METRO’s board issued two big decisions today after several hours of sham testimony. Here is Rad Sallee’s coverage for the Chronicle.
First, METRO chose the Richmond rail option that it has seemingly favored all along.
Readers of this blog know well my thoughts about the folly of running at-grade rail down busy streets, in the pursuit of being “world class” (hint: it’s only thought to be “world class” by people who apparently haven’t used transit in much of the world). In a sensible policymaking world, the Main Street experience would have warned decisionmakers away from repeating the same mistake — actually, making a worse mistake, since Richmond is far more important to vehicular traffic mobility than Main Street is. Alas, we do not have the sorts of decisionmakers in Houston who are capable of constructing a truly “world-class” mobility system that serves current needs and anticipates future growth. So we are likely stuck with a rail route that is going to hurt overall mobility on an important vehicular traffic corridor, hurt the environment by replacing old trees with concrete, metal, and wires, and serve just under 1% of the public. Twenty years from now, Houstonians will likely wonder what we were thinking.
METRO’s other big decision today was to scrap its Bus Rapid Transit plans for certain routes, and build all the routes with light rail from the start.
That will be welcome news to the communities that proved instrumental in the 2003 referendum actually getting a majority. It is the right thing to do (at least in terms of keeping a promise made — whether ridership justifies the expense is, again, a question of policymaking with regard to overall mobility, but as we have seen for some time, policymaking at METRO often focuses on matters such as real-estate development or politics before overall mobility is considered). It should also head off at least one legal argument that METRO is not complying with the requirements of the 2003 referendum.
Feel free to offer your thoughts on today’s activities in the forum (please do keep it respectful, though, whether you agree or disagree with today’s actions) or on this post over at Lose an Eye, It’s a Sport, where we’ve been having an interesting discussion about Houston transit and mobility and policymaking.
BLOGVERSATION: Houston Strategies, Lou Minatti.
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