“Have you ever seen the backup on I-45 after a nice weather weekend. You’d think the idiots that run metro could at least open the HOV lanes on Sunday night into Houston but noooo, let those cars sit next to it. Which begs the question if Galveston is a dead city, how come there is so much traffic to and from it?”
Well . . . . I live near I-45 where it crosses Clear Creek. When I drive back and forth from Galveston on election nights (I am an election judge and have to drop off the ballots) — typically at 10-11 pm on a Tuesday night, when it is pretty empty — the drive takes me about 20 minutes one way. When I drive to or from Galveston from that same point (NASA 1 or FM-518 any time on Saturday or Sunday (when the tourists are at Galveston) the trip takes me about 20 minutes one way. No difference.
Now from 518 to the 610 Loop, it is a different story. There are plenty of times when it is stop and cuss. But for some reason, traffic always clears by the time I reach NASA 1 if I am heading south, and doesn’t get slow until I get north of NASA 1.
Mind, I-45 is at least six lanes from 610 to Galveston — the whole way. Yet it never gets crowded once you are south of the north part of Galveston County.
I might be wrong, but it might just be possible that those crowds you are talking that choke I-45 on Sunday night might not be coming back from Galveston Island. They might be coming from Galveston and Clear Lake and Kemah. Based on what I have observed, I suspect that there are more folks getting on I-45 on or north of 518 than there are south of it. Certainly there is not enough traffic on I-45 to slow down traffic between Clear Creek and Galveston Island.
Still it would suck trying to haul thousands of containers through that traffic. There is a rail line that parallels 45 though. Thanks for being an election judge. Lord knows we need them.