Houston traffic... exponentially worse? (Galveston, Pearland: mover, taxi, to live in)

[Trae713]

Originally Posted by N. Olikee

I find it quite humorous and perplexing that "they" expanded the Katy Fwy. and it's STILL loaded with traffic.

The point for expanding it was because traffic on the Katy was bumper to bumper for twelve hours a day. When they were expanding it, they kept saying traffic would still be that way during rush hour, but on off hours, it would just be heavy volume.

[Dopo]

Expanding highways is just a temporary patch on a big problem.
We need a good commuter rail to start getting cars off the road.

I live in North Houston, and if I had the option of riding a light rail to the airports, downtown or Galveston..... I would never drive to those places.

[vegankris]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Expanding highways is just a temporary patch on a big problem.
We need a good commuter rail to start getting cars off the road.

I live in North Houston, and if I had the option of riding a light rail to the airports, downtown or Galveston..... I would never drive to those places.

It has been proven so many times that expanding highways does VERY little to reduce traffic. It's a waste and just ends up being a big expense that sucks money thereafter. If Houston wants to make traffic better, they need commuter rail. That's the only solution.

Otherwise, live close to work and eliminate the commute. I never deal with traffic, so I can't relate to the complaints and I think this makes a HUGE difference in my families quality of life.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by N. Olikee

Ten Years.......that's a blip on my radar/screen/life. I don't live in Houston....pretty obvious......I live in Austin. BUT, I own property and pay BIG OL' TAXES in Harris County.

At my unfortunate age in life.......live where you are happiest.

when I say you, I mean you in the abstract, not you personally.

If people live far west, then they should realize that they are not going to get to work in the Woodlands in 15 minutes

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by vegankris

Otherwise, live close to work and eliminate the commute. I never deal with traffic, so I can't relate to the complaints and I think this makes a HUGE difference in my families quality of life.

I actually work outside of Houston and drive against traffic.
But I hate having to deal with traffic on the weekend when I go to downtown or Galveston.

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by vegankris

It has been proven so many times that expanding highways does VERY little to reduce traffic. It's a waste and just ends up being a big expense that sucks money thereafter. If Houston wants to make traffic better, they need commuter rail. That's the only solution.

Otherwise, live close to work and eliminate the commute. I never deal with traffic, so I can't relate to the complaints and I think this makes a HUGE difference in my families quality of life.

It has been proven so many times that building rail does VERY little to reduce traffic. Show me one example in the U.S. where a city has reduced it's traffic congestion by building rail.

Expanded roads do not spawn cars. Traffic increases because the population is growing. Freeway infrastructure is like any other infrastructure - electrical lines, water systems, or schools. Seems they are always issuing bonds to build new schools. What's the point? The schools will just fill up with new students and we'll soon have overcrowded schools again, right? Fact is, as long as the population grows the infrastructure needs to expand.

[oceangaia]

Oh phooey, did I kill yet another thread by requesting an example to back up the hype?

[OducksFTW!]

Originally Posted by DiverTodd62

It has been proven so many times that building rail does VERY little to reduce traffic. Show me one example in the U.S. where a city has reduced it's traffic congestion by building rail.

Expanded roads do not spawn cars. Traffic increases because the population is growing. Freeway infrastructure is like any other infrastructure - electrical lines, water systems, or schools. Seems they are always issuing bonds to build new schools. What's the point? The schools will just fill up with new students and we'll soon have overcrowded schools again, right? Fact is, as long as the population grows the infrastructure needs to expand.

I agree freeway expansion will alleviate the traffic of an area that has seen expansion far beyond what it can handle.

However building a freeway, is something that would cause major back-ups and can take up to 18 months or even more..

Light Rail also does cause some traffic, however depending on where it is built it can be minimalized.

And Light Rail offers an alternative for those who do not want to sit in traffic, because lets face it, no matter how big the freeway is made, at rush hours there will always be traffic.

And I am glad Houston has finally come to its senses, stopped being so damn cheap, and decided to put in the light rail that are being built now.

Why it took so damn long and why it is about 20 years later than it should have been is beyond me, but maybe there were too many backward thinking folks such as yourself that prevented it from happening then.

Houston is the 4th largest city in the country, it is an embarrassment that we dont have even a decent light rail system besides the 10mi. stretch that was built for the Superbowl...

[johnsmith]

where is the light rail being built now???

I hate houston traffic .com..........

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by OducksFTW!

And Light Rail offers an alternative for those who do not want to sit in traffic, because lets face it, no matter how big the freeway is made, at rush hours there will always be traffic.

While we're facing things let's face the fact that no matter how much rail is built it will only offer an alternative to a tiny fraction of the area population while sucking the regional transportation budget dry. Even in strong rail cities like Boston or Chicago less than 5% of daily commuters use rail. People like you praise the "forward thinking" of DFW and it's light rail serving 100k/day (in a metro population of 4 million) yet every credible traffic study shows Dallas has fared no better (and perhaps worse) than Houston in traffic congestion over the last 20 years.

Nice rhetoric but you failed to provide the requested example in the U.S. where a city has reduced it's traffic congestion by building rail. If you are simply in love with rail regardless of cost then fine but until rail advocates can provide such examples they really need to quit trying to sell rail by whining about traffic congestion.