Some reporting by CityLab on the dire situation in Houston illuminates why TDM is so important. Many people in the country’s fourth-largest city don’t even know that there’s a mass-transit system. With as many as 1 million cars destroyed by Hurricane Harvey, there now, more than ever, needs to be some dramatic efforts to educate the city’s population about their transportation options.
Houston is one of the most famously auto-dependent places on Earth. Nearly 91 percent of the commuters in the Houston metro travel alone by car to get to work.
“I keep hearing on the radio that people won’t be able to get anywhere,” says Janis Scott, known as Houston’s “bus lady.” “But this doesn’t need to be end of the world. Now is the time to get with METRO.”
Spreading the word about METRO in the face of a staggering disaster is a magnification of the challenge the agency faces every day, though. One recent survey showed a majority of Houstonians hadn’t stepped on the bus once in the year prior. “It’s amazing how few people are aware of some of our services,” says Spieler.
Misinformation doesn’t help: In dissecting local officials’ decision not to evacuate Houston ahead of Harvey, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman tweeted that there’s “no mass transit” in Houston, echoing a sentiment shared by many Houstonians themselves—and ignoring the nearly 300,000 daily riders who depend on the METRO network.