West Houston Association Issues Brief

February, 2002

We believe profound, long-term regional development patterns have inexorably changed the lives and work of every Houstonian in the area. There is no indication this pattern of growth will change in the future. We believe these continuing changes, which underscore both the preference for suburban life and work styles and the opportunity for new-style urban living, require a fundamental change in thinking and planning for transit services. Traditional transit service paradigms predicated on a single central employment center must give way to new, more efficient strategies if transit is to fulfill a useful, truly productive role in the future of this city. Our region is at a crossroads where is demanded the most creative thinking possible. The West Houston Association, therefore, urges very careful and thoughtful consideration of future transit service development.

According to HGAC population and employment projections, over the next 20 years our region will add another 2 million residents to slightly exceed a population of 6 million by 2025. Employment will exceed 3 million by 2025. And underscoring the magnitude of our regional development, Houston is projected to have as many as 5 regional employment/activity centers employing 100,000 or more by the year 2025 with 5 additional centers in the 60,000 to 100,000 range.

We believe the following are necessary elements of a rational regional transit policy:

We call for a Regional Activity Centers Transportation Plan, a coordinated, in-depth evaluation of the current and future transit service fully integrated into roadway transportation improvements for the major regional employment/activity centers as a first step in crafting and implementing an effective regional transportation policy.

The growth of population and employment in the suburban areas of our community is a long established trend and data indicate it will continue over the next 25 years. We believe the real challenge Metro faces is not how to implement rail in the 15 to 25 mile long radial corridors focused on the Central Business District, as it seems the current Metro 2025 plan contemplates, but how to best serve the work trips centered on the growing number of major suburban activity centers throughout the region.

Houston has invested heavily in an extensive and highly successful high occupancy vehicle (HOV) system on our radial freeways. They have proven to be a highly effective and cost efficient means of meeting the challenges of a growing and diverse metropolitan area. As we stated in previous policy, we believe conversion of barrier separated HOV lanes to diamond lanes will improve access during non-peak travel hours and certainly has the potential for safer operations. We believe it is rational and economically sound to allow these facilities to "mature" as transit and carpool facilities and redesign them and the related transit services to directly serve the suburban activity centers as well as central business district. Dual direction HOVs, ramp access and direct express bus services to these areas should be implemented. Policies which hinder or prohibit development of new transit services in lower density areas should be rethought

As improving mobility in heavily traveled corridors such as Interstate 10 West and Loop 610 West are priorities, design and construction on planned freeway improvements should not be delayed in any fashion while Metro’s 2025 Plan or the Suburban Centers Plan is developed. US 290 redevelopment to accommodate growth must be advanced. The aggressive development and completion of these projects is paramount.

We believe the role for rail in the Metro’s 2025 Plan intermediate-term future is currently being forged by the current Main Street Line—at grade, in mixed flow traffic, in more densely developed areas. Because proposed ridership is low, it has modest if any congestion and air quality benefits. The current line and any future extensions in our view should recognize rail’s limitations and focus on its roll as a support to the revitalization of Houston’s urban core and central business district. This seems a sensible and prudent approach that should continue to guide rail’s development in Houston.

The system proposed can not be so expensive to build and operate that it drains resources needed to plan, development and implement transit services to suburban activity centers. We believe Metro’s 2025 Transit System Plan should acknowledge these elements and incorporate them into a more rationale transit plan for the region.

We endorse the Greater Houston Partnership's coordinated, multi-agency transportation plan, TRIP 2000 as an outline and first step for the region’s efforts to implement effective transportation systems to help improve mobility. We commit our aid in helping achieve enhanced funding and to find new ways of building smarter to improve transportation systems.