Houston appears on track for 40 crashes in first year

Houston Chronicle ^ | January 28, 2004 | LUCAS WALL

[1rudeboy]

At least, folks might start to use their rear-view mirrors. This is a good thing.

[jimt]

Yes, utopians who love social engineering and who live in the innercity love the concept.

The rest of the people in the greater metropolitan area get to pay for it, but receive no benefit.

Dittos from one of the payers. Screw downtown. It's irrelevent to most of us.

[Squawk 8888]

Reminds me of an accident I witnessed in Toronto a few years back. I was a passenger on a streetcar when a spatially challenged motorist tried to cut in front of us and hit the side of the streetcar, she tried to blame the streetcar driver. She asked him why he didn't swerve out of the way.

[Al B.]

People who are always railing against the light rail have limited vision.

A $350 million rail line -- on the ground thru a major city -- that goes nowhere and that nobody rides. And you call that vision?

I've lived in Houston for a long time. I've seen some nutty things, but this toy train to nowhere is the nuttiest.

[blabs]

This has nothing to do with Utopia, and everything to do with relieving one of the most clogged traffic nightmares in America. I lived in the suburbs (Clear Lake, Friendswood, Pearland, CyFair, Westpark/Richmond, and other various places) and traffic sucks coming and going. An hour each way, without an accident. The freeways can't be widened much further. The only thing left to do is stack the freeways, or run commuter rail. How many more billions will we invest in concrete?

Rail is the only way to go (unless we get flying cars, God help us). The light rail will be the hub of downtown and the Med center, and all rail lines will meet there. The med center has traffic over 250,000 people per day. Thats $$ in the eyes of metro, and I can almost guarantee that the city will ensure that they get it.

This city is very diverse, many people like the suburbs, many people like inner city. Both should be equally represented. Personally, I will not live in the suburbs again until they get commuter rail installed...two hours a day in traffic, 10 hours a week, 500+ hours a year....that's a lot of time I now enjoy with my family. My 10 minute commute is great, and my property value has increased 3 fold in 5 years. I'm not bitching...enjoying the ride, pitying the people who waste their life away sucking smog.

[girlscout]

And why have you not joined any Houston Area Texans gatherings?

I live in the Clear Lake area and avoid Houston at all costs.

[Johnny_Cipher]

Is it just me or is there a common theme to the accidents?

Couldn't be all those illegal left-hand turns those cage drivers are taking, could it?

[blabs]

If it's so irrelevant, why are so many people trying to get into it every day? Last time I checked, every freeway in the morning is stacked with people trying to come into town, and every evening it is stacked with people leaving it.

The suburbs are a result of Houston, and not vice versa.

[Blood of Tyrants]

If you call two miles away "right past".

[babble-on]

you make a fine point there. still, seems like it would probably make the difference between having 5 riders a day and 500 riders a day (still a gigantic money sink either way, no doubt.)

[jimt]

People are "trying to get into it" because of tax subsidized development downtown.

And it's hard to get into because of the social engineering of our freeways.

The overwhelming majority of jobs in the Houston area are outside downtown.

BTW, it's "stacked" going OUTBOUND on I-10, at least the level of inbound, over the distance I drive daily.

[Guvmint_Cheese]

Why does it have to be rail? Why not just buy more busses and expand routes? Wouldn't that be cheaper and take cars off the streets?

[RiflemanSharpe]

Yes it would, but that would not increase the value of the downtown and midtown assest of the people backing lightrail. This does nothing but waste money and enrich a few people.

[RiflemanSharpe]

The new motto of Metro: "We will get those cars off the road, one at a time if that is what it takes."

[B4Ranch]

These accidents appear to be the vehicle operators fault not the train engineer. Notice how many times the word 'illegal' shows up. People backing out of a driveway in front of an oncoming train, hmm, illegal aliens or stupid Americans. Truck drives past crossing arm ? See above

[blabs]

Busses are just another traffic hinderance. Their also noisy, spread diesel deposits which are proven to cause cancer, and have to constantly be maintained. IMO, we need to move towards a more resourceful and futuristic way to commute. Rail looks to be the best alternative.

[B4Ranch]

"She asked him why he didn't swerve out of the way."

Are you kidding?

[Guvmint_Cheese]

DING DING DING! Exactly! There are only a few folks who will really benefit here, but there is no overal financial or transportation benefit to be found. If a bus was used instead along the light rail route, you could have used the existing road capacity. Putting light rail in actually took up part of the available road capacity, potentially making congestion worse.

I can't see the benefit of this line over running busses along the same route.

[N. Theknow]

Is it just me or is there a common theme to the accidents?

Well, let's see...

10 incidents.

7 hitting vehicles making illegal left turns
2 hitting cars coming out of driveways
1 hitting a truck bypassing a crossing arm

It would appear that illegal left turns are quite the norm in Houston.