Why doesn't Houston consider building the rail system underground? Subway? (Portland: loft, living in)

[gchc303]

Denver, CO has the RTD, which is what Metro will be ten years. It runs downtown on the same streets as all other vehicles.
You will not see traffic in Houston like Denver has. If you think Houston traffic sucks, come to Denver. Every road at rush hour is like Westheimer/610 loop at Christmas shopping time. The problem is not enough major freeways, no feeder roads, and few places to make left turns, or u turns. Is RTD good for Denver, absolutely. If they would build the train that runs from Wyoming to New Mexico that would be better. Most of the Colorado population is a north-south strip parallel to the Rockies.
Go 'stros!!!

[randian]

Originally Posted by Spade

Tell that to the people in actual cities around the world that would rather ride the subways than drive their cars.

No doubt having somebody else pay 90% or more of your ticket is quite exhilarating. Doesn't make it right. And by the way, people don't want to ride subways, they do so because super-dense cities have inadequate road systems.

Originally Posted by Spade

It moves just as fast as well in the suburbs IF they had their own ROW. Do not look at Houston's light rail system and think every passenger rail system is the same.

Rail moves as fast only so long as you ignore the cost of transfers, but then rail advocates always presume passenger time is valueless. So do places like Portland OR, where they're intentionally increasing traffic congestion.

Rail systems are pretty much all the same, Houston's included: overpriced boondoggles. There is no metric by which passenger rail systems make sense.

Originally Posted by Spade

They can move every bit as fast. Not to mention that heavy rail has a very high capacity. I doubt rail transit causes more pollution than cars.

Heavy passenger rail is even more of a disaster than light rail. It's more expensive and pollutes more.

Ever wondered why you don't choke on exhaust at a stoplight anymore? Rail pollutes more than cars because modern cars have essentially zero pollution when warm.

Originally Posted by Spade

Houston will get it's rapid transit public system one day.

I hope not.

[jfre81]

So let's just bulldoze the entire inner loop and turn it into a gigantic parking lot. That way when the density comes, our road system and parking will meet the demands of everyone.

We'll just all set up little cots on the concrete to sleep on.

[diablo234]

Really?

To me Denver's traffic isn't as bad as Houstons but then again I did not have to use I-25 on a daily basis when I was there.

To me that it seems that the feeder roads only make things worse though for traffic congestion since they eventually get cluttered with big box stores, fast food restaurants and other commercial development.

Not to mention it makes it harder for vehicles to just enter and exit the freeway since they also get utilized by people who patronize the busineses along them.

[HookTheBrotherUp]

Originally Posted by NYer75

A subway system would costs billions and billions of dollars. Don't think Houston will ever get a subway system. I think it's to late for the city. Houston is a city built for motorists. There are major streets that don't even have buses.

If they wait until fuel is too costly, and vehicles are so efficient, the tax revenue drops dramatically for governments, less population, fewer jobs, etc., then it will really be expensive. We will be looking back to now when it cost billions instead of trillions. In other words, better now than later, it is never going to get cheaper. The day will come, it is inevitable.

[txstate]

Monorail on each of houston major freeways sections would be it. Would it be nice to get on the galleria line from Bush or Hobby.

[Trae713]

Monorail? Seriously? Very dated and slow.

[blkgiraffe]

Originally Posted by Scarface713

Monorail? Seriously? Very dated and slow.

Yes it is. I remember riding the monorail in Vegas.

[DarkWolf]

Monorails were mainly a 1960s-1990s thing to connect people form the Airport to the Downtown. But now its cheaper and faster to build a Rapid Transit or Light Rail line......

[dv1033]

Originally Posted by Spade

Again, I like what Houston is doing. It's an urban transit system. Not necessarily a rapid transit system like DC or New York. Houston will get it's rapid transit public system one day. But this is what is working for Houston right now.

Houston does have a rapid public transit. About 30,000 every weekday take an express bus from a park and ride to downtown, greenway plaza, or TMC with very few stops, if any. Combine the park&ride system with the HOV system and you have around 250,000 people taken off freeway mainlanes. It's not the flashiest system but 250,000 people is a large number.