David,
I lived in Houston for about 15 years and did not find Houston public
transportation in particularly good condition--it was dirty and half the time
the air conditioning didn't work. But whose fault is that? I really don't know.
It was servicable, however, and got me where I wanted to go. All I know is that
in Portland it is clean, on time and, though not as fast as using personal
transportation, easy to get places if you plan ahead enough. They have both
light rail and buses that serve as connector routes to light rail. So I know it
can be done on a large scale.
When I lived in Houston, I just generally rode during peak commuter hours and
didn't find the wait particularly dangerous. At that time, I didn't have a car.
Didn't get one until about 1970 or so. And mostly I didn't go anywhere on the
transit after dark. You have to realize that I left Houston in '76 and, though
there were dangerous areas in town (I lived in the Montrose and my house was
broken into twice), I was able to travel quite freely most of the time. I
haven't been back to Houston since about 1980, so am not up on all the changes.
I'm not saying that absolutely all inner-city traveling should be done on
public transportation, but I think a good percentage of it can be. I think
you'll find light rail part of a viable answer to, "After saying all that
though, we can't just keep widening our roads and putting more cars on them.
Something has to be done." And, of course some houses will have to go--just
remember the adage about omelets and broken eggs.
I was just wondering if your information about crime, homeless people,
indifferent employees, etc comes from personal observation or from anecdotal
evidence.
Louise
> Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:25:32 -0500> From: [email protected]> To:
> [email protected]> Subject: Re: [ot_caving] RE: Oil prices rise, demand
> declines - DEFINATELY POLITICAL> > Louise,> > Public transportation in
> Houston is dangerous. You are more likely to> get robbed or worse waiting on
> a bus here. And at night, some of the> bus stops are in unpopulated areas and
> are dark. Terrible things could> happen to you or to someone that you love.>
> > Also, we have heat and humidity here, so it is like a sauna outside,
> especially> if you are wearing formal clothing.> > And we have blood-sucking
> mosquitos here, that carry encepholatis.> > We also have 10,000 homeless
> people here who spend part of their day> sleeping on the bus. Nobody wants to
> sit near them as the smell and> have contagious diseases.> > Taxpayers here
> are concerned about corruption and wasted money spent> by the public
> transportation people. Kickbacks, political favors, you> name it.> > Public
> tranpsportation suffers from the same efficiency problem that plagues> all
> government agencies: Lazy workers, people that just don't care,> mediocre
> service, fraud, etc.> > Some of these future projects are going to eventually
> fall under the control> of foreign entities just like our corrupt tollway
> system.> > We are getting some new light rail here soon, and unfortunately,
> hundreds of> people who live and work along the route are going to be evicted
> with no> where to go. This happened to me 2 years ago, when they widened the>
> freeway, and it really really sucked, and nobody cared, especially the>
> commission whose purpose it was to look into these matters.> > After saying
> all that though, we can't just keep widening our roads and putting> more cars
> on them. Something has to be done.> > David> >
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------> Give
> this to a friend: [email protected]> To unsubscribe, e-mail:
> [email protected]> For additional commands, e-mail:
> [email protected]>
