More on METRO's Uptown BRT failure, wealth moving south, forensics reality, TX beating CA on homelessness, and more
A few smaller items this week:
- More on Houston's BRT Failure with the Uptown Silver Line. Yet they're just going to pretend it didn't happen and plow ahead with the $1.5B Universities BRT line reducing Richmond to one lane each direction?!? đ
"A Houston bus rapid transit route over dedicated bus lanes is attracting less than 10 percent of the riders that were projected for it. The Silver Line opened in August 2020 with the expectation that it would carry 14,850 weekday riders, but in fact it is carrying less than 900 riders per weekday, about 6 percent of projections...
One reason why ridership is low is that the line is slow. Schedules say that it takes 27 minutes to go 4.7 miles, which is an average of 10.4 miles per hour. The cityâs regular local buses go much faster than that. Metro must have missed the memo that setting aside dedicated lanes to bus rapid transit is supposed to make the buses go faster, not slower.This is just another example of why transit agencies shouldnât spend hundreds of millions or billions of dollars on fixed transit infrastructure. No one can accurately foresee future transportation patterns, so relying on forms of transit that can be kept flexible â meaning buses sharing lanes with other traffic â is the safest and most cost-effective way to go."
"In the last decade, the number of people who are homeless in California has soared, rising more than 40%. Meanwhile, in Texas, they're seeing the opposite trend, with homelessness dropping by nearly a third."
- An excellent oped by âŚCharles Blain rebuffing the police unionâs bizarre attack on the head of the Houston forensics lab.
- A $100 Billion Wealth Migration Tilts US Economyâs Center of Gravity South (no paywall link) - Some 2.2 million people moved to the Southeast in just over two years. Thatâs roughly the population of Houston.
âThe numbers tell the story. For the first time, six fast-growing states in the South â Florida, Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee â are contributing more to the national GDP than the Northeast, with its Washington-New York-Boston corridor, in government figures going back to the 1990s. The switch happened during the pandemic and shows no signs of reverting.â
"Jews and Israelis who may feel uncomfortable at the rise of anti-Semitic sentiments among those in New York and California might find solace in states like Texas. Despite rising attacks and hate crimes on both sides of the American coast, the Lone Star State has remained unabashedly pro-Israel and open to business for those looking to relocate or expand their companies.
âPeople just love Israel here,â explained Toba Hellerstein, Executive Director of the Texas-Israel Alliance. âThey just love Israelis, love Israel, and Israelis will come here and feel like they're rockstars⌠There is a real romanticism, whereas in other states you have some ideas around Israeli startups and also have political reasons that make them less interested in working with Israel, in Texas you donât have that.â
Labels: aviation, crime reduction, homelessness, Metro, migration, perspectives, transportation plan
posted by Tory Gattis @ 4:41 PM
8 Comments:
The fundamental problem is that transit agencies constituency are other transit agencies, not the poor and working class citizens who need transit. If it we're the citizens there wouldn't be all of these big, prestige projects and the massive buses would probably be replaces by far more flexible private jineys. No glory in that.
100% agreed :-(
Its always a good story to me when smart talented people want to invest in Texas and start business here. referencing the Israel story.
I stand by my opinion that all the good transit locations have already been built. We're just wasting tax payer money building infrastructure that doesn't serve a need. And saddling future generations with the cost of upkeep and debt repayment. Its kind of like the TSA, once that fly wheel of contractors and government gets spinning its impossible to kill the program, just like transit. No government agency ever said it had too much money.
Definitely! It's a sad, wasteful cycle...
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Houston's Silver line should of been modeled after Los Angeles Silver Line and integrated into the Inner Katy Commuter bus system. Even if the bus service loses a ton of money at least the toll revenue and the fact that HCTRA cannot do lexus lanes means that is a great use of money.
I think the plan is that the Inner Katy BRT will be an extension of the Silver line from Uptown all the way Downtown.
Good. That will help ridership a ton!
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