Is another IH-10 expansion possible? (Houston, San Antonio: houses, neighborhoods, school)

[DabOnEm]

Rail was actually in the original plan, but Harris County Toll Road Authority won out. The Katy Freeway Coalition's design had a sunken freeway (similar to how it is inside 610) all the way to the City of Katy. There were supposed to be 4 or 5 freeway lanes, an HOV lane, and light rail down the middle. That would have been a much better design. With how it's built now, there's way too many humps and entrances/exits. I think some exits should have been combined. So Mason Road and Westgreen could have had one exit and a "freeway hill" would be eliminated. This is similar to the Southwest Freeway and it would've made it more straight which helps with sight lines. You also have to slow down when going over a hump which happens every 1/2 mile it feels like.

Also the tollway is a scam since you can't drive faster on it because Harris County Constables park every 2 miles. Why pay to go the same speed as the freeway most times? Plus the weird "HOV in the left lane" makes people left lane hog in the tollway which clogs traffic. The speed limit on the tollway should be 70. But it remains empty most times outside of rush hour and heavily trafficked weekends. Should have been rail!

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by MAROON79

still can't believe they did not include rail in the most recent expansion. They even had a dedicated rail right of way already there. I rail line from Katy to the Energy Corridor, then to downtown just made so much sense - could have even had a segment branch off to the Galleria area.

LOL ask John Culberson!

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by Cinco Ranch

How was the traffic flow on the stretch between Beltway 8 and highway 6?

Not much different than between the Beltway and the Loop. The afternoon inbound traffic started getting bad around Eldridge from 4:00 on.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

Yes, it was 3 lanes both directions. During weekdays, certainly Monday through Thursday, the main commute direction was severely congested except for a few hours around midday (10:00 - 2:30). The other direction was severely congested during rush hour. In the afternoon, for example, the inbound direction was awful from 4:00 - 7:00 pm. Of course, a traffic incident would screw things up completely regardless of overall traffic level or time of day.

Weekends varied depending on weather, time of year, and what events were happening.

This only applies to the stretch west of the Loop. Before the expansion, once you got inside the Loop, it will usually great until right before Downtown. Leaving Downtown in the afternoon, it was pretty much at the speed limit until the Loop. After the expansion, this changed radically, because the constriction on traffic coming in from outside the Loop was loosened, plus a lot of residential densification happened inside the Loop - so the traffic flow rate going up inbound (due to the widening) plus more folks wanting to go inside the Loop at the of the day (to get home or have fun) means congestion is much worse inbound inside the Loop in the afternoons. A good example of how freeway "improvements" often just move traffic congestion to different places.

I avoided it like the plague on Saturdays. Weekends could be very bad.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Dopo

I know .... this idea is too wild and crazy ...
but what about providing other options instead of constantly expanding the same road?

Here's an even crazier idea...
redo I-10 West to be completely flat and have the roads go over the highway

West of Hwy 6, that's how many of the cross roads were. The latest in design thinking has the freeway going over the surface streets so there's not as many issues with clearance and there's more room for expansion of teh surface streets.

Originally Posted by MAROON79

still can't believe they did not include rail in the most recent expansion. They even had a dedicated rail right of way already there. I rail line from Katy to the Energy Corridor, then to downtown just made so much sense - could have even had a segment branch off to the Galleria area.

The old rail line was a single track. It wasn't wide enough to use for commuter rail. Any rail would have been down the middle of the freeway. No one's ever come up with a good way to get people to the rail stations, or explained where parking for the rail stations would be.

Originally Posted by DabOnEm

Rail was actually in the original plan, but Harris County Toll Road Authority won out. The Katy Freeway Coalition's design had a sunken freeway (similar to how it is inside 610) all the way to the City of Katy. There were supposed to be 4 or 5 freeway lanes, an HOV lane, and light rail down the middle. That would have been a much better design. With how it's built now, there's way too many humps and entrances/exits. I think some exits should have been combined. So Mason Road and Westgreen could have had one exit and a "freeway hill" would be eliminated. This is similar to the Southwest Freeway and it would've made it more straight which helps with sight lines. You also have to slow down when going over a hump which happens every 1/2 mile it feels like.

Also the tollway is a scam since you can't drive faster on it because Harris County Constables park every 2 miles. Why pay to go the same speed as the freeway most times? Plus the weird "HOV in the left lane" makes people left lane hog in the tollway which clogs traffic. The speed limit on the tollway should be 70. But it remains empty most times outside of rush hour and heavily trafficked weekends. Should have been rail!

I don't slow down for the overpasses, and don't consider them an issue. Of course, I've been driving on I-10 since the mid-70's, and consider the current form to be pretty nice.. A number of exits were combined in the prior expansion, especially inside BW8

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by MAROON79

still can't believe they did not include rail in the most recent expansion. They even had a dedicated rail right of way already there. I rail line from Katy to the Energy Corridor, then to downtown just made so much sense - could have even had a segment branch off to the Galleria area.

I read somewhere that rail was part of the original plans but some republican politician had it removed

[timtemtym]

The old 3 lane Katy was horrific! Even worse was the old 59 which was 2 lanes in each direction through Sugar Land. I remember having to go to First Colony for some meetings and it was horrible! Dead stop traffic. That was in the mid-90's.

And yes they used to have bridges over the freeway, all the exits in Katy were like this and they had to be super high because there was also a railroad track so the feeder road rose up to meet Mason and Fry in the air.

Houston is taking out all those overpasses now because if the Interstate raises up then federal dollars pay for that bridge. If the arterial road raises up then I think TXDot or Houston pays for those roads.

They really need to look at building a Westpark tollway type road about 3-4 miles north of I-10 that can connect with 290 and 610 like Westpark does with 59 and 610. Alternatives would not only take pressure off 10, but also the arterial roads the feed into 10.

Adding more lanes to I-10 would not be good unless they started separating the lanes like they do in Chicago which separates lanes as Express or Local (both free, but express is inside and you exit into the local lanes every few miles).

[nana053]

Originally Posted by WRM20

The old rail line was a single track. It wasn't wide enough to use for commuter rail. Any rail would have been down the middle of the freeway. No one's ever come up with a good way to get people to the rail stations, or explained where parking for the rail stations would be.

Here is a Chicago in the middle of the Dan Ryan

http://www.city-data.com/forum/attac...1&d=1547004073

[timtemtym]

Originally Posted by nana053

Here is a Chicago in the middle of the Dan Ryan

http://www.city-data.com/forum/attac...1&d=1547004073

LA Gold line rail goes down the middle of the 210 freeway with 5-6 lanes of traffic each way. People park at huge garages on one side of the freeway and then ride the rail into downtown. Where it goes through Pasadena, CA, the stops are close as the freeway edges downtown. It is pretty heavily used and works well since the 210 is clogged most days pretty badly.

[DeanoSF]

The idea of the I-10 monstrosity getting bigger is a nightmare. Embrace rail, Houston, and not the streetcar you have running in traffic. The key is not to build parking at transit stops, but to build transit villages with homes clustered around stations.

When people have to drive to the train station (or park and ride stop) the start-up of their cars nearly negates the air pollution gains of using mass transit.

https://jfrankwalks.wordpress.com/20...-land-banking/


Here's a pic of BART running in the middle of a freeway almost an hour away (by car) from San Francisco. Many will still park at the stations along this line, having driven from some point far from the line to get there. Closer in, though, the density of housing around the stops and recent ballot initiatives to increase this practice are making the park-and-ride boardings a much smaller percentage of total ridership, even as that ridership increases and expands farther into distant suburbs...