Fan of Rail ? (Houston, San Antonio, Anton: homeless, train, transit)

[texas7]

Whatever. Given the choice of putting up with extra hassles trying to get to work such as the occasional urine soaked seat or mentally unstable passengers , I'd rather take my own car. Wasn't making a comparison to the ride safety for accidents as compared to cars. I'm very fortunate just not that hard up for public transportation. But I think for those who must take it and have no alternatives that they deserve better from our public transportation. I just don't see a solution to improve their ride. Sort of like, it's a ride take it or leave it. This is the best we can do.

[jek74]

Originally Posted by texas7

Whatever. Given the choice of putting up with extra hassles trying to get to work such as the occasional urine soaked seat or mentally unstable passengers , I'd rather take my own car. Wasn't making a comparison to the ride safety for accidents as compared to cars. I'm very fortunate just not that hard up for public transportation. But I think for those who must take it and have no alternatives that they deserve better from our public transportation. I just don't see a solution to improve their ride. Sort of like, it's a ride take it or leave it. This is the best we can do.

I think you might be found guilty of being a little melodramatic. I've rode mass transit for over 12 years in different cities and rarely encounter any problems. I've never sat in a urine soaked seat. Nor met anyone who has. Usually the problems people encounter are late at night or on weekends. Almost never during rush hour. As far as mentally unstable passengers, who do think is driving next to you on 610....mentally unstable drivers! I would much rather encounter them on a train then in a car.

[eastontracks]

I rode the rail for the very first time. I've been on other trains in NYC, Boston, chicago, Atlanta, sf. To me there's not much difference other than it doesn't have as many routes as the others. Although I haven't ridden it enough, I think that one person is being over dramatic as far as the type of people that ride it. It's like that everywhere. It definitely has expanding to do but it's decent in comparison.

I took the train around 10pm from one end to the other and rode it back on its last route at 220am. I honestly never felt unsafe or threatened. In San Fran, I wouldn't have risked riding late that night and getting off on the Oakland side just from the sight of the amount of groups of people hanging at the stations.

Overall it was a chill experience. Ill def be on it again. There was a standard loud guy talking to himself in a wheelchair who was saying he was an ex vet and one guy who appeared homeless who had a really bad cough so I felt more germs were flying around in there lol.

[jerbear30]

Public transportation is obviously better than driving. We should obviously be moving more toward a public transit model as a city if we really want to be considered a desirable place for people to come live. Public transportation is better for the environment, it conserves urban space, it costs less than driving and it is much safer. If I were offered a job in a city with a better public transportation system, I would leave Houston to take it and I think most of the recent transplants here would do the same. Houston has all of the jobs right now because of the oil industry, but if people here don't start thinking about how to make this more of a place to live and less of a place to avoid high tax rates and uncomfortable encounters with the poor, I don't see Houston doing much better than Detroit when the jobs start to dry up.

[theSUBlime]

Originally Posted by texas7

Whatever. Given the choice of putting up with extra hassles trying to get to work such as the occasional urine soaked seat or mentally unstable passengers , I'd rather take my own car. Wasn't making a comparison to the ride safety for accidents as compared to cars. I'm very fortunate just not that hard up for public transportation. But I think for those who must take it and have no alternatives that they deserve better from our public transportation. I just don't see a solution to improve their ride. Sort of like, it's a ride take it or leave it. This is the best we can do.

Great. No one cares.
It's not something fans of rail don't know, and it's not something fans of auto haven't decided.

[Trae713]

This thread is comical and should have never been created. People afraid to leave their bubble. Lmao.

[HouTXmetro]

LOL... agrees with Trae713.

[Liljo22]

I was taking the rail to work 2-3 days a week for a couple of months and never saw anything remotely close to that. It actually was a very good experience and very easy. I never felt unsafe or uncomfortable. Never felt dirty from riding it either.

You should probably ride it yourself a few times instead of flinging second accounts of how the rail is.

[tstone]

If I may comment, let's have another female's perspective on this topic. It's pretty obvious that all the responses so far have been from a bunch of young dudes (some of whom obviously aren't too fond of women in general). Like it or not, this particular issue is dramatically different between the sexes. Perhaps a mature dialogue instead of a dozen "pfft" responses is too much to ask?

[HookTheBrotherUp]

The Rodeo starts this weekend, you can look forward to drunks and vomit soon, especially during the cook-off. These will not be the homeless BTW.