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IronTiger

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Everything posted by IronTiger

  1. IronTiger
    I think that the Grand Parkway should become a full loop: just send the 99 designation down 146 while expanding the existing Seabrook Road into a wide boulevard by taking out the old railroad.
  2. IronTiger
    I think it's several factors. Pop. density, uniqueness, draw as a tourist destination, wealth (have to have people with cameras). P.S. Live posting from Houston TX!
  3. IronTiger
    But if we were on the topic of imagination, one thing I thought of was to leave the Pierce Elevated as is (structure wise), then depress the other side of those blocks (taking out buildings, I know), resulting in a sort of "hanging gardens" type freeway with one side elevated and one depressed. The existing Pierce would be reworked to include (from west to east), an inner lane, four main lanes, an outer lane, and a pedestrian promenade area that would include marked bike lanes that would link Buffalo Bayou, Downtown, and EaDo all together.
  4. IronTiger
    Is doing anything about the Pierce Elevated really a big deal? Yeah, it seems kind of narrow and yeah it is a "dividing barrier" between Midtown and Downtown, and it is in a uncomfortable situation--not even the 1997 re-do did TxDOT have the heart to widen it (if TxDOT was personified), but tearing it down seems more of an idealistic vision (something found in renderings) rather than think about any real-world consequences.
  5. IronTiger
    Part of the problem about 10 is that yeah, they could theoretically fit it in without ROW demolitions, but it leaves no room for exit/entrance lanes (especially since Elysian Street Viaduct is getting rebuilt due to the Hardy Toll Road expansion) on either highway. You could probably due with hacking out the blocks south of Interstate 10 (opposite Saint Arnold), but that seems a bit extreme, unless they wanted to end up redoing that highway network. Alternately, they could build another elevated highway along the railroad at EaDO with four lanes (just four) but that would mess things up as well. The most extreme thing to do would be terminate the Interstate 45 designation right there where it interfaces with Interstate 10 and rebadge the Gulf Freeway as Texas State Highway 87, which would free up I-45's Interstate designations by avoiding standards.
  6. IronTiger
    Dallas did close off one of the side streets for light rail (it was never a through road to begin with). Either way, Austin already has a rail system of sorts (it runs on standard gauge, there's nothing wrong with that). Don't give me the "it's a commuter rail, it NEEDS local light rail" shpiel either, I've heard it before. Perhaps a trolley to take people around the Capital/downtown/UT area. That sounds reasonable.
  7. IronTiger
    If we routed it down 59/10 there'll be more traffic on that section unless you wanted to widen that area. Texas Avenue and 59 has the tightest ROW unless you want to take out the Lofts at the Ballpark (one of the buildings) or if you wanted to double-deck the highway entirely. As for lanes, notice that north of downtown I-45 has four lanes, south of downtown I-45 has four lanes, but Pierce Elevated only has three. The problem with getting rid of the Pierce Elevated is that a partial reconstruction was done in 1997 and like the short-lived five-stack at Beltway 8 and Interstate 10 it's not recommended to dismantle things that aren't at the end of their functional lifespan (other freeway removals, conversely, were). Making walking under it safe and attractive should be the first thing focused on. The second thing is rerouting trucks to another path, though the problem is Interstate 10 on the north side is curvier and fewer sight lines. Plus, trucks would have to also navigate two exits. If dedicated truck bypass lanes were built along Interstate 10 and 59, that might solve part of Pierce's problems without destroying ROW or infrastructure.
  8. IronTiger
    There was a discussion here earlier that the 65 mph speed limit had nothing to do with the traffic count and more of obsolete emissions laws.
  9. IronTiger
    I think that Pierce already allows through traffic and solid blocks underneath it. If the Lofts at the Ballpark and the whole BBVA Compass Park thing hadn't been built, it would be a more viable idea to route at least some lanes that way. Perhaps...paralleling the railroad at EaDo a truck loop. That might keep the largest and most damaging vehicles off the Pierce Elevated.
  10. IronTiger
    I don't think they should've rebuilt Pierce in the late 1990s, should've done it in the late 2000s, taking out the rest of the block and making it depressed, similar to the 59 rebuild. Of course this means the light rail would've been closed for some time, and that the whole thing would be unusable in a flood...
  11. IronTiger
    I think I read it was a Burger King in later years, yes.
  12. IronTiger
    IIRC, 99 will never ever be a full loop anyway. Remember, according to Wikipedia, it took 60 years from Beltway 8 to go from planning to full completion.
  13. IronTiger
    Read Building from what I read was in bad shape, there was a ton of mold that required A/C to be on to prevent it from getting out of hand (again, this is second hand). Luckily I got pictures of it before its demise.
  14. IronTiger
    Yeah, I did draw a pretty rough sketch of it (which I may or may not scan and show) but it is just a concept. Most concepts tend to put "does it look cool and pretty" in front of "would it be practical and feasible" of which my concept would be of the former. I think that when they rebuilt that McDonald's in late 2013 they should've razed it entirely and kept that block as a park, something to make the transition from Midtown to Downtown less intimidating and more welcoming. The real trick is trying to think of an acceptable solution that wouldn't necessitate tearing down the existing freeway. So anyone get any real ideas?
  15. IronTiger
    It's only an opinion piece, and remember--you were accusing me earlier of "discrediting anything I didn't like" while promoting your favorite opinion pieces. On topic, I think there was one incident where a friend was driving in Houston and someone who he accidentally cut off (or something, I'll have to ask him later) followed him for a bit to a parking lot (but kept driving)
  16. IronTiger
    In terms of redesigning the Pierce Elevated, I thought about "working around what we have", since it's going to (and SHOULD) be here for a long time. One thing I thought was building a Galleria-like skylight around the elevated portion to reduce visual blight as well as having a semi-enclosed area for cars to drive on in inclement weather.
  17. IronTiger
    The whole east side looks completely different from what used to be there (Read Building and a large white wall)
  18. IronTiger
    Yes: the missing factor is a small sample size. Either way, it would be fairly easy to argue that road rage and population do tend to be correlated. Unfortunately, there seems to be a mindset that believes this, erroneous as it is.
  19. IronTiger
    The King piece also mentioned climate: one thing about Houston's super-wide freeways is that they double as hurricane evacuation paths, which cannot work on narrow freeways and especially not light rail. A Hurricane Rita-scale disaster hasn't been seen lately (you couldn't find peanut butter or bottled water in College Station for a short period) Getting back on topic, I don't think road rage is a particular issue, it's just linked to congestion, which is linked to the city size. If you REALLY don't want congestion or road rage, you had better move to a town that has less stoplights then the number of your fingers.
  20. IronTiger
    I'll be taking a statistics class soon! In a month I'll try to figure out what the confidence is for that and how class it is reality. This tends to illustrate the "bubble" that a lot of Houstonites are in. It's easier to sympathize with he mass transit advocates when drivers are so aggressive (and roads tend to be in poor shape, but that's another issue). But the sad truth of the matter is that drivers to tend to be more aggressive in huge cities, regardless of mass transit: New York City, Paris, Boston? (Especially Boston--they definitely take advantage of the horn)
  21. IronTiger
    One thing I've learned is that driver aggressiveness is not necessarily a person-based thing, it's more of a virus that pervades the area. To illustrate: I knew two independent people...one moved away from Houston to College Station and became a LESS aggressive driver while another moved to Houston and became a MORE aggressive driver. What I've noticed myself is that there's hardly any cops on the road on Houston highways. In smaller cities (the smaller the city, actually) they'll be there, ready for a ticket for going over the speed limit or other shenanigans.
  22. IronTiger
    I noticed that they switched from the original "Cool Hand Luke" theme to a modified version here by the late 1980s. Of course, both themes' use would hardly be limited to KTRK.
  23. IronTiger
    Before you respond, it is worth noting about my own experiences with this: a pedestrian-heavy (bars mostly) district did some work in the area so the end result was that the main road had a speed of 35-40 (can't remember exactly) with a wall (the wall replacing some parallel parking, which became a wider sidewalk) and pedestrian signals that announced "Wait" and the time left, while a side street (two way) has a speed of 20 mph. The area is also crawling with cops due to the increased crime at night. I don't know the results of any deaths or not, but there's some things done to make things safer.
  24. IronTiger
    I think that while zero fatalities is an admirable goal, I don't think it's fair to immediately start pointing fingers at automobiles and blame them for traffic fatalities--yes, cars ARE involved in the most accidents, but while it's the largest automobile that "wins" (because no one actually "wins" in an accident), it doesn't mean that it's always their fault. In other words, drivers can't be babysitters at 20 in downtown streets because Baby doesn't know when/where to cross the street.
  25. IronTiger
    I don't think he was doing it to be sadistic, he just tended to like to argue and had a low tolerance for fools (yes, I was there too)
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