Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
Well it looks like the mental giants that we managed to elect here in Texas and specifically in the Houston area have once again managed to confuse "The right thing to do" with "Nobody has any idea what to do, but we gotta do something".
My point: This morning while driving to work (a 60 mile one-way trip) I hear on the radio that as part of the "Clean air campaign for the new millennium" or some such crap, that "New lower emission diesel", "Specially refined gasoline", "Bans on lawn maintenance during certain hours" and a return to the 55mph speed limit are all things to look forward to come May of 2002.
Hmmm... . Let's see here there will be new diesel formulas, fine. It will either work with my truck or Dodge will have to fix the truck since it's brand new, good for me. But what about all the people that don't have new trucks and MAY have engine troubles due to the changes that are going to be coming along with the new fuel? Are they just out of luck? It looks that way. Maybe the owners just have to absorb it, call it the price of driving... And what about the price, will it be another . 10, . 20, or more per gallon?
Reformulated gasoline... Sounds to me like more money and fewer miles per gallon. Great, just what we need.
Bans on lawn maintenance during certain hours. The last time that this was talked about here in the Houston area it was presented that the bans would be from something like 7:00am to 12:00am weekdays, but that it would not affect commercial lawn maintenance providers. Hello morons! Who other than commercial lawn maintenance providers would be out mowing the grass on weekday mornings? Not the homeowners, we're all stuck in the traffic that you seem to be unable to grasp as the actual problem that needs attention.
And my personal favorite, good 'ole 55mph. First off this is my rant so I'll get it off my chest right now. 55mph blows pond water. The only use for 55mph is to get past it as fast as possible and on to a more reasonable rate of travel. Now that we've cleared that up back to the (semi) logic. When is the greatest concentration of pollution recorded each and every day? Right after morning and afternoon "rush" hour according to the cute little graphics that the news shows from time to time. How many of the drivers in Houston are even going 55mph at these times? I'll tell you, the answer is NONE, NOBODY can go 55mph due to all the freakin' traffic. Heck most days I'd be quite happy to see 25mph, but that doesn't happen much either. So lowering the speed limit to 55 is going to have no affect on traffic during rush hour when it appears that most of the pollution is produced. It will also have very minimal affect on where most of the pollution is produced, which coincidentally is where most of the cars are, inside the beltway. But the amazing grasp of all things obvious does not stop here, if it did I wouldn't really care what they did with the speed limit inside the beltway, the article I heard this morning claimed that the new lower speed limit would extend to "Neighboring counties". You see the problem that I have is that after I get out past the beltway I still have about 30 miles to go and having been at work all day and then spent another hour just sitting in traffic until I finally get to see some open road, I do not want to be pi$$ing along at a ridiculously slow 55mph when it is going to be of no benefit anyway.
I keep hearing about how the state is in an on-going project to widen all the major freeways in and around Houston. I drive I-10 everyday and I don't think it needs to be widened. It needs to be left just like it is. The money and space that would be used to widen it need to be used to improve out pitiful mass transit system. If people want to see an improvement in air quality then they need to do things that will promote people to take fewer cars, not make it easier for people to get more cars in the same area.
The Houston METRO had a great plan with the HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes that would limit them to vehicles that had a minimum of 2 people at all times and 3 people during the worst of rush hour. These lanes are limited access, I believe the one on I-10 has only two entrances and two exits in over 15 miles of road, and the occupancy of any vehicle can be monitored and the driver ticketed if needed for enforcement. Well this rewards people that behave in a manner that furthers the goal of pollution reduction by leaving one or more car at home, so we need to do something to mess it up. According to the Houston Chronicle in an article that they ran about 7 months ago the new HOV lane will be like a toll road. If you have the right number of people then would not get charged, but if you have only one person in the car you can still use the HOV lane, but it will cost you $1. 00 or whatever. This is just stupid. It does not provide the only thing that people will understand and can make people modify their behavior. There is no negative reinforcement. Sure it costs a dollar or two, but that is not enough money to bother most people to the point that they won't drive their own car instead of use mass transit.
The real solution to all this "air quality" nonsense is to get people out of cars. Houston should have a mass transit system in place that allows people to get where they need to be, in a reasonably similar time to driving themselves and at a reasonable cost to the individual. It does not need to matter if it is bus or train or teleporter or whatever, people should be discouraged from driving their cars into the center of town and encouraged to use an efficient and clean mass transit alternative. Wait a minute, maybe somebody should start thinking about building an efficient and clean mass transit alternative instead of widening freeways and lowering speed limits.
----End of Rant----
If anyone actually read this whole thing, thanks for looking at it.
Feeling better now,
Mike
My point: This morning while driving to work (a 60 mile one-way trip) I hear on the radio that as part of the "Clean air campaign for the new millennium" or some such crap, that "New lower emission diesel", "Specially refined gasoline", "Bans on lawn maintenance during certain hours" and a return to the 55mph speed limit are all things to look forward to come May of 2002.
Hmmm... . Let's see here there will be new diesel formulas, fine. It will either work with my truck or Dodge will have to fix the truck since it's brand new, good for me. But what about all the people that don't have new trucks and MAY have engine troubles due to the changes that are going to be coming along with the new fuel? Are they just out of luck? It looks that way. Maybe the owners just have to absorb it, call it the price of driving... And what about the price, will it be another . 10, . 20, or more per gallon?
Reformulated gasoline... Sounds to me like more money and fewer miles per gallon. Great, just what we need.
Bans on lawn maintenance during certain hours. The last time that this was talked about here in the Houston area it was presented that the bans would be from something like 7:00am to 12:00am weekdays, but that it would not affect commercial lawn maintenance providers. Hello morons! Who other than commercial lawn maintenance providers would be out mowing the grass on weekday mornings? Not the homeowners, we're all stuck in the traffic that you seem to be unable to grasp as the actual problem that needs attention.
And my personal favorite, good 'ole 55mph. First off this is my rant so I'll get it off my chest right now. 55mph blows pond water. The only use for 55mph is to get past it as fast as possible and on to a more reasonable rate of travel. Now that we've cleared that up back to the (semi) logic. When is the greatest concentration of pollution recorded each and every day? Right after morning and afternoon "rush" hour according to the cute little graphics that the news shows from time to time. How many of the drivers in Houston are even going 55mph at these times? I'll tell you, the answer is NONE, NOBODY can go 55mph due to all the freakin' traffic. Heck most days I'd be quite happy to see 25mph, but that doesn't happen much either. So lowering the speed limit to 55 is going to have no affect on traffic during rush hour when it appears that most of the pollution is produced. It will also have very minimal affect on where most of the pollution is produced, which coincidentally is where most of the cars are, inside the beltway. But the amazing grasp of all things obvious does not stop here, if it did I wouldn't really care what they did with the speed limit inside the beltway, the article I heard this morning claimed that the new lower speed limit would extend to "Neighboring counties". You see the problem that I have is that after I get out past the beltway I still have about 30 miles to go and having been at work all day and then spent another hour just sitting in traffic until I finally get to see some open road, I do not want to be pi$$ing along at a ridiculously slow 55mph when it is going to be of no benefit anyway.
I keep hearing about how the state is in an on-going project to widen all the major freeways in and around Houston. I drive I-10 everyday and I don't think it needs to be widened. It needs to be left just like it is. The money and space that would be used to widen it need to be used to improve out pitiful mass transit system. If people want to see an improvement in air quality then they need to do things that will promote people to take fewer cars, not make it easier for people to get more cars in the same area.
The Houston METRO had a great plan with the HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes that would limit them to vehicles that had a minimum of 2 people at all times and 3 people during the worst of rush hour. These lanes are limited access, I believe the one on I-10 has only two entrances and two exits in over 15 miles of road, and the occupancy of any vehicle can be monitored and the driver ticketed if needed for enforcement. Well this rewards people that behave in a manner that furthers the goal of pollution reduction by leaving one or more car at home, so we need to do something to mess it up. According to the Houston Chronicle in an article that they ran about 7 months ago the new HOV lane will be like a toll road. If you have the right number of people then would not get charged, but if you have only one person in the car you can still use the HOV lane, but it will cost you $1. 00 or whatever. This is just stupid. It does not provide the only thing that people will understand and can make people modify their behavior. There is no negative reinforcement. Sure it costs a dollar or two, but that is not enough money to bother most people to the point that they won't drive their own car instead of use mass transit.
The real solution to all this "air quality" nonsense is to get people out of cars. Houston should have a mass transit system in place that allows people to get where they need to be, in a reasonably similar time to driving themselves and at a reasonable cost to the individual. It does not need to matter if it is bus or train or teleporter or whatever, people should be discouraged from driving their cars into the center of town and encouraged to use an efficient and clean mass transit alternative. Wait a minute, maybe somebody should start thinking about building an efficient and clean mass transit alternative instead of widening freeways and lowering speed limits.
----End of Rant----
If anyone actually read this whole thing, thanks for looking at it.
Feeling better now,
Mike
Last edited:
Sorry, I didn't know that. I'm up hear in New England (I work just south of Boston) and it's hell at rush hour. 
