More than two years after it began operating, a ānow openā sign still hangs from the side of a giant, 400-space parking garage at the corner of south Highway 281 and Stone Oak Parkway.
The Stone Oak Park and Ride facility opened in June 2018 as a place where drivers can park their car and hop on a VIA bus that ran two routes throughout the city: one into downtown and one to the Medical Center.
āBut I donāt think itās wrong.āSince its 2018 opening and before the pandemic hit, when VIA temporarily halted the route into downtown due to COVID-19, VIA says buses transported passengers 275,000 times from the Stone Oak garage.
And so clearly, they were more likely going to Stone Oak for work, for a job and not necessarily from Stone Oak to get into town,ā Arndt said.
āPeople that live in the Woodlands or people that live in Kingwood or Sugarland or Katy, communities much like Stone Oak, right?