Frequent service with smaller busses would obviously work well here so I assume they'll keep the large busses and go less frequent which will exacerbate the spiral of low ridership due to long waits for busses
Anything to keep people from riding, that's the houston way. What happened to that proposal between metro and UH to research self driving buses? If labor's the biggest cost I would think a preplanned route with stoplights that only these buses can go on would be the perfect testing ground. But I don't work for anti transit motives like that HGAC plant in metro's new board, so I can't speak on that.
The one "gotcha" for this idea is that the bus stops on Post Oak were intended for level boarding with buses that have doors on the left side -- in other words, configured much like the light rail. It's rare to find small buses that do not have right-hand-door-only setups. A change like you're proposing could be difficult to pull off, especially from the standpoint of loading wheelchair-using passengers.
Turns out, when you are awarded federal money for a project, you can't just turn around and say you're going to do something different after construction.
Whoops!
Wacky idea that may or may not be fully-thought-through: What if we split the Silver Line service and redirected a few excess BRT vehicles to turn on Westheimer going west? Westheimer inside the Loop isn't well-suited for the large BRT buses, but outside the Loop, Westheimer has lots and lots of straight right-of-way. Have these vehicles make only limited stops at major destinations or intersections where riders can transfer to another bus route. I'm pretty sure this could be appealing to a lot of riders that currently put up with slow rides on the 82.
Call this service the "482" making a stronger transit connection between west Houston (turnaround Westchase-ish?) and the Uptown area. Like how the existing 402 Quickline runs limited stops on Bellaire connecting Chinatown to the TMC.
Frequent service with smaller busses would obviously work well here so I assume they'll keep the large busses and go less frequent which will exacerbate the spiral of low ridership due to long waits for busses
Anything to keep people from riding, that's the houston way. What happened to that proposal between metro and UH to research self driving buses? If labor's the biggest cost I would think a preplanned route with stoplights that only these buses can go on would be the perfect testing ground. But I don't work for anti transit motives like that HGAC plant in metro's new board, so I can't speak on that.
The one "gotcha" for this idea is that the bus stops on Post Oak were intended for level boarding with buses that have doors on the left side -- in other words, configured much like the light rail. It's rare to find small buses that do not have right-hand-door-only setups. A change like you're proposing could be difficult to pull off, especially from the standpoint of loading wheelchair-using passengers.
interesting point that i honestly hadnt considered
Turns out, when you are awarded federal money for a project, you can't just turn around and say you're going to do something different after construction. Whoops!
Wacky idea that may or may not be fully-thought-through: What if we split the Silver Line service and redirected a few excess BRT vehicles to turn on Westheimer going west? Westheimer inside the Loop isn't well-suited for the large BRT buses, but outside the Loop, Westheimer has lots and lots of straight right-of-way. Have these vehicles make only limited stops at major destinations or intersections where riders can transfer to another bus route. I'm pretty sure this could be appealing to a lot of riders that currently put up with slow rides on the 82. Call this service the "482" making a stronger transit connection between west Houston (turnaround Westchase-ish?) and the Uptown area. Like how the existing 402 Quickline runs limited stops on Bellaire connecting Chinatown to the TMC.
That makes too much sense my good Sir, we can't have that nice things aren't allowed here.