Comments to the METRO Board of Directors March 27, 2008

It took seven weeks to get METRO to release current traffic count information concerning the
Main Street rail corridor. Brown and Gay Engineers gathered data at the end of FY/CY 2007.

It was my fear, and seemingly confirmed by the recent traffic volume data, that in fact,
METRORail has strangled vehicular traffic in the corridor, and consequently decimated small
businesses which depend on vehicle traffic for survival.

Impact of the METRORail Red Line operation on the Main Street Corridor traffic:

COH Main St. | B&G Eng. Location Percentage

Traffic North of | Traffic #5 Reduction
Count Direction Date Commerce | Count* Date Main, North In Traffic
16,215 N&S 03/13/98 C.B.D. | 2,786 08/14/07 of Commerce -82.8%

COH Main St. | B&G Eng. Location Percentage

Traffic North of | Traffic #2 Reduction
Count Direction Date Gray St. | Count* Date Main, North In Traffic
16,770 N&S 03/05/98 C.B.D. | 2,626 08/16/07 of Gray -84.3%

COH Fannin | B&G Eng. Location Percentage

Traffic North of | Traffic #10 Reduction
Count Direction Date Binz | Count* Date Fannin, North In Traffic
27,362 1-way S 03/23/98 Mid-Town | 5,292 08/09/07 of Binz -80.7%

COH San Jacinto | B&G Eng. Location Percentage

Traffic North of | Traffic #14 Reduction
Count Direction Date Binz | Count* Date San Jacinto, In Traffic
28,702 1-way N 03/05/98 Mid-Town | 6,748 08/09/07 North of Binz -76.5%

COH Fannin | B&G Eng. Location Percentage

Traffic South of | Traffic #23 Reduction
Count Direction Date University | Count* Date Fannin, South In Traffic
24,822 N&S 03/20/98 T.M.C. | 12,931 07/17/07 of University -47.9%

COH Main St. | B&G Eng. Location Percentage

Traffic North of | Traffic #32 Reduction
Count Direction Date University | Count* Date Main, North In Traffic
32,908 N&S 03/23/98 T.M.C. | 22,452 11/13/07 of University -31.8%

COH Greenbriar | B&G Eng. Location Percentage

Traffic South of | Traffic #51 Reduction
Count Direction Date O.S.T. | Count* Date Greenbriar, In Traffic
12,615 N&S 06/02/98 T.M.C. | 7,013 08/14/07 South of OST -44.4%

* The pedestrians that were counted and added to the totals have been subtracted from the vehicle count.

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Comments to the METRO Board of Directors March 27, 2008

An additional example:

Listed below are the H-GAC provided traffic counts for Main Street at Wheeler Street.

Main Street: South of Wheeler Street

Year Vehicle Count

1996 15,560
2001 18,630
2006 16,530 (DECLINE Since 2001)

Wheeler: East of Main

Year Vehicle Count

1996 15,900
2001 N/A
2006 15,170 (DECLINE - No 2001 Data)

Wheeler: West of Main

Year Vehicle Count

1996 16,810
2001 18,830
2006 16,590 (DECLINE Since 2001)

All traffic counts were obtained from the Texas Department of Transportation and represent 24
hour week day axles, divided by two. Weekdays are defined as Monday through Thursday.
====================================

Even with a decline in vehicular traffic, the intersection of Main Street and Wheeler is now
identified as an “F” intersection due to the METRORail operation.

I was told the intersection ratings went from a B-C to an F due to urban rail operations. (loss of
service greater than 2 minutes).

If the Main Street corridor has been so adversely impacted by the operation of METRORail, one
can only speculate there will be the same negative outcomes on the other thoroughfares slated by
METRO to be decimated.

Further, METRO's consultants seemingly used the City of Houston, secondary street traffic count
data, published in 2001 for each of the corridor’s DEIS reports. The City of Houston traffic
volume count report, effective in 2000, is comprised of counts from the late 1980's to the late
1990's for the various thoroughfares where traffic volume data was collected.

The consultants should be aware that they have used decade-old traffic data to perform the
forecasts. The data is clearly obsolete, and can not be considered reliable for a 2008 project with

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Comments to the METRO Board of Directors March 27, 2008

multiple decade forecasts, especially after 2001. There must be new, current traffic count data for
the initial base year of these studies.

Concerning the information not compiled:

It appears that METRO, nor the City of Houston, have attempted to formally study the
devastating impact on businesses and neighborhoods during, as well as post METRORail tram
construction.

There seems little interest in documenting the number of businesses which failed during the
construction, and how many business locations have suffered multiple business failures during the
period of tram operation since January 2004.

In addition to the damages inflicted upon businesses along Main Street corridor, there has been no
inquiry as to the negative impacts upon the neighborhoods caused by the blocking of numerous
streets and driveway accesses.

Tom Bazan
P.O. Box 2786
Houston, TX 77252

713-466-4477

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