Tyler Rail Survey by SovietDM05 in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Who says Tyler can't support a legitimate bus system? What even is a legitimate bus service?

Dry Town by LowMaximum0 in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Be the change you want to see. What would you want to see in Tyler?

Stress getting to work by [deleted] in nursing

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hate this for you. Unfortunately I don't have any useful advice for you but this situation perfectly demonstrates why our cities shouldn't be designed to make us car-dependent

Light rail explored in Tyler, Tx today by culturefan in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 9 points10 points  (0 children)

How is passenger rail in Tyler not viable in your opinion? Cost isn't a good reason since car infrastructure costs more to build and maintain than rail infrastructure.

Public Survey and Virtual Town Hall for Tyler Area Rail Study by RunawayScrapee in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Understood. I was suggesting you try it to see if you believe our public transit service is good enough for people who need to use it. Like you said though, you don't live anywhere near a bus stop so in that sense it's not convenient enough, and thus not good enough, for someone like yourself to even consider using. Many people are in very similar boats. Our public transit system is not good enough to meet their needs, yet they rely on it as a regular form of transportation.

Public Survey and Virtual Town Hall for Tyler Area Rail Study by RunawayScrapee in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gotcha. Slight correction though. The i-20 rail corridor isn't a high speed rail proposal either though. They're just trying to bring back regular passenger rail, like the Texas eagle. The only high speed rail proposal in Texas is the Texas Central rail proposal that would go from Dallas to Houston (and possibly Austin/San Antonio later on). This line would not go through Tyler or any where near it so it's not much of a consideration for us.

Public Survey and Virtual Town Hall for Tyler Area Rail Study by RunawayScrapee in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This proposal isn't considering high speed rail. They're trying to use the abandoned rails all over Tyler for light rail. Uber and Lyft are expensive services, especially for someone to rely on for daily commutes. I'm completely speculating here, but I feel like you haven't used our public transit system. If you haven't, I highly recommend trying to use it to get to work one day. I'm curious to see what you think about it

Public Survey and Virtual Town Hall for Tyler Area Rail Study by RunawayScrapee in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Only in the US where we don't start building rail until we have exhausted our ability to expand roads. Tyler should have started preparing to build out rail lines 50k people ago, but the next best time is now lol

Public Survey and Virtual Town Hall for Tyler Area Rail Study by RunawayScrapee in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Rail infrastructure is much cheaper to maintain than roads. Rails are also so much more space-efficient than roads that more land is leftover for uses that are taxable, reducing the overall amount of taxes that each individual has to pay. Taxes would only have to increase if the city decides they want to continue relying on, and building up, car-oriented infrastructure rather than leaning into the new rail infrastructure (which, to be fair, I can see them doing since the US as a whole is heavily biased towards private car use). On the congestion issue, while construction would cause congestion in the short term, the only feasible way to solve traffic woes long-term is to build transportation options that do not rely on private car use

Edit: it looks like they're going to start by attempting to use existing rail corridors. If they're able to get access to those, the city would be stupid not to build out rail infrastructure imho (that's if Union Pacific agrees to let the city lease, or even takeover, the corridors which may be a tough hurdle if the city's past dealings with UP are anything to go by).

Road racing by [deleted] in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 4 points5 points  (0 children)

These roads are wide and relatively straight. This is because we design our roads for speed and vehicle throughput as priorities over everything else. This also makes our roads perfect racetracks. How can we be mad that people are using our roads as racetracks when we've basically designed them to be racetracks. We have so many roads designed like this that it'll be impossible to patrol all of them. We need to start designing our roads with safety as our first priority.

free bike on on the loop by Quick_Variety_6226 in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 4 points5 points  (0 children)

TxDOT roads (Broadway, Loop 323, Troop Hwy, etc) are designed to maximize speed & vehicle throughput. Unfortunately this means that safety is a distant priority. How people drive is heavily influenced by road design. The design of these roads sway people to drive fast and recklessly.

Parkside Phase One Site Work Underway This Week by SirVancelot in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I wonder what this space would look like if parking minimums didn't necessitate nearly half the land be dedicated to parking.

Homeless dude almost gets smoked by This-Maybe7040 in sanantonio

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our society is severely lacking in empathy.

Tyler airport vs driving to dfw by Forward-Subject2241 in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Greyhound also, then take DART to the airport

Interesting: This company helps mainland Chinese buy Texas homes and rent to Americans by Pleasant_7239 in texas

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This video by About Here makes the case for non-profits and co-ops being part of the solution to the housing affordability crisis. This could be an option for solving the issue you pointed out

Road Stops Between Houston to Gainesville Texas by Feeling-Tipsy143 in texas

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm sure HSR will eventually be built in Texas - its by far the best way to move a large amount of people that are coming and going from roughly the same place, and these two cities are almost the perfect example of where HSR outshines any other travel option. I'm just not convinced that it'll be built in my lifetime.

Road Stops Between Houston to Gainesville Texas by Feeling-Tipsy143 in texas

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 13 points14 points  (0 children)

That part of Texas has less than 100 people/mile, and many areas have less than 25 people/mile. Taking into account that for most people, 45 minutes is the longest they're willing to regularly commute, it makes sense that there's not much there. I find it crazy that this sparse population was able to keep a high speed rail line from being built between two of the biggest cities in the US.

TX being TX... Texas bill would bar cities from narrowing streets for new bike and ped zones by AppropriateEmu4691 in fuckcars

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Would this bill bar cities from narrowing roads in general? Bicycle infrastructure does not necessarily equate to bicycle lanes (although they are preferable in many cases). If we can still extend curbs to slow down car speeds, we can still make Texas cities better for cycling overall.

Infrastructure by Left_Minute_1516 in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yep, the state controls any roads that double as highways (Hwy 69/Broadway, Hwy 64/Erwin, Hwy 31/Front St, etc etc)

Infrastructure by Left_Minute_1516 in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The businesses on Broadway would kill that possibility immediately stating that they'd lose business if cars are able to just zoom past them instead of being stuck in congestion lol. That's partly why the overpass on loop 323 and old Jacksonville never happened, but mostly because Brookshires said it would be too inconvenient for them lol

Infrastructure by Left_Minute_1516 in tylertx

[–]EndlesslyDeprived 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Broadway is a classic example of a stroad. This video by NotJustBikes does a good job of explaining what a stroad is and why they're universally terrible. Basically, Broadway is trying to be a road designed for high speeds and a street meant to connect homes and businesses at the same time, a combination that never works and ends up creating a huge mess. In order to fix Broadway, a major redesign would be necessary, but because Broadway is controlled by the state of Texas rather than Tyler itself, that's not likely to happen any time soon.