»Houston's new Metro hits the spot

An article in the New York Times discusses the poor integration of Houston's new light-rail into the street. Car drivers keep colliding with the light-rail cars, which build up speed over the long flat stretches bedtween stops in Houston. (San Francisco's MUNI does not have this problem, as it stops as frequently as twice each block above-ground, and rarely achieves speeds greater than 11 kph. I write in kph because it's a bigger number than the mph, which seems impossibly slow: 9 mph.)
The article does not mention that a recent surface extension of Barcelona's TMB light-rail had similar problems; not does it explore why other cities, such as Sacramento, have successful (and relatively accident-free) surface-grade light rail.
Happily, the article quotes Metro officials as saying:

there are other reasons to build a train on street grade. It is more accessible and easier to use, and it fosters what Houston lacks: street-level development and pedestrian culture.

Houston Finds Some Pain in Car-Rail Coexistence

June 25, 2004
By SHAILA K. DEWAN
HOUSTON, June 18 - For a quarter-century, the debate over
whether Houston should have a light rail system pitted a
vision of environmentally friendly mass transit against the
fossil-fueled love affair between Houstonians and their
cars.

Last year, when Houston finally got a rail line, the
culture clash became physical. Since testing began in
November, the silvery electric-powered train, which slides
north and south along the street on a 7.5-mile route, has
collided with more than 40 cars.

The accidents have marred what was to be a moment of
rejuvenation for the city. The opening of the rail line was
timed to coincide with a major spruce-up of downtown,
complete with a fountain that flanks the tracks and sends
water leaping high into the air each time a train
approaches.

So far, 15 motorists have driven into the fountain.

None
of the train-versus-car accidents have been fatal, and more
than half have simply been fender benders, according to the
Metropolitan Transit Authority's statistics.

Still, experts say that while it is hard to compare light
rail lines - each has its own length and configuration -
Houston's accident rate is extraordinarily high.
Sacramento, by comparison, where that part of the light
rail line that shares the street is about the same length
as Houston's line, has had just four collisions this year.

The situation has quickly become part of Houston lore. At
an annual sand castle competition this month, no fewer than
11 entries depicted trains and crashed cars, with titles
like "Metrozilla" and "Weapons of Mass Destruction."

And residents are keeping score.

"I was No. 6,'' said
Joseph D. Kittrell, a 64-year-old hairdresser who suffered
a couple of broken ribs and whose Nissan truck was totaled
when he turned left over the tracks while a train was
coming. Mr. Kittrell, given a ticket for an illegal turn,
said the signage was confusing.

"I wrote the mayor, I wrote The Houston Chronicle," he
said. "I feel like I've been had by the city, and I don't
think it's fair."

The train, which opened for business on Jan. 1, carries
passengers from the new Reliant Park football stadium north
through the Texas Medical Center complex, the museum
district and downtown, where it cruises down the center of
Main Street, past the baseball stadium, to the University
of Houston's downtown campus. It is intended to be the
spine of a much larger system to come, which voters
approved by referendum in early November.

That was before they knew what it would be like to share
their streets with a 99,000-pound train that travels at 40
miles an hour and is separated from cars only by little
bumps known as traffic buttons. Many people now question
the wisdom of the transit agency's decision to wedge the
train into the streetscape instead of above or below
ground, an option that could have increased costs tenfold.

Officials of the transit agency, known as Metro, do not
come right out and say so, but their explanations for the
accidents boil down to this: Houstonians are bad drivers.
All the collisions, they say, can be attributed to driver
error: illegal turns, failure to yield and disregard of
signals.

There is plenty of support for that argument. The accident
rate in greater Houston, train or no train, is well over
double the national average, and it is particularly bad at
the medical center. Last year the police issued 8,000
traffic citations along what has become the train's route.

"Unfortunately we lead the state in every conceivable type
of crash," said Ned Levine, the transportation program
coordinator for the Houston-Galveston Area Council, the
region's planning group .

Thirty-nine percent of serious accidents here are caused by
speeding, compared with 13 percent nationally, Dr. Levine
said, adding, "I would call that aggressive driving.''

But the transportation agency's efforts to defend itself
have not gone over well. "It's not just the media," said
Frank J. Wilson, who became chief executive of Metro two
months ago. "It's the general perception, people in the
street, elected officials. They say: 'What's wrong with
Metro? Why is it blaming these motorists?' As if it's a
God-given right in Houston to run red lights."

It did not help matters that the first driver to collide
with the train was a local television reporter.

To be fair to Houston drivers, they have had to master six
new and complex traffic signs, including an icon that shows
a train track, over which is superimposed a left-turn
arrow, over which is a circle with a slash through it. The
signs are symbols only, without words like "warning."

At the medical center, the train's path doubles as a
left-turn lane. At other points, driveways exit right onto
the tracks. In Mr. Kittrell's case, the traffic lights were
green, but centered above them was a new signal forbidding
a left turn.

"I said, 'Well, who's going to look up there when there's
two green lights?' " he recalls telling the police.

Metro has since moved no-turn signals to make them more
visible.

Some drivers complain that the train comes without the
typical warnings.

"Are you from America?" Benny Delgadillo Sr. said
indignantly. "I'm from America, 49 years. Here, you're
taught as a kid that flashing lights, arms come down -
train's coming."

Mr. Delgadillo admits, however, that he should not have
turned left where he did, off Main Street. He made a common
mistake: he and the train in the lane to his left were
traveling in the same direction, so he did not see it when
he made the turn.

"It's just even by the grace of God that I should be
talking to you now, it hit me that hard," he said.

Metro has made numerous adjustments: changing and moving
signs, adding flashing lights and more flashing lights. In
February, it commissioned the Texas Transportation
Institute, at Texas A&M University, to do an independent
study. The study concluded that the route met national
traffic standards, but suggested 161 "enhancements," many
involving signals and their timing.

Since the agency began adopting those changes, the rate of
accidents has been declining, and transit experts say it
will continue to drop as Houston and the train grow
accustomed to each other.

For now, safety engineers have determined that trains and
cars are too hostile to even share an intersection. In the
most accident-prone part of the route, red lights halt cars
from all directions when a train is passing through, a
signal pattern called "pre-emptive red."

Though Metro strongly disagrees, some drivers point to the
improvements as evidence that the city was at first
negligent.

Maria Lewis-Sterling, a 46-year-old nurse, says her car was
not even moving when its license plate was torn off by a
passing train. Her car was protruding into the roadway,
though, and she was charged $450 for damage to the train.
Her accident was the first of six at one intersection,
which has since been given two rail crossing signs.

Ms. Lewis-Sterling said she had no hard feelings, and even
rode the train to work this week. "Just give me my $450
back,'' she said, "and admit that you didn't do a perfect
job.''

Metro's ridership is averaging 24,000 on weekdays and
continues to increase. Now, in part because of continuing
concern over the accidents, its board has asked the agency
to re-examine the planned routes for the light rail
expansion.

But besides cost considerations, Metro officials say, there
are other reasons to build a train on street grade. It is
more accessible and easier to use, and it fosters what
Houston lacks: street-level development and pedestrian
culture.

"I'm trying to decide what the balance is: safety versus
accessibility, ease of mobility versus changing culture,"
said Mr. Wilson, Metro's chief. "Some people would say, 'If
you do it again, would you do it the same way?' My guess is
that after a lot of deliberation and hammering, we probably
would."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/25/national/25rail.html

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company