Designing the Megaregion by Jonathan Barnett

Author:Jonathan Barnett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Island Press
Published: 2020-07-13T16:00:00+00:00

Commuter Lines and Transit Systems

Most cities in megaregions have transit agencies and may also have commuter rail lines that extend out beyond the limits of the transit system and are operated by a state department of transportation or other state agency. Transit systems can be traditional heavy rail, light rail, or busways. A large part of all transit systems consist of buses sharing streets with local cars and trucks. These bus routes are indispensable for reaching all points in today’s dispersed cities. There is also the possibility of developing bus rapid transit (BRT), which emulates rail transit by operating on an exclusive right-of-way, using defined station locations spaced a half mile or more apart, and boarding passengers all at once with their fares already paid. Chapter 7 discusses introducing BRT along local highways that have become commercial corridors, which could open up locations for more intensive development, including more affordable housing.

Because of the way metropolitan regions, and now megaregions, have been growing, trains and transit do not serve all the potential destinations. Critics acknowledge the usefulness of long-established trains and transit in older cities, but claim it does not make sense to introduce new rail lines to improve and extend the newer systems. They claim that rail and transit will never serve significant percentages of all trips, that financing them is all about nostalgia, and what people want and need is the flexibility of automobile travel.

Figure 1-3 in chapter 1, the map of commuting patterns in the Chicago megaregion by Garrett G. D. Nelson and Alisdair Rae, is one strong refutation of this argument. The map documents existing journeys to work within megaregions—and other, smaller metropolitan areas. The heavy lines on the map, which record large numbers of commuter trips, may mostly be describing trips by car, but they illustrate daily demands along a route that could be supplemented or replaced by a train or transit. But switching from cars to trains or transit requires interconnecting all the components of the transportation system.

Consider the two cities at either end of the proposed Texas Central high-speed line from Dallas to Houston. The backers of this proposal say that taking the trip by train will be at least an hour shorter than driving, and fifty minutes faster than making the short flight by air under the best conditions. However, as noted in chapter 5, passengers arriving at the high-speed terminal in Houston will find themselves seven miles from the nearest Houston METRORail transit station. Until there is a connection, passengers will be dependent on taxis and car services, and the time saved by taking the train is likely to be lost in getting to the part of Houston that is the actual end of the trip.

Passengers arriving at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport have a similar problem: no good transit connections; and Houston’s transit system has yet to be extended to the city’s William P. Hobby Airport. These arriving or departing passengers need to rent a car, rely on a taxi or a car service, or take an airport bus.

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