Tony Gattis, over at Houston Strategies, uses his wife’s commute as the perfect example of what’s wrong with expensive rail in Houston, (not to mention, Metro’s bus schedules): It doesn’t come from where we need to start, or end where we need it to go. Neither do the buses, for that matter.

My wife recently took a job with SAIC/NASA in Clear Lake working on the new Crew Exploration Vehicle, and was not fond of the commute from Meyerland/Bellaire. Not just the 1.5 hour round-trip time and stress, but $9+/day in gas, plus much higher car depreciation expenses (60m/day). Metro buses could work, but require a substantial time-draining transfer downtown that almost double the commute time – and the final leg from the Bay Area Park&Ride to JSC is problematic. Any type of potentially planned commuter rail system would be even worse. But she found the perfectly scheduled 15-seat express vanpool from the West Loop Park&Ride (SW corner of 610) to her exact building at JSC, with a couple quick stops for other NASA contractors along the way from I45 to the campus – all for about $3/workday (less than half of Metro’s cost). How’s that for a great bargain? It just reinforces that the future of effective commuter transit in multi-nodal Houston is not heavy commuter rail, but a comprehensive managed express (MaX) lane network used by a wide range of very fast, point-to-point bus, van, and carpool options.
(Empahsis added.)

Here is his discussion of a such a MaX system.

Remember, control the parking, and you control people’s ability to own cars. Then control the rail, and you control where they live and work…