Safe Streets Before Mass Transit

Safe Streets Before Mass Transit

Houston mass transit projects fail and always will, as long as crime rates are high, homeless encampments occupy public areas, and the streets are not safe. Houston has other issues such as insufficient population density and de-centralized job centers, but mass transit ridership will always be low because people do not feel safe enough to regularly ride Metro’s buses and trains. Our elected leaders need to stop denying the crime problem and do something for the average citizen and the general welfare of the city.

The ridership projections never match the actual numbers after a project is completed. The numbers are not even close, for example, 700 actual versus 18,000 projected daily riders for the Post Oak project recently completed. Mass transit will not be popular until people once again can feel safe from insolent criminals. Billions and billions of dollars are spent on failed projects year after year. Automobile traffic is not reduced, while tax dollars are wasted. It is time to stop this madness and redirect Metro funds to addressing the high crime rate and homeless problem before any more Metro construction boondoggles are started. All those wasted billions of tax dollars could provide more police on the streets and a more functional justice system. With those wasted Metro dollars, effective leaders could solve the crime and homeless problems. It takes money and good ideas to deal with these problems. Fix these problems first and stop wasting tax dollars.

Metro is a failure. It is time to admit it. However, Metro does enrich the engineering firms and construction companies who coincidently donate a lot of money to candidates who support Metro. It sounds more like a money-laundering scheme than an attempt to solve traffic problems with mass transit projects. It is time to end the Metro deceptions and elect new, honest leaders who get it.