Yes, I am biased too, as I worked on the LRV project in a prettty high position, so I tend to be a little "thin-skinned" when attacks are made against the project. In this thread and many of the other ones that discuss Metro, I get tired of hearing the bitterness poured out on something that doesn't deserve it, namely the trains. Let's get real, it is only an inanimate object designed and built by a large group of American workers. Many of you who oppose the system sound so "sophmoric" with your little pet names you give the project and the photoshopping of the pictures. Get over it, the reason you are so pissed is that your City Council voted against your position and you do not like it. Take you anger out on them and not where it doesn't belong.
Fact: Not all systems that run at street-level have the same amount of accidents as this one, or any accidents at all.
Fact: No deaths have occurred as a result of this system but property damage has (who came up with the Deathtrain stuff, a sixth grader?).
Fact: The entire system was built and installed to the latest codes and legal requirements (Yet, for me, this is the area that I would focus on as being the weak link in the system).
Fact: The negative campaigning and slurring of the system degrades the populaces belief in the system (which is maybe what the agenda really is) and impacts the ridership levels of the train.
Fact: The City Council acted within the legal boundaries of their authority as representatives of the citizens (they just happened to make the choice you did not like) but at least they made a choice and acted on it.
Fact: The accidents have all been the result of violating posted warning systems (either the warning systems do what they are supposed to or don't - but why they don't work might be because drivers aren't paying attention).
Fact: LTK (out of Pennsylvania) had most of the design oversite authority and they have a very good track record for putting systems into place (if you don't like what they did, hire your own consultants to evaluate their work).
Again, take you bitterness out on where it belongs in your mind - the City Council. So you have a hosebag group of leaders that you do not like or what you feel they did to your city. Vote them out! Get rid of them! Or, if it really is so bad, move. Life is too short to harbor so much anger.
I realize you take some pride in those trains but those of us who oppose the system have perfectly valid complaints against them. Specifically, trains of that type are unfit for safe operation on streets as currently designed in Houston. We also tend to take issue with the exhorbitant costs we paid for them and the fact that they provide us with no substantial performance advantage over what could have been obtained for substantially less.
Many of you who oppose the system sound so "sophmoric" with your little pet names you give the project and the photoshopping of the pictures.
Hey, there's no harm in having a little fun at metro's expense even if it is silly!
Get over it
No. I'm not going to get over it because, unlike you, I have to live with that death machine travelling down the streets of my city and I have to pay for its extremely inefficient operations with a sales tax on everything I buy here for perpetuity.
the reason you are so pissed is that your City Council voted against your position and you do not like it.
Wrong again. City Council did not adopt the rail and in fact some members of council led the lawsuit I previously spoke of to force a referendum. Houston's transit agency (which has jurisdiction over Houston proper and over Harris County) is an unelected board that is ultimately accountable to one man and one man alone: the mayor of Houston. He has the power to appoint 5 of the 9 metro board members - a majority that lets him do whatever he wants. In effect, he makes governing decisions for over a million residents who do NOT live in the city limits and do NOT have any say in his election or any other city government election. We got stuck with the mayor of Houston's metrorail project after having no say in it and we got shafted with the bill.
Take you anger out on them and not where it doesn't belong.
I would, but you know what? I CAN'T VOTE FOR MAYOR OF HOUSTON! And I CAN'T VOTE FOR ANY MEMBER OF THE METRO BOARD! The latter are all appointed and accountable to one man: the mayor of Houston. And since I don't currently reside in the city limits, I have no say in who that mayor is. I still pay the metro sales tax and I still have to put up with the roads that they tear up and the roads that they run their death machines on but I have absolutely no say and no representation in their agency.
Fact: Not all systems that run at street-level have the same amount of accidents as this one, or any accidents at all.
...which seems to suggest that Houston's system has an extremely poor and in fact inherently flawed design system. As I said earlier, we've had more wrecks in three months than most cities have in a year and it is because of the system's terrible design.
Fact: No deaths have occurred as a result of this system but property damage has .
...it's only a matter of time.
(who came up with the Deathtrain stuff, a sixth grader?)
...actually, its an extension of the notorious Metro Death Bus problem in Houston, and they mow down dozens of pedestrians and vehicles every year with several casualties.
Fact: The entire system was built and installed to the latest codes and legal requirements
...yet it still has hundreds of unfixed technical glitches and still manages to be involved in a collision every 3 or 4 days.
Fact: The negative campaigning and slurring of the system degrades the populaces belief in the system (which is maybe what the agenda really is) and impacts the ridership levels of the train.
...yet the populace (as in Harris County as a whole) has NEVER conclusively demonstrated its belief in the system to begin with and NEVER had an opportunity to vote on this phase of the project. As for adversely impacting ridership, I am more than happy to contribute for the simple reason that the less people ride this one, the less of a drive there will be in the future to expand the damn thing.
Fact: The City Council acted within the legal boundaries of their authority as representatives of the citizens (they just happened to make the choice you did not like) but at least they made a choice and acted on it.
WRONG! City Council does NOT have control over the Metro board - the mayor of Houston does. And as mayor of Houston, he and his metro board appointees make decisions for all of Harris County including over a million people who do NOT get a chance to vote for him and who have no control over metro's policies.
Fact: The accidents have all been the result of violating posted warning systems
...only in several places along the route those posted warning systems (i.e. the lighted train signs) have been giving simultaneous and contradictory signals with other posted warning systems (i.e. the green traffic light).
Fact: LTK (out of Pennsylvania) had most of the design oversite authority and they have a very good track record for putting systems into place (if you don't like what they did, hire your own consultants to evaluate their work).
We already have. Independent organizations in Houston have brought in professional transit consultants from all over the country. One transit consultant from Los Angeles was hired by a local TV station and came to the conclusion that it was the worst designed light rail system he had ever seen.
Again, take you bitterness out on where it belongs in your mind - the City Council.
But city council is powerless in this matter.
So you have a hosebag group of leaders that you do not like or what you feel they did to your city. Vote them out! Get rid of them!
I would if I could, but I don't get to vote for Mayor of Houston nor do a million other Harris County residents who are impacted by his metrorail projects.