Jeff's rant on West Loop traffic

It appears as though in a few years' time, we may be getting dedicated bus lanes on the West Loop between the Northwest Transit Center and the Galleria.  About.  d#*^.  time.

It's funny how the above-linked article, though, laments it will take so long for traffic to get better on this ever-congested piece of highway.  Well, we have the mass-transit and traffic problems we elected to have.

Many of us elect to drive when we could take the bus.  Granted, our bus system's current network for local bus travel is not what it needs to be, but then again, why were we not pressing Kathy Whitmire and Bob Lanier for change en masse?  Do we actually think Mayor Bob would have listened to a million sets of torches and pitchforks?  In Mayor Bob's case, probably not, but in Whitmire's case, I think yes.

Could we have gotten more involved with the system to have pressed Lee Brown to not have put bus service into such a red-headed stepchild back burner during the building of our original light-rail line?  Could we have put pressure on Rick Perry to get TXDoT to have put dedicated bus lanes in the West Loop ten years ago?

We, the People, don't care en masse about mass-transit.  If we did, we would have the best local bus and light rail service in North America.  We are a 'can-do' part of the world.  We don't have overblown union-burdens and zoning to put up with.  We can do whatever we want.

And we have.  We have elected over the past sixty years to put mass-transit into a place of subservience to the automobile.  We have elected to have our Big Huge McMansions in the outer boonies while making one-way one-hour commutes into Downtown.  We have elected to cater to the transient nature of twenty-somethings who will move out of the literal horde of new apartments littering our city, turning these apartments someday into Westpark & the Southwest Freeway.

This is why traffic along the West Loop is so bad: We, the People, have elected over time to not do anything about it.

 But the 'boonies', as you call them, have better schools.

Why haven't we pushed school boards and the State Board of Education to do better for Houston schools so that we don't have to go to Sugar-Cy-Cinco-Out-There?  Where are the millions of letters?  Where are the votes in school board elections?  Where is the PTA?  Where is the understanding of the administrative and standardized testing burdens teachers have to put up with?  Where is the understanding of why people do not enter the teaching profession to begin with and the willingness to act upon it?

One can buy a lot more house way out than inside the Loop.

That is true, but let's ask ourselves.  Do we really *need* that much house?  If we have big families, the answer is a resounding 'yes'.  And it's true, we can't choose where we work for the most part.  We have to drive for the jobs.

Mass-transit doesn't affect me.  Why should I care?

None of us is an island.  The old lady in Sunnyside or Meyerland who can get on a Frequent Network bus has had her life improved by better transit.  And yes, better transit is coming to Houston.

We, the People, in 2009 elected Annise Parker, a very-pro-mass-transit Mayor of Houston whose METRO Board appointees are leading the charge to a brilliant new local bus network that will make the sorts of changes for which so many have prayed for so long.

System Re-imagining?  The righting of the ship at METRO, rendering the agency no longer a laughingstock among the people of the Greater Houston Area?  We, the People, and through our elected representatives who appoint our METRO Board members did this.

This is just one example of what We can do when We put our minds to it.  Annise Parker is only the beginning.  Be it Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or whoever, elect competence.  Elect a track record of good government or other other good works in business or the public sector.  Don't elect into the lesser aspects of our natures.  Elect those who help us to soar above the clouds of needless despair and anguish.

More mundanely, put the fire to the feet of the Democratic Party.  Put the fire to the feet of the Republican Party.  Expect action.  Expect a Governor who will get TXDoT to change its car-centric way of doing things.

Elect a Mayor of Houston who will continue METRO's new approach to mass-transit.  Elect a legislature who will enact the sorts of educational reforms that will enable government to do its part to make sure Cy-Sugar-Cinco is not the only game in town regarding quality public education.

Do all these things, and your West Loop traffic will improve.