METRO Pitching New Plan To Address Mobility, City Growth

TOMBALL, TX — Officials with the Metropolitan Trans Authority are considering several projects to expand services to under served areas of northwest Harris County, which could include the construction of a Park & Ride Facility at State Highway 249 at Boudreaux Road.

Robert Trevino, METRO’s executive vice president of planning, engineering, and construction, shared the overall strategy with representatives of The Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce Mobility and Transportation Committee on Tuesday.

“Mobility is a regional issue and we are all in this together,” Trevino said.

METRO’s new plan, dubbed METRONext, was launched last month through a series of 25 scheduled public meetings that will wrap up this month.

Those public meetings were informal open house- style gatherings designed to solicit public comments, all of which are being processed as each meeting occurs.

Based on the comments, METRO would to:

• Expand connections in under served areas
• Expand the network in the Greater Houston region to attract riders
• Delivery a safe and flexible customer experience
• Incorporate technology to meet customer needs

While much of the METRONext plan calls for expanding or enhancing existing routes, it also includes expanding to areas in the north and western portion of Harris County and possibly adding Park & Ride Service Centers.

Some of those new sites include Katy Mills and Westgreen in west Harris County, Fairfield in Cypress at U.S. 290 and West Little York on U.S. 290 east, Springwoods at Interstate 45 at the Grand Parkway and Greenspoint at Beltway 8, and three locations along State Highway 249 that include Boudreaux Road at the Grand Parkway and SH 249, Louetta Road at SH 249, and Willowbrook at SH 249.

Trevino said the new plan has everything with the explosive growth that Houston has experienced in recent years, and will continue to experience through at least 2040.

“METRO’s previous long-range plan has not been updated since 2003,” he said. “A lot has changed.”

As a result, it became imperative for the transportation entity to come up with an updated plan that addresses the needs of a changing demographic, as well as helps address mobility challenges associated with growth.

Next year, Houston is projected to surpass Chicago as the third largest city in the United States. In preparation for much of that growth, the Texas Department of Transportation and the Harris County Tollroad Authority embarked on several area expansion projects inn recent years that included the U.S. 290 expansion, the construction of the Grand Parkway, the expansion of Sh 249, and upgrades and expansion Interstate 45 north.

"There is only so much freeway expansion that we can do," Trevino said. "Most of the growth is coming in our direction."

If the city and county does nothing to address mobility issues, Trevino said the congestion will become worse, and motorists will begin finding alternate routes on side streets, and transfer the congestion to other areas of the city and county.

"There is a benefit to having transit going into a certain region," he said.

Click here to learn more about the METRONext Plan.

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Image: Bryan Kirk, Patch

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