A park-and-ride program in Pearland is preparing for launch this fall, offering an option for motorists long weary of nightmarish commutes on Texas 288.

The pilot program will be offered as a small-scale test drive as the community copes with traffic congestion on the highway, which is taken by about 5,500 Pearland residents to jobs in the Texas Medical Center.

In May, City Council approved the three-year program with the possibility to expand it later. In partnership with Kerrville Bus Co., the program will shuttle riders from a Pearland sports complex parking lot to the medical center and downtown Houston.

The bus company will foot the bill for the pilot program and will not charge the city. One-way fare will cost $6.50.

Commuters will leave vehicles in a 350-space parking lot at the Shadow Creek Ranch sports complex at 13050 Shadow Creek Parkway, and the park and ride will make 10 stops in the Texas Medical Center and nine stops downtown.

Initially slated to be ready by August, Kerrville Bus Co. postponed the launch to fine-tune logistics, Pearland Deputy City Manager Jon Branson said. He said the service will start in mid- to late fall.

“There are not any problems. However, it’s going to take (Kerrville Bus Co.) more time than they anticipated to secure the equipment and materials to provide the service,” he said. “They want to make sure that when they launch the program, they have adequate manpower, equipment and (promotion and information) of the program before it starts so that when it does start it is successful.”

Earlier discussion of an August opening date was a tentative, “best-case-scenario” timeline, Branson said.

Photo: Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Houston Chronicle

The bus company plans to launch a website with details on the system’s fare options, such as punch cards.

By ZIP code, Pearland has the highest concentration of TMC employees that either drive to work alone or through car and van pools along Texas 288, Branson said.

A 2016 Census Bureau report listed Pearland as the seventh-fastest-growing city in America.

The city’s previous attempts to establish a transportation/commuter system date to the early 2000s. At one point, the Metropolitan Transit Authority purchased property in Pearland to build a park-and-ride site, but questions arose about the fairness of providing services to people who were not paying the agency’s 1-cent sales tax. Pearland rejected Metro’s offer to sell it the land, and the agency ultimately sold the property to a private buyer.

While the city will have “some incidental costs” for signage and additional law enforcement duties during the pilot launch, the bus company will be responsible for success or failure of the program, Branson said.

“If it’s not successful,” he said, “they’re the ones that are on the hook for the expense.”

Pearland City Councilman Adrian Hernandez is optimistic.

“I think it may be slow to catch on in the beginning, by this time next year, I hope to see it in full-swing as the completion of State Highway 288 (toll lane) projects should offer the bus line easy access in and out of the Texas Medical Center,” Hernandez said. “This will likely be a very attractive alternative to commuters living in Pearland who work in those areas, which I believe to be a fairly large group.”

According to Branson, the city is expecting that three to six months into the program, between 250 and 300 vehicles will be taken of the roadways.

“In the grand scheme of things, that’s not a great number, but if you think of vehicle miles traveled, emissions and those types of things, that — over a period of time — will have a significant effect,” Branson said.

Hernandez said the park-and-ride is long overdue for the region.

“If solely looking at it from a need-based approach which relies on demand, I think it's definitely justified based on the comments that I received when running for office,” he said. “If, however, you're looking at it from the perspective of developing that need based on other reasons such as future growth projections and additional traffic, I think we're doing a good job of getting ahead of any future demand and I believe it's always better to be proactive than reactive.”

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yorozco@hcnonline.com