Metro bus report proves flaws in Uptown bus boondoggle
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A new report from Metro proves Uptown exaggerated the numbers of potential riders it claimed it would have for that $200 million project that tears up Post Oak for two unneeded exclusive bus lanes.
The report also provides staggering evidence the project is not what was sold to Houston City Council.
Uptown claimed the buses would run every five minutes. The new Metro report has the buses travelling to stops up to 12 minutes apart. Imagine Uptown workers wearing a suit in 100 degree Houston summer waiting in that heat. All so they could take two buses to a Park and Ride Lot and then get back in rush hour traffic in Katy to go home.
Uptown claimed travel times for this bus adventure that we now know will be 12 minutes longer than they claimed.
Uptown claimed trips from Park and Ride buses that no longer exist. Metro now says there will be 20% fewer buses stopped at the Park and Ride lots for the first trip to the transit centers.
Uptown is now telling Metro they do not have the money to build the parking spaces they originally promised at the proposed Bellaire Uptown Transit Center. The original Uptown plan said 700 parking spaces at just one center, now there are plans for only 100. That will make it virtually impossible for a commuter to drive to a transit center for just one bus ride into Uptown. But of course, that is logical and this is a government project.
Metro still predicts there will be 12,050 boardings by 2018, even without any work to alleviate congestion on the freeways going into Uptown. So let’s accept that magical number for the sake of entertainment. In human speak that means 6,000 people will be taking the bus…ALL DAY LONG.
You want further proof that the Metro ridership model is just WRONG?
Metro’s ridership model forecast is for 14,600 boardings per day by 2018, with the added benefit of that elevated bus flyover over the freeway. Just one problem, Metro knows that flyover won’t exist in 2018.
That tells you all you need to know.
“This just confirms what we have been saying from the start”, says Jim Scarborough of the Post Oak Business and Property Owners. “Even Metro can see there is no longer any need to tear up a beautiful street and destroy the sales tax base of an entire city. This is a real estate deal and it is time for the people who misled City Hall and Uptown property owners to quit. We will not stop until they do.”
Representatives of the Post Oak Property Owners are available for media interviews.
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