LTE: Glaring flaws

Regarding “Two deaths, days apart, put spotlight on MetroRail” (Page A1, Tuesday), the chart that accompanies the article shows collisions with people per mile of track compared to other cities. For major lines, Houston’s is by far the worst. We have 18 times as many accidents as Boston per track mile, for example.

Houston Metro’s manic pursuit of street-grade rail has yielded the worst of all systems, not just deadly to pedestrians and cyclists but a noisome eyesore as well, and its design flaws are well-documented: the high number of intersections with streets, the inability of a heavy ballistic train to stop quickly compared to a car, and worst of all, trains that travel parallel tracks where no natural right-of-way is observed. Simply put, cross traffic must look left and right for every track, all the time.

For all of these reasons, it’s unlikely that tweaking traffic signals will solve the problem. The system is fundamentally flawed, and needs to be scrapped.

Pete Smith, Cypress