After storms hit Houston hard, expect the electric bill to be next.

Regarding “CenterPoint says its storm restoration costs will be at least $100 million. Who will pay for this? (May 24): Who will pay? It’s pretty obvious in business-friendly Texas: It’s going to be the consumers. If it were a private company, there would be difficult choices: raise prices and lose customers or give shareholders a discount when they pay for repairs.

But CenterPoint is a regulated utility, and any special costs associated with repairs that will be passed on to the consumer must be approved by government utility regulators. I’m willing to bet that regulators will allow CenterPoint to pass on every last nickel of repairs while shareholders suffer no loss. In Texas, the consumer always comes last.

The Houston Chronicle reports how Houston can’t fix power lines, or internet, or deal with damaged downtown buildings, yada yada.

How about we compare ourselves to the rest of our country, like middle America, which has been hit by multiple tornadoes and has been dealing with downed trees and horrible weather for weeks? And the East? How about comparing how Houston is recovering with these other devastated areas? I’d bet it’s better.

Regarding “It’s pent-up demand | Opinion » (May 25): Here’s an idea for solving rush-hour traffic jams on our major highways so obvious it shouldn’t need to be stated: More remote workers.

Many large companies try to tout their eco-friendly credentials. If everyone brought more workers home, the demand for roads would immediately drop, saving a lot of pollution and potentially spending billions and billions of taxpayer dollars to continue building and expanding roads widely used for commuting.

Of course, solving one problem often exacerbates others, and bringing more workers home could turn the commercial real estate problem into a crisis. Choose your poison.

Most of Houston’s legendary traffic would magically disappear if drivers simply followed the rules of the road.

Keep Right Except to Pass. The left lane is reserved for overtaking.

A car that is in a lane to the left of where it should be causes a traffic jam. A car moving in a lane to the right would eliminate this traffic jam. As I was driving on the Gulf Freeway the other day, I estimated that 90% of the cars were in the left lane while I was in the empty right lane. The cars on the left were crowded at low speed in a line of several kilometers.

Keep Right. Pass. Then return to the right. It’s really very simple. Unfortunately, that won’t happen.

The letter’s author, Robert Allen, and author and opinion editor Megan Kimble are both right: Creating more or wider roads encourages more traffic, both because of pent-up and induced demand. “If you build it, they will come” certainly applies to road construction. The Grand Parkway is another great example of what she wrote about.

Houston is the largest metropolitan area in all of North America that does not have what I would call, as a retired transportation consultant, a true mass transit system. The argument that Houston’s population density is too low to support mass transit is a weak argument. The story of the Washington, D.C. Metro rail system – now the second most widely used subway system in America – is a great example of providing a quick, convenient and cost-effective solution to move more people without building of bigger and bigger highways.

In theory, the capacity of a single highway lane is approximately 2,600 people per hour, assuming an average of 1.3 people per vehicle.

DC Metro cars have approximately 66 seats each, meaning an 8-car train can comfortably seat 528 people and easily accommodate more people standing, for a rough total of 800 per train. With a service frequency of just 10 minutes, this is equivalent to moving 4,800 people per hour. Reduce that to a six-minute spacing, and a single track can easily move 8,000 people per hour. It’s high time that Houston leaders and TxDOT rethink building more and wider roads, displacing thousands of homes and businesses.

Bob Leilich, The Forests

Regarding “Ted Cruz Warns Texas Republicans of Tough Showdown with Colin Allred” (May 25): The junior Texas senator is all wrapped around the axle because he says Democrats in Washington, D.C. have put a “target” on the state of Texas. and plan to spend a lot to oust him. Sorry to break the sad news to “Cancun Cruz”, but it’s not just DC Democrats and not just DC people. I bet there are a whole bunch of voters, regardless of party affiliation, right here in Texas who are fed up. of the one who blows the wind, Ted Cruz.