Beware downtown parking lots -- you could get hit by the Danger Train
Following up on the Chronicle's story about MetroRail's design flaws which have led to a record-breaking accident rate, there was another encounter yesterday between light rail and a vehicle that entered an unauthorized zone:
A citation was issued to the driver of a vehicle involved in a light rail accident Wednesday.
A Metro train collided with an SUV as it pulled out of a parking lot near the intersection of Fannin and Oakdale.
And Kevin wonders:
How many cities have light rail designed so that an SUV pulling out of a parking lot can run into their multimillion dollar light rail transit backbone?!
Don Gallagher, the moderator of a Yahoo group was asking the same question:
Now come on folks, let's really think about this situation. HOW (all caps!)? HOW is it even possible for an SUV driver to pull out of a parking lot and get hit by a mammoth train? Don't any of the news investigators start to question the diverse resume of drivers and pedestrians involved? Not all young and stupid, none convicted of DWI, both old and young, men and women, all races. Heck, the first incident was with a responsible female news reporter folks.
Doesn't Metro or City Council get it? First off, it was the city officials that basically deeded our streets and ROW to Metro. The design severed many business and residential access points to the existing streets and created a dividing line in a great portion of our downtown and especially the Midtown area.
Come on Metro, come on city officials! Think about what you will be doing if you allow more of the same on other streets. The Galleria line (aka University line) will make the Main Street design look like "Safe Rail 101" in comparison. The traffic and pedestrian volumes at every intersection along the route is far larger and far more active than the existing line. Sure, perhaps they will build part of it grade separated (have to in some points) but the real situations will be on Post Oak. A line down Richmond is laughable for the impact it would have.
Seriously! A vehicle pulls out of a parking lot and gets walloped by a train?! What kind of design is that? How do experiences like this make downtown more attractive to people? Add this to Operation Jaywalking and parking meters that require babysitters, and Houston has created a downtown that some might think is more trouble than it's worth.
World class?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/21/05 08:55 AM | Print |
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
ADVERTISING
DISCLAIMER
All content © 2004-09, blogHOUSTON and the respective authors.
blogHOUSTON.net is powered by Nucleus.
Site design and Nucleus customization are by Kevin Whited.