Ladies and Gentlemen,

This link (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5527880.html) is an editorial I wrote and that appeared in the Houston Chronicle on Sunday. In it I make the case for us as a community to consider eliminating the fares on Metro's buses and trains. This is a controversial idea that offers significant potential benefits, but also has potential problems.

My interest in the issue is born of my frustration in the lack of progress we are making on managing traffic congestion in Houston. This community has been stuck for 30 years in an argument over whether we should build more freeways or more rail as if those are the only two ideas we can come up with.

What is becoming increasingly apparent is that neither may be viable. TXDOT has recently stated that it is out of money for many of the planned roadway projects and it is becoming increasingly doubtful that Metro will ever get the federal funds necessary to complete Metro Solutions. I think it is critical that we lay aside this decades-old argument and start coming up with some alternative solutions. Otherwise, we are going to find ourselves in the nightmare of unending traffic jams.

If you have ideas on how we can address this problem, I would love to hear from you.

Bill King
Email me at: weking@weking.net
Visit my website at: www.BillKingHouston.com