The Time and What Must Be Done: Planning for Resilience in Our Region's Transportation Network

             Of all of the areas that must be properly managed in order for a plan to be successfully executed, four stand out:  Human, Budgetary, Material, and Time resources.  When it comes to land use and transportation planning, there comes a point when high level human skill sets, economic sagacity, and innovative material technologies cannot bail us out of certain situations because we just simply run out of time.

                I raise this issue to continue the debate about our regional transportation network in terms of its sustainability and resiliency. Land use and transportation planning are inextricably linked. We measure time in ten and twenty year increments when we discuss transportation and projected land uses.  My concern is that we are running out of time to plan a 21^st century regional transportation network, because we govern our actions by 20^th century cultural and political values. Using a decade as our  metric, it appears have we boxed ourselves in and may have not given ourselves adequate time to make the necessary adaptations, adjustments, and changes needed to sustain our current transportation system or guarantee that our network bounces back after a catastrophic event or series of events.

                Our region’s public policy has shortchanged and continues to shortchange public transit. This is because we have been lulled to sleep by relatively inexpensive gas and oil. So too, has globalization been made possible by an abundance of inexpensive fossil fuel energy. But what happens when the price of gasoline skyrockets, military conflict, or natural disaster makes individual automobile use and the supporting roadways impractical?  Have we built redundancy into our regional transportation and land use planning regime? This goes beyond Smart Growth for sustainability. There are those who argue that ‘sustainable development’ is an oxymoron, particularly as it relates to our never-ending green-field development of the hinterlands. Are we prepared to make a transition to other transportation and land use options should it be made necessary by unforeseen events?

To plan, finance, and build bus terminals, transit centers, and rail lines requires years and decades. The same is true with road construction. However, no sooner than the concrete dries on our highway and roadway expansion projects we have spent years and decades to plan, finance, and build, they are rendered obsolete due to latent demand.  When our cheap energy subsidy comes to an end, we will be clamoring for more transportation options. Yes, even in Texas, where every cowboy and cowgirl loves his or her own horse, riding the stagecoach is a nice option to have every once and a while. Without a serious, sober, and sensible plan to build regional transportation network resiliency through redundancy in the form of multiple options, we are going to find ourselves out of time and out of luck. Start now, and in ten to twenty years we will be grateful that we did recognize the time and what must be done.

The Great Train Robbery of Houston, Texas Pt. 1

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (Metro) is a much maligned public agency. The paradox of its name, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County has led to it being derided by many within its political jurisdiction because of the strong influence the mayor of Houston has over its board and chairman. Every two years the agency finds itself fighting in the legislature to keep its regional authority as a transportation agency, project funding, eminent domain authority, and board structure in place. My observation and experience is that other governmental agencies look upon Metro with disdain.

The citizens, who don’t have to utilize its services, tolerate it as if it were a wayward adolescent relative. To those who depend upon it, Metro is an imperfect necessity, which often fails to provide good customer service. To contractors and service providers, it is a frustrating bureaucratic maze. To some elected officials and their friends, Metro is a cash cow to be milked everyday. To taxpayer watchdog groups, Metro is an untrustworthy cauldron of political double talk. To the news media, it provides a guaranteed story on a slow news day.

That being said, Metro is an agency filled with dedicated public servants, who deserve to have their story told, even if it is by someone who has not always been a fan of Metro. For the record and public disclosure purposes let me tell you that I am a paid stakeholder affairs consultant to the agency. You could rightfully argue that my client-consultant relationship has changed me into an advocate for Metro. There is no amount of money Metro or anyone else can pay me that can change the facts or the truth. I am more outraged about what my research has uncovered than all the incompetence, arrogance, and political machinations I have witnessed at Metro over the years.

Here are some facts; the Metro Solutions light rail project and overall bus service operations have been ill-affected in the name of “general mobility.” The public transportation system of Harris County has been looted for the past 21 years by the city and county to the tune of $2.5 billion. Let me be explicit, 25% of public transit revenue from the one cent public transit sales tax has gone for street, drainage, and landscaping projects. This is NOT what voters established Metro to do when it was created in 1978. This has taken place while politicians in city and county government tout their tax rate cutting policies and control of government spending. In this case, there ought to be a law compelling truth in advertising. It is easy to balance your budget when you use the revenue of the area public transportation agency to do it.

The tragedy is that this money was used to promote and facilitate automobile oriented policy over mass transit. When gasoline goes back up to $4 a gallon, we again will be asking ourselves: “why is Metro so inadequate?” Go back to the 1988 referendum the voters passed. We allowed our transit agency’s reserves set aside for rail and multi modal transit to be used for police overtime and general mobility. We also allowed a bifurcated bus system to be set up. There is a level of comfort on the suburban park and ride buses that are not evident on the inner city buses. HOV and HOT lanes are a part of the system, but should not be such a large part of the capital expenditures of the system. What about commuter rail? There is a nasty intergovernmental fight brewing on over which entity will build and operate the future commuter rail network. Mind you all of this could have been done by Metro as the regional transportation agency if it was allowed to keep its $2.5 billion and seek match funding from the federal government. We have been effectively robbed of $5billion dollars for public transit. We could have built the inner city light rail network and commuter system twice over by now. You don’t believe me? Just look no further than our neighbors to the north in Dallas. More to come in Part II. For more information on Metro Solutions go to www.communities-in-motion.org.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FolFdqxY9EA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neIJ-167S7E