The Uptown TIRZ has offered to alleviate some of this congestion by building the Guide Way (dual dedicated bus lanes down the middle of Post Oak Boulevard), at a budgeted cost of $200 million. Ultimately, like any other government plan, it will most likely cost much more than the projected budgeted amount and it is Houston taxpayers who will foot the bill.
The plan, as proposed, will undoubtedly create traffic congestion on Post Oak, where congestion is currently minimal, and throughout the Galleria. The Guide Way (a faux version of BRT or Bus Rapid Transit), will be a 1.9-mile section of exclusive bus lanes, which will emanate from the Northwest Transit Center’s 200-car garage and run to a new 250-car garage at the new (yet to be built) Westpark Transit Center, with many stops in-between.
The Uptown TIRZ claims that over ten thousand (10,000) riders, primarily Galleria office dwellers, will transition from remote Park ‘n Rides daily (parenthetically leaving their unguarded vehicles subject to break in), board busses, transfer busses at one of the Transit Centers, and ride busses (note the plural) to work and back.
Once off the bus, they’ll then cross three lanes of traffic and possibly two bus lanes to get to and from their office buildings; and pay money (rider cost currently up in the air) to do so. The Uptown TIRZ claims that riders will do this in lieu of taking advantage of what is most often employer provided paid parking in their respective office buildings’ garage. This trade-off doesn’t sound like a particularly likely scenario to me, but I’m only one Galleria office dweller.
Why has there never been a real survey of major Galleria employers and employees as to their willingness to participate in this “utopian” program?
Bus route after bus route down Post Oak has failed due to lack of ridership. Why does the Uptown TIRZ think that this time will be different? And how is it that they are being allowed to bet tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on this unlikely outcome? Cui bono?
One must acknowledge that what congestion exists in the Galleria primarily comes from folks trying to get on or off Loop 610. To alleviate the admittedly bad congestion on 610 –and that caused by commuters getting on and off 610 – I believe that the best solution would be for TXDOT to double-deck this portion of the Loop, so through traffic from I-59 to I-10 would no longer need to mix with “local” traffic exiting in the Galleria. My bet, hundreds of millions of dollars of bus lanes (1.9 miles @ a conservative $19,936.20 per foot to construct) ain’t gonna do it.
The Uptown TIRZ plan will cut Post Oak Boulevard in half, magnifying the area’s relatively minor traffic congestion and creating dangerous confusion. The Uptown TIRZ boasts that all current traffic lanes will be maintained, but the plan specifically removes the “exclusive right turn, southbound lane at San Felipe and Westheimer.” The Guide Way will close three open-turn medians on Post Oak. It can’t help but snarl east-west traffic on San Felipe, Westheimer, and Richmond as virtually empty busses in dedicated lanes, utilize TSP (Traffic Signal Preemption), like Downtown’s light rail. The Uptown TIRZ plan will trade what I believe at best will be a minute improvement on 610, for massive disruption on Uptown streets. Cui bono?
If the Uptown TIRZ plan goes forward, traffic will be disrupted even more as construction (now getting underway between 610 and San Felipe on Post Oak) cuts traffic to two lanes in each direction; and eliminates the medians, trees and landscaping that we have all come to appreciate in the asphalt jungle we call home.
The disruption will last well into 2018, assuming the project does something no government project ever does – comes in on schedule. With the city facing a major budget deficit and credit downgrades, this is not the time for a WPA-like “make work” project. The increased congestion and loss of access will soon begin to drastically exacerbate the decline in sales taxes (already taking place due to depressed oil prices) and property taxes in one of the nation’s most prestigious mixed use (shopping, office, residential) districts.
Medium term, it will drive surviving office tenants elsewhere as their leases expire, speeding flight to the more accessible suburbs of Harris, Ft. Bend, and Montgomery counties. Hang on Energy Corridor developers, misguided METRO rail projects and skyrocketing property taxes will shortly lead to an exodus from the CBD and the Guide Way (and skyrocketing property taxes) will lead to a similar exodus from the Galleria.
If this were about effective, efficient transportation, any one of the alternatives proposed below could have been chosen. They offer a chance of addressing the Galleria’s relatively minor congestion problems without creating monstrous new ones on Westheimer, San Felipe and Richmond:
- Van pooling, common in Seattle and Silicon Valley, could be implemented with 11-passenger vans, outfitted with leather captain’s chairs and Wi-Fi taking passengers straight to the office door, enabling them to work an extra hour a day.
- Efforts could be made to encourage carpooling, ride sharing, and use of the existing underutilized METRO bus system.
- Diamond lanes, like those downtown, could limit the use of right hand lanes to buses, vans or other HOVs during peak hours.
These potential options for alternate transit considering current car driving commuters are all better alternatives than this ill-conceived project, particularly in far flung Houston, where less than 2{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of commuters now use public transportation.
But no, the Uptown TIRZ board appears to have another agenda. What is their agenda and…cui bono?
The Uptown TIRZ board has authorized bonds to pay condemnation proceeds for land along the route. Cui bono?
City funds have already been used to install utilities to increase water and sewer capacity for new high rise developments in Uptown which they dream will be akin to City Centre (located at Beltway 8 and I-10), but on steroids. “Build it, they will come!” Cui bono?
Prudence should demand that Mayor Turner put the brakes on this ill-conceived project, perhaps re-calling the money that the Uptown TIRZ has already collected, and put it toward the recently identified monster deficit that his predecessor left him. Transit-wise, he could help METRO address their aging bus fleet (30{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of which is over 14 years old); he could address the need for more handicapped access, etc.; bottom line, he could help those who really need assistance with public transportation, METRO’s primary charge.
I believe he should halt this project before 18 plus months of traffic congestion and road construction drastically cuts sales tax revenues from the city’s premier shopping district, ruins its beautiful premier boulevard, causes an exodus of office tenants, and kills the goose just when the city budget most needs its golden eggs.
Empty busses to nowhere! Whatever, certainly not a good way to spend hundreds of millions of dollars.
There should be a hippocratic oath for public servants too: “First, do no harm.”
Put the damned trees back!
J.W. “Jay” Wall III is a commercial real estate broker, specializing in tenant representation.