Metro's Long Range Plan: Public Workshops

On Tuesday this week Metro unveiled it's commitment to long-term dialogue with members of the community and city.  Metro announced that they would be hosting a series of Public Workshops focused on discussing the future of transit in the region.  The workshops will cover a broad area of transit from future bus lines, light rail transit and ways to improve what is already running today.

The meeting was full of amazing information and slides on the projected population and employment growth the county is expecting in the next 30 years.  By the year 2040 the region is looking at having close to 10 million resident according to numbers presented at the meeting. 

One neat tool that Metro is introducing is an interactive way to suggest new routes.  The ridemetro.com site will feature a map that will allow users to literally draw their own routes with suggestions as to how it should run, how many stops it would have and whether it would be a bus, light rail or commuter rail line.

An interesting fact that stood out to me was how little Houstonians carpool.  On average, our cars carry 1.12-1.14 people per car.  That's pretty low.   A light rail train can carry 200 passengers per-trip, greatly reducing the traffic and carbon emissions in our fair city.

A schedule of the Public Workshop meeting times and places will be available in a new section entitled "Public Workshops"

While the interactive map has not launched yet, keep looking out for it at http://www.ridemetro.org/metrovision/

Press Release Here 

South East Community Advisory Board Meeting

On Thursday January 20 I participated in the first Community Advisory Board Meeting of the new year.  The turn out was amazing with representatives from the construction crews, municipal and federal government and numerous neighborhoods from the surrounding community.  The meeting focused on the following updates:

• Metro received 50 million in December, total budget for FY 2011 is 345 million.

• Metro revised it's station naming policy to allow for more community involvement.  We were all provided with hard copies of the new guidelines. Will provide a separate blog post of the new guidelines.

• Section 3A-  45 @Scott  Utilities work has begun.  (they are boring a hole across to the other side of 45 under the existing road)

• Section 2A-  Will be done this month restoring the sidewalks and surrounding area.  AT&T will be moving in to splice the wires there together.

• Section 2B-  Still in redesign.

To see a map of the different segments and where they are, click on the map tab at the top of the page.

I presented a small update on where UH was with the videos.  We have a script and have filmed a couple shots for the first video.  Being that there were a lot more people in attendance for this meeting, I mentioned that I would like to have feedback from the community about safety and what their concerns were.  A few of the construction site managers at the meeting mentioned that the barrels aren't enough all the time and were excited about talking with me further about their safety concerns as construction workers.
Promoting Local Businesses
Metro is working with the local businesses to promote these businesses while the light rail is being constructed.  When the rail is done many of these shops and restaurants will hopefully benefit from the new rail line.  However, until then access to their businesses is a little more difficult given the construction.  Metro and other community leaders have encouraged everyone to do what they can to support these businesses during the construction phase and beyond.   As such, I would like to urge the University of Houston and it's students to support these local businesses while the construction is going on.
LINK to South East Line Business Directory

Chris Ramsey