There’s more to talk about now.
After gathering input over the past year on how to expand public transportation in the region, METRO says it will soon hold another series of meetings to see what people think of their draft Regional Transit Plan.
METRO Chairman Carrin Patman said they’re also expecting feedback from a new group of Harris County decision-makers.
“We have a new county government, there are some changes on the congressional level, and we need to take all those things into account,” said Patman. “Because some of the opinions of some of the stakeholders may have changed too.”
As the population grows, METRO says it needs to find better ways to move people to the region’s many employment centers. In the past, most people commuted into downtown Houston. But now, commuters are headed to places like the Med Center, the Energy Corridor, and The Woodlands.
Patman said they also want to tackle mobility challenges within the City of Houston, like providing better connections between downtown and the Galleria.
“The question is what form that will take,” said Patman. “What we’ve been looking at is the concept of bus rapid transit along part of Richmond, dropping down to Westpark, and connecting with the Post Oak BRT. But when we go back out for the public engagement process we’ll get a lot of input into that.”
See here and here for some background, and here for the project webpage. Changes to Commissioners Court as well as changes in Congress may allow for a more expansive definition of what is possible with this. The end result of the meetings and the engagement will be a referendum we vote on in 2019. Go and have your say so what we vote on later is what you were hoping for.
I read the quotation from Patman, and I wonder if I interpret it correctly. She’s talking about the new county officials and congressional levels, and then goes on to say “some of the opinions of some of the stakeholders may have changed too.” Does that mean that she sees the politicians as stakeholders, rather than the riders and taxpayers who actually use this service?