britain and the Reva in India). Click here to read more.
In the meantime, Fisker Automotive has received $529 million in low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy to produce the Karma, a high-end, plug-in hybrid. Fisher will launch the car next summer, and it should retail for about $88,000.
Fisker says more than 1,500 customers have already placed orders. The car's plug-in hybrid technology operates exclusively on electric power for the first 50 miles. Then the gas engine turns a generator, which charges the car's lithium-ion battery during driving.
The Karma will be able to surge from 0 to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds and reach a maximum speed of 125 mph. Read more here.
The METRO Board of Directors approved a $1.26 billion budget for fiscal year 2010 at yesterday's board meeting, while keeping the operating budget flat.
Our fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
The bulk of the budget covers the METRO Solutions program of building light-rail lines.
The operating budget remains at FY09's level of $330 million.
The components of the FY10 budget include:
- Operating budget - $330 mm
- General Mobility Fund - $152 mm
- Capital budget - $683 mm
- Debt service - $99 mm
The business plan for FY2010 features 16 initiatives that improve service, efficiencies, and cash flow or decrease costs.
The FY2010 budget includes new bus service, including the 288 Brazoria Park & Ride in Pearland; Missouri City where the 262 Westwood will extend along Highway 59 and attract commuters along Texas Highway 6; and a new local route, the Eldridge Crosstown, which will run north and south on Eldridge Parkway between Westheimer and the Energy Corridor District.
METRO will also strengthen new routes added in FY09: the Pasadena Park & Ride, the 402 Bellaire Quickline, the 32 Renwick Crosstown and 426 Swiftline.
We will be adding 100 new hybrid-electric buses to our fleet, along with 100 new bus shelters.
METRO Solutions will cost $498 million in FY10, and debt service payments will be $99 million.
Factors that helped METRO keep its operational budget flat include locking in its diesel fuel at a price lower than last fiscal year and eliminating 118 staff positions that had been budgeted but many of which had gone unfilled.
METRO receives 1 percent of the sales tax and allocates 25 percent of that to the General Mobility Fund, which finances transit-related projects for surrounding cities and Harris County.
To be on the conservative side, Metro budgeted sales tax revenues the same as the prior year, $481 million.
We will post the summary of the budget on our Web site soon.
More and more cities and states are passing laws to curb distracted driving.
Here in Texas, it has been against the law since Sept. 1 to use your cell phone while driving in a school zone unless it's a hands-free device or an emergency.
Utah has the toughest law on the books regarding cell phones and texting. If caught, drivers who text can face up to 15 years behind bars.
Distracted driving is the topic of a summit called by the U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. It has attracted so much attention that the summit - on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 - will be broadcast live by webcast.
You'll also be able to submit questions online for each panel discussion. Click here for more details. 
National leaders will examine the problem of distracted driving and discuss regulations and best practices.
"We must act now to stop distracted driving from becoming a deadly epidemic on our nation's roadways," said LaHood in a statement. "This summit will give safety leaders from across the nation a forum to identify, target and tackle the fundamental elements of this problem."
The panel topics include the definition of distracted driving and inattention, the risks, the technology, a review of laws and enforcement to address distracted driving and public awareness and education.
Starting Oct. 1, if you lose an item and it's found, you will need to go to a new location to retrieve it.
METRO's Lost and Found department is moving from its current location at 1001 Travis to 1220 McCarty off I-10 East.
That's where our Central Distribution Center is located, and that's where all lost items - except for bicycles - will be stored. Bikes are stored at the bus operating facilities.
You can continue to call our call center to see if your lost item has been turned in. The number is: (713) 658-0854. The call center is open Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
If we have your item, you may pick it at the Central Distribution Center during these hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
So why are we moving Lost & Found?
"We have very few people who lose items and even fewer who reclaim them," says Art Jackson, director of transportation programs. "Less than 10 people a day come in to pick up items. We have to staff the office. We also incur costs to have couriers pick up the items at the different bus operating facilities. We thought it would be a more prudent way to manage taxpayer dollars."
Once Lost & Found is moved, a METRO parts truck that normally visits each of our facilities once or twice a day will be able to pick up lost items on its regular run - and then deliver them to the Central Distribution Center, where the staff is already accustomed to taking inventory.
"People can still call the main number and still be able to speak with the same customer service representative to see if your lost item were found on the bus route or rail," says Jackson.
If you're driving east on I-10, exit at McCarty, then turn right on McCarty. You'll see a big METRO facility with a sign. If you take the bus from downtown, take the 48 Navigation to get there. If you're not departing from downtown, use our Trip Planner to find the right bus or call Customer Information Center at (713) 635-4000.
"Although we recognize that the new location may not be as centrally located, we have a responsibility to take a look at how we can handle business in the smartest, most cost-efficient manner possible," explains Jackson. "Considering the few number of customers impacted by this, it's just not fiscally responsible to continue operating in the manner we are presently."
The most commonly lost items? Small items such as badges, books, umbrellas and cell phones are left on buses and rail.
More and more of our riders are getting from here to there by using both bus and bike.
Our bike boardings have soared 147 percent from October 2008 through August 2009, compared to the same period a year ago.
Total bike boardings for the first 11 months of FY 2009 (October 2008 through August 2009) were 55,743, compared to 22,529 for the same period a year ago.
Even in our almost unbearable dog days of summer, we saw growth in commuters biking around town. We had 7,203 boardings in August, a 2 percent spurt from the month before. In July 2009, we saw 7,047 bike boardings - an 11 percent increase from the month before.
But some commuters are forgetting to take their bikes with them when they arrive at their destination.
Our Lost & Found department reports we currently have 32 bikes in our inventory, unclaimed. From August 2008 to August 2009, 66 bikes were taken to Lost & Found and only 22 bikes were claimed.
Bikes that are not claimed after 30 days are donated to charity.
Have you ever boarded your bike on our buses? Why do you bus and bike? For pleasure? To commute to work? For exercise or to help the environment? Tell us about your experience. We'd like to hear from you.
Click here for a detailed guide on how to mount your bike on our bus rack.
If you're new to commuting by bikes, check out Commute by Bike, where you'll find articles on how to deal with aggressive drivers or a guide to bike commuting for slackers.
The thousands of commuters who pass through one of the busiest subway stations in New York will now be greeted with a dizzying array of bold colors splashed against a wall - one of the last commissioned pieces by the late Sol LeWitt, an American conceptual artist.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority introduced the wall art to the public last week. It is a huge permanent installation of porcelain tile whose deeply intense colors of blue, green, yellow, orange, purple and red could only be created by artisans in Madrid, reports the New York Times.
Entitled "Whirls and Twirls," the piece faces a double-wide stairway and landing at 60th Street. The 250 porcelain tiles cover a space that is 53 feet wide and 11 feet high. The photo posted here appeared in the NYT and was taken by Angel Franco.
The project started five years ago as part of the station's $108 million makeover. LeWitt was able to choose any location in the station for his artwork.
The artist, who died two years ago, will have two more of his works installed later this year. They will be circular floor pieces with compass-rose designs.
Here at METRO, we are working on station art on the light-rail lines we're building. Nineteen of 22 winning artists have been assigned stations where their art will appear. The artists were selected from more than 250 applicants, including international ones. We wanted our station art to be created mostly by local artists - and 86 percent of the artists are local.
Funding and budgets still need to be finalized before the remaining three artists are assigned stations. Our goal is to have art grace every station we're building.
Click here to read more about our Arts in Transit program.
A year ago today, most of us were anxiously watching weather reports, tracking the path of Ike.
We've got two more months of hurricane season, and if you've grown lax about preparations, this is a good time to check your supplies and update your emergency plans.
Our METRO Responds site offers updates on our services. You'll also find emergency phone numbers and checklists of what to stock.
For example, your list of supplies should include pliers to turn off utilities, a dust mask, a flashlight and a battery-powered or hand-crank radio.
If you have kids, consider adding to your emergency supply kit books, games or puzzles. Replace them to make sure they're still age-appropriate. Don't forget matches in a waterproof container, pet food for your pet, and a complete change of clothing for every member of your family.
Do a favor for friends or loved ones with special needs, and pre-register them for emergency evacuation. If they moved since last year, update their address and phone number.
Click here to pre-register on-line.
Getting prepared now when there's nothing heading our way is the best time to get started. Hopefully, we'll get through this season without a hurricane.
In Honolulu, if you stink and climb on The Bus, the city's trademark yellow and white bus, you won't get kicked off.
A bill introduced last week to ban odors brought onto the transit system "if they unreasonably disturb others" was squashed last Friday by Honolulu's city council.
The city council members who introduced the bill said they believed it was important to address this issue as the city builds its first light-rail line.
Bill 59-09 would not have allowed riders to bring "onto the transit property odors that unreasonably disturb others or interfere with their use of the transit system, whether such odors arise from one's person, clothes, articles, accompanying animal or any other source."
The bill also would have prohibited spitting, urinating and being intoxicated.
Read more here. The graphic above is from the Web site of The Bus in Honolulu.
The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union weighed in on the matter, arguing the bill is burdensome and too broad.
The Honolulu Police Department expressed concerns that activities subject to citations would be considered criminal activities under the bill - such as eating, listening to music sans headphones and drinking alcoholic beverages.
The police said it would be difficult to enforce the bill, especially the odors issue, which they called somewhat subjective.
Councilman Rod Tam, who co-introduced the bill, said he modeled it after a passenger code of conduct in King County, Washington (Seattle area).
In Houston, it would be hard to enforce an odor ordinance when more than half the year is steamy and sticky.
"We do not have a code of conduct for passengers, as was proposed in the Honolulu scenario," said Tim Kelly, METRO's assistant chief of police.
In the meantime, city ordinances prohibit eating, drinking, and playing audible music on a bus or train. A state law bans smoking on board transit vehicles, said Kelly.
Use common courtesy when on public transit. Click here to read a past blog entry on this.
Calling all commuters: If you ride METRO, turn on your video camera and tell why you commute.
The American Public Transportation Association is sponsoring a "Dump the Pump" video contest in which the grand prize winner will receive a year of free rides and an iPod Touch.
So create a video and tape yourself telling why you dumped the pump. Is it to save the planet, save money? Reduce stress? Use your commute time to read or sleep? Be creative with you video, then upload it to YouTube.
The video with the most impact will win the grand prize. The second place winner will get six months of free transit and third place, three months of free transit. APTA will provide the free transit.
Whether you are a new transit user or a long-time rider, get out your video camera and tell why you ride. Deadline is Sept. 18.
Click here to see other "Dump the Pump" videos on YouTube. For complete contest rules, click here.
A recent survey conducted by KHOU-TV and KUHF - Houston Public Radio asked people who said they were likely to vote in the next mayoral election what top issues they were most concerned about. Crime ranked No. One and transit came in second.
And 59 percent of respondents approved of the job METRO is doing.
Click the link below to watch Channel 11's report.
http://www.khou.com/video/index.html?nvid=394198
Click here to listen to KHUF's report.
This Sunday, METRO is joining the celebration of Fiesta Patrias, a national Mexican holiday celebrating Mexico's independence from Spain.
The celebration will occur at Reliant Park , and you'll find METRO at a giant booth - complete with one of our new Quickline buses on display. We'll be at Exhibit Hall D, next to McDonald's in Booth B2.
Drop by, and register for a chance to win one of 15 goodie bags. We'll give one away every hour, but during peak hours of 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., we'll be giving two to three per hour. You do not have to be present to win.
Inside the goodie bags, you'll find two Dynamo tickets, two tickets to the Houston Museum of Natural Science (permanent exhibits), an umbrella, briefcase, totebag, VIP pen/pencil set - and a METRO Q® Fare Card preloaded with $10, courtesy of Univision Radio.
"We're hitting a different angle where it will be relaxing," said Tom Pham, METRO's advertising account executive. "Visit our booth, get on the bus, check out the interior. This will be more relaxing than just handing out items."
We'll have our booth stocked with brochures, too, so you can find out about METRO's services.
In addition to climbing aboard a new hybrid-electric Quickline bus, you'll be able to meet Abuelita, the grandma and face of our Hispanic campaign.
Our booth will be open from noon to 6 p.m. See you there....¡Acompáñanos!
Ten METRO staffers joined the University of Houston in its Commuter Green Fair, signing up hundreds of students on the main campus for a METRO Q® Fare Card.
"Here at the university, we have challenges, and we struggle with accessibility, as far as parking," said Emily Messa, assistant vice president for university services. "We wanted to reach out to our students - 36,000 and counting - and help them find out the bus routes from their home to campus. And if they live on campus and don't have a car, help them get to the grocery store on METRO or Wal-Mart."
Messa, known as "The Green Commuter Doctor" sat down with students and handed out "prescriptions" that showed them exactly how to get from Point A to Point B, using METRO.
"We'd plot the route out for them on Google Transit and give that to them - and say, ‘Here's your prescription.' I had a cure for people. They wanted to know their options. Were they flexible? Where do they live? Is mass transit a solution? Car pool?"
While the doctor helped students solve their commuting problems, METRO staffers - from revenue and from Community Outreach - helped students get new Q cards and renew old ones.
"It went very well. It was very well-organized," said Joe Garcia, community outreach rep. "We're helping UH go green."
Messa said the commute to UH from students, faculty and staff makes up 51 percent of the university's carbon footprint. "Just think what a difference we could make to the community if we could get our students, faculty and staff to be green commuters," said Messa.
To give students an incentive, UH said it is putting $5 on each new Q Card. "We want them to try it. Once they have the money, they almost feel it's an obligation," said Messa.
METRO gave free back-to-school backpacks to students who signed up. The Q Cards will be processed here and then delivered to campus. When students pick up their Q Card, they'll also get a free flash drive. 
"I was stopped today by several students who thanked METRO for coming out. At the fair, fulltime students could get their Q Card. We were helping students renew their Q Card. That was a big time savings. Previously, they had to go to the RideStore. They were very appreciative of that," said Messa.
More campus parking lots are being used to construct buildings, giving more impetus to the university's drive to go green.
Messa says students who use METRO can ride in air-conditioned comfort and use the time to study for a test or catch up on homework.
Going green, she says, is the right thing to do. "It's working on mitigating congestion on our streets and on our parking lots. It's helping people get here in a less stressed-out way," said Messa.
If you visit our RideStore this month, you'll see construction and remodeling going on.
Today, we started redesigning our RideStore so we can consolidate three functions in one: the RideStore, Treasury and METROLift.
"The build-out is to better assist our customers. We're putting all our service in one place. It's a one-stop shop," said Danicel Whitaker, METRO's deputy director of revenue.
Treasury will now be known as Revenue Operations.
Business will be conducted as usual at the current locations (Revenue Operations on the second floor) during construction.
Hours at the RideStore and Revenue Operations (Treasury) will remain the same during construction:
RideStore 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Revenue Operations (Treasury) 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Once construction is completed, if you want to get a METRO Q® Fare Card or obtain a discounted Q Card (seniors, students and the disabled), you only need to come to one place - the RideStore.
The new RideStore will be the place to go if your Q Card is lost or stolen. If you had a registered Q Card, you'll be able to replace your Q Card, and we'll reload your balance.
And if you need METROLift services - for a discounted Q Card with a photo or for the interview process - you will only need to go to the remodeled RideStore.
The window for Revenue Operations will be along the wall where the brochures have been located. During construction, the schedules will be behind the counter by the RideStore staff, who will be happy to give you one upon request. Later, the schedules will be out in the open again.
We expect to complete the remodeling by Oct. 1. The newly consolidated RideStore will operate Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In July, we celebrated the groundbreaking of two light-rail lines in the North and Southeast corridors.
While we're excited about the progress we're making toward light-rail, getting there - with all the construction - can be arduous if you live in that neighborhood or own a business there.
METRO is committed to making sure this process goes as smoothly as possible, keeping residents and businesses current with construction news.
Our next episode of METRO Matters features Kim Williams, associate vice president of corporate programs, who explains exactly what METRO is doing in the corridor offices to help surrounding neighbors.
Click here to watch.
If you prefer to view METRO Matters on your television screen, here's the schedule of when it airs on Houston Media Source, Channel 17 on Comcast.
Tue 9/1/09 6:15 p.m.
Fri 9/4/09 7:30 p.m.
Sat 9/5/09 1:30 p.m.
Tue 9/8/09 6:30 p.m.
Thu 9/10/09 9:00 p.m.
Sat 9/12/09 8:00 p.m.
Tue 9/15/09 4:15 p.m.
Sat 9/19/09 8:00 p.m.
Mon 9/21/09 9:45 p.m.
Wed 9/23/09 8:30 p.m.
Fri 9/25/09 7:30 p.m.
Wed 9/30/09 9:45 p.m.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science's extraordinary exhibit of China's terra cotta warriors has been attracting thousands of visitors who have viewed these historical finds - exhibited for the first time outside of China.
Fourteen life-size warriors - along with more than 100 objects - were buried in the tomb complex of China's First Emperor, Quin Shi Huang, and were designed to protect him throughout eternity.
Last week, one of those warriors escaped and rode METRORail. Well, he wasn't exactly from another century, but he looked like he could have time-traveled from that era.
Chi Chang Zheng (know as "Jarry" here) , an actor from Taiwan, was sent by the Chinese government to accompany this exhibit. Last week, METRO shot and produced a video to help promote riding the rail to the museum. METRO is a partner with members of the Houston Museum District to encourage people to ride the rail.
The METRO crew spent about three hours with Jarry, starting at the museum and ending at the shops at Houston Pavilions, where Jarry enjoyed being a tourist.
"It was extremely fun," said Rob Fritsche, who wrote, produced and directed the spot. "People were following Jarry like a rock star. He had an entourage."
While the ancient warriors were made of clay, the flesh-and-bones real one, made himself look like one with a costume of industrial plastic, which he designed and constructed himself.
The exhibit runs until Oct. 18. Don't miss Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor. You can find a coupon for $10 off admission in our buses and trains - which makes an adult ticket cheaper than a discounted childor senior ticket.
Meet the dramatic soldiers....and click the link below to meet the one who escaped.
http://www.ridemetro.org/AboutUs/MTTV/MTTV.aspx
Riders of the 32 Renwick Crosstown said they were satisfied with the service METRO rolled out in June.
Most of the respondents to a survey conducted on July 21, 23 and 28 said they were riding the 32 Renwick Crosstown to travel from work to home. Sixty-one of the respondents said they transferred from another bus to ride the Renwick while 46 percent said they transferred from Renwick to another bus.
"The whole purpose of Renwick was to connect a bunch of east-west routes in areas where they were never connected before," said Darla Bell, manager of strategic analysis. "This survey was to find out whether people were using those connections, and secondarily, how they found out about it."
The 32 Renwick Crosstown connects seven of our top 20 bus routes, along with four additional routes.
It serves 111 multi-family residential developments, 69 retail/supermarket locations, 17 religious gathering places, 15 educational institutions, as well as medical and health locations.
Eighty-three percent of the riders surveyed said they were very satisfied with the new route and 14 percent said they were "somewhat satisfied."
About one in five of those surveyed were new riders to METRO and said they found out about the 32 Renwick Crosstown from friends and family. Thirteen percent found out about the new route through the city of Houston's Women, Infants & Children's program at the Southwest center, located along the route.
Most of the respondents - 77 percent - said their primary language at home was Spanish, compared to English at 15 percent. The surveys were bilingual and passed out to riders by METRO staff.
When asked how we could improve service, most of the respondents asked for weekend service. The 32 Renwick runs Monday through Friday.
It is part of the METRO Solutions plan to add bus routes to our system.
Imagine stepping into a taxi or a bus and getting to your destination - without a driver.
If that sounds futuristic, the future is coming soon to London's Heathrow Airport.
These futuristic driverless vehicles are being tested now at Heathrow where trial runs are going from the business parking lot to Terminal 5. The battery-powered pods carry up to four passengers and their luggage, traveling at 25 miles per hour on their own narrow road system.
The system cost about $41 million to install, and if it succeeds, officials will spend another $327.7 million to expand it to transport travelers from hotels to terminals, replacing coach buses.
The inventor, Professor Martin Lowson, says this automatic vehicle has safety systems built in. "The vehicles control themselves, according to a pre-determined schedule, and then on top of that, there is an automatic vehicle protection system so that if things aren't doing what they are meant to do, it stops," said Lowson, who worked on the Apollo space program here in the U.S.
Passengers step inside, use a touch screen to key in their destination, and then enjoy the ride. 
"It takes you where you want to go on the best available route, nonstop," said Lowson, who has been developing this system since 1995.
The Ultra Personal Pod cars aren't meant to replace buses, trains or taxis completely -but give people an alternative to fighting traffic jams. It would also take more vehicles off the roads and out of parking lots.
Read more here.
A Midwest transit agency is trying to lure new riders with a simple but powerful benefit: "U txt. We drive."
The new marketing campaign was unveiled by SouthWest Transit, a Minnesota-based agency that serves Eden Prairie, Chanhassen and Chaska. The campaign's goal is to show how public transit can boost personal quality time while also helping the public.
The SouthWest logo appears below the ad copy. Officials said that by leaving the driving to the transit agency, texters can be safer - as well as other drivers on the road, who don't have to worry about distracted drivers.
"Originally, this campaign was to be targeted to students who ride our buses to the U of M," said Len Simich, SouthWest Transit's CEO to METRO Magazine. "However, after...learning that 53 percent of all texters are 35 or older, we decided to begin our campaign immediately and use it with all our riders."
Here at METRO, our drivers will concentrate on the road while you can sit back and text to your heart's content. A strict new cell phone policy at METRO ensures that operators will not be using their cell phones while driving - and in fact, no driver's cell phone is allowed in sight. Violation is immediate dismissal.
But you, the rider, can stay safe and text while enjoying the ride.
Starting next Monday, commuters who travel between the Texas Medical Center and the Southeast Transit Center will have a faster way to get there.
It's called TMC Swiftline, METRO's newest express service.
The 426 TMC Swiftline will have five stops between the two transit centers, shaving 18 stops that are on the regular local 26 Outerloop/27 Interloop.
It will be eight minutes faster - or 25 percent faster - than the local bus traveling between those two transit centers.
"This is a connection between two of our busiest transit centers, Southeast Transit Center and TMC Transit Center. We feel there could be some early rider demand between the Southeast Transit Center and the Texas Medical Center, which is such a major employer," said Pat Porzillo, project manager of Swiftline and associate vice president of commuter rail. "This is basically a pilot project to see if we can be successful on the early implementation of this portion, which will eventually become a Quickline."
"We see the overall Quickline project between the Texas Medical Center and the Palm Center connecting our Southeast light-rail line and Main Street line as being a great route for connectivity," said Porzillo.
TMC Swiftline will come with new hybrid Orion buses equipped with bicycle racks and security cameras. The 426 Swiftline buses and stations will also be branded with a Swiftline logo.
The TMC Swiftline will operate during peak hours from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.
It will have the following five stops: TMC Transit Center, MD Anderson, Ringness, St. Dominic/Grand (TMC administration building), and SE Transit Center.
We'll conduct a survey the last week of September to see how satisfied customers are. But in the meantime, hop on the TMC Swiftline, try it out - and let us know on this blog what you think.
Good news in our plans to build the North and Southeast lines: The Federal Transit Administration has just approved our Final Design on these two lines.
This approval means we have just completed the final prerequisite toward entering something called a Full Funding Grant Agreement on both lines. And achieving that step signals the federal government's commitment to fund its part of the projects.
So what this approval entail?
It gives METRO permission to start preparing for construction. That includes utility relocation, right-of-way acquisition, development of detailed specifications and preparation of final construction plans.
The FTA noted in its letter that METRO had adequately defined the North and Southeast Corridor's project scope, cost estimate, schedule and potential risk areas. 
The letter also stated we had demonstrated the technical capacity and capability to construct and implement the projects, adding that METRO has sufficient technical and management resources to enter into final design work.
Last month, METRO issued a $121 million work order for the North and Southeast lines, including utility relocation work. The work order is a segment of a larger contract that allows for the initial spending of $632 million on the North, Southeast and East End light-rail lines.
All this construction is expected to result in 60,000 direct and indirect jobs. Small and local businesses are expected to up to $385 million in eligible contract work by the time four lines, including Uptown, are done.
The photos posted here show construction of the Red Line on Main Street.
If you tune in to any of the Spanish-language TV or radio stations, chances are you've met Abuelita, our newest fan of METRO. She's a fun, smart grandma who gets around the city - intrepidly- by riding METRO.
"Abuelita" is our campaign aimed at the Hispanic community.
"We are reaching out to the Hispanic audience to introduce them to METRO services and to increase ridership in the Hispanic community," said Raequel Roberts, associate vice president of marketing, media and corporate communications.
Click here to see Abuelita at a Dynamos game. You'll see a 30-second Spanish version and a 30-second English version.
Who is Abuelita? She's an actor we hired. But in real life, she rides METRO, and she's a grandma.
"We took the concept to focus groups. The abuelita is very well-respected in the Hispanic community. She is someone you would trust and listen to and is the center of the family," said Sydney Scardino, METRO copywriter, who worked on the campaign. "And she is a fun, smart woman who can get around and do everything she wants to do because she rides METRO."
Roberts says as far as she knows, this is the first METRO campaign targeted to the Hispanic community. On May 5 - Cinco de Mayo - we passed out brochures, inviting the Hispanic community to nominate their grandma.
If you want to nominate your abuelita, send us a story about your abuelita's travels aboard METRO, and e-mail it to abuelita@ridemetro.org. If your story is chosen, you and your abuelita will be invited to a special event in October, National Hispanic Heritage Month in which the Hispanic culture is celebrated.
Abuelita has made personal appearances at events around town, including at the launch of the 32 Renwick Crosstown. She'll be appearing at Fiestas Patrias at Reliant Center in early September.
Catch her on TV on Telefutura Channel 67 and Univision Channel 45. And on the radio at: KTJM La Raza; KEYH La Ranchera; KQBU Tu Musica; KLTN Estereo Latino and KLAT La Trernenda. She'll also be in print ads in La Subasta soon.
The campaign ends in September, then is scheduled to reappear next January.
Fox News is doing it. So is the Wall Street Journal. Dupont and British Petroleum and NBC Universal are, too.
They are all going green and helping the environment. Read more here from ABC News.
Count METRO as a company taking big steps to go green, too. We have embarked on green initiatives that will save energy - and save taxpayers thousands of dollars every year.
Here are some things we do to keep METRO green:
- Monitor and track utility consumption at each facility
- Carefully review utility invoices to identify errors such as overcharges
- Retrofit lighting systems with new, more efficient ones.
- Adjust temperature settings at facilities
- Recycle water used to wash our bus fleet
- Water lawns and landscaping areas on as-needed basis
- Review sprinkler systems to detect and repair leaks.
- Modify water sprinkler system schedule
- Install occupancy sensors in offices and conference rooms to reduce energy use in unoccupied areas
- Stop supplying Styrofoam cups in break rooms at 1900 Main and ask employees to use their own mugs
We're already beginning to save money. So far, we've reduced our water use by more than 5 percent and our gas consumption by more than 7 percent in the period from June 2008 to June 2009. 
We have also started working on an FY2010 plan that adopts the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Energy Star program.
Read Earth911.com to learn eight ways to green your office. Click here to find 10 easy ways to green your home.
Washington-area commuters who use bicycles as their main mode of transportation will soon have a much fancier place to park their bikes.
A $4 million Bike Transit Center is scheduled to open in October next to Union Station and will feature 150 enclosed bike racks - triple what is available at Union Station now, reports the Washington Post. (The photo above was taken by Bill O'leary for the WP).
The 1,700-square foot building will also sport dressing rooms, personal lockers, a bike repair shop and a retail shop that will sell bike accessories and drinks.
Access to the Bike Transit Center will cost riders $1 a day to get in and out from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. or annual membership of $100 a year and 24/7 access to bike racks.
"To leave your bike outside unattended and unsecured was a problem. We needed more capacity and more security," Jim Sebastian, the District Department of Transportation's bicycle program (DDOT) coordinator, told the Washington Post.
The center will be first one on the East Coast. The U.S. Department of Transportation paid for 80 percent; the balance was paid for by DDOT.
About 87,500 people now use bikes as their main way to get around town - and supporters hope this new Bike Transit Center will encourage more bike riders.
Read more here.
When a Boston trolley rear-ended another trolley in May, sending 49 people to the hospital, the cause turned out to be texting. The 24-year-old conductor was texting his girlfriend, reported the Boston Globe.
Last September, a Metrolink engineer in the Los Angeles area caused fatalities when he was texting a teen-ager. It was the nation's worst train crash in 15 years, killing 25 people, including the engineer. Read more here.
Clearly, texting while driving can be deadly.
To ensure a safe ride here at METRO, we have a strict cell phone policy for our bus operators. The policy states that "the use of cellular phones including hands-free and/or other electronic devices, except for the bus or rail radio, while operating a METRO vehicle, is prohibited and will result in termination of employment for the offender."
The policy refers to all METRO buses, trains, trucks and non-revenue vehicles (company cars driven by employees that do not pick up paying passengers).
Operators may not have their cell phones visible at all. They must be turned off and tucked away in a bag - out of sight and out of reach.
Should an emergency occur and the operator need to call the dispatcher, the operator should pull the bus to a safe location, set the brake, secure the bus, exit the bus and then make the call. This would be a rare and unusual circumstance.
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has championed the cause of no texting while driving, calling for a summit on distracted driving late next month. Read LaHood's announcement here.
The New York Times reports on pros and cons of laws that ban texting. For example, the Governors Highway Safety Association advocates no texting while driving, but opposes laws that can't be enforced. But safety advocates say laws can help change behavior, such as happened with seat belt laws.
Meanwhile, LaHood's summit is attracting a lot of attention.
"Everywhere I've gone since the announcement, people have been telling me the distracted driving horror stories they've witnessed or been victims of," writes LaHood on his blog, The Fast Lane. "Letting your concentration drift, for any reason, while driving, endangers your life and the lives of others."
The grandfather of nine grandchildren, LaHood also reminds readers that as back-to-school schedules gear up, it's time to take this message seriously.
Here in Houston, drivers need to change their habits when driving through school zones. A state law that goes into effect Sept. 1 prohibits drivers from using a wireless device or cell phone when they are driving through school zones when the lights are blinking.
What do you think? Should texting while driving be banned? If so, how enforceable is that? What about software that allows your speech to be converted to text and vice versa? Would that be less distracting?
Imagine this: You just landed a new job at the Texas Medical Center, but you are dreading the long trek from your home out in Katy.
Instead, you decide you'll share a ride - not just to save money but to keep our environment cleaner by keeping one more car off the road. You click on METRO Star and check out vanpooling.
Not only will you reduce your carbon footprint, you'll gain some free time as a passenger to catch up on reading or napping.
That's just one commute solution you can take to help clean our region's air.
You can share your solution - and pledge to take that solution the month of August - as part of Commute Solutions, a campaign sponsored by METRO and the Houston-Galveston Area Council. 
You're invited to attend a kick-off event tomorrow, Aug. 12, from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. at the Texas Medical Center Transit Center. Participate in "My Solution is..." campaign and register to win prizes.
Some more commute solutions you may want to consider and make a pledge to keep:
- Teleworking - work from home one or two days a week. Research shows this increases productivity and lowers absenteeism by allowing workers to work from the comfort of their home.
- Vanpooling - Leave your car at home and share a van to work.
- Mass transit - take a bus or train to work. One 40-foot bus takes about 58 cars off the road.
- Flextime - Use staggered work hours to avoid peak rush hour.
- Biking and walking - Board your bike on a bus and take two wheels instead of four to reach your destination.
- Maintain your vehicle - keep tires properly inflated, change your motor oil every 3,000 miles. A car that is not maintained can release as much as 10 times more emissions than a properly maintained vehicle.
Pledge to keep one of these solutions - or create your own. If you can't make it to our event tomorrow, go online and pledge. Click here to register your solution.
Three million passengers a day ride the London subway, known as the Tube or the Underground.
And one prize-winning artist has found a way to weave art and poetry into those rides to help break up what he calls the monotony of train announcements, reports The Los Angeles Times. (The photo on the left is by Andy Rain/EPA and appeared in the LAT).
So instead of hearing, "Please take your belongings with you," now passengers could hear a quote from William Shakespere, or a Swedish proverb, or a quote from Karl Marx.
Artist Jeremy Deller had initially proposed a day of no announcements at all on the train. Officials nixed that idea, so Deller suggested operators could read from a manual of quotes and witty sayings. This time Transport for London, which operates the Underground, agreed.
"I thought it would be nice to hear something with a higher meaning or a resonance with the traveler," Deller told the Los Angeles Times.
Here are some of the quotes: 
"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory." - Friedrich Engels.
"The afternoon knows what the morning never expected." - Swedish proverb.
"A throne is only a bench covered in velvet." - Napoleon Bonaparte.
"There's more to life than increasing its speed." - Mohandas Gandhi.
What do passengers think about the witty art? Some have welcomed the effort, while one asked for Valium, not poetry. Click here to read comments from London commuters.
The booklet of quotations was given to all 1,500 train operators of the Piccadilly Line, the subway's second busiest line. It's up to the operators to decide if they want to read from the booklet -and they can read whenever the mood strikes.
The METRO Police Department will be hiring eight officers and buying two - two four-legged officers, that is - thanks to federal stimulus funds it was awarded last week.
MPD was one of 15 transit agencies nationwide selected to receive money from a $78 million pot. The funding is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Transit Security Grant Program (TSGP). The 15 agencies will hire about 240 law enforcement officers to help the nation guard against acts of terrorism.
"This Recovery Act money will create critical law enforcement jobs that will help our nation prevent terrorist attacks," said Janet Napolitano, Department of Homeland Security secretary, in a statement
METRO will receive $3 million to hire additional officers, beefing up the current force of 185 officers and eight K-9 officers.
"Any additional resources will help us to make the system safer," said METRO's Assistant Chief of Police Tim Kelly. "Police officers are the backbone of what we do. This money will help us get more officers on the force to help with our day-to-day operations, such as conducting random patrols which help deter terrorism and reduce crime."
The two police dogs will be trained to detect explosives. Currently, METRO's K-9 force includes five dogs trained to detect explosives and three dogs trained to track narcotics. 
"I love it - I'm totally excited about expanding the force. I love training dogs," said John Ivey, MPD's canine trainer. "It will definitely be beneficial to METRO to have seven explosive dogs. They're effective because they can help pinpoint the area for bomb technicians and eliminate the concern if there's a device or suspicious package. We run the dog first to see if we get any response and then the bomb technicians come in and disarm it."
The New York Metropolitan Transit Agency received about $35 million for 25 new officers, making it the largest award among the 15 agencies. Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) was the only other Texas transit agency to get some of this funding - $1.4 million.
The Recovery Act was signed into law by President Obama in February, committing more than $3 billion for homeland security projects.
If you're one of the hundreds of commuters who rides METRO, you probably climb on-board, settle in your seat and never think twice about what keeps the buses and trains running.
And that's the way it should be - a seamless, safe ride for you.
But what happens to the buses at night when they complete their runs?
Watch METRO Moves tonight on HCCTV, Channel 19 on Comcast at 6 p.m. You'll find out that our six bus operating facilities, known as BOFs, are open daily to clean and maintain our fleet of buses. Three of the BOFs are open 24/7.
The buses are refueled at the BOFs every night with dripless, fast-fuel equipment. Each bus can hold 125 gallons of diesel fuel.
We replace 100 buses a year - using hybrid-electric buses - making our fleet one of the youngest in the nation. Buses are parked facing in or facing out in their assigned spots, indicating to the repair crew which buses need work. 
Before any bus pulls out for the day, the driver uses a handheld computer to check numerous safety points in a detailed pre-trip inspection.
On the train, inspectors ride the rail daily and walk around each train to inspect it with a hand-held computer.
You'll also meet some of the men and women who plan the routes, analyze the ridership and make changes that bring service to where it's needed - without increasing costs.
Watch all this tonight at 6 p.m. It will be repeated every night through Friday. If you don't get Comcast, you'll be able to view it on our Web site after 5 p.m. Click here.
You may have seen the story and editorial in the Houston Chronicle this week about METRO's practice of posting our working committee sessions in our lobby at 1900 Main St. and at the Harris County Civil Courthouse, but not on the Web. Below is METRO's response.
We are thankful to the Houston Chronicle for focusing our attention on this matter. However, the Chronicle has covered METRO for years, and it has never been its practice to attend these working sessions. It has a right to change its past practices, and we have a right to reexamine ours.
To avoid confusion, we need to distinguish between the formal monthly committee meetings of the METRO Board of Directors (held on the mornings of the monthly Board meeting) from the working sessions.
First, these working sessions are not attended by a quorum of the Board, which means under state statute we are not required to post their schedules. 
Second, unlike the formal committee meetings, the working sessions are conducted on an as-needed basis. They follow no set schedule - sometimes changing times and dates with very little notice. Depending on the schedule of the committee chair, working sessions may even be cancelled the morning of the scheduled day.
So, while we have been diligent about posting the working session notices, it has been almost impossible to manage the process beyond that.
Going forward, if we anticipate a quorum at a Board working session, that meeting will be posted 72 hours in advance. These notices, along with our monthly committee and Board meeting notices will be posted at the Harris County Civil Courthouse (4th floor), in METRO's Ridestore lobby and on METRO's Web site.
Establishing light rail in Houston has been a long and rocky road - but with the recent celebrations of the North and Southeast groundbreakings, we are one step closer to achieving real choices for commuters.
Our documentary this week traces the path to rail - and how voters came to the pivotal decision that the nation's fourth largest city needed light rail.
The referendum - known as METRO Solutions - passed in November 2003 - and Houston was its way to becoming a transit-friendly city.
Watch The Path to Rail on HCCTV, Comcast Channel 19 tonight at 6 p.m. It will be repeated every night through Friday this week.
You will also be able to see in on our Web site tomorrow.
Fast forward to 2012.
Step on a METRO train, and you should be boarding a new CAF USA train with six doors on one side and one level from front to back.
Find out more cool features of these new trains - including the so-called Jacuzzi seat - from METRO's President & CEO, Frank J. Wilson.
In this episode of METRO Matters, Wilson tells why rodeo and football fans will find it easier to ride the rail.
Also, learn how METRO's unprecedented way of ordering these trains surprised the industry - and saved the agency time and money.
Click here for a preview of the show.
You can also catch the program on Comcast's Channel 17, Houston Media Source, at these times:
Tue 7/28/09 3:15 p.m.
Fri 7/31/09 7:30 p.m.
Mon 8/3/09 9:30 p.m.
Thu 8/6/09 7:30 p.m.
Sat 8/8/09 8:00 p.m.
Wed 8/12/09 8:30 p.m.
Sat 8/15/09 12:30 p.m.
Tue 8/18/09 12:30 p.m.
Thu 8/20/09 7:30 p.m.
Sat 8/22/09 8:00 p.m.
Tue 8/25/09 6:45 p.m.
Fri 8/28/09 7:30 p.m.
Step on a train, and you may meet an ancient Chinese warrior.
Three of our trains now sport a huge decal wrapped on the front, showcasing one of the terra cotta warriors now on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
The trains were wrapped over the weekend, and it's part of METRO's partnership with the museum, helping to promote what Time magazine has called one of the top five "must-see" museum exhibitions this year.
"It's a great way to bring attention to the exhibit and the fact that you can get to the exhibit on METRORail," said JoAnne Lingenfelter, manager of marketing.
Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor features more than 100 artifacts, including 14 life-size soldiers. The warriors were built to protect the emperor on his journey to the afterlife.
Houston is one of five national stops of this exhibit - and it's easy to visit by riding the Red Line. Be sure to pick up a brochure on the train for a coupon worth $10 off an adult-priced ticket.
Texas is ready for its T-Bone, and it's not a steak.
It's the corridor of a proposed high-speed rail that would connect Houston - via College Station - to Temple, with that branch linking to Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin and San Antonio.
And Texas is standing in line - along with 39 other states - hoping for money from Uncle Sam to build that rail.
July 10 was the deadline to submit pre-applications for High-Speed and Inter-City Passenger Rail funds from the Federal Railroad Administration.
Competition is fierce. The states are asking for $102 billion in funding - far more that the $8 billion the Obama administration has set aside for high-speed rail in the Recovery and Reinvestment Act for this.
The Texas Department of Transportation is asking that $1.7 billion of the $1.9 billion it is seeking to receive be devoted to the Texas T-Bone.
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood says he's pleased at the flood of pre-applications.
"It shows that not only does this country want high-speed rail, but also that this country is ready for high-speed rail," he writes in his blog. "The overwhelming responses show that the planners who pre-applied for these grants are way ahead of where everyone thought they'd be in terms of their ability to conceive of and plan these rail lines."
Click here to read more in his blog.
Does Texas have a chance at these funds?
Not much preliminary work has been done yet on these bullet trains - such as environmental studies, feasibility reviews and right-of-way acquisition - but TxDot says it never hurts to ask, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Final applications are due Aug. 24.
Would you leave your car at home and travel on a 200-mile-per-hour train to get to Austin, San Antonio or Dallas? We'd like to hear your thoughts on high-speed rail.
If you missed METRO's gala celebration last Monday of the two groundbreaking ceremonies (Southeast and North corridors) and the finale at Minute Maid Park's Union Station, check out our documentary.
Highlights of all three celebrations are featured in a 30-minute documentary, airing every night this week through Friday. It's on HCCTV, Comcast's Channel 19 at 6 p.m. and again at 6:30 p.m.
If you don't subscribe to Comcast, you can view it here on our Web site.
Notable speakers include Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Congressman Gene Green, Congressman Al Green, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and Mayor Bill White.
METRO Chairman David Wolff emcees the event - and tells what we need to do if we're going to build a transit system as extensive as the light-rail system in Dallas.
Plus, you'll get to see a life-size model of our new CAF train.
A life-sized model of METRO's new train took center stage at Minute Maid Park's Union Station on Monday as officials celebrated the groundbreaking of the Southeast and North Corridors.
METRO Chairman David S. Wolff emceed the grand celebration, speaking to a crowd of about 350, including state and local officials who played a role in bringing light rail to this city.
"These light rail lines will connect our communities in ways they have never been connected before. They will provide improved access to jobs, to health care and to the educational institutions which are so important to our city," said Wolff.
The new light-rail lines will connect the North, East End and Southeast corridors. Officials pointed out that the two light-rail lines were given $150 million in President Obama's 2010 budget - making them two of the five transit projects mentioned in the administration's budget. 
The light-rail system will be one of the biggest infrastructure project in Houston's history and is expected to bring 60,000 jobs to the city.
Earlier Monday, separate but simultaneous celebrations occurred at the North and Southeast corridors with a ceremonial hammering of railroad spikes.
We'll bring you highlights in a documentary on Monday. Stay tuned.
Summertime is beach time, and if you've trekked to Galveston wishing you didn't have to fight traffic on I-45, regional transit is the answer.
Just how we can most effectively connect Harris County to its surrounding seven counties with regional transit is an issue that affects all of us.
The documentary that airs tonight on HCCTV, Comcast Channel 19, takes an in-depth look at the various aspects of regional transit: what communities should be connected, what modes of transportation, and who should pay for it.
The panel of experts are: Dr. Carol Lewis of Texas Southern University, Robert Muhammad of NTE Planning Consultants and Christof Spieler of Citizens' Transportation Coalition.
Should one newly created umbrella agency run regional transit? What role should METRO play? And do riders really care who runs and operates these trips, as long as they get from Point A to Point B seamlessly with one fare card?
Hear more about these critical questions in this lively and engaging discussion moderated by anchorman Mike Barajas of Fox 26 News.
You can also view this roundtable discussion on our Web site by clicking here.
Look around your bus or train, and you'll see warriors - terra cotta soldiers from ancient China.
Starting today, you'll find a $10-off coupon in brochures on the buses and trains for the Houston Museum of Natural Science's exhibit, "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor."
We also have images of warriors displayed along the rail platforms.
Tagged as one of five must-see exhibits by Time magazine, this exhibit features more than 100 amazing artifacts, including 14 life-size terra cotta soldiers.
Ride the rail or bus - and get $10 off a $28 adult admission. If you have kids, it's cheaper to buy them an adult ticket, using a METRO coupon. And if you're a senior, you'll save money, too, by buying a regular adult ticket with a METRO coupon instead of a senior ticket.
METRO has identified the cause of a derailment that occurred on June 16.
The incident occurred 27 minutes past midnight during a training exercise with only an instructor and two trainees on board. There were no injuries.
An independent investigation concluded that excessive speed around the curve at Braeswood and Greenwood caused the two-car train to derail. The train was traveling 22 mph in a 15 mph-zone.
METRO asked the consulting firm, ARUP North America, to make independent recommendations to enhance METRORail safety. The international and design firm's recommendations include the following:
- Establish uniform speed of 15 mph in this location instead of the three current speed limits of 15, 30 and 20 mph.
- Review and augment training of METRORail instructors
- Ultrasonically test the rail to verify its structural integrity (METRO conducts these tests annually).
- Analyze and assess tight curves in the five, new lines METRO is building
METRO has adopted these recommendations and is implementing them.
If you are one of the 400,000 commuters who ride our transit system every day, you will be happy to know the METRO Police Department is ready to respond to any emergency that may occur.
That's the subject of the METRO documentary that airs tonight on HCCTV, Comcast Channel 19, at 6 p.m. tonight. You can also watch it here on our Web site.
A nationally accredited transit police department, METRO's police department works with multiple police agencies to keep patrons safe on the bus and on the rail.
The heart of the response system is Houston TranStar, which coordinates all METRO's emergency responses.
The documentary details how METRO responds to natural disasters, such as storms. A boat rescue squad practices regularly on how to rescue in debris-filled water, including buoy rescues and tethered rescues.
METRO's Motorist Assistance Program, along with the city of Houston's Safe Clear program, aids drivers who break down on the freeways. Cars are cleared quickly, flat tires are fixed, gas given if needed. So far, thousands of motorists have been helped.
METRO's Special Operations Response Team (SORT) is trained to respond to potentially deadly and dangerous situations. This elite group of certified SWAT officers consists of 10 officers who can respond to such emergencies as a barricaded suspect or hostage.
You'll also learn about METRO's successful bus marshal program, where officers ride undercover as a passenger - and by doing so, have made key arrests involving drug dealers and gangs.
You'll meet our award-winning four-legged officers - the K9 unit where dogs are trained to detect explosives or drugs.
See all this tonight on METRO: Ready to Respond and find out why this is one of the safest transit systems in the nation. The documentary will repeat Tuesday through Friday this week at 6 p.m.
Ride the rail to visit one of the nation's top five "must see" museum exhibits, as rated by Time magazine.
It's the Houston Museum of Natural Science exhibit, Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor.
Often considered one of the eight wonders of the world, these life-sized terra cotta replicas were built to protect China's first emperor throughout eternity.
Qin Shi Huang was only 13 years old when he commissioned the army of 8,000 soldiers, built to stand guard over him in a vast necropolis. This exhibit of 14 life-sized soldiers is the biggest display of warriors and tomb artifacts to travel to the United States.
METRO has teamed up with the Houston Museum of Natural Science to offer a $10 discount off an adult ticket. Brochures with a coupon will be distributed on buses, trains and our RideStore in the next few weeks.
The exhibit is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and continues until Oct. 18.
Tune in to HCCTV, Comcast Channel 19 tonight at 6 p.m., and you'll hear real stories from riders who love taking METRO to get them where they need to go.
From a young man who says a METRO bus is like a party bus when he and his buddies go to football games, to an executive who hasn't stepped aboard a bus in 30 years but tries it for the first time, meet commuters who prefer to leave the driving to someone else.
Bottom line: Taking METRO is convenient, cost-effective and easy.
You'll also discover some jewels you can visit within walking distance of the Red Line, such as The Menil Collection or The Contemporary Arts 
Houston.
Watch the I Ride documentary tonight and every weeknight this week at 6 p.m.
If you don't have Comcast, click here to view it on our Web site. We'll have it up by 5 p.m. tonight.
METRO promised a Signature bus service that would be quick-as-a-bunny, and so far, in its first 16 days of operation, it's delivering.
The 402 Quickline Bellaire has an average of 97 percent on-time performance.
"It's doing really well," said Pat Porzillo, associate vice president of commuter rail at METRO, and the go-to guy for Quickline operations. "Our on-time performance has been really great."
The 402 Quickline has 53 scheduled trips a day - and only one or two buses a day have been late. "The single biggest cause is the freight track," explained Porzillo. "There's a UP freight train that comes and blocks the crossing."
If you're at any of the Quickline transit stations, you can see next-bus arrival times for northbound and southbound buses. You can also check it out from your smart phone by accessing http://www.ridemetro.org/.
Click on "services, then "bus," then "402 Quickline Bellaire." Then go down to the lower two-thirds of the page to "Click here for next bus service." Both Airport Direct and the 402 Quickline offer next-bus arrival information.
Our ridership goal is 1,000 riders a day after one year of service - and in the first two weeks, we've passed the halfway mark, averaging 600 commuters a day. We expect those numbers to increase once summer break is over and students return to school.
Porzillo says he's heard positive reaction from our riders. They like saving 20 minutes of travel time, enjoy sleeping later in the mornings, and appreciate the fact that the local $1.25 fare remains the same on the Quickline.
"If they miss the bus, they can jump on a Quickline at the medical center, jump off at any station and switch to the local bus they missed - and it counts as a free transfer with a Q card," said Porzillo.
The Quickline makes eight stops, but METRO is planning to add a ninth stop - the Stella Link station - by late December, said Porzillo.
"We're coordinating it with road construction at Southside Place. Right now, the road is split and we can't access the site," said Porzillo.
If you haven't ridden one of the distinctive blue, bunny buses, hop on for a quick ride down Bellaire.
"One of the things we've always thought was that this was the type of service that will prove itself. If we operate it reliably, if we run on time, people would move over to this service," said Porzillo. "We're pleased, and we're excited about moving the program forward with an integrated Quickline system."
Tune in tonight to HCCTV, Comcast's Channel 19 to hear how buses are the backbone of METRO's system.
In this documentary, meet the men and women who work hard behind-the-scenes to make sure METRO's buses are safe, clean and reliable.
Called "Precious Cargo," this documentary showcases the transformation of METRO's fleet over the decades to one of the youngest fleets in the nation, with 100 hybrid-electric buses added every year.
Learn about METRO's commitment to making the buses accessible to the disabled and its initiatives to making the system safer.
You'll hear from employees who have worked here for 25 or 30 years - and are still passionate about what they do.
If you don't have cable, you can watch the documentary on our Web site at http://www.ridemetro.org/. Click the yellow button that says, "We're ready for our close-up."
If you're a marketing professional, winning a Crystal Award is a big deal - almost as enviable as capturing an Oscar in the movie industry.
Well, METRO's marketing department recently won the American Marketing Association's 2009 AMA Crystal Award for its "I Ride" campaign.
The "I Ride" campaign hit the airwaves and print last year and featured local celebrities encouraging Houstonians to ride METRO. The celebrities were heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman, fashion designer Chloe Dao and Carlos Lee, outfielder for the Astros.
The ad appeared on broadcast, print, bus cards and train wraps and trumped a Bank of America ad, two Wal-Mart ads and a Centerpoint Energy ad.
"It's not like regular advertising awards in which it's a beauty contest, and the coolest spot wins," said Rob Fritsche Jr., senior writer/producer who wrote and produced the ad. "In this competition not only were you judged on the quality of the ad, but the results from the campaign counted for twice as much as the aesthetics."
METRO met or exceeded nearly all of its proposed campaign goals. If you missed the commercials, you can watch them on YouTube. George Foreman starred in two spots for us - "Battles" and "Dreams."
Chloe Dao, fashion designer who won the Bravo Channel's "Project Runway" (season two), features her designs on METRO's rail platform. Carlos Lee urges Houstonians to get on board while on the playing field.
Brian Rogers, the graphic designer responsible for the print aspect of the campaign, says the image campaign tried to show "everybody and anybody can ride and should ride public transit when they need it. George Foreman himself rode METRO as a child to get to the gym and work out. It was a good testimonial to see how public transit played a role in his life."
And of course, beating out major firms was icing on the cake. "It's huge to show we can run with the big dogs," said Rogers.
In the photo above, Fritsche (left) displays the Crystal Award with Rogers (right).
If you subscribe to Comcast, check out HCCTV, Channel 19 tonight at 6 p.m.
"Houston: The Road Ahead" is a documentary that traces METRO's humble beginnings, its rocky middle years before the 2003 referendum was passed and its current state of affairs - from its modern, hybrid-electric bus fleet to its plans on building five light-rail lines.
Learn how METRO inherited a dilapidated bus system where buses could barely pull out of the garages. When the air conditioning broke down, windows in the front and back were removed to create an air flow.
Hear METRO's first chairman of the board, Howard Horne, talk about the early days. Dr. Carol Lewis of Texas Southern University describes the energetic opponents to the METRO Solutions referendum and analyzes how METRO has carried out that mandate.
Dr. Stephen Klineberg of Rice University discusses his 28th annual survey, highlighting what respondents said about mass transit and how important rail should be in a mass transit system.
The documentary will repeat every week night this week at 6 p.m., Monday to Friday.
METRO's vanpool program has a whole new look - it's been rebranded as STAR vanpool.
David McMaster, director of customer service, says it's a convenient and cost-effective way to get to and from work.
Click the link below to hear his interview on METRO Matters.
http://www.ridemetro.org/News/Broadcast/METROMatters.aspx
You can also watch it at on Comcast's Channel 17 at these times:
Sun 6/14/09 10:40 p.m.
Tue. 6/16/09 12:30 p.m.
Thu 6/18/09 5:30 p.m.
Sat 6/20/09 8:00 p.m.
Tue 6/23/09 4:30 p.m.
Thu 6/25/09 10:00 p.m.
Sat 6/27/90 9:30 p.m.
Tue 6/30/09 6:15 p.m.
METRO introduced the agency's signature bus service to the media and public officials today at a special event that showcased its new blue-wrapped buses, along with a dance from local elementary students.
"The icons of American businesses are lining up to ask for bailouts. At the same time, METRO is rolling out...a premium service," said Frank J. Wilson, METRO's president & CEO, at the event. "The right thing to do is what we're doing today."
METRO's 402 Quickline Bellaire service starts Monday, June 1.
For the same price as a local ride, commuters will be able to save time while riding in comfort on a new hybrid-electric bus.
The 402 Quickline - which travels from the TMC Transit Center to Ranchester on Bellaire Blvd. - includes only eight stops in either direction. Pictured above are METRO board member Burt Ballanfant and Wilson watching students dance at the event.
Quickline bus shelters feature up-to-the-minute notices for next-bus arrival, improved lighting and benches. The buses are also equipped with security cameras inside.
John Kajander, senior vice president at the Texas Medical Center, said moving people to, from and around the medical center was essential - and METRO's new Quickline service would help meet the transportation challenge.
"We worked very closely with METRO. We really needed some innovative solutions...and it's our hope that these bunny buses will take a significant step toward that," said Kajander. 
A human-sized bunny joined the crowd after the speeches, following a dance performance by students from nearby Pat Neff Elementary School.
"What we're doing here today means better and faster service for more people than anywhere we have on line (in METRO's system)," said Ballanfant, a long-time user of METRO transit.
The nine-mile Quickline route cost $9 million to $10 million to construct. We have 1,000 boardings a day now on the local Bellaire route, or 360,000 boardings every year.
The Quickline will operate from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. with a total of 26 westbound and 27 eastbound trips. The trip time for the route will be 38 minutes, compared to 52 minutes on the 2 Bellaire.
Pictured below is Gerald Griffith, supervisor of the Quickline buses, who will monitor the buses by laptop computer to ensure a smooth operation.
Dan Nip, founder of the Asian Chamber of Commerce, said it was a lucky day for Chinatown residents. He praised METRO's persistence and diligence at developing this Quickline service, and said the bus stations were so beautiful and modern - especially the one at Bellaire and Ranchester - that "you won't want to go anywhere, you'll want to just sit there."
Finally. Everything is in place for METRO to forge ahead and make real progress building transit in the region.
That's what the Houston Chronicle said in an editorial published on May 22.
The editorial lists the ways METRO is ready to roll with its plan for five light-rail lines and beyond:
Federal funding. The Obama budget sets aside $150 million for light-rail transit in Houston in the fiscal 2010 budget.
- Political unity among the area's congressional leadership.
- Good timing. President Obama's push for high-speed rail will depend on intercity rail lines to connect the network.
- Favorable public opinion on transit. Stephen Klineberg of Rice Univesity says support for public transit is growing. More respondents to his 28th annual survey cited mass transit as a preference to this region's traffic woes.
"While no one is about to proclaim the end of the automobile in Houston, many local minds clearly are opening up to other transportation possibilities," said the Chronicle."It is now possible to envision a city, region and state linked by an efficient rail system that will help ease the load on our streets, freeways and highways. METRO deserves recognition for persisting."
Click here to read the entire editorial.
On National Bike Day, 10 members of Team METRO, along with other Houstonians, joined Mayor Bill White, biking from Memorial park to city hall downtown.
About 300 cyclists pedaled the 15-mile route, making it a leisurely and conversational event. The ride began at 7:30 a.m. when the day was still refreshingly cool.
"It was fun. The weather was great," said Nicole Adler, a METRO bike team member. "This was an opportunity to see how easy it is to bike to work. It encourages you to do it."
Tom Pham, a ride leader of Team METRO, said this annual event helped trigger the creation of METRO's bike team.
"We're supporting the mayor's efforts to extend bike trails all over the city, and we're also promoting our bikes-on-bus program. It's a fun thing to do - it's a national event. It's awesome. I wish more employees would attend," said Pham. 
Team METRO poses with Mayor White in the photo on the right. From left to right, first row: Hao Le, Armando Trevino, Mayor White., Lovie Miles, Tom Pham. L to R, back row: Reginald Giles, Marjorie Carter, Brian Rogers, Charlene Lewis, Nicole Adler, Randy Frazier
Hao Le, Team METRO's vice president, said he hopes today's event will convince people that traveling to work is feasible.
"I think one event over a period of time will spread the message and convince people," said Le, who bikes to work four out of five days.
For one day at least, the bikers who joined the mayor chose a healthy, environmentally-friendly way to get to work. Bike advocates are hoping this will become a habit for workers, who will trade four wheels for two on a more regular basis.
For the past two years, Hao Le has traded four wheels for two to get to work four days out of five. It's a 90-minute, 20-mile ride, but for this passionate biker, the commute is pure bliss.
Le, a METRO senior attorney, is a competitive racer who says he bikes from his home in the Memorial City area in west Houston to downtown as "training for races, stress relief, getting to work quickly and overall enjoyment of getting to work."
May is National Bike Month and this week is Bike-to-Work-Week, promoted by the League of American Bicyclists.
For commuters like Le, biking to work is extremely doable, despite Houston's year-round humidity. "When I get to work, I use baby wipes and the bathroom to wash my hair. I towel dry it," says Le. "I have a change of clothes in my office."
Le says he used city of Houston maps to find dedicated bike lanes - and 60 to70 percent of his ride occurs on those lanes.
He said drivers tend to immediately change lanes, giving cyclists the entire lane, or they brush up against the cyclist. Instead, Le advises: "Don't freak out when you see a cyclist riding in your lane. Take your time, slow down a little bit, and go through. You don't need to change lanes," he says.
This low-cost, environmentally friendly way to commute isn't as daunting as it may seem, says Le. "It's just not as hard as you think it is logistically. You're just giving yourself excuses. If you really want to ride to work - when there's a will, there's a way."
If you can't bike all the way to work, try a bi-modal solution. Ride your bike and ride METRO. Many of our riders are already doing that.
Take a look at the numbers.
Since we launched our bikes-on-buses program in April 2007, we have had 56,092 bike boardings.
The numbers of bikers using our buses has mushroomed.
From October 2008 to April 2009, we had 29,014 bikes on buses compared to 6,420 buses the same period a year ago. That's a 352 percent increase in bikes.
If you have commuted to work using a combination of bike and bus - or bike and train - let us know what your experience has been like.
We'd love to hear from you.
When money is spent investing in public transit, the result creates jobs that put the people who have been hit hardest back to work.
A new study by the Economic Development Research Group, commissioned by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), shows that two-thirds of the jobs created by capital investment in public transportation replaces lost blue-collar jobs with "green jobs" in public transit.
Sixty-seven percent of new construction and manufacturing "green jobs" from public transit capital investment usually fall in the category of "blue-collar semi-skilled (59 percent) and blue-collar skilled (8 percent). These jobs include manufacturing, service, repair workers, drivers, crew, ticket agents and construction.
White-collars skilled and semi-skilled make up 33 percent of the new jobs, and include positions such as clerical, managerial and technical engineers.
The study indicates that an investment of $1 billion in public transit supports and creates 30,000 jobs in a variety of sectors. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) offers $8.4 billion for public transportation projects, which will create 252,000 jobs.
"The ultimate goal in any economic recovery plan should be to not create just any type of job, but rather to invest in and focus on areas particularly hit hard by the economic downturn," said Wiliam M. Millar, APTA's president, in a statement. "The investment in public transit not only produces green jobs but also provides for a more sustainable transportation system that will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil and lessen the transportation sector's impact on the environment."
Click here to read the entire report.
Here at METRO, the $1.46 billion construction contract we signed with Parsons Transportation Group last month is projected to generate some 60,000 direct and indirect jobs before the four light-rail lines - about 20 miles of rail - are completed.
If you've driven downtown lately around the Red Line on Main Street, you've noticed strips of blinking red lights set in the pavement.
The flashing markers light up when the traffic signal turns red - alerting drivers that intersections along Main Street are not typical.
We've had these flashing makers at 16 intersections, and they've been so successful at cutting down accidents, that we have installed them at four more intersections:
- Preston @ Main
- Rusk @ Main
- Polk @ Main
- Lamar @ Main
The photo above shows the pavement strip at Main and Preston.
This experimental lighted pavement marking system (LPMS) was pioneered by METRO and established to increase visibility at train crossings, cut down on drivers running red lights and reduce crashes.
It's worked.
A study performed in 2004-2005 comparing data to a study done in 2006 - 2007 indicates the illuminated pavement markers have reduced the number of accidents caused by running red lights by as much as 50 percent at some intersections.
The pavement markers have also helped stem right-turn-on-red violations. No right turns on red are allowed on Main Street.
METRO received permission from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to expand the lighted strips along the 7.5 mile rail on Main Street. The FHWA sets standards for traffic signs, signals, designs and safety features.
We maintain and operate 70 traffic signals along the rail line with 20 of those intersections now paved with these strips of blinking red lights. Our goal is to get the technology approved by the FHWA as a standard traffic signal device.
Phoenix, New York and Los Angeles are among the cities that have expressed interest in installing red pavement lights.
A family of bunnies has been making its home in the grasslands at the Texas Medical Center Transit Center.
These are no ordinary bunnies.
They are topiary bunnies designed to catch your eye and remind you of our new Quickline Signature bus service - the 402 Quickline Bellaire - we are launching June 1.
Four seven-foot bunnies dot the landscape at TMC Transit Center, along with three baby bunnies which stand four-and-half feet tall.
"We've had some positive feedback from customers out there," says Pat Porzillo, associate vice president of commuter rail. "People are taking photographs of themselves with the bunnies."
Each bunny has its own sprinkler head built in it - and that sprinkler taps into our existing sprinkling system at the TMC Transit Center. The large ones weigh at least 200 pounds and are anchored into the ground.
JoAnne Lingenfelter, manager of marketing at METRO, came up with the idea of planting topiary bunnies to market our new Quickline service.
"It was something different, something kind of fun - and something most people wouldn't object to," said Lingenfelter.
Porzillo played landscape designer, positioning the bunnies in areas that would have the most impact on our riders. "One bunny looks like he is trying to bring people in - waving to people at the TMC. And there's a baby bunny next to him. They're saying, ‘Ride us.'"
Another small bunny is positioned so that when a bus swings around a curve at the TMC, riders will easily spot it.
The leaping bunny faces the direction of exiting buses, so passengers will glimpse it on the way out of the TMC. 
And except for the leaping bunny, all the bunnies face toward the Quickline bus station - a distinctive station with a blue Quickline bus sign, columns wrapped in blue and a blue curb.
"We think the bunnies are cool, and this is going to be a great route," said Porzillo.
The route will have eight stations: TMC, Kirby, Bellaire TC, Hill croft, Sharpstown Center, Fondren, Gessner and Ranchester. We're planning to add a future stop at Stella Link.
The 402 QL Bellaire will feature bus shelters with up-to-the-minute next bus arrival info, improved lighting and better benches. The buses will be hybrid diesel-electric and will sport high-end interiors.
The cost to ride? Just $1.25 - the same price as local buses.
Enjoy the bunnies....and get ready for our fast-as-bunnies Quickline service coming next month.
Government agencies are always looking for ways to cut costs and to do more with less. Now there's a new way to save money on fleet vehicles.
FastFleet by Zipcar was introduced last month for public sector agencies and universities, and the company says it will save taxpayers money, reduce risk and promote sustainability.
This new service leverages the same technology that Zipcar uses for individual consumers who rent cars by the hour or day.
Employees use a reservation system over the Web, phone or mobile device to reserve a vehicle. They swipe a wallet-size access card to unlock the doors of the vehicle, courtesy of an integrated card reader mounted under the windshield.
FastFleet mirrors Zipcar's car-sharing model, but the government agency or institution owns the cars. Using technology, FastFleet enables managers to help employees share the vehicles - and at the same time, reduce the fleet and still have enough cars available on demand.
"It's a much more convenient way - an easier way to manage and dispatch the fleet," explained Luke Schneider, general manager at FastFleet and chief technology officer at Zipcar, in a phone interview. 
"The primary reason people do this is they can save enormous amounts of money. Most fleets are built to meet peak demand. This reduces the overall utilization of the fleet - a handful of cars are used only during peak periods. What FastFleet does - and this is the beauty and elegance of car sharing - is it opens up and makes visible the vehicles so that people who drive can plan their trip accordingly and reserve their vehicle for the time they need and no more. It flattens the demand curve."
For example, with online reservations and this "visibility" into the fleet, agencies could reduce a 100-vehicle fleet to 60, said Schneider.
Washington D.C. has used this now for four months and says it has saved more than $300,000 during a four-month pilot. It estimates it will save more than $1 million in the first 12 months of use. About 1,400 employees in 28 departments are using 60 cars in FastFleet now.
Pricing ranges from $65-90 a month for basic service, plus the cost of the hardware. Washington, D.C. spends $115/vehicle/month. The subscription service is priced per car.
"I believe that technology can be used to create efficiency and save taxpayer money," said Adrian M. Fenty, mayor of Washington, D.C., in a statement. "FastFleet has allowed us to better optimize our fleet, and we will continue to evaluate our existing fleet and look for additional cost saving opportunities."
About 4 million vehicles are leased nationwide within local, state and federal governments, estimates FastFleet. Since fleets are typically sized to meet peak demand, most of the cars sit idle most of the time. FastFleet, with its wireless connectivity, prevents that.
"This is carving out cost structure," said Schneider. "If you get rid of 30 cars, that car costs between $6,000 and $10,000 a year to keep up with finance, insurance, gas, maintenance and gas - that turns into real money."
The World Health Organization said today that the number of confirmed cases of swine flu worldwide is 331. The total here in the United States is 141, including 28 cases in Texas.
As you're riding the rail and buses, confined in close spaces, you may be wondering what METRO's response is to this outbreak.
Rest assured we are monitoring the situation constantly. We have had meetings to discuss a possible swine flu outbreak, and we are in touch with state and public health officials. We will take the necessary steps to protect our riders.
While our daily headlines news tells of more local school closings and cases here in the Houston area, please bear in mind that most of the cases have been mild and most people recover without treatment.
Protecting your health while on METRO buses or trains is the same as when you are in any public space. How many times do you hang on to a pole or brush up against a seat? Practice good hygiene.
Here are some steps you can follow, recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
- Wash hands frequently with soap and water. Use an alcohol-based hand cleaner when hand washing is impractical.
- Cover your mouth/nose when you cough or sneeze with tissue or your sleeve. Discard the tissue, then wash your hands.
- If you are having flu symptoms, avoid contact with others as much as possible. Don't go to work or school.
- Seek medical attention if symptoms persist or become severe.
For more information, check out the Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services or the City of Houston's Health and Human Services Department.
You can also call a free hotline, 24/7, staffed by Harris County nurses. 713/633.2255.
In the photo above, Shanghai doctors who have experience with SARS study a case of possible swine flu.
Thanks to all of you who joined our Web chat today at noon. METRO's President & CEO Frank J. Wilson hosted today's chat, where questions ranged from light-rail service to both airports to our new Quick Line Signature Bus service to debut in June.
We ran out of time and couldn't answer all of your questions - but keep reading this blog. We will try to get answers to your questions and write about those topics in future posts.
Pictured here is Wilson, me typing his answers and chief of staff Joanne Wright in the background.
(12:03:36 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining our Web chat today. Looking forward to a lively conversation. |
(12:10:27 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q. : Bugs Bunny ridding a bus. The METRO Quick Line Logo is a Rabbit. June 1 for the 402, right! Now, we need to see Bugs' relatives on WESTHEIMER?
A : Good question. The first signature bus line goes into operation in June on Bellaire. The second one is scheduled to operate between the Palm Center and the Medical Center, along Old Spanish Trail. That's scheduled at least probably more than six months from now. Westheimer is on the drawing board and not likely to begin until mid 2011.
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(12:12:06 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : What's up with the University Line? I thought it was to be the first new line built. Now it looks like it will be the last. When will construction start and when will it be completed?
A : The University Line from the very beginning was scheduled to be the last of five light-rail lines to be completed. The original schedule and the current schedule have the University Line construction start-up approximately one year after the current construction plans (first four light-rail lines). And at this time, we're right on schedule.
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(12:12:39 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : I'd like to ask about Metro's service during inclement weather.
A : Yes, we operate during inclement weather. Go ahead, ask a more specific question.
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(12:14:56 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : Is the Uptown Line still scheduled to have groundbreaking this year? Or is it contingent on the University Line?
A : In many respects, we are scheduled to begin work as a function of when the street and utility work is completed. The current plan is to have the Uptown Association manage that work. When that work is completed, METRO will come in and build the light-rail related facilities.
As you might imagine, construction along Post Oak is highly dependent on the retail sales cycle. So, little or no construction will happen between November and January each year. So this is a tricky task to specify the exact timetable for the METRO construction work because we are dependent on the schedule for the roadway work. |
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(12:18:22 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : There were no morning 82 when it rained on Tuesday, so I had to walk to get the 42. I did see the #53, so I don't understand it
A : The storm front that hit us Monday night and Tuesday morning created havoc with our ability to run a normal schedule. Just to state the obvious, flooding on local streets, as well as the major thoroughfares, prevented our operators from getting to the garage and to take the buses out in service on time. In at least one case, our buses were flooded in and couldn't get out of the garage. So we had to deal with the same miserable weather, roadway, and traffic conditions that plagued everyone else. We're sorry for the inconvenience, but we worked real hard during the day on Tuesday to ensure a normal afternoon rush hour.
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(12:21:43 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : Thank you for scheduling this Web chat. The community appreciates your accessibility. My questions are, what are the plans for future alignments for light rail? Specifically how will the line connecting downtown to the Northwest Transit Center be determined? How will the affected neighborhoods' input be taken into account?
A : The alignment to the Northwest Transit Center has essentially been decided. It will run from the Hillcroft Transit Center in the south, north along Post Oak Blvd. to the 610 Loop where it would operate in some configuration along 610 exit onto local roads, and into the Northwest Transit Center.
The effect on neighborhoods and property is essentially limited to the commercial properties along Post Oak and of course, in the interstate freeway. We've been working for the last two years with those commercial property owners and expext to reach mutually agreeable alignment decisions with them before construction starts. |
(12:24:38 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : Looking forward to the Quick Line service. Why are 2 Bellaire customers segregated from 402 Quick Line customers? We have been without shelters for 8 months and the stops were moved up to a block away from the old stops. This has been very confusing and many riders who wait at the shelters are left confused when the buses pass them without stopping.
A : The Quick Line is designed as an express service with limited stops for those who are traveling longer distances. In effect, it is a new service overlaid on top of the existing service. There's no intention to degrade the quality of the existing service, and if we need additional shelters along the current Route 2 service, we'd be happy to entertain any requests that our customers might have. Granted, that any time you introduce change where there has not been any for many, many years, one can always expect some confusion. But we'll do our best to minimize that confusion until the service patterns are completely understood by our customers. |
(12:24:58 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : Also, is the Uptown alignment still in the middle of the West Loop between Memorial and Post Oak?
A : At this time, it is. |
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(12:27:51 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : I ride the P & R 244/247/249 off and on, may I ask why local/express busses such as the 88 do not go to P & R locations, they would be a great connection and back up to get to the south side of town...other cities do this why Houston does not? Makes no sense....
A : Thanks for the suggestion. You're quite right that many cities used their Park & Ride lots and transit centers as a place for convenient transferring from one type service to another.
I am forwarding your question to our operations planning department primarily to send along your good idea, and then secondarily, to have them give you a more detailed, analytical reason for why we don't do this today or why we will do it in the near future. Let me know how our guys do. Give us your e-mail on the blog, and we'll be able to give you some answers. |
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(12:28:50 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : The current bus schedules as published on your web site in PDF format do not work well on mobile devices as many do not have PDF readers. How about putting the schedules up in more mobile-friendly form like just plain HTML tables?
A : Our information technology services is looking this now, and is looking to implement this in the coming year.
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(12:34:55 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : Mr. Wilson, which local routes do you ride most often? How reliable do you find them to be?
A : The service I use frequently is the light-rail line on Main Street - extraordinarily reliable and rarely have to wait more than two or three minutes. There seems to be a train always in sight. More importantly, you ask which routes do I find reliable.
I can offer to send you a new report that we've created that shows the top 13 routes in our system. They're top routes because they carry almost 70 percent of our riders. As a sneak preview, I will tell you that you might be startled to see the reliability level in the 65 to 69 percent on-time category. But why I say this is a surprise is that most transit systems report that all their buses are running between 88 and 98 percent on time. I've worked in five transit systems in my career across the nation, and most of them were among the largest in the country. And I can personally say this: The 80 to 90 percent level of performance in those systems is fiction. What we report, like it or not, is accurate. We'd rather know the truth and do something about it (obviously improve it), than attempt to fool our customers and ourselves by publishing bogus data. In the future, if you like, I'd be happy to return to cyberspace and have a deeper discussion about this topic because at METRO, we don't duck tough issues. We deal with them. And while we're not proud of our record to date, we are proud of the improvement plans that we're implementing now that should have a dramatic effect on our on-time performance. Thank you for asking. This is an area that we are providing serious attention to. |
(12:36:44 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : You have the #102 to BUSH I A H LIMITED/WAYFOREST/VIA HOV and the #102 to BUSH I A H LIMITED/WRIGHT ROAD/VIA TERMINAL C/VIA HOV. But the one to Wayforest does not to IAH, so why is BUSH IAH in the description of the route? Why not call that bus the 103 or some other number? This naming caused me to have to take the 500 and pay $15 as I was late!
A : Sorry that our route designations have caused you so much difficulty. We'll examine a better way to label the routes and try to get them redesignated by our next service change.
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(12:39:19 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : Thanks for the answer on the #82 situation, but I am confused as Westheimer was fine in certain parts and you were able to run the #53 which runs almost the same route as the #82. Also, if you had an alert system I could sign up for it and you could have told me the bus was not running. Please do better next time the weather is bad as we depend on the Metro bus to get to work, rain or shine. Thanks.
A : Good suggestion, and we are using a new prototype information system on our Signature bus lines. This technology will tell you exactly how much time until the next bus arrives, and if there's no service for whatever reason, it will tell you that, too. Eventually, by using your cell phone and knowing the number for a particular bus shelter, or intersection, you'll be able to retrieve the same information. Try riding the Route 2 Bellaire if you get a chance because we will preview it there, starting in June.
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(12:42:45 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : A Light Rail question: Will we ever have service to the airports (IAH and Hobby)?
A : I live in hope that we will see some form of rail service to both airports some day, but I must be honest and tell you that it's not likely that we will see the type of rail service (light-rail service) that we have on Main Street taking you to the airport. The reason is it would not be very customer-friendly for an airport customer. No place for luggage, too many stops, hopefully crowded conditions. This is not the kind of service that would be successful. We would need a rail line that would have limited stops, maybe two or three would run at high speed, maybe 80 mph and would provide more accommodating seating and space for luggage. Then it's possible for light-rail service.
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(12:44:34 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : May I also suggest that METRO publish rail schedules, especially for early mornings, late nights, and weekends? 20 minutes is a long time to wait for a train in the dark. I also have almost missed flights at Hobby because the first southbound train to arrive at Fannin South is almost an hour after the published start of service.
A : When you run the service every six minutes, a schedule is not necessary. However, you make a good point. When the service gap gets to 20 minutes or longer, we should provide scheduled times instead of frequencies. Look for a change in our publications, hopefully with the next service change, which comes in June.
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(12:45:34 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : As a follow up to my previous question, I was referring to light rail service directly from downtown to the Northwest Transit Center, not the currently planned route through the Hillcroft Transit Center, and how it would affect the neighborhoods along Washington and through the Heights?
A : I assume with this clarification you're talking about commuter rail service from downtown to Northwest Transit Center, not light-rail. Yes or no?
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(12:47:31 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : Are the new, hybrid buses in service now the 2008 purchases? When will the order for 2009 start coming in? And are seats with slightly more padding under consideration?
A : We have about 120 hybrid buses in service today. We expect by the end of this year, early 2010, we should have in excess of 200 in service. The 2009 purchase of 100 more hybrid buses are not likely to be in service for at least a year.
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(12:54:35 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : You seem to appreciate the high frequency of service on the Red Line, so I think you'll understand that we local bus riders would appreciate more frequent service, too. Some routes, like the 34 Montrose and 18 Kirby, aren't given a chance to succeed because a bus every 45 minutes isn't convenient for anyone.
A : You are touching on the chicken-and-egg phenomenon that has plagued the transit industry since the wheel was invented. Which comes first? Frequent service or massive numbers of riders?
The Main Street rail line carries 45,000 people a day. We don't have any other route in the system that does that. But we understand that sometimes you need to put the service out, advertise it, of course run it properly, educate the latent customers (potential customers) that the service exists and try to build ridership at all times during the day, so that making service more frequent makes more sense. We try to do this. Sometimes the ridership responds, sometimes it doesn't. When the frequency of service gets to the level of 30 to 45 minutes, it often feels like we're fighting a losing battle with preciously scarce resources. And while service is our Number Two goal, only behind safety, it becomes a delicate balancing act to decide whether we are using our financial resources wisely. If we don't run METRO as a successful business, we may not be in business to provide any service. Witness the unfortunate plight of so many of our businesses today. Because of bad business decisions, they're facing extinction. So what we do run, we have to run economically. Therein lies the long-standing challenge of what comes first. Service or riders? |
(12:55:22 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : Thanks for looking into the #102 situation. How do I get a credit for the error?
A : Are you open to negotiation?
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(12:56:58 PM) Frank J Wilson: | Q : What is going on with the Fuqua park & ride? Yesterday when myself and my carpool arrived there we were informed that we could no longer park there. This is very unfair, and the alternative lot where we can park will cost us about 15 minutes in our commute, and almost makes using the HOV lane worthless.
A : Parking at this Park & Ride lot is extremely oversubscribed. Our first priority is obviously to our bus customers. As much as we appreciate you doing the environmentally preferred way to travel in a car, we'd love to have you on our bus.
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(1:02:22 PM) Frank J Wilson: | My time is up now. Thanks for joining us today. Wish we could do it every day, but let's promise to do it again soon. For those we weren't able to get to, we'll try to find answers from our other more knowledgeable staff and answer you on the blog. |
A reminder to join us today from noon to 1 p.m. for a Web chat with Frank J. Wilson, our president & CEO.
If you can't stay for the whole hour, drop in and ask a question, then grab lunch. Wondering about the construction on our light-rail lines....or maybe you've seen some green bunnies around the Texas Medical Center Transit Center. What do bunnies have to do with buses?
Or perhaps you have question about the historic contract we recently signed with Parsons. All questions will be moderated.
Here's your chance to ask the man at the top all things METRO. See you at noon!
METRO Matters is currently airing on two cable TV stations: Houston Media Source (Ch. 17 on Comcast) and HCCTV (Houston Community College's Ch. 19 on Comcast).
Our latest show with Kim Slaughter, associate vice president for planning, has been airing on Ch. 19. Now here's the schedule for the show on Channel 17.
If you've ever wondered how METRO plans its routes - and whether your suggestions make a difference, be sure to catch this show.
Click here to watch the show. Or tune in and watch it on TV at these times:
Fri. 5/1/09 8:30 p.m.
Mon 5/4/09 8:00 p.m.
Fri. 5/8/09 7:40 p.m.
Tue. 5/12/09 6:30 p.m.
Thu. 5/14/09 7:30 p.m.
Sat. 5/16/09 10:00 p.m.
Mon. 5/18/09 12:30 p.m.
Wed. 5/20/09 8:30 p.m.
Fri. 5/22/09 8:30 p.m.
Mon. 5/25/09 10:30 p.m.
Wed. 5/27/09 9:30 p.m.
Fri. 5/29/09 7:30 p.m.
Melvin Riley was driving the Park & Ride 204 Spring bus on the HOV lane when a scream pieced the air.
A gentleman had suddenly suffered a seizure.
"My first thought was to get the bus off the HOV lane," recalls Riley, 54, of the March incident. "The reason being there was no way we could help him on the HOV. We had to get him off there. Then I notified dispatch to have someone meet us at the Park & Ride."
Riley asked dispatch to call an ambulance and meet the bus at the P&R lot.
Was he tempted to speed down the HOV lane?
"While driving a bus, you should never get in a hurry because speed is what causes accidents. And always think before you react. When you're on the HOV lane, you're going pretty swiftly, anyway. The main thing is safety."
When Riley arrived at the P&R lot 10 minutes later, the ambulance had not yet arrived.
"At that time, I got all my passengers off the bus. Two other ladies stayed with me and attended to the guy. I talked to him and kept him awake and tried to keep him conscious till the ambulance arrived," says Riley.
Riley said his passengers stayed calm in the midst of a life-threatening moment - and he did, too.
"I've been driving for so long. I'm just a laid-back person. I don't get excited that quick," says Riley, who has driven a bus for 19 years and works out of Fallbrook Bus Operating Facility.
When Riley isn't driving a bus and handling the day's crises, he enjoys sports - from basketball to baseball. "I watch them more than I play them," says the married father of three.
When Sgt. Richard Sauseda first started at METRO as a police officer, he dressed in a coat and tie.
METRO didn't have police uniforms - and in fact, there was no official police department. That was back in 1982 when the Metropolitan Transit Authority had just been formed.
Last weekend, Sauseda officially retired after 27 years at MPD - and the department he leaves behind contrasts sharply with the one where he launched his METRO career.
"When I first started, I was wondering within six months if I had made the right choice. We had only one facility - and that facility was so full of holes and potholes, you couldn't even drive a bus in and out, much less a patrol car. It was pitiful," recalls Sauseda, 59.
Chief of Police Tom Lambert recalls that Sauseda was one of the original officers when MPD was formed. "He's been a true leader from Day One," says Lambert. "We're thankful for his service to the organization and the community, and wish him nothing but success in his retirement."
Back in the early years, Sauseda responded to calls on buses - and riders didn't realize they were dealing with police officers. "We were just running around with a coat and tie," says Sauseda. "Luckily, that was only about two months, and then we went into full uniform."
Sauseda says it was difficult to start everything from the ground up at MPD - but the challenges were also rewarding.
"It was hard at first, trying to get legislation. In other states, transit police officers are regular police officers," explains Sauseda. "Here in Texas, the public didn't know any of that. They thought, ‘Are they police officers, or are they security guards?' It took time for the public and other agencies to realize what we were."
Sauseda said MPD felt like a stepchild to other law enforcement agencies back in the early years. "Until we started doing accidents on the freeway, and did it better than HPD did - they didn't respect us," says Sauseda, adding that he has a lot of friends at HPD.
"It changed. We had only our patrol units taking care of citizens - and also working with the sheriff's department and HPD with accidents. Now the rail has come along. And we have so many departments officers can go into now," Sauseda says.
MPD has grown to five divisions: homeland security/support operations; field operations; Houston TranStar; system safety; and management services. That means in addition to patrol officers, MPD's specialists include the K-9 unit, the Special Operations Response Team (SORT) unit trained to handle bomb threats and terrorist threats, and a boat rescue team for hurricanes and floods.
MPD is also among the 3.4 percent of agencies accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies in North America, one of 30 in Texas and one of five accredited transit agencies in the United States.
MPD has also garnered prestigious awards. Last year, the department was recognized by the Transportation Security Administration for our transit security system and for the leadership of Chief of Police Tom Lambert.
As a "Carrier of Distinction," METRO was in the top 5 percent of all transit systems nationwide for emergency preparedness. 
More recently, one of our finest rescued a woman who fell on a Washington D.C. train track during the Presidential inauguration - making national headlines.
MPD was one of about 18 transit agencies invited to help with security and crowd control during the inauguration events.
While Sauseda is retiring from MPD, he won't be sleeping in late or spend his days playing golf. He's got a new job as security guard to a wealthy River Oaks family.
His advice to younger police officers starting out at METRO?
"This is a great organization to work with. Start now to think about advancement. Be patient when it comes to the department, as far as the rules we have. We're still young. A lot of things will be starting and opening up for our department, especially with rail," says Sauseda.
METRO officially signed the agency's biggest contract in history, a deal that was announced at yesterday's board meeting by Frank J. Wilson, METRO President and CEO.
Early last month, METRO's board of directors approved the $1.46 billion construction contract with Parsons Transportation Group. This project is expected to generate some 60,000 direct and indirect jobs before four light-rail lines - about 20 miles - are completed.
This week, the contract was inked.
"We're now poised to show this region what it expected since 2003," said Wilson at the board meeting. "We're going to be proud of the terms we finally negotiated."
The budget for the agreement is divided as follows:
Development agreement $16 million
Design & build $ 1.28 billion
Vehicle supply $148 million
Operations & maintenance
(preliminary work only) $16 million
TOTAL $1.46 billion
As the facility provider, Parsons Transportation Group will be responsible for designing, building, operating and maintaining the four, new light-rail lines: North Line, East End Line, Southeast Line and the Uptown Line. PIctured above is the type of train METRO is ordering from CAF USA.
METRO will spend $632 million for the initial phase of the contract. We expect this phase to generate 25,000 jobs and will include:
- Utility work for the North and Southeast Lines
- Building and completing the East End Corridor, including an overpass at Harrisburg for light-rail and construction of a service and inspection facility.
- 29 rail cars from CAF USA, Inc.
- Final alignment and station configuration for the Uptown Line.
Local small and minority business owners will get 35 percent - or $335 million of work - under the contract.
What do bunnies and buses have in common?
Find out the answer to that and all things METRO at our next Web chat scheduled on Thursday, April 30, from noon to 1 p.m.
Here's your chance to ask Frank J. Wilson, METRO's president & CEO, anything about METRO - from the progress of our light-rail lines to the effect of the federal stimulus package on METRO to the innovative way we are purchasing our new trains.
All questions will be moderated. If you can't stay for the whole hour, drop in and ask a question, then leave. Or you may pre-submit your question here on this blog in the comment section. Live questions will have priority over pre-submitted ones.
Please join the conversation on Transit Talk. We'd love to hear from you.
Last night's METRO partnering with the Astros at its Go Green night was a fun event. say METRO's community reps who worked the event. Astro fans were introduced to our Airport Direct shutttle service, along with STAR Van, our vanpooling service.
Photography by Ernest Chou, senior community relations rep.
Want an easy way to go green on Earth Day and all year long?
Ride METRO.
Commuting on public transit can reduce your carbon footprint by 4,800 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
That's according to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA),which has calculated that switching to buses and trains from your car will cut daily carbon emissions by 20 pounds.
So how much carbon dioxide emissions are 20 pounds/day or 4,800 pounds/year? It's more than the combined carbon emissions reduction that results from using energy-efficient lightbulbs, adjusting thermostats, weatherizing your home, and replacing an older refrigerator with an energy-efficient one.
Here at METRO, we have also been celebrating Earth Day by participating in various companies' employee events. Today, METRO community reps were at the AIG Green Day EnergyTransportation Fair.
At these corporate green fairs, METRO promotes its bikes-on-buses program and explains how our 100 new hybrid-electric buses a year use less diesel, save on fuel costs, lower maintenance and operating costs and result in cleaner NOx emissions by 50 percent.
We also recycle the water we use to wash our fleet of buses, reducing the number of gallons used per bus by 14 percent.
Inside our administrative building at 1900 Main St., we use green-tipped florescent lamps, which containlower levels of mercury.
"From the buses on the city streets to the buildings we operate, METRO makes a consistent effort to efficiently use materials and minimize our impact on the environment," says Karen Marshall, director of community outreach.
And today, we have an incentive for you to ride METRO. We have teamed up with the Houston Astros to offer fans a discount if they ride green.
You can get half-price tickets to the 7 p.m. game tonight against the Los Angeles Dodgers if you show your fare item at the Minute Maid Park Box Office on Texas Avenue. The box office is open until 7:30 p.m.
Public art enhances public space, and here at METRO, we want to make sure the artwork installed at our new light-rail stations embraces our city's diverse cultures and gives the neighborhood residents something they will enjoy.
We're one step closer now with a final list of artists who have been chosen - after an almost-year long process that involved numerous meetings and input from local residents and art critics.
Station art is vital, says Paul Mok, METRO's project director/architect, because it reflects on the community and lends a human touch to transit.
"It's an important link that transforms just a regular METRO station to a community METRO station," says Mok. "We want the residents to say, ‘This is our station,' instead of just saying, ‘This is a METRO station.'"
More than 260 artists applied for consideration - including from around the world - and it took almost a year to match artist to station. Forty artists were selected to be the finalists, and 36 submitted specific design proposals. Ultimately, 22 artists were chosen by the communities to produce specific artwork for the stations. Artists reshaped their proposals after listening to feedback from residents. Some of it was very specific.
For example, Mok says one community told an artist their streets used to be lined with magnolia trees - but today, only a few dot the landscape. The artist went back and incorporated a sea of magnolia trees, sandwiching the art in the windscreen at the station, a glass panel that blocks the wind.
The residents were pleased.
"The artists all seemed very receptive and responsive to the community's input," recalls Mok. "Even when the community expressed something negative, all the artists were very responsive and very respectful of the community's input."
Transit art keeps a train station from being generic, giving it character that reflects the neighborhood. It also gives an opportunity for local artists to showcase their talent and be compensated, says Mok. METRO's goal was to have 75 to 80 percent of the artists selected be local ones - and we achieved that goal with 86 percent local participation.
But perhaps the most important aspect of transit art?
"The process helps bring the community together," says Mok. "It gives them a common cause and facilitates further dialogue between the community and METRO. That is a very constructive medium to conduct a conversation."
Here are 19 of the 22 winning artists who have been assigned stations:
For the East End Corridor: Ryan Geiger, Jesse Sifuentes, Dan Havel, Mary Lucking.
For the North Corridor: Dixie Friend Gay, Rolando Briseno, Arielle Masson, Leticia Huerta. 
For the Southeast Corridor: Carroll Parrott Blue, Leamon Green, Jesse Lott, Paul Kittelson, Floyd Newsum, John Runnels, Sharon Engelstein,
For Uptown Corridor: Alan Krathaus, Roberto Cervantes, Dixie Friend Gay and Bill Davenport.
The pictures on this post are works by Floyd Newsum, Arielle Masson and Mary Lucking. These are not what will be at the stations but rather, pieces representative of their style.
Monday morning rush-hour traffic just got a whole lot easier for west Houston residents who take the Katy Freeway.
For those with EZ tags on their windows, you were able to slip into one of the Katy Freeway Managed Lanes today - and speed by the clogged traffic for a price.
The managed lanes are two lanes in each direction between Texas 6 and Loop 610. The 12 miles of roadway were opened on Saturday by The Harris County Toll Road Authority.
These lanes replace the single, reversible high-occupancy vehicle lane.
The Katy Tollway is free for carpoolers and vanpoolers who use the lanes during peak times. Single-occupancy drivers can use the lanes if they have an EZ Tag or TxTag and will be charged electronically.
Pricing will vary, depending on traffic conditions and time of day. This dynamic pricing is based on supply and demand. Toll fees are adjusted to keep traffic flowing optimally at all times.
Click here for the rate schedule. 
Wondering where to enter and exit these managed lanes? Click here for an interactive map that tells you precisely what streets work with various entrances and exits.
Click here to apply for an EZ Tag online.
In Italy, students take a "walking bus" to school.
The bus doesn't actually have an engine or tires - it's a bus made of students who walk to school in a piedibus, which literally translates as "foot-bus" in Italian, reports the NYT.
Here's how it works. Lines of students walk along the streets of Lecco, Italy, while paid staffers and parent volunteers in florescent yellow vests guide them in a modern-day Pied Piper scene. It's a bus route with a driver but no vehicle.
About 450 children travel along 17 bus routes to elementary schools - using their feet. Routes are usually less than a mile long in this city located at the southern tip of Lake Como.
The walking bus idea cropped up in 2003 to combat three major issues: the growing problem of childhood obesity; local traffic jams; and an increase in global greenhouse gases.
Only 13 percent of kids here in the States walk to school, compared to 40 percent in 1969, according to the federal government's National Household Travel Survey.
Other towns in Britain and France have also created "walking buses" for kids, although those are not as extensive as Lecco's. Closer to home, Columbia, Mo., Marin County, Calif., and Boulder, Colo. launched smaller walking-bus programs. They were part of the Safe Routes to School, a national program which gives states money to encourage students to walk or ride bikes.
What do you think? Would a program like this work in Houston?
This fall, you can wear footwear that's green - and be an environmental steward.
Timberland Co. of New Hampshire is becoming the first shoe manufacturer to use recycled rubber from discarded tires to create two shoe collections that will debut this fall.
Timberland is working with Green Rubber Inc., a subsidiary of the Kuala-Lumpur based Petra Group, to make "a new source of rubber compound made from waste tires through a non-toxic, environmentally conscious devulcanization process called DeLink," according to Timberland's Web site.
Vulcanized rubber is created by adding chemicals - including sulphur - to virgin rubber, makes rubber stronger and more durable. But the process also makes the rubber almost impossible to recycle.
Now Green Rubber has an eight-minute process that devulcanizes the rubber, allowing the rubber to be recycled into new products. With more than seven billion tires sitting in landfills worldwide, discarded tires is a huge environmental issue.
Timberland says it hopes to make rubber a more sustainable resource working with Green Rubber.
The New Hampshire boot maker will be the first shoe manufacturer to commercialize Green Rubber technology, using the recycled rubber in the outsoles of more than 200,000 pairs of shoes. The shoes will be a combination of the Green Rubber compound and virgin rubber compound for an outsole that is 42 percent recycled tire crumb.
"Green Rubber is positioned to have a major impact on the global rubber industry; managing tire waste can now become both a commercially viable and eco-conscious process," said Jeffrey Swartz, Timberland's chief executive in a statement. The photo on the right is from Timberland's Web site. 
What does METRO do with its old, non-usable bus tires?
We lease the tires, so when they go bad, they go back to the leasing company. Leasing saves money over buying tires.
For all other vehicles that are non-revenue - for example, police cars or fleet vehicles - we pay a contractor to pick up old or threadbare tires that can no longer be used. METRO is required to punch a hole in these tires before having them picked up by a contractor, so those tires can't be sold as new.
Just as consumers pay a fee to dispose of car batteries, METRO pays a fee to dispose of these tires.
Up to now, there's never been a market for discarded tires, say our operations folks.
Recently, a customer sent in a Web suggestion about the use of cell phones on our buses, asking if we could post bus placards reminding folks of apparently not-so-common courtesy when using cell phones.
"It is becoming increasingly common for one or two people each day to talk at length on the phone about personal matters that the rest of the passengers shouldn't be hearing," wrote the rider. "Yesterday, a woman had an argument with someone for 20 minutes. Many of us consider this our quiet, relaxation time. I used to enjoy the quiet ride, but it's becoming an annoyance. I may start driving it if gets worse."
OK, riders. We love the convenience of our cell phones -but let's be aware that we're in a public space when we're commuting via bus or train.
Why not text your message instead of calling? Your conversation stays private that way.
Our neighbor to the north, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit encourages commuters to Respect Your Ride with a list of tips to make the trip pleasant for all riders.
The top of the list: "Keep the volume low on music, conversation and cell phones. Respect the people around you, and remember you're not the only one riding."
The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has a 25-second TV clip on its Web site with cell phone courtesy tips. It states the obvious - but something we all need to be reminded of: Avoid unnecessary calls, keep your voice down, set your phone on vibrate, Click here to watch.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York has launched a courtesy campaign called, "Don't Be Cell-fish" and lists these courtesy tips:
- Keep calls short and to the point.
- Move to the vestibule of the train if you engage in an extended call.
- Use silent or vibrating ringer options.
- Don't accept incoming calls when possible.
- Use caller ID to screen incoming calls.
- Let voice mail manage non-urgent calls.
The photo above is from the MTA's Web site and is part of its courtesy campaign.
Following these simple tips can make the commute more pleasant for everyone.
Two four-legged creatures stole the spotlight at last Saturday's annual Walk Like MADD event.
They were METRO's K-9 police officers, Roxy and Shadow. They, along with their handlers, Officer Chris Obenland and Officer Nancy DeMartin, joined the Mothers Against Drunk Driving fundraiser, a 5K walk that not only promotes awareness of the group's goals but is the only major fundraiser for the Southeast Texas MADD office.
"We provided the dog demonstration - on how they apprehend suspects," said Obenland. "The idea is to make it fun for kids to come out here to see other angles of law enforcement. Our main purpose was just to show law enforcement support."
Television host Deborah Duncan of KHOU-TV's Great Day, Houston, appeared at the event and had her photo taken with our furry celebs - Roxy and Shadow.
"The dogs are the sexy ones," texted Duncan when asked her reaction to Saturday's event.
Duncan has been very involved with MADD since her brother was killed by a drunk driver. She is a member of the local advisory council, as well as a MADD national board member.
The walk was held at McGregor Park on Calhoun, where about 450 to 500 people attended, said Andrea Schmauss, a volunteer with MADD and member of the local advisory council. 
"It gives families and friends an opportunity to honor their loved ones who have been killed or injured by a drunk driver. We provide a tribute area where families can display photos of those tragically taken through this senseless crime," said Schmauss.
In addition to MPD's involvement, the Houston Police Department also participated with DWI vans, which are mobile blood-drawing units. This van can drive to the scene of an accident, and someone can draw blood from the alleged drunk driver and "haul him off to jail," explained Obenland.
Walk for MADD organizers said it's important to have law enforcement agencies participate in an event like this.
"For some, it is an opportunity for (families) to interact with law enforcement in a comfortable, fun setting. And for others, it is an opportunity to say ‘thank you' for risking their lives for us each day," said Schmauss, adding that she hopes more law enforcement agencies will join in future walks.
"We cannot win the fight to eliminate drunk driving without law enforcement. They are the primary defense until technology can, one day, come up with a way to make the vehicle smarter than the drunk behind the wheel," said Schmauss.
And as far as METRO's representation there? Well, Schmauss said Roxy and Shadow not only stole the show.....they stole the hearts of many.
Ever wonder why METRO designs certain routes that end 10 blocks from your favorite store?
METRO carries some 108 million riders every year. Our 1,200 buses drive in an area of about 1,285 square miles.
So what goes into planning our routes? And do your suggestions come into play?
Our guest on this edition of METRO Matters is an expert on transportation planning. Kim Slaughter, associate vice president for planning, has more than 20 years in transportation planning in both the public and private sectors.
Click here to watch the show.
You can also view METRO Matters on Comcast's Channel 19,HCCTV, Houston Community College's channel. It airs every week on the following days:
Sunday 11 a,m.,
Tuesday 6:30 p.m.
Thursday 2 p.m.
With unemployment soaring to its highest level in 25 years, you or someone you know may be interested in a part-time job.
We're hosting a job fair here at METRO at our headquarters on Saturday, May 2, from 8 a.m. to noon.
Come find out why being a part-time bus operator may be just the ticket for you. Your starting pay: $15 an hour.
Part-time bus operators can work up to 33 hours a week. Applicants must be at least 21 years old, have a valid driver's license and be able speak, read and write in English.
If you're bilingual, that's a plus.
We'll give you free training for your commercial driver's license. A high school diploma or GED is preferred but not required.
Apply in person or online at http://www.ridemetro.org/. Or check us out at the job fair in three weeks.
It's not unusual to find drivers who have been working here 15, 25 or even 30 years. If you like meeting the public and enjoy a job outside the office, driving a METRO bus may be just the job for you or someone you know.
This morning, if you commute by train, you noticed that some of our trains are partially wrapped with a vinyl ad, showcasing our Airport Direct service.
Three of our 18 trains made its wrapped debut on Saturday. These mobile billboards are meant to spread the word that our nonstop shuttle service from downtown to IAH's Terminal C is a convenient way to get to and from the airport.
This is the third time METRO has wrapped its trains. The first time was advertising the Lucy exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The second was the I Ride campaign with celebrities George Foreman, Astros' outfielder Carlos Lee and fashion designer Chloe Dao.
Other transit agencies are wrapping trains to put a message in motion. Detroit's airport People Mover, an automated light-rail system that operates over the city's central business district, carries a wrap.
Here at METRO, we have advertised only our own services or a non-profit organization with whom we are partnering. Industry analysts have said that mobile media billboards have a 97 percent recall rate - but those stats are not train-specific.
But check out the wrap - and try out Airport Direct. The wrap will be up for 90 days.
Instead of contending with unpredictable traffic, paying for parking your car at a nearby airport lot, or persuading a friend to drop you off at the airport, METRO's quiet coach buses can whisk you to and from the airport. 
It leaves every 30 minutes and costs $15, one way. A concierge service at Passenger Plaza (located at the corner of Pierce and Travis) will help you with your luggage, call ahead if you need a taxi, or help you load money on a Q Card. Free coffee, flat-screen televisions, clean restrooms and comfortable seating areas are inside.
Since METRO launched this service in August 2008, growth in ridership has been steady. In March, average daily boardings were 98, exceeding original projections.
The next time you need to go to the airport, give Airport Direct a try.
Starting next Monday, Pasadena residents who need to go to downtown Houston or the Texas Medical Center can take a METRO Park & Ride bus for a carefree, cost-efficient trip.
METRO, Harris County Precinct 2 and the city of Pasadena have partnered to give new Park & Ride service from the Pasadena Town Square Mall to downtown Houston.
This is the second Park & Ride service that METRO and Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Sylvia R. Garcia have opened in East Harris County. The first one was Baytown Park & Ride, which started in October 2007.
Today, this new service was announced at a press conference at the parking lot of the Pasadena Town Square Mall, where Garcia and METRO officials praised the partnership.
"We've proven this model of interagency cooperation works," Garcia said in a statement. "By joining in an inter-local agreement with METRO, we are giving Pasadena-area residents the ability to plug into an established transportation system that can take them to downtown, the Texas Medical Center and other important destinations."
METRO's Explorer bus, a mini-RideStore on wheels, was also on hand to offer METRO Q® Fare Cards to customers. The one-way fare will be $3.75. Customers who use a METRO Q® Fare Card will get five free trips for every 50 paid trips.
The 244 Monroe/Pasadena Park & Ride will offer four trips every weekday morning and five trips every weekday afternoon. Service runs from 5:48 a.m. to 7:23 a.m. and 4:05 p.m. to 5:58 p.m.
The bus will stop at the Monroe Park & Ride lot before heading into downtown on the regular 244 Monroe route. Click here to see a detailed schedule. From the Monroe Park & Ride, you can transfer to the 297 South Point to go directly to the Medical Center.
This new Pasadena Park & Ride service, along with the Baytown Park & Ride service, is an important step to creating an integrated transit system for this region, said Frank J. Wilson, METRO's president & CEO.
"Creating a seamless system is more efficient and cost effective than a scattershot approach to mass transit," said Wilson in a statement. "It's important to remember that the people who ride transit also pay for it - not just with fares, but with tax dollars."
China has announced it intends to become the leading manufacturer of hybrids and all-electric cars.
Already behind Japan and the United States in making gas-powered vehicles, China is turning its liability into what it hopes will be an opportunity by jumping over the current technology and diving into the next, reports today's New York Times.
Japan is the current leader in hybrids with the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight, while the United States has limped behind. General Motors' Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid, is expected to be in showrooms next year.
China says it wants to not only create jobs and produce exports, but also cut pollution and lower its dependence on foreign oil.
Taxi fleets and local governments in 13 Chinese cities are being offered subsidies of up to $8,800 for every hybrid or all-electric vehicle they buy. Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin are setting up car charging stations with its state electricity grid.
The latest models of electric cars in China sport a top speed of 60 miles an hour and a range of 120 miles between charges. That's not much of a problem since most commutes in China are short and low-speed, due to traffic gridlock. Plus, first-time buyers, who comprise 80 percent of the market, aren't used to powerful, gas-powered vehicles. 
But most Chinese live in apartments without driveways, so the Chinese would need to create more public charging centers.
Pictured on this post are two Chinese electric cars.
China says it wants to produce 500,000 hybrid or all-electric cars and buses by the end of 2011. Japan and South Korea combined are expected to produce 1.1 million hybrid or all-electric vehicles by then; and North America 267,000, according to a forecast by CSM Worldwide, an auto consulting firm.
If you build it, they will come.
That's the voice an Iowa corn farmer heard in the movie, "Field of Dreams." He believed that if he built a baseball diamond in the corn fields, fans would come.
At METRO, we have had mid-day and late-night service on our Park & Ride routes - on some routes since the early 1990s. We were offering 7,400 seats on 131 daily trips in six freeway corridors. So we had created the routes - but no one came. Most of those seats were empty because few riders knew about this service.
Last October, we launched a marketing campaign to change that.
A customer awareness survey indicated that a sizeable portion of existing riders who were using Park & Ride lots weren't aware of our midday/late night options - and many of the respondents said they needed service during this time period.
We sent an e-mail blast to all our RideSponsors - the companies that have corporate accounts with METRO and whose employees ride METRO.
We also wrapped narrow banners on Park & Ride kiosks, promoting the midday/late night routes. Those banners topped downtown kiosks, as well. We filled buses with fliers. Our Web site soon sported a feature on the home page, informing readers of this, too. Plus, our community reps talked face-to-face to Park & Ride customers.
It worked.
Before the marketing blitz, 20 percent of the respondents surveyed said they were unaware of our midday service. After the blitz, 6 percent were unaware.
"METRO's informational and promotional efforts contributed to an increase in awareness," said Jim Archer, METRO's manager of ridership analysis/service evaluation.
Despite a fare increase last fall, we recorded higher boardings than what we had expected between November 2008 and February 2009.
"We're being more efficient and more effective," said Archer.
Click here to see all our midday and late night routes.
In the midst of gloomy economic news day after day, it's nice when you run into something online that makes you smile. Check out these fun and odd 
photos from the collection of Marco Folio.
Here are three that are transit-related.
Click the link below to see more of Folio's funny photos.
http://www.marcofolio.net/imagedump/
If you have any humorous, transit photos taken on METRO, e-mail them to me. (click "contact us" on the navigation bar on the left). We'll post the best.
Trade in your old gas-guzzling car, buy a new fuel-efficient one - and get your own personal bailout from the government.
A measure being considered by the House - and another version by the Senate - would give vouchers ranging from $2,500 to $5,000 to car owners who shed their clunkers for cars that get 27 miles per gallon, reports the New York Times today.
President Obama has endorsed the concept of a big cash incentive for trade-ins, but wants to use money already allocated in the $787 billion economic stimulus package. That means other programs would have to be cut to pay for this one.
The House measure would offer a $4,000 voucher for a new car rated at 27 miles per gallon and assembled in the United States, while vehicles assembled outside the U.S. would qualify only if the vehicles were rated at 30 miles per gallon.
The Senate measure, designed more to protect the environment than to spur car sales, would offer $2,500 for trade-ins older than 10 years; $3,000 for cars eight to 10 years old; and up to $4,500 for vehicles up to seven years old.
Almost a dozen European countries have a similar program without restrictions on where the vehicles are manufactured.
Here in Texas, a "cash for clunkers" program exists - but only for low-income drivers, who can receive up to $3,500 to trade in cars that fail emissions tests or are more than 10 years old.
Click here to read more about the Texas program.
Bus operators and maintenance employees who play it safe have been recognized for their outstanding safety records at METRO.
About three percent of our maintenance employees and bus drivers earned METRO's 2009 Safety Award.
"We want to give our employees an incentive to work safely. It's very important because the safer the employees we have, the safer the buses, the safer the drivers, the more people will ride the service," said Reggie Mason, associate vice president and chief safety officer at METRO.
The awards are given annually, recognizing safe drivers and hourly maintenance employees who achieve 15-year safety records. Seventy-three employees who had posted at least 15 years of safe service were honored this past Saturday at METRO's internal rodeo competition.
Hourly maintenance workers and drivers are offered a cash incentive and awards, such as a windbreaker, belt buckle - or a leather jacket for 25 years of safe service. The windbreaker jacket says: "METRO Safety: Five Years of Safe Driving" on it. Hourly maintenance workers include mechanics, cleaners and storeroom attendants.
Maintenance employes must have at least 15 consecutive years of injury-free service and no safety infractions to be eligible for an award. Bus operators must accumulate at least three years of injury-free service, no preventable bus accidents and no safety infractions. Bus drivers do not have to have consecutive years of safe driving to be eligible, but can "bank" safe years until they achieve three years of safety, for which they receive a bronze belt buckle.
"These awards work tremendously. We've seen great results by giving them safety awards. They're recognized by their peers and the public," said Mason, adding that it was difficult to earn a safety award in Houston's hazardous traffic.
METRO conducts safety training every two years for drivers and every year for mechanics. 
"It's a very good program. It gives them something to work towards - just staying safe on the road," said Willie Mae Richardson-Kirks, who administers the program. "If they can see they're going to be recognized for being safe, that may give them something to think about when they pull out of the bus facility every morning. From the operators' standpoint, they feel they are appreciated and agree that it takes determination and staying focused on safety to achieve this award."
Congratulations to all those who earned a 2009 Safety Award. Thanks for staying safe on the job - and keeping our streets safer, too.
To find out if your driver has been honored for his safe record, click the link below.
Download pdf file: METRO 2009 Safety Awards
Meet Mr. Solomon. He likes to travel - and he does it with style. 
One day, he's jetting to Miami, another day to Georgia. Find out why - and discover METRO's new Airport Direct service.
To spread the word about our direct service from downtown to Terminal C at IAH, we created a commercial, producing it in-house, using METRO employees as actors.
We went for the YouTube effect - sort of funky with a homemade quality. YouTube is one of the most popular Web portals in the world where people can post and view thousands of videos. Watch it and tell us what you think. And the next time you fly out of Bush International Airport, consider using Airport Direct. It leaves every 30 minutes, gets you to Terminal C in 30 minutes - and costs $15. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cAw1rw3PUU&feature=channel_page
You're on a rush-hour train, exhausted from a busy day at the office. The last thing you want to hear is someone chatting on his cell phone about info you don't care to know.
Now, for Philadelphia-area commuters, there's a respite from cell phone talkers and noisy kids. Starting April 6, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority rush-hour trains will have a designated "Quiet Ride" car.
No cell phones can be used, except for texting. No crying babies or groups of school kids. 
A "Quiet Ride" car will be the first car of every peak-period train. Most rush-hour trains have three cars.
The transit agency tested the concept in January and was surprised at the interest and enthusiasm by passengers. The quiet car was an immediate success, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.
In a survey of passengers who ride lines with existing quiet cars, 84 percent said most of their fellow passengers abide by the quiet rules. When they don't, conductors pass out cards that say, "SHHHHH - You're on a Quiet Ride car."
METRO Matters, our mini-talk show, is now airing regularly on Houston Community College's TV station, HCCTV, Channel 19 on Comcast Cable.
You can catch the show at these times:
Sunday, 11 a.m.
Tuesday, 6:30 p.m.
Thursday, 2 p.m.
In addition, you can watch the program on Houston Media Source, Channel 17.
And of course, you can always view it on your computer by logging to our Web site. Right now, the latest show features Art Jackson discussing METROLift, our service for people with disabilities.
Look for our new show next month that explains how we design routes, where buses go and how frequently they go there.
Free food, live jazz and springtime on the plaza – what better way to learn about clean air and what you can do to make our air cleaner?
The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) is hosting Fresh Air Friday: A Picnic on the Plaza this Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The sixth annual outdoor picnic and concert promotes clean air programs and shows Houstonians how to keep our city beautiful. The event will take place at Jones Plaza on Louisiana between Jones Hall and Bayou Place.
METRO will participate with a new Orion VII hybrid-electric bus on display.
Some of the benefits of hybrids include:
· NOx emissions reduced by as much as 50 percent
· Expected fuel savings of 15 to 20 percent from standard buses
We expect to acquire 100 hybrid buses in 2009 – 50 Orion hybrid transit buses and 50 MCI commuter hybrid buses. This is part of our fleet replacement plan based on acquiring 100 buses a year, or replacing one-twelfth of our fleet every year. The expected life span of a bus is 12 years.
In addition, we’ll be promoting our bikes-on-buses program with many of METRO’s bike team attending.
“As the transit provider in the city, it’s important for us to be out in the public. We’re changing our fleet – getting 100 new hybrid buses this year. We have a good story to tell. That’s what this program does –to promote all clean-air initiatives,” said Karen Marshall, METRO’s director of community outreach.
METRO will also be showcasing its Star van for vanpooling and will have a Star van on exhibit. METRO has 760 vanpools and 8,200 riders as of September 2008.
“We’re exposing the public to our services,” said Ernest Chou, senior community rep. “METROVan plays a huge role every year. We are trying to get clients who cannot use bus routes and live in outlying areas.”
Airport Direct will also be featured – METRO’s nonstop service from downtown to Terminal C at IAH. It runs every 30 minutes and cost $15, one way.
We’ll be giving away bikes-on-buses brochures in four languages (English, Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese), decals, and packets of peanuts to promote Airport Direct.
H-GAC hopes each participant will sign a pledge to reduce our ozone footprint by committing to one action. It can be as simple as turning out unused lights to using public transit. Even if you ride the bus or train one day a week, you can make a difference.
Click here to make a pledge toward clean air.
If you attend, you’ll have a chance to win a photography package, a week of yoga and four tickets to Dominic Walsh Contemporary Dance Theater. If you make a pledge, you will be automatically entered to win a bicycle, helmet or skateboard.
Hope to see you at Fresh Air Friday.
Two minutes after bus operator Jacqueline Cooper pulled out of the Townsen Park & Ride lot, her 17 years of bus driving skills were about to be tested in a life-or-death incident.
She had just loaded about 40 passengers on the 257 Townsen P & R when she noticed a motorcyclist trying to enter the HOV lane from the Park & Ride lot.
The entrance ramp has a gate with a mechanical arm that goes up for drivers. When it failed to work, the motorcyclist detoured through the Park & Ride lot, planning to use another ramp to enter the HOV lane - the same ramp cars and buses use.
Cooper saw him behind the bus on her left and knew he would try to pass her. As he passed, he hit a cement median from the top of the ramp. 
"He lost control of his motorcycle. He and his motorcycle fell right in front me in my lane. They were rolling and tumbling down the HOV lane - about 12 feet in front of me," recalls Cooper of the incident last September.
"Passengers were screaming. I had tunnel vision. All I could see was him and his motorcycle. All I could hear within my spirit was, ‘Don't hit him, don't kill him, don't run over him.' I didn't even hear the people screaming on the bus. I was deaf. I was focusing on the guy, making sure I was stopping the bus," says Cooper.
The motorcycle hit the retainer wall to the right, bounced off and hit the motorcyclist - and both continued to tumble down the HOV lane southbound.
About 10 to 15 seconds later, Cooper successfully brought the bus to a stop in a straight line, before reaching the breakdown lane. "The bus was sitting over the skid mark where the motorcycle had skidded," says Cooper.
Cooper says the motorcyclist was an experienced driver. She noticed that when he tumbled, he tumbled from shoulder to shoulder, never touching his face on the asphalt. He got up and tried to get out of harm's way, one pant leg ripped off, exposing a bloody leg. Two sheriff deputies who were passengers on Cooper's bus ran to help him.
Cooper's supervisor picked her up, and passengers transferred to another passing bus. She and the motorcyclist never spoke to each other.
"I was shaken up. I was nervous. I couldn't drive for a while because it was in my head. I could see instant reply over and over," says Cooper.
The single mother says she became a bus driver because she grew tired of scrubbing down and changing gowns from her previous job as a certified phlebotomist - someone who draws blood - before she could hug her three young children.
During this near-miss last fall, everything she learned about safe driving came into play: aim high in steering, look ahead, be aware of surroundings.
"Things we were taught over the years from the safety department...all those principles fell right into place," says Cooper, a hero to her riders and the unnamed motorcylist.
By the next day, Cooper was back driving her shift. "I was still feeling somewhat nervous, but I had it under control," she says.
When she's not driving a bus and keeping her passengers safe, Cooper enjoys shopping and going to the movies.
Step outside, and take a deep breath.
You have just inhaled the nation's second most polluted air when it comes to ozone. And if Houston doesn't clean up its ozone level, it stands to let millions of dollars in federal funding slip away, according to a report today on KUHF-FM.
But improving our city's ozone level isn't something that is solely the mandate of manufacturing firms or government officials. Every one of us needs to do our part. That's the message from the Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGAC), which has launched a clean air awareness program, during ozone season from March 1 to Nov. 1.
H-GAC is asking individuals to commit to one clean-air action to reduce Houston's ozone footprint.
Suggested actions include:
- Drive the speed limit.
- Turn off lights when not needed.
- Upgrade home heating and cooling system.
- Take your lunch to work or school.
- Avoid drive-through lanes.
- Don't use gas engines such as lawnmowers until after 6 p.m.
- Combine errands on one trip.
H-GAC has an on-line pledge to fill out - and when you do, you're eligible to win prizes - from a bicycle to a free week of yoga.
Of course, here at METRO, we encourage you to ride the bus, train or vanpool to help cut back on ozone output. We offer a $35 a month incentive to eligible vanpoolers. Our "Guaranteed Ride Home" will pay for a taxi when emergencies require you to leave work before your vanpool's normal departure time.
METROMatch will also use its extensive database to match commuters in an eight-county region who live and work near each other.
KUHF's report features a Katy resident who turned to vanpooling when gas hit $4 a gallon last year. Veronica Baxter-Lamb not only helped the region's air quality, she felt the difference in her pocketbook.
"I went from spending maybe $400 a month on gas to only spending about $100 a month on the monthly bill for the vanpool," she told KUHF. Click here to listen to the report.
H-GAC is sponsoring its sixth annual Fresh Air Friday - an outdoor picnic and concert at Jones Plaza in the center of the theater district - to promote more ways to keep Houston clean. METRO will be there, too.
Frank J. Wilson, METRO's president & CEO, has worked on both coasts - but it's the Gulf Coast he calls the final frontier for transit - the land that transit forgot.
In the nation's fourth largest city with three downtowns and where more than 2,000 people are moving every year, building transit is a challenge - but one METRO is ready to tackle.
"Can we build fast enough to influence where they go, or are we going to have to catch up to the location decisions they make? One's easy to serve. The other is really difficult to serve," Wilson told Mass Transit, a monthly industry publication.
In a wide-ranging cover story of the March issue, Wilson discussed with Mass Transit the success of our one rail line, what we're doing to prevent rail accidents, our fleet replacement plan, hybrid buses, Signature bus and an innovative way to buy trains.
On Main Street rail line's success:
"Before there was a rail line on Main Street, Houston didn't understand what rail was. And the first year after it was here, it was a curse that was sent here by the transit gods," said Wilson.
"And now it's irreplaceable in five short years. There's no here who's going to say we should roll it up and give Main Street back to the automobile," he continued.
It succeeded because of the locations the 7.5 mile line connects - the financial district, downtown and the Texas Medical Center.
"There is no other place that connects all that...Now people use this as a horizontal elevator. It's like a cable car but flat - on and off, on and off, on and off," said Wilson.
On off-the-rack procurement:
Traditionally, transit agencies give train manufacturers a long list of specifications. But when METRO set out to buy its new light-rail vehicles, it told the 
prospective vendors there was a short list: no specs.
Wilson asked the vendors to select the car they felt the most comfortable with and pitch that. There had to be at least 10 vehicles running and METRO would send its staff to evaluate them.
"It was their car on their terms at their price. I'm just selecting the one that looked best price-wise," said Wilson. "We're not dictating the terms. We're accepting the terms from the marketplace...Just give me your best offer on your best car. I'll either accept it or reject it," said Wilson.
It was an unconventional way to buy trains - but one that shaved time and money from the standard process. On the left is a photo of the CAF USA train we expect to have in 2012.
Click here to read the complete article.
Today, we conducted our monthly Web chat, Transit Talk, with Andy Skabowski, associate vice president of operations.
The hour flew by with lots of good questions from you. Skabowski typed his own answers - he was the fastest two-finger typist I've seen. He's pictured on the left.
Here's the transcript.
(12:01:56 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Any word on the double deckers?
A : We are still evaluating the use of double decker buses on specific Park and Ride routes. This evaluation will continue as we explore the possible use of double deckers. |
(12:02:10 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : I got dibs on first ride on front seats on the upper deck! (Cedric gets the second?)
A : Cedric asked for the seat months ago |
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(12:03:05 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : The bicycle community wants to use mass transit for part of its travel. If the entire fleet of buses does not have racks, we cannot depend on them for a timely commute.
A : As we continue our fleet replacement plan, we will move to having our entire bus fleet bicycle-ready. |
(12:03:34 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Also, will the new rail cars allow bicycles at all times of service.?
A : At present, bikes are allowed on trains during off-peak hours due to high passenger loads during peak hours. |
(12:05:50 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Andy, with the changes in maintenance, will there be accountability on a technician level ?
A : We address mechanic accountability and completeness of repair every day and will continue that. We are also working with the first level supervision staff to review work |
(12:07:13 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Why is it that when a bus is broken down or is in an accident downtown, that word is NOT relayed to people standing at the bus stops in downtown?
A : The timing involved with getting the word out to bus stops in most cases is longer than the actual event. That being said, we always attempt to improve our communications with both the operators and patrons. |
(12:07:37 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Why does the rail not go to UH Central campus but goes to the rinky dink downtown campus? A: Hold on to your hat, and read up on METRO Solutions. |
(12:10:50 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : My next question has to do with fleet longevity. Recently, METRO has been retiring buses before they hit the age of 12, or very shortly thereafter. Some of the GM New Look Rehabs (the original 33xx, 34xx, and 36xx buses) of the 80s lasted 20+ years with the last being retired by the influx of the Hungarian Ikarus models of the early 90s. The RTS lasted until 2001 after 20 years of unmatched quality of service and even the infamous Grumman rebuilds limped into their 18th year in 1997. Meanwhile, the New Flyer minis, a number of the Neoplan Transit Artics, and the older (1400 series) Neoplan Suburban Artics suffered or are suffering oddly early deaths. A number of Stewart and Stevenson buses from the early 90s were retired along with the RTS in 2001. A number of 10-11 year old Ikarus buses were also stored at this time. Is fleet longevity no longer a priority at Metro? Can we expect a replacement cycle of 12-13 years from now on?
A : Buses can be retired based on two criteria. One is age (12 years) and the other is miles. As buses get past that age, they become more costly to maintain. If I could buy a GMC bus I would, but the bus is no longer manufactured. |
(12:11:10 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Are the Neoplan 3700s finally retired?
A : All but five and the last five are due out the door by month's end. |
(12:12:25 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Do buses have GPS tracking?
A : All METRO buses are equipped with GPS tracking devices that allow for a buses location to be broadcast at TranStar. |
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(12:13:51 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : If I see people get on the rail without paying, do I have to pay to get on the rail?
A : Patrons are expected to tap or pay before getting on the train. MPD officers randomly check the platform for fare evasion and you can get ticketed. |
(12:14:40 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Perhaps they were before your time at Metro, but the GMC RTS-04 series (1901-2188) was without a doubt the most durable, efficient, and dare I say beautiful bus to ever be rostered by the agency. Given your background in the industry, do any of the current fleet measure up to the raw strength and reliability of these venerable beasts? Personally, I think the 4000s could do it (though 4124 broke down on me yesterday) as they seem to be the most "solid" of the NFI D40LF fleet.
A : I ran GMC buses while at New York City Transi, as well Philadelphia Transit. The GMC RTS bus was the best bus ever built |
(12:15:07 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : When and where do the buses fill up for gas?
A : Buses are fueled with diesel daily at the bus operating facility. |
(12:15:56 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Are customer services reps able to track buses?
A : Customer Service reps can if needed call TranStar to track a bus for emergency situations only. |
(12:18:45 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : What is the big issue with the artic concept? Does it cost more per mile than a regular bus? Odd we are getting rid of the concept after 25 years of service in the area. And the S-70's have TWO articulations per rail car!
A : Artic buses cost two to three times more per mile for maintenance than a standard 45-foot commuter style bus. As of 15 yrs ago, 45 foot- buses were not available, and the only options for a transit property were either 40- foot or 60- foot artics. |
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(12:19:57 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Is that a yes or a no, Andy? And what about the homeless getting on the rail?
A : Yes, you have to pay ,and MPD actively works to address fare evasion on our trains. |
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(12:20:35 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Are the METRO police real police?
A : Yes, they are a certified transit police agency and one of the few accredited ones in the country. (See comment below for more explanation by Chief Tom Lambert). |
(12:22:22 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Unlike many on the blog, I hope that you all do away with the failed Articulated bus concept. Three times these buses have been ordered and twice they have suffered early retirements. Many of the old 1400 series Crown Articulated buses never saw their 12th year of service and the 44/45xx series Neoplan artics are nearing the end. Bus 4559 had such a worn bellows you it could double as a sun roof. The only artics that held up well were the 1400 series Neoplan buses retired in 2006/07 (a little too soon in my opinion). Is Metro looking to replace the current fleet of Articulated buses with more articulated, 40ft. buses, or perhaps Double Decker coaches?
A : Presently for Park and Ride service, we are looking at 45-foot commuter style buses. For local service, we are purchasing 40-foot transit buses, and we are presently considering the possible use of double decker buses in the future. |
(12:25:04 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Will the new rail be elevated? How fast can a light rail travel?
A : Plans and final designs for the new light rail alignments are still under development. |
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(12:26:42 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Why is METRO Houston's service so bad compared to other cities' mass transport systems?
A : Houston METRO's service performance levels are measured by industry standards, and our service levels and perfomance are equal to, if not better, than other major cities. |
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(12:27:25 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Who determines that needed repairs are properly performed on buses?
A : Needed repairs are promptly performed on buses and managed by local maintenance management |
(12:27:55 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : METRO will not purchase articulated buses in the future?
A : As of now, METRO will not purchase articulated buses in the future. |
(12:28:22 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Is there a website available that discusses future rail expansions? What sort of master plan is in effect for rail? Suburb service availability, etc?
A : Please go to our Web site and look for the METRO Solutions tab. http://www.ridemetro.og/ |
(12:29:57 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Why do METRO buses do not have restrooms like normal coach buses?
A : Restrooms can be found on over the road charter buses that typically travel more than an hour or so while in use. Since the trip length on our Park and Rides is below an hour, the interior is maximized for seats, and no restroom in included. |
(12:30:58 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Who makes the buses for METRO?
A : The new buses being procured are either manufactured by Motor Coach Industries or Orion Bus. |
(12:31:48 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Will bus routes terminate at the intermodal transit centers?
A : The Intermodal Transit Center is still under design but to answer your question, yes, bus routes will terminate there. |
(12:33:24 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : During the preview of the double decker bus here, I noticed that its height was almost prohibitive on many if not almost all local streets. .Usage on a P & R would seem impossible due to height restrictions available on HOV lanes that have overpasses.. Is this the major restriction to their purchase?
A : Height restrictions due to low overpasses, trees and structures is a restriction to the use of double deckers, and is part of the evaluation presently occurring to consider their use in Houston. |
(12:34:17 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Why does METRO keep raising its prices, how are people expected to continue to ride the bus?
A : METRO has not raised fares in 14 years, despite increasing and improving service levels. |
(12:35:17 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : How many bus hubs are located around Houston?
A : If you mean Bus Operating Facilities (BOF's), METRO has six BOF's in the Houston area. |
(12:36:21 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Why do Park and Ride drivers only drive a route for a certain time frame, and then a new driver takes over the route?
A : Operator job picks occur a number of times a year (service changes) based on seniority, causing you to see different operators. |
(12:36:25 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : What size are the tires on a metro bus?
A : 22 inches |
(12:37:43 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : I noticed a lot of METRO buses (especially local routes) with broken or defective destination signs. Are there any plans in the future to try to repair or fix these signs?
A : Changes have been made recently to improve the state of repair of our destination signs. You should already start to see a marked improvement. |
(12:39:47 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Articulated buses are much easier to operate. However, maintenance is costly. Using this thought, is it better to have newer buses and is it more cost effective to replace at a shorter lifespan?
A : Our fleet plan replaces 1/12 of our fleet annually. This allows for a level purchase plan. Federal dollars used to purchase buses require their use for 12 yrs. Buses are designed for that life span. |
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(12:40:27 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : Does METRO plan to expand service into the 1960 area?
A : We are reviewing a number of service areas that include 1960. |
(12:41:28 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : When will construction commence on the proposed north, southeast, and uptown lines
A : We are close to getting FTA approvals. After that point we will be better able to define exact start dates on the various lines. |
(12:42:57 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : The talk lately about the new rail cars is they will hav esix doors and all-level seating. Will this affect the seating capacity of each train?
A : Six doors allow for better entry and egress into the train,especially in large crowds with a minimal effect on seating. |
(12:44:23 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : As I recall, the operator's compartment was designed with comfort and ease of reach of all equipment. Can a configuration be produced that allows this same ease of operation on the Orions and future coaches?
A : The Orions have been designed with improved ergonomics over previous bus designs. The movement of the Press it screen was done to improve line of sight for the operator. |
(12:45:12 PM) Andy Skabowski: | Q : What is the reasoning behind having more #25 Sharpstown buses than #25 Mission Bend buses?
A : Passenger loads and demands are consistently reviewed and routes modified based on those demands. |