Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Getting around Houston: A quick note on the proposed miracle that is Metro's reimagining

Interesting HoustonChronicle.com story today regarding how many well-paying Houston jobs are not accessible by transit:

Great jobs aren't always on the bus route. L.M. Sixel, HoustonChronicle.com($)

In keeping with the Chronicle's determination that many people cannot see their journalism I'll just take a small quote here:

Many families don't have cars and buses don't run where the manufacturing plants are located in the more remote parts of town. That inability to get around leaves many students blocked from taking the very jobs that pay higher wages and provide benefits.

In a city that is as economically diverse as Houston this is a real problem.  What's not discussed in the story, though it should be, is that  Metro's reimagining of the bus lines will make this problem much, much worse as it shunts service further away from these areas virtually eliminating bus service to the East side industrial corridors.

That this has never been reported, or openly discussed, in the debate surrounding this is malpractice.