How the well-off can think about using transit and bicycles

Transit access and street safety for bicyclists and pedestrians are vitally important for people who aren't wealthy, and for people who can't drive due to age, health, or ability. Yet, it would be incomplete and wrong to limit the transit, bikes, and walking discussion as "something we should definitely do for the less fortunate or differently abled, but not for me, because I have a car, and I can drive". You can drive, yes - but have you put your car use under a microscope and analyzed if driving all the time is really to your benefit, financially and otherwise?

Just for context, my wife and I own two "senior" cars, both over ten years old. Mine has excessive oil consumption (though I don't see any smoke or garage floor oil spots), and her specific Ford model has a high likelihood of shredding the CVT transmission eventually, which would be a $10,000 operation to replace. The other part of the context is that I can now bicycle to work easily (we relocated), and I'm going to retire within a year anyway, so I won't even be doing that trip any longer. Although I haven't yet traveled in this manner, I could take the bus and walk to work, but I prefer biking.

It has just struck me that the average vehicle cost in the US these days is $50,000, some pay less, many in my neighborhood and income / wealth stratum pay much more. $50,000 would cost me, as a prime borrower for a 36 month loan, $1,504 per month. For two cars, $3,008 per month (I won't borrow for more than 36 months - I don't want to be upside-down), which would be about the same as our total housing cost. Ouch! How do people do it? (answer - they can't - that's why everyone is so stressed out about money and inflation these days, and why personal indebtedness and debt defaults are on the rise, even among six-figure earners).

I'm an investor, and I'm always looking for ROI - Return On Investment. When I consider that we might have to replace two "senior" cars, maybe about at the same time due to their similar age, my prevailing thought is simply, "Where is the ROI on these depreciating assets with high costs of carry (insurance, financing cost, fuel, oil, tires, repairs)? What is the resulting cost per unit of service provided, in Dollars per Mile?" 

On the other side of the ledger, biking and walking give me exercise, which is very beneficial. My walking and biking routes are reasonably safe. The road crossings are signal light controlled, the only place I'm on the street riding with cars is next to a high school, which is crawling with Spring Branch ISD police directing traffic, so drivers are behaving. Otherwise, it's quiet streets, trails, sidewalks. No other bikes, no conflicts with pedestrians; it's relaxing, I look forward to it. My office building offers me access to showers. Click here for my exact route.

Concerning bus safety and personal security, consider that every year, a couple of hundred people who are in private vehicles die in crashes in Houston. I can't remember when a METRO customer last died in a crash. I'm not sure it has ever happened, and I've lived here 41 years as an adult. Are there assaults and even occasional murders on METRO vehicles? Yes, and even more road rage shootings and carjackings are perpetrated against people riding in or driving private vehicles.

I can freely operate my mobile phone without any safety concerns on a bus, for personal or business purposes. Not so in a car, not if I want to avoid a wreck. I had an employer once with a rule - if you take a business phone call or online meeting in your car, and get into a crash, you could be disciplined, up to and including termination. That was the right policy. Safety first. Everyone goes home. You want to crash your vehicle, and possibly hurt yourself or others? Do it on your own time.

My conclusion is that we will let one of our cars go when it dies a natural death, and we won't replace it. When I get too old to bicycle, I'll get an e-bike or e-trike, and I'll keep riding the bus and Ubering. I actually started keeping a log for all the times when my wife and I are both out of the house in our own cars, and bike or METRO or Uber would not work for my trip (due to excess Uber cost, bad bike weather, no bus service), and I stopped trying to keep that log, because I never logged anything. I found I could always switch over to something. There was never a user case which required two cars in the family (disclosure - she's in a 100% work-from-home job).

My wife is skeptical, she has that "traditional American two car family" belief in her mind. I have a simple answer to get her on board. She is by nature extremely thrifty, but she is happy to have me handle all of the large Dollar transactions. After one of the cars dies, my plan is to hand her a check out of our personal account in the amount of $50,000 made out to a local car dealer, and I will ask her to sign it. She won't sign it. She'll "get it" at that point. 

I'm relaunching this blog as "Energy Corridor Alternative Transportation"

In June 2025 my wife and I moved into a new David Weekley townhome community just on the western edge of the Energy Corridor. The place is called The Retreat at Oak Park, and it's on the SW corner of Addicks-Howell and Grisby, over by Lupe Tortilla and those other restaurants.

For the first time since moving away from Bellaire, TX in December 1992, our home is within the primary local bus footprint of Harris County METRO, and I couldn't be more pleased. The #162 goes right to the corner of Addicks-Howell and Grisby. It's $1.25 a ride, and it takes 30 min to get to Memorial City and 60 min to get Downtown, and no parking headache and cost once there. When I turn 65 next year, the cost will drop to $0.60. My bike goes into the luggage bay bike rack on the motorcoach-style buses used for the #162. 

I was NOT prepared to use luggage bay racks yesterday. I made a mess of it, but got the bike in eventually, with help from another passenger. I should have reviewed the METRO video beforehand, but METRO had it pretty well hidden. You can find manufacturer information at Sport Works, I would just read the PDF manual and you'll be an expert in five minutes.

I can ride my bike to work at the Kirkwood Tower (11757 Katy Freeway) from The Retreat at Oak Park. They have a bike rack and showers access! I do see one other bike parked in the rack sometimes, otherwise it's just me on my in-office days, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Here is my exact route from home to work:

Link to the public map on Komoot.

I'm on the sidewalk on Memorial and Tully. I'm OK with that. A more scenic alternative is to take the Terry Hershey Trail to Dairy-Ashford, then filter through the neighborhood, cross Memorial, and come up Tully. I don't recommend the I-10 sidewalks... too many driveways. 

I only expect to drive to work if the weather is severe (heavy rain, lightning or thunder or icing conditions). If I get caught at work by bad weather, I can always fold the bike up and take a regular Uber home. It's a seventeen year old Dahon folding bike.

Waiting for Uber in front of Kirkwood Tower

I'm putting only a few miles a week on my 2012 Kia, for which I paid a friend $12,600 cash back in 2015. That's a good thing, because it has excessive oil consumption, and I really don't want to have the engine rebuilt. I'm hoping it throws a knock-sensor check engine light, there is a Kia Theta II engine class action settlement which would entitle me to a free new engine. It's strange to think that since the car has only 130,000 miles on it, this may be the last car I ever purchase, if I baby it, and change the oil every six months regardless of mileage. Does that mean I'm permanently off of this unhappy merry-go-round? 

I certainly hope so, because I have far better and nobler plans for my money in retirement than paying a car note. $750 per month is a lot of money. Many people (large truck owners, I'm looking at you) pay more than $1000 per month. That's as much as my mortgage! This Generation Jones (late Boomer) just can't over get over how much inflation has ravaged incomes and budgets since I was aware of things and how much they cost. 

If you have questions or comments, write to me at:

bikecommute.think915@passmail.com 

blog header photo borrowed from Memorial Drive Bike-Ped Study | Engage HGAC

Harris County beliefs about pedestrians and bicyclists must change

Dear Judge Hidalgo:

In the early 2000s, I inquired into why there are basically no sidewalks out here in Unincorporated Harris County, where I have lived for more than 26 years. I talked to different people in the infrastructure department, as well as Pct. 3 and Pct. 4, and discovered that a core belief of Harris County has been that the County's role is to design suburban boulevards as inexpensively as possible, and that means skimping on "amenities" (yes, they used that word) like sidewalks and bike lanes, which in other jurisdictions are considered standard features. This belief is codified into the engineering cross-sections for suburban boulevards, and in the funding. There are no sidewalk funds, but the County apparently can provide a match to MUD districts and real estate developers, or so I have been told.

I was also told after pursuing this topic by a top bicycle / pedestrian expert in City of Houston public works who is no longer with the City, to "not bother trying to change anything while Art Storey was in charge, because Harris County doesn't do bikes".

After a while, I just gave up engaging with people in the County about this topic. I mean, you can only bang your head against a brick wall so many times.

But Art Storey has retired, and Harris County government turned over in November 2018. I have decided to write to you, not so much for me because I don't ride my bike much any longer, but on behalf of the cyclists and pedestrians for whom safety is a daily concern... for schoolkids and people who don't have any access to automobiles. We're talking about increased safety for working class often immigrant people who must bike or walk, not only for privileged upper-middle-class recreational bike riders, although their interests do intersect. Also I am writing for future potential transit users, because the lack of walkable / bikeable roads in the Unincorporated County means the development of METRO transit routes is suppressed... basically forever, if there is no right-of-way left over for paths. People will not use transit if they can't walk to it; no one drives to use local transit; once you start a journey in a car, you'll just stay in your car and complete the journey without making the transfer. Mostly I am writing for walkers and bikers who have lost their lives on Harris County roads, and there must be hundreds upon hundreds of victims. H-GAC tells us that each crash fatality has a $2 million impact on the Region... what number do you get when you multiple $2 million times hundred and hundreds of times? Ah, but we're used to it... so we don't perceive it as a danger. But if ISIS or Al Qaeda killed as many people in Harris County as who die as bicycle and pedestrian (vulnerable) road users, there would be a hue and cry to bomb and invade wherever they came from. Where is the outrage over vulnerable road user deaths? Where is the funding prioritization?

We've heard for years that Houston-Galveston MPO is the most dangerous region in the Nation for vulnerable road users. As the Chief Executive of the County, I am asking that you demand answers from your infrastructure staff, and put the question to the Commissioners as well. Ask them why we build boulevards the way we build them, and challenge them to get a better result for vulnerable road users. The County has been configured so wrongly for so long, and the beliefs have literally been "set in stone" (concrete), I don't think the outcome can be truly fixed within my lifetime. It's up to you young people to fix the messes we older people have made. Thank you and Good Luck.

Comments on Greater West Houston Sub-Region Mobility Plan, presented at TPC on 8/28/15

Comments on Greater West Houston Sub-Region Mobility Plan, presented at TPC on 8/28/15

The main challenge facing Greater West Houston is one of basic math and geometry; there is no more room for automobiles on the roadways, given the way we have used automobiles in the past, which has been in single occupant mode.

Adding more capacity to support VMT is not a measure of success in the war against congestion, any more than buying a bigger pair of pants is a measure a success in the war against obesity, as Stephen Klineberg points out. 

Harris County, METRO, the Management Districts, and nearby cities like Katy have to collaborate, design, fund, and execute a multi-decade strategy to bring higher-density transportation solutions to West Houston. Transit also demands pedestrian and bicycle friendly infrastructure. We have very little of that.

I have lived in unincorporated Harris County for almost 23 years, and have been paying METRO taxes all that time, and I see nothing in the way of local transit after paying all of that money, which I think is shameful. METRO is to blame for the way it has operated over the decades, and local governments and politicians are also for blocking and bleeding away funding that might have gone to expanding the transit network. There is plenty of blame to go around.

I refuse to believe that “suburban transit” is an oxymoron. I recently rode from Denver to Boulder and back again, on Denver's RTD suburban motorcoach, and the bus was full at 10 pm on a weekday.

Sitting at the Wiehle-Reston East METRO train and bus station near suburban Herndon, Virginia this summer, I watched buses bring in people from the suburbs who then make their way by train to their jobs at Tyson's Corner, or anywhere in and around Washington DC. The train will be built out all the way to Dulles Airport. Where is the train to Bush Airport, or to Hobby?

Denver and Washington DC had plans, conceived decades ago. We have no plan for suburban transit in West Houston. It's high time to get one.

Transit in Houston has degraded into a “divide and conquer” political symbol or device, wielded by both between Democrats and Republicans, who tend to live inside Loop 610, away from us “common folk”. We who live in the suburbs are not interested in politics, we just want solutions. Thank you.

Please oppose HB 1998

Dear Rep. Elkins,

Please oppose House Bill 1889 by State Rep. Will Metcalf, which would make it difficult or maybe impossible to build high-speed passenger rail from Houston to Dallas.

I-45 is chock full from Houston to Dallas, they have no money to expand it, it's dangerous to drive on it, it's a pain to go through the TSA ''groping'' line and very costly to fly, and who wants to take Greyhound bus from Houston to Dallas? Yes, we absolutely need high-speed passenger rail in Texas!

Last year on vacation I had the chance to take the HSR train from Beijing to Shanghai in China. That was that amazing. Fast, clean, smooth, on time, and less costly than flying.

Why China, and why not Texas?

Sincerely,

Peter Wang

Happenings in the I-35 Corridor

Open House - Lone Star Regional Rail

Where: Carver Cultural Center
226 N. Hackberry St.
San Antonio, TX 78202
 
When: Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015
5 pm - 8 pm

Purpose: The purpose of the Lone Star Regional Rail project is to improve mobility, accessibility, transportation reliability, modal choice, safety and facilitate economic development along the I-35 corridor in central and south Texas.

Description: The Lone Star Rail District (LSRD), in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and TxDOT, is proposing a regional passenger rail service connecting communities along the I-35 corridor between the metropolitan areas of Austin and San Antonio. As envisioned, the Lone Star Regional Rail Project would span approximately 120 miles across Williamson, Travis, Bastrop, Hays, Caldwell, Comal, Guadalupe and Bexar counties. FHWA and TxDOT welcome all comments from interested individuals, organizations, or businesses regarding alternative alignments and station locations, as well as any social, economic, or environmental impacts related to the Lone Star Regional Rail Project.

Contact: Rail Planning Section Manager
125 E. 11th St.
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 486-5137

[AARP] Dangerously Incomplete Streets

Look at these photos and read about what you see. Then think about the roadways near you. There's a good chance you're encountering similar sights and scenes. Thank you Harris County and TxDOT!

http://bit.ly/1ATLy0n