Drive times increase despite SafeCLEAR promises

KHOU's Jeremy Rogalski takes a look at Commute times since the inception of the SafeCLEAR program...

(from KHOU.com)

“Traffic will move a lot faster.”

“Move the traffic along”

“Move the traffic on the freeways.”

Those comments came from Houston Mayor Bill White while he was launching the City’s Safe Clear wrecker program in 2005.

Top ranking officials in the Mayor’s Office of Mobility even went a step further:

“You will see a tremendous difference in the flow of traffic,” said Joe Breshears, Director of the Office of Mobility in December, 2004.

And David Saperstein, the program’s chairman pledged “a huge difference for people getting to work on time” in March, 2004. Six months later, Saperstein added that Houstonians would see “a dramatic uptick in the reduction of drive times.”

So, the 11 News Defenders wanted to know, has the city lived up to its promise?

We analyzed peak drive times for every major freeway into downtown: Gulf, North, Northwest, East, Eastex, South and Southwest. The Katy Freeway was not included due to construction.

The analysis covered the morning peak hours of 6:30a.m. to 9:30 a.m., and the afternoon peak hours between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. 11 News compared average drive times along those segments in 2003 to 2006, which is two years before Safe Clear, and two years after the program was launched.

The bottom line -- 86 percent of those routes saw not a reduction but an increase in average drive times

Now, granted, its not fair to look at these numbers and blame the entire mess on the SafeCLEAR program. Most of the increase is due to additional demand and TxDOT's seeming desire to tear up every road at the same time.

But Mayor White's "head in the sand" approach isn't doing much to inspire confidence....

The Defenders provided its findings to Frank Michel, Communication Director for the Office of the Mayor, one week prior to an interview with Bill White.

But White told 11 News: “I haven’t seen your analysis.”

Still, the mayor claimed mobility is improving, saying Safe Clear has resulted in a 20 percent reduction in accidents. He added that you have to factor in the increase in the number of vehicles on the road.

“Everybody knows we’re the fastest growing economy in the nation,” White said.

White also said the Safe Clear program has the support of traffic engineers, like Tim Lomax, with the Texas Transportation Institute.

“Travel times are longer, no doubt, but they are not as long as they would be otherwise,” Lomax said.

The article goes on to mention the cost of the SafeCLEAR Program ($3 Million per year) but doesn't mention that it was sold to the public as a revenue generator, before being gutted by the court system. This data has led one City Council Member to question if the expense justifies the means.

“It’s costing us money and it isn’t working,” Wiseman said, adding that the price tag is coming out of the taxpayers’ pocket.

“I’m not comfortable spending three million dollars a year that we could be spending on something else,” Wiseman said

Something like additional police officers, or a host of other core services that Houston doesn't "have the money for" right?

But, of course, that wouldn't sync-up with Mayor White's new Gubernatorial preperatory Mayroal campaign commercials now would it?