Via email from Robin Holzer:
Houston area travelers are invited to participate in a 10-minute survey sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation, in cooperation with Texas A&M University and the University of Texas-Arlington.
This survey assesses your current use of the highway and transit system, and, obtains your opinion about new express lane ideas currently being considered for our freeways. Please take a moment to answer a few questions about your commute and other transportation ideas. The results of this survey will be used to help regional planners with evaluating and refining Houston area express lane concepts and policies.
http://www.houstontravelsurvey.org/
If you have any questions about the express lane concept, please contact Mark Burris at mburris@tamu.edu (Texas A&M University). This information is also provided at the survey site.
I took this last night. I’m probably a bad data point for them, because my daycare dropoff/pickup responsibilities severely limits any flexibility I may have in transportation options. I don’t know any coworkers who live near me, let alone have as variable a schedule as I do, thanks to Olivia’s non-regimented wakeup time, so car or vanpooling is a nonstarter. I also drive fairly short distances on the freeways – for I-45, the one I designated as my most frequent route, it’s basically between I-10 and the 59/288 interchange – and would not consider paying to use a managed lane regardless of the cost. And boy, are they pushing managed lanes, where you pay for the privilege of driving in less traffic.
So, having said all that, take the survey and give them some better data. The more respondents to something like this, the better.
I’m probably a bad data point for them, because my daycare dropoff/pickup responsibilities severely limits any flexibility I may have in transportation options. I don’t know any coworkers who live near me, let alone have as variable a schedule as I do, thanks to Olivia’s non-regimented wakeup time, so car or vanpooling is a nonstarter.
So when all the Houtopians carry on about shiny new light rail and other mass transit options (that other people should use) instead of cars, we can put you in the “need a car” category? 😉
You’re not such a unique data point, though. Plenty of people other than Charles Kuffner prefer the flexibility of their cars to other transportation options. Life sometimes intrudes on even the best planning by Houtopians!
Ah, see, the only options they asked about were carpooling and vanpooling. If there were a light rail line running along I-10 that connected to the Main Street line, I could in fact leave the car behind. I could drive Olivia to day care, walk to the station, and take the train from there.
But they didn’t ask about that, so be careful with the assumptions.