Christof has done an excellent job reporting on HOV's and HOT's. But his contention that "We have an excellent suburban bus system" is simply not true.

HOV buses are mostly point to point transit service. Almost all HOV bus passenger trips are from the suburbs to somewhere in the downtown area. There are some connections where riders can transfer to the local bus system for destinations outside of downtown, as at the Northwest Transit Center, which has not-so-hot connections to the Galleria. This is not true suburban transit and is very similar to point-to-point charter bus service. There are few or usually no intermediate stops on any of the HOV bus lines. Houston's suburban stations are typically far from any destination that can be reached on foot, and there are no shuttle bus lines at any of the park and ride stations that run to suburban neighborhoods and commercial areas. Without intermediate stations through the areas through which the HOV buses pass, the only people that can use these "excellent" lines are people near the end of the routes working downtown on weekdays. There is little or no off-peak weekday HOV bus service and absolutely none on weekends. HOV bus service is actually quite wasteful since almost no one can use it for a reverse commute. Running buses entirely empty for fifty pecent of their round trip and carrying no passenger backhaul is not a recipe for successful public transit. Running HOV or HOT buses far out into suburbia has little effect on overall transit usage if the only people that can actually use them are the tiny minority of suburbanites that work downtown. A true suburban transit line on Katy Freeway would have stations at major roads. On a real suburban transit line, someone would be able to ride from Katy to Memorial City, or from where they live on Voss to Eldridge where they work.

The only way Christof could possibly qualify Metro's HOV service as excellent would be to set the bar real low, like comparing Houston to San Antonio or Detroit. If you contrast Houston HOV buses to suburban light rail to Plano, which has a dozen intermediate stops, local bus connections at many stations, pedestrian-accessible outlying destinations and frequent service seven days a week, it's obvious that our HOV bus routes are almost completely dysfunctional and irrelevant. Praising HOV may make Houstonians feel better, but has more to do with the psychology of previous investment and fails to acknowledge what a monumental failure HOV bus service really is.