A good bus delay

Let’s get the facts right before breaking ground on the bus rapid transit project.

On Day One of journalism school, students learn the adage, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” That’s another way of saying, be skeptical even if it appears the source is trustworthy. We wish politicians and their appointees, especially those in charge of precious transportation dollars, would adopt that characteristic.

A healthy dose of skepticism is needed immediately regarding an enormous project to bring bus rapid transit (BRT) along Post Oak Boulevard in the Galleria. The $200 million project this week will break ground. It should be delayed by Mayor Annise Parker.

The Metro board and the Uptown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone board have designed a plan for a system of designated bus lanes that would connect transit centers that run, roughly, between U.S. 59 on the south and Interstate 10 on the north. This new addition to Houston’s mass transit network, the boards contend, could help get Uptown commuters out of their cars and into buses, alleviating the notorious congestion on 610 Loop West. However, in the rush to fund and build the project, Uptown and Metro have failed to back up this traffic theory with the proper facts.

One key point of contention has been the projected ridership numbers. Uptown originally claimed that more than 19,000 people would use the bus line daily by 2018. Prior attempts at replicating downtown’s successful commuter park-and-ride model failed to catch on in Uptown, and the plan’s opponents justifiably question why this time would be any different — even with the addition of 200 million in taxpayer dollars.

With a little digging, Wayne Dolcefino, a former television investigative reporter now working for opponents of the project, found that the 19,000 riders were based on outdated ridership numbers and overly optimistic estimates. Uptown’s rush to build while relying on these questionable statistics makes it look like the board cares more about building something rather than building the right thing.

Confronted with these problems, Metro is going back to the drawing board and re-running the ridership numbers. “Given that some time has passed, that we have better clarity with the project design/details, and some of the different concerns, Metro will be updating the ridership projections,” Metro Board Chairman Gilbert Garcia recently told the Chronicle’s editorial board. “We want to be as transparent as the new Metro has always been.”

So with the numbers being reworked, why the rush to break ground next week? Will Metro and Uptown go back and change or even halt a project that’s already begun? That sounds like a recipe for wasted time and money. In the spirit of “measure twice, cut once,” Metro and Uptown should delay this project. Even though our mother contends it’s the right thing, we say, “check it out” In the spirit of “measure twice, cut once,” Metro and Uptown should delay this project.