And finally...
When dividing all this text into
bite-sized chunks for the blog, I had forgotten I had originally
eight parts and not seven to this series. Well, so as to not mess
things up with my previous blog-post headings, I'm ending this series
on the route-by-route analysis at seven, which gives you all this
time 'round a really long blog post. Please bear with me - lol.
Also, as I suspect there will be wholesale changes to this map in some routes from this Draft iteration to the Final iteration that will be prepared and unveiled later this summer/early autumn, I'll be doing this sort of route-by-route look at that map as well.
70 Bellfort
At 10 miles in length, it is not as
good a way of getting to Hobby as East Line - 69 Broadway except when
one takes in the extra transfer for most-anyone coming from west of
Downtown to the East Line. There is still no easy way
of getting to Hobby via public transport. Seeing stuff like this
makes me a little frustrated our bus budget is so small.
Quickline from Fannin South to HOU via
Bellfort or from Magnolia TC via Broadway? Quickline - Express from
Northline to IAH? I'll take one of each, please!
71
Cambridge
Blue west of Mainer
Green: Mainer to
Southeast TC
This re-imagined route takes up some
of the current 1 Hospital's current hang-outs: VA hospital, Harris
County Hospital Districts, Holly Hall, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center,
etc.
The green segment takes up bits of the current 60 South
McGregor and 87 Sunnyside TMC, connecting with Southeast TC. Better
to name this route 'Cambridge south' a la 'Tidwell east'.
72 Yellowstone Reed
Green
At app. 18-19 miles, this route is as
circuitous and ponderous as it looks, continuing the tradition of
oddly-shaped bus routes I hoped System Re-imagining could and would eradicate entirely. Look for this route to be split in the Final
map.
I was hoping to see a single bus route go the whole of
Cambridge, but the labyrinth that is the TMC and all the necessary
places people need to go there makes, I expect, such ease of routing
impossible. Best to add to this nomenclature 'Cambridge north - Ben
Taub'.
73 Southmore Park Place
Green
All of Southmore is covered directly or
indirectly by this route that takes in the old Richey Branch of the
current 40 Telephone. The current 60 S McGregor, 5 Southmore, and 40
Telephone provide routings for this new bus line.
74 Evergreen
Green
The current 40 Telephone gives its
Howard Branch to this new 74 Evergreen that, along with the 73
Southmore Park Place gives the Meadowcreek Village area two green
routes. Not the greatest service, but this part of town is lucky
with two greens for this low-ridership portion of our city that in a
bus-route vein looks a lot cleaner than it does in the current
network.
Service is not as good for this area as before, but
again, an unfortunate trade-off and one of many difficult decisions
METRO had to make in regard to geographical coverage vs.
ridership-focus.
75 Sagemont
Green
Imagine carrying around a ball and
chain. Currently, the 88 Hobby carries a ball-and-chain: its segment
between Hobby Airport and San Jacinto College South.
With the
re-imagined network, this segment becomes a route all its own with
the rest of the current 88's functionality given over to other
re-imagined routes.
77 Market Pleasantville
Green
The old north turning of the current 48
Navigation will now be handled by the new (and more logical) 77
Market Pleasantville that also takes routings from the current 11
Nance and 30 Clinton (Denver Harbor branch).
Reaching these
hard-to-get-at neighborhoods is not easy with their odd street
layouts, but METRO is trying to accommodate as best as it can.
78 Collingsworth
Green
Why does METRO call this the
'Collingsworth' when it hardly travels on Collingsworth? Clearly,
the notion of long, straight lines in routing does not apply to all
parts of town! The current 77 Liberty and 5 Kashmere Gardens give
routing to this new line, though I would rename it to 'Kashmere
Gardens'.
79 Ley
Green
The current 52 Hirsch gives routing to
this new line that services the three northeast Flex zones.
80 Westridge
Blue
The current 18 Kirby and 14 Hiram
Clarke offer routing to this new line that is really quite short.
The west part of OST not serviced by the new 66 OST Wayside is
serviced by this new 80.
81 Willowbend
Green
Taking routing from the current 10
Willowbend, the new 81 Willowbend helps provide that segment of S.
Main from the Loop to TMC TC a decent amount of frequency via this
new line and the new 49 Hiram Clarke.
82 W Airport Briargate
Blue
In the current system, the number '82'
stands for gigantic ridership on the biggest non-freeway artery in
the city of Houston. In the re-imagined system, '82' denotes a blue
route that takes up the southern portion of the current 33 Post Oak
as well as 98 Briargate Circulator and a little bit of 49 Chimney
Rock.
The one thing it is clear to my lay eye is instead of
going up Hiram Clarke to W. Fuqua to Hiram Clarke TC, the line could
stay on Anderson and then go up Bathhurst, perhaps, thereby giving a
little better service to Anderson Rd.
85 Memorial Villages
Green
If the world were a perfect place, the
whole of Memorial would be a very strong blue. As it is, no such bus
will exist for at least the new few years, but METRO does make the
best of a bad nomenclature situation with a new route taking up
routing from the current 70 Memorial. We can't call this the
'Memorial' bus, but we can at least call it by where it goes.
86 Outer Memorial
Green
Alas, no service to Memorial City!
This green line takes up routing from the current (and much-lamented)
131 Memorial.
87 Westview
Green
The current 72 Westview and the
northern terminus of the current 19 Wilcrest provide routing here.
88 Hammerly
Green
This route is elegant and is a perfect
example of when geography-stars align perfectly to give us the
perfect example of METRO's new paradigm of the long, straight,
namesake route with big connectivity at both ends. The new 88
Hammerly gives us that with the appropriate deviation to its western
turnback, meeting up with the Kempwood and Clay Road buses and its
eastern ending at the massively-connectified NWTC.
89 Dacoma Shuttle
Blue
To this diminutive new blue route is
given routings from the current Rosslyn branch of the 50 Heights and
the current 40 Pecore (Northwest Mall branch), providing easy service
to NWTC.
91 Veterans Memorial
Green
94 Acres Homes / Montgomery
Blue
95 Jones
Green
96 FM 1960
Blue
97 Ella Aldine Westfield
Green
101 Veterans Memorial Express
Weekday Peak Only
These new six routes take up the work
done by the current 44 Acres Homes, 86 FM 1960 (with its two
branches), and the 108 Veterans Memorial with new service from W.
Little York P&R to the cluster of college campuses up Highway 249
@ Compaq Center W. Dr.
102 Bush IAH Flyer
Blue
Years ago, METRO had a near-non-stop
direct service from Downtown to Bush Intercontinental Airport.
No-one rode the thing, and that very-nifty service was discontinued.
Along with the current and new 4 Beechnut, the 102 will by pure
accident be one of the two routings in the coming network to retain
their former numberings.
Every time I've put together my own
'dream-map', I've left FM 1960 almost exactly as METRO has it laid
out in the current network. This area of town is just a pain
route-planning-wise.
120 FW/DH Northshore Flyer
Blue east of FW/DH TC
Frequent Network west of FW/DH TC
This line replicates almost verbatim
the current 137 Northshore.
151 Harwin Westwood Flyer
152 Harwin Briar Forest Flyer
Frequent Network east of
Ranchester
Blue west of Ranchester
The current 132 Harwin and 53
Westheimer Ltd. are gone and replaced with these new routes,
combining east of Harwin & Ranchester into a Frequent segment.
Notably, the direct connection between Westheimer and Richmond
featured with the current 53 - with its stop at Lakewood Church - is
gone.
160 NWTC Downtown Flyer
Frequent Network
This replaces the I-10 portion of the
131 Memorial.
161 Memorial Express
Weekday
Peak Only
No service to Memorial City Mall does not this a
replacement for the 131 Memorial make.
376 FW/DH Flex
377 Mesa Flex
378 Kashmere Flex
395 N Shepherd Flex
398 Jensen Flex
The theory is dropping off and picking
up the few riders who live in these new Flex zones curb-to-curb will
be less-expensive than running the miles and miles of bus routes
through these areas. And yes, we run a lot of miles through these
areas currently.
These areas do not have, in METRO's
mind, enough ridership to justify fixed routes, but do have enough
ridership to justify at least some level of service. Unfortunately,
what this will amount to is, as a friend of mine put it, 'METROLift
for able-bodied people'.
30 W. Gulf Bank Rd. Mesa TC
Green -
18-hour span
Eastbound: Acres Homes TC, Left on W
Montgomery, R on Ferguson Way, L on Wheatley, R on De Walt, R
Veterans Memorial, N Shepherd P&R, L Veterans Memorial
(limited-stop), R W Gulf Bank, R Airline (limited-stop), L Carby, L W
Hardy, R Hopper Rd., R Hirsch, L Little York, R N Wayside, L Tidwell,
Mesa TC
74 Mesa TC N Wayside FW DH TC
Green - 18-hour span
Mesa TC, R Tidwell, L N. Wayside, R
I-10, R FW/DH TC
METRO needs your public comments.
METRO wants your public comments. Your public comments will help our
planners fix what is wrong with this map and send to the METRO Board
of Directors a beautiful final network map for their approval
sometime in (we hope) September.
Visit
www.transitsystemreimagining.com - Look at the new draft map for
yourself - Mouse over the 'Draft Reimagined Network Plan' text in the
menu bar at the top of the page - Click the 'Provide your feedback'
option - Fill out the easy and simple online form and submit it!
Nothing could be more simple, and it
would be to our area a tremendous public service!
