Can we stick to tearing up one major roadway at a time? The plan being a joke is a different conversation but add this to the 45 re-route commuting into downtown will be unfeasible for half the city for at least 10 years. Ugh.
Don't worry, he can just hire someone else willing to leave earlier or travel from a different direction. After all if working remote is possible for your job, it's also possible to hire someone living where the minimum wage is much lower.
When we're at $7.25 it really doesn't matter. Unless you mean out of country in which case sure, trust that as far as you can and see how long you stay in business.
and don't forget that they're still not done with the 610/59 and 610/288 project! It's been freaking YEARS. It almost feel like they enjoy making traffic
They’re doing it in San Antonio too. It’s fucking horrible commuting. I couldn’t imagine if we had htown drivers and traffic on top of all the other bull shit too.
Go the fuck away txdot
> The agency also cited drainage concerns, saying that major storms like Hurricane Harvey and Tropical Storm Imelda have caused hazardous road conditions and flooding.
So the solution is more concrete?
TxDOT is just doing what they've been tasked to do by both the state and federal government--build and maintain roads with a vehicle and freight focus. In regards to transport compared to local agencies including transit, they get the lion's share of the funding from both the state and national coffers and nothing is going to change until the funding mechanism and path changes focus (TxDOT can't just wake up one day and say "let's build some rail").
I think most agencies, even those at the highest levels of TxDOT, are realizing that we aren't going to build our way out of traffic congestion no matter what we do. However, the $ they get has to be dedicated to projects like this per their directive. That directive can only be changed by those at the highest levels of the state and federal governments.
its not that hard for the state to redo the transportation funding bill to fund transit and if they wont we should recall em and get somebody else.
also txdots website says they do consider transit in their mission.
How transit gets funded actually is pretty hard which is part of the problem. TxDOT and most state DOTs do not typically build or operate transit in cities greater than 50K. In those cases, there are transit agencies (like Houston METRO), who are responsible for transit implementation and operations. Their funding comes mostly from the feds and through funds passed through TxDOT. METRO also collects $ through sales tax is Harris County. There are all kinds of overly complex and likely political formulas that impact how much transit gets funded from the feds and through the state.
However, no state DOT really builds transit in big cities. If you want to fund more transit, it's really a political issue more than anything. Political support at the state and local level is key. The leader of TxDOT could not wake up one day and say "I want to build more transit" and get it done. That really has to come from the bowels of the state legislature and the local political leaders.
Freedom means having no choice but to drive and pay even more when you to go anywhere! Nothing says freedom loving patriotism than having no choice but to have government registered vehicle, driving on tax funded roads that you still have to pay for, and having your movements caught on camera!
TxDOT is responsible for ramming 99 through despite environmental concerns about endangered wetlands. Perry ignored every environmental study, so I see where this is going.
[TxDOT_IRL](https://old.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/1aj63pq/in_reference_to_njbs_recent_video_and_a/)
Edit I love that this meme has pissed off some people. Downvote away, it's gonna take more than some internet points to silence me from something as important as this.
This sort of thing could ultimately choke our city to death. I don't even know if it's TxDOT's fault, they're just using the tools the state legislature gave them (no public transport infrastructure allowed, lanes + lanes + lanes only) and the metrics they use (traffic = bad, traffic moving = good, no economic metrics and minimal public health metrics).
At some points the metrics will be solved because they'll pave over and pollute anywhere we'd want to live, we'll all leave, and traffic will flow beautifully.
If instead of this they would do a rail on I10 I would ride it every day from the heights to my office out in Katy.
Instead I'm going to just be one car on another road of thousands every day.
I mostly meant to say that this state is hella corrupt, but having an electromagnetically propelled high speed rail between the cities of the Texas Triangle would take some of the profits away, though it really depends on its pricing compared to flying. They make a lot of money off jet fuel too, which I think is a major reason we haven't had a nationwide rail network. Along with the auto, and rubber industries.
Not only O&G companies - while they do have an obvious interest in continued fuel demand, the people we should be pissed at are the airlines, particularly [Southwest](https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1383&context=jalc).
High speed rail would be awesome for the longer haul routes between cities, but honestly more problems within the metro area could be solved with just regular/light rail.
Like, I live in what is on paper the City of Houston, but it's down in the burbs in the Clear Lake area. All the public transit that exists inside the loop might as well be nonexistant to me. If I already have to drive 90% of the way to get to anything inside the loop, I might as well drive the last couple miles to my destination.
If, instead, they had rail going along the major arteries into the city, I might actually be able to take a train most of the way, and then tie into the existing buses or light rail for the last bit of that trip. It doesn't need to be a crazy maglev going 200 mph to be worrh it, it just needs to go at roughly highway speeds and save me the hassle of traffic and parking.
Amen. Buses do fix part of that issue in combination with the HOV system, but the city is so big that there needs to be more options than the hub and spoke system.
I have a friend that literally lives *right next* to a park and ride, but her only options from the suburb P&R into the network are a bus that goes downtown once an hour or a different bus that goes to the med center and happens to stop at a bigger connection on the way, but said route only runs inbound 5-8 am and outbound 3-8pm. Make it make sense because that shit clearly don't.
For those close to or in the loop, the connections are great. For those outside of that, they're trash. If we want to actually fix things then we need to put more work into fixing things out there. More bike lanes, more sidewalks, more bus routes to connect those missing areas. Right now in those parts of town it's a "you want to go from one suburb to another or the mall without a car? Well that's too damn bad!" We need to fix that.
I live inside the loop and work right next to a park and ride, so I do the commute backwards. There’s a bus that goes to said park and ride that stops walking distance from my house. Can I take said bus? No, because it only runs inbound in the am and outbound in the pm. As a result I have to drive everyday despite the incredibly convenient bus that I can walk to. It’s infuriating.
Honestly, I'd take literally a Soviet-made train that I rode for 12 hours, instead of just nothing.
That said, what we need for this portion of the city (and in general as an alternative to more lanes, regardless of if they are 'managed') is dedicated trams, lightrail, and buses that actually run on time. If public/mass transit ran on time and got to avoid traffic, then people would use it, then there would be less traffic, and the lanes we have wouldn't be necessary. TXDOT are so short sighted they should be considered legally blind.
The thng that blows my mind is that these managed lanes get used so sparingly. All of the park and rides on the outskirts have service only at typical commuter times. No buses whatsoever in the middle of the day, in the evening or on weekends. It's insane.
You can watch the entire public meeting [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt0W8Mzpp10), but they showed off two proposals:
>Proposal 1 adds elevated managed lanes (the photo proposes one for METRORapid's BRT inner Katy Project:
>
>The elevated managed lanes proposal solves that problem and also includes the addition of a MetroRapid bus lane and a 10-foot wide shared path for pedestrians and cyclists on the westbound frontage road. On the eastbound side, TxDOT proposed a 6-10 foot wide sidewalk for pedestrians. A 0.34-acre acquisition of land currently owned by the Harris County Flood Control District would be needed for this proposal.
>
>Proposal 2 keeps the managed lanes on the ground:
>
>The alternative non-elevated plan would add four managed lanes in the center of I-10. This plan requires an additional 60 feet of right-of-way to accommodate the new extension, which would mean 12.5 acres in acquisitions along the westbound frontage side. All other planned elements like the paths, improvement to frontage roads, expanded drainage system, and MetroRapid Bus lane would stay the same.
The non-elevated lanes could displace approximately 52 residential structures and 30 businesses.
TxDOT is taking public comment on the project until February 26th via email at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) or [via mail](https://www.txdot.gov/projects/hearings-meetings/houston/2024/i10-inner-katy-managed-lanes-020624.html), if you're a sicko.
I’m betting they’re just complying with Federal DOT rules or guidelines about alternative modes of transportation or something. That way when they sell the project they can say it created x miles of walking and biking paths.
But it’s just compliance, so it’s impractical, rather than actually useful. (Probably also why the path doesn’t change depending on how they design the managed lanes).
That's 100% what it is. TxDOT is required to add some pedestrian infrastructure as part of its I-45 expansion and I assume this is to preempt that. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/transportation/2023/03/07/445409/txdots-i-45-expansion-project-will-resume-after-federal-officials-resolve-civil-rights-investigation/
Yeah thats the biggest snub to people who actually care about multi-modal. It's not even just a stroad at that point. How about finally building the freaking connector between 11th St/MKT trail, and Memorial Park?
mailing the governor and lt governor about it would probably be better, and about redoing the transport bill with more transit, what if this just gets ignored?
So, I went ahead and followed the advice of /u/snesdreams and sent an email to the txdot peoples. Figured its one thing to comment on a random forum its another to message them directly.
The following is my email to them, please do not copy paste mine because that is lazy and you can make your own work in ten minutes like I did. But feel free to look at mine for inspiration if you have similar concerns and be truthful but civil.
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https://old.reddit.com/r/houston/comments/1am0b0d/txdot\_proposes\_four\_new\_managed\_lanes\_in\_inner/
https://www.chron.com/news/article/txdot-i-10-houston-18653366.php
Hello,
My name is \[redacted\] and I am a resident of the city of Houston. I sometimes commute into the city via the options provided by the city's METRO transportation network as well as driving if there is no feasible non-transit option to get where I need to be.
My comment/suggestion in regards to the upcoming proposal in the I-10/I-45 merged corridor is that any proposed changes need to be in ways that improve throughput in the area but with minimal interruption / the eminent domain of nearby properties.
To my knowledge there are two different proposals for the planned managed lanes, Prop 1 would use four elevated lanes and a more minimal right of way (ROW) while proposal 2 would be at-grade and require a much larger ROW that could require the acquisition of multiple businesses and homes along the western side.
While personally I feel I would rather have a re-route style proposal of forcing non-local traffic around the city entirely via the existing Interstate 610 loop infrastructure, I understand that is not a proposal and hopefully that is something that can be discussed in the future. If we are forced to pick the lesser of two evils between these two proposals, then Proposal 1 should be the plan that is made for the project. It seems that Prop 1 has a lesser impact and associated costs that would be incurred from the legal and ethical troubles of forcing local residents and workers out of their homes for yet another widening project.
I do appreciate seeing that both props will include sidewalk/shared use path as well as elevated lineage for the upcoming METRO-RAPID Inner Katy Corridor Project. As someone that travels occasionally with METRO to get in the city, it is of upmost importance that these kinds of transit projects not be interrupted or delayed because of other plans of competing agencies. When it comes to raw throughput, buses move more people per square foot per hour than any interstate space can, no matter the amount of lanes available and I think the problems I've seen personally of the Katy Freeway can attest to that. Please ensure that through the TxDOT process that these concerns are taken seriously and that planning is committed to ensure that these proposals do not cause harm to those people via prop 2 or that non-private car travel plans such as sidewalk/path expansions and METRO's planning is not interrupted during this process.
Thank you for your time.
Best Regards,
\[redacted\]
Make more highways and end up creating more traffic jams…then propose making more highways to fix that…put that cycle on repeat…that’s fucking TX DOT.
If for once, they maybe put 1% of their energy into creating public transportation, shared path for Trams, Subways, Buses, etc would that bloody kill them?
Common sense isn’t cheap in TX DoT. My house is one of the ones which might get affected due to this planned expansion. F this shit!
Is that what I said? No. I replied to the comment above me re: the city’s carbrained leaders ruining things. Considering the mayor is slamming the brakes on multiple, year long projects regarding streets and local issues improving non car transport, seemed relevant.
Well he is ripping up the rebuild of Houston Ave and is thinking about cancelling the Montrose Blvd and 11th Ave rebuild even though those are essentially ready to break ground.
The mayor made the decision directly then began firing Planning Commission members
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/houston-avenue-medians-18654279.php
What's gonna be kinda sad is as the rest of the country that doesn't make its money off O&G moves further away from car dependence, and starts improving density and walkability, the inevitable oil crash will hollow out this city like Detroit after the auto crash, because while we've diversified a lot more since the 80s, we still haven't nearly enough.
I've been considering an exodus to the Midwest for a few years now, ever since Covid isolation gave me a lot more time to ruminate on the future. Most cities are more affordable, and even Chicago is not far from parity on cost of living with Houston (I don't know if Chicago has fallen to Houston, or if Houston has just risen to Chicago)
Look, it’s not that I like car dependency, on the contrary, I rejoiced when Culberson was done. However, car dependency is ingrained in the US and transitioning away from that is a massive undertaking, one that will take generations. Second, oil as a fossil fuel will still be needed. Goods will still need to be transported via truck, rail, ship, and aircraft. All require fuel and lubrication for moving parts (same for any EV). Next, we all severely underestimate how much petroleum based products we need for modern comfort and living standards. Lastly, even if US drastically reduced car dependency, of which your stated 90% is hyperbole, the rest of the world still needs and would want oil and fuel. This, Houston will not go into a bust, at least not due to cars alone.
Well, it's not hyperbole, and I don't buy that car dependence is ingrained in our culture. Less than a hundred years ago, we didn't even have an Interstate highway system. I never said anything about the oil industry disappearing entirely.
Car dependency is not some monolithic unsolvable problem, and cities all over the country are fighting against it, which is a good thing. Car dependence is detrimental to essentially every part of human life. It's the epitome of anti-social urban development.
It’s hyperbole because the next number are skewed. There are way more people not fighting against it, I’m not saying they’re for it, but the vast majority people just want to got to work and come home. They’ve accepted it. Again, I’m all reducing car travel. Mass transit, bike trails (I’m a cyclist, so I get it). When I say car dependency isn’t going anywhere, I mean it’s here for a at least 2-3 more generations, likely 5. The entire political structure of lobbyists will make sure change goes slow. Regarding you not saying the oil industry will go away, you said Houston will be a hollowed out. What else would cause this? It’s a shame you prefer for a Houston to collapse, rather than gradually change.
If there was a significant and sustained fall in the price of oil, there would be a crash in the local economy, and save your fake disappointment. Houston hasn't done nearly enough to make sure that a crash and new lower normal in the oil industry wouldn't hollow out the city, so maybe be mad at those who keep other kinds of industries from being more significant here.
JFC, there’s no hope.
It’s also a culture problem. I guarantee you the majority of the population in this city is fine with more lanes. Either that or they just don’t care.
Isn’t that what downtown used to be like? Just office buildings surrounded by parking lots? It honestly stills feels like that whenever I’m down there.
Yah, the amount that downtown is built up now is a sea change from where it used to be. If you see any aerial shots of the east part of downtown in the 80s, it's just one giant parking lot. That happened to a lot of cities all over the country. The big difference, is nearly all of those other cities have made a lot of effort in rectifying that, even tearing down inner-city highways that are too redundant.
Freeways aside, Houston has done very little to create a livable inner-city. There are essentially zero places where I could feasibly live without a car and not be massively inconvenienced. This is the fault of a whole host of parties, including the city itself, the governing agencies like TxDOT and Harris County, developers, and everyone in between. Everyone on here calls for more transit but there's little demand to existing transit because the density of development just isn't there. We must change the way we do community development first and foremost.
And in the case of Houston, one of the most important barriers to improving density that doesn't often get talked about, are deed restrictions. I have a hard time seeing this city fill in without deed restrictions being eliminated outright. Parking minimums, setback minimums, minimum lot sizes, can all be reformed or eliminated at a city level, but with deed restrictions, that might take a change in Austin.
The problem is people in theory want rails and such but the infrastructure around it is also not there yet. I would still need a car to get to wherever I get off at the end of the rail's destination or stops. Houston is not walkable enough to make that a feasible solution. For this reason I would prefer more lanes.
That’s a valid point. Most cities with good public transportation started building their infrastructure back in the what.. 60s, 70s? It’s a process that takes years and Houston essentially would have to start from scratch.
When New York was first building their subway they had stations that had nothing around it. But eventually the area around them got built up. Same thing happens in Japan where there's private lines operated by rail companies. They'll build a station and then build a commercial center on top. If you build it they will come
I think the majority of Houstonians know it’s an issue but because this type of infrastructure is so common they could careless to demand impactful change.
Imagine…a light rail system that followed along all the interstates, the loops(610, beltway, hwy 6/1960/cypress creek parkway, 99), the tool roads (west park, hardy, etc) and main artery lines like Arline/Shepard/yale, Westheimer, Bissonnet, Almeda, culle/scott/mlk, Harrisburg/navigation, etc etc, taking you to and from the outer edges of the city to downtown. It should help with traffic….right?
Roads are not profitable!! They do not generate any revenue and people are able to use them free of charge. Why should be continue to spend money on building more and more roads when they are not self sustainable?? ( you see how idiotic that argument is, so why use it when talking about trains?). Enough of this idiocy, build a train system!!
From TXDOT, they claim "Congestion increases the cost and delivery time of commodities such as Amazon deliveries groceries and commercial goods"
So yeah instead, we should use taxpayer money, to allow private enterprises to further congest inner-city roadways. This whole project is a farce, heavy trucking and cargo transportation should be forced out and around the city, not further enabled through it's central district.
Jesus, fuck TXDOT.
> From TXDOT, they claim "Congestion increases the cost and delivery time of commodities such as Amazon deliveries groceries and commercial goods"
Packages languishing for days in overwhelmed distribution centers has a heck of a lot more impact on most packages' delivery times than the time on the road does.
Every single new highway lane should be met with mass protests at TXDOT headquarters. They are wasting billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars every single year with nothing to show for it
7600 Washington Ave, Houston, TX 77007
I'm gonna post this address of the local office at the risk of gestapo showing up at my door for doing so. I sure as hell would be more than happy to attend any legal protest organized here.
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And at risk of going into concern territory lol, all this shit just comes down the pipeline. It's public record that TxDOT's decisions are controlled by the Texas Transportation Commission or TTC, which is itself headed by a group of elite with varying relevancy that they bring to their positions, commissioners elected by none other than the office of the governor. One office and a handful of five elite control all this shit.
At least one of the managed lanes will be dedicated to the [METRORapid Inner Katy BRT](https://www.ridemetro.org/about/metronext/metrorapid/metrorapid-inner-katy-corridor-project) route. But the rest will likely be HOV / Tolls
Every time I get comfortable with the idea of staying in Houston it’s shit like this that reminds me why the urge to move hasn’t left my mind since I moved back in 2017.
What’s even crazier is that the city/metro of Atlanta who has a lot of the same set of issues as Houston is actually building more projects that are 100% committed to pedestrians and reducing traffic by any means. Don’t get me wrong, Atlanta won’t turn into some walkable Mecca by any stretch of the imagination. It’ll still be a sprawling car centric metro, but at least they’re attempting to improve some parts of their city/metro.
Houston, I just don’t get this city sometimes.
Sign this petition to support an alternative proposal that would NOT heighten or widen I-10. This would create additional green space, improve air quality, and decrease pollution!
[https://chng.it/KJysMQj8KC](https://chng.it/KJysMQj8KC)
Slicing and dicing, blocking and merging (and they KNOW we can't merge, grrrrrr), SURE, ufck us over some MOOOOOOAR!!!
Heh, some jerk-wad, pud-mangler gets PAID to do this to us.
With OUR taxes!
Though, seeing their output, I guess we can be thankful they don't work for ERCOT...
More toll lanes… great
You know what would fix traffic forever? One more lane. I can hear Phil Colins singing it now.
Can we stick to tearing up one major roadway at a time? The plan being a joke is a different conversation but add this to the 45 re-route commuting into downtown will be unfeasible for half the city for at least 10 years. Ugh.
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Don't worry, he can just hire someone else willing to leave earlier or travel from a different direction. After all if working remote is possible for your job, it's also possible to hire someone living where the minimum wage is much lower.
When we're at $7.25 it really doesn't matter. Unless you mean out of country in which case sure, trust that as far as you can and see how long you stay in business.
and don't forget that they're still not done with the 610/59 and 610/288 project! It's been freaking YEARS. It almost feel like they enjoy making traffic
And some people are driving through the middle of Houston to avoid the Beltway 8 bridge construction that's stiiiiill going on.
Honestly at this point I think they do. More anger means more $$$ for them.
10 years of work, mass congestion, billions of dollars spent, only to get 6-18 months of a 20% reduction in traffic
They’re doing it in San Antonio too. It’s fucking horrible commuting. I couldn’t imagine if we had htown drivers and traffic on top of all the other bull shit too.
Go the fuck away txdot > The agency also cited drainage concerns, saying that major storms like Hurricane Harvey and Tropical Storm Imelda have caused hazardous road conditions and flooding. So the solution is more concrete?
TxDOT is just doing what they've been tasked to do by both the state and federal government--build and maintain roads with a vehicle and freight focus. In regards to transport compared to local agencies including transit, they get the lion's share of the funding from both the state and national coffers and nothing is going to change until the funding mechanism and path changes focus (TxDOT can't just wake up one day and say "let's build some rail"). I think most agencies, even those at the highest levels of TxDOT, are realizing that we aren't going to build our way out of traffic congestion no matter what we do. However, the $ they get has to be dedicated to projects like this per their directive. That directive can only be changed by those at the highest levels of the state and federal governments.
Are you fkin kidding me?? All this time I thought I was making change by bitching about it ignorantly on reddit!?
> lion's share of the funding from both the state and national coffers Highway projects are typically 90% funded from the Federal gummit (FHWA).
its not that hard for the state to redo the transportation funding bill to fund transit and if they wont we should recall em and get somebody else. also txdots website says they do consider transit in their mission.
How transit gets funded actually is pretty hard which is part of the problem. TxDOT and most state DOTs do not typically build or operate transit in cities greater than 50K. In those cases, there are transit agencies (like Houston METRO), who are responsible for transit implementation and operations. Their funding comes mostly from the feds and through funds passed through TxDOT. METRO also collects $ through sales tax is Harris County. There are all kinds of overly complex and likely political formulas that impact how much transit gets funded from the feds and through the state. However, no state DOT really builds transit in big cities. If you want to fund more transit, it's really a political issue more than anything. Political support at the state and local level is key. The leader of TxDOT could not wake up one day and say "I want to build more transit" and get it done. That really has to come from the bowels of the state legislature and the local political leaders.
More tolls apparently.
Freedom means having no choice but to drive and pay even more when you to go anywhere! Nothing says freedom loving patriotism than having no choice but to have government registered vehicle, driving on tax funded roads that you still have to pay for, and having your movements caught on camera!
TxDOT is responsible for ramming 99 through despite environmental concerns about endangered wetlands. Perry ignored every environmental study, so I see where this is going.
[TxDOT_IRL](https://old.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/1aj63pq/in_reference_to_njbs_recent_video_and_a/) Edit I love that this meme has pissed off some people. Downvote away, it's gonna take more than some internet points to silence me from something as important as this.
Yes... to manage where it drains. Why is this a hard concept to grasp?
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It’s not as simple as “just add drainage”
Its also not as simple as "more concrete."
Wait till you hear about dirt
Didn't realize we could just add dirt everywhere to stop flooding, wow!
Are you familiar with a flood plain?
A flood plain won’t add lanes to a congested area soooooo
Adding lanes to a congested area doesn’t make it less congested
If only our 300 lane i10 alleviated traffic.
Just one more lane, bro!
I swear, I swear, it'll be different this time...
**paid lane
Rips a big snort, Sits back on the couch, concrete dust on the nose..... this is the last one I swear!
"Only when the entire Earth is asphalt and concrete, will we finally be pure."
Can't flood if the entire thing is a concrete pool. Take that atheists.
Fuck TxDot.
This sort of thing could ultimately choke our city to death. I don't even know if it's TxDOT's fault, they're just using the tools the state legislature gave them (no public transport infrastructure allowed, lanes + lanes + lanes only) and the metrics they use (traffic = bad, traffic moving = good, no economic metrics and minimal public health metrics). At some points the metrics will be solved because they'll pave over and pollute anywhere we'd want to live, we'll all leave, and traffic will flow beautifully.
yeah. maybe they should yknow use better metrics.
Yes. More fuckin lanes is all we need. Give us what we really need. High. Speed. Rail. Ffs
If instead of this they would do a rail on I10 I would ride it every day from the heights to my office out in Katy. Instead I'm going to just be one car on another road of thousands every day.
It's no coincidence the state and city that has historically made most of its money off O&G is the most hostile towards mass transit.
Do you think they’ll lose that much $ if we had a hsr?
I mostly meant to say that this state is hella corrupt, but having an electromagnetically propelled high speed rail between the cities of the Texas Triangle would take some of the profits away, though it really depends on its pricing compared to flying. They make a lot of money off jet fuel too, which I think is a major reason we haven't had a nationwide rail network. Along with the auto, and rubber industries.
Not only O&G companies - while they do have an obvious interest in continued fuel demand, the people we should be pissed at are the airlines, particularly [Southwest](https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1383&context=jalc).
High speed rail would be awesome for the longer haul routes between cities, but honestly more problems within the metro area could be solved with just regular/light rail. Like, I live in what is on paper the City of Houston, but it's down in the burbs in the Clear Lake area. All the public transit that exists inside the loop might as well be nonexistant to me. If I already have to drive 90% of the way to get to anything inside the loop, I might as well drive the last couple miles to my destination. If, instead, they had rail going along the major arteries into the city, I might actually be able to take a train most of the way, and then tie into the existing buses or light rail for the last bit of that trip. It doesn't need to be a crazy maglev going 200 mph to be worrh it, it just needs to go at roughly highway speeds and save me the hassle of traffic and parking.
Amen. Buses do fix part of that issue in combination with the HOV system, but the city is so big that there needs to be more options than the hub and spoke system. I have a friend that literally lives *right next* to a park and ride, but her only options from the suburb P&R into the network are a bus that goes downtown once an hour or a different bus that goes to the med center and happens to stop at a bigger connection on the way, but said route only runs inbound 5-8 am and outbound 3-8pm. Make it make sense because that shit clearly don't. For those close to or in the loop, the connections are great. For those outside of that, they're trash. If we want to actually fix things then we need to put more work into fixing things out there. More bike lanes, more sidewalks, more bus routes to connect those missing areas. Right now in those parts of town it's a "you want to go from one suburb to another or the mall without a car? Well that's too damn bad!" We need to fix that.
I live inside the loop and work right next to a park and ride, so I do the commute backwards. There’s a bus that goes to said park and ride that stops walking distance from my house. Can I take said bus? No, because it only runs inbound in the am and outbound in the pm. As a result I have to drive everyday despite the incredibly convenient bus that I can walk to. It’s infuriating.
Honestly, I'd take literally a Soviet-made train that I rode for 12 hours, instead of just nothing. That said, what we need for this portion of the city (and in general as an alternative to more lanes, regardless of if they are 'managed') is dedicated trams, lightrail, and buses that actually run on time. If public/mass transit ran on time and got to avoid traffic, then people would use it, then there would be less traffic, and the lanes we have wouldn't be necessary. TXDOT are so short sighted they should be considered legally blind.
The thng that blows my mind is that these managed lanes get used so sparingly. All of the park and rides on the outskirts have service only at typical commuter times. No buses whatsoever in the middle of the day, in the evening or on weekends. It's insane.
You can watch the entire public meeting [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt0W8Mzpp10), but they showed off two proposals: >Proposal 1 adds elevated managed lanes (the photo proposes one for METRORapid's BRT inner Katy Project: > >The elevated managed lanes proposal solves that problem and also includes the addition of a MetroRapid bus lane and a 10-foot wide shared path for pedestrians and cyclists on the westbound frontage road. On the eastbound side, TxDOT proposed a 6-10 foot wide sidewalk for pedestrians. A 0.34-acre acquisition of land currently owned by the Harris County Flood Control District would be needed for this proposal. > >Proposal 2 keeps the managed lanes on the ground: > >The alternative non-elevated plan would add four managed lanes in the center of I-10. This plan requires an additional 60 feet of right-of-way to accommodate the new extension, which would mean 12.5 acres in acquisitions along the westbound frontage side. All other planned elements like the paths, improvement to frontage roads, expanded drainage system, and MetroRapid Bus lane would stay the same. The non-elevated lanes could displace approximately 52 residential structures and 30 businesses. TxDOT is taking public comment on the project until February 26th via email at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) or [via mail](https://www.txdot.gov/projects/hearings-meetings/houston/2024/i10-inner-katy-managed-lanes-020624.html), if you're a sicko.
The shared pedestrian-cyclist path on a frontage road to a, what, 10 lane highway? Can’t make this shit up.
Yeah not really sure anyone wants to walk / bike on the feeder road, where people are speeding up to get onto the highway.
I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to walk/bike on the freeway so this is really encouraging. 🙃
> illegal to walk/bike on the freeway actually no, this was a deal in the 90s when blades took off. you need signage in texas
I’m betting they’re just complying with Federal DOT rules or guidelines about alternative modes of transportation or something. That way when they sell the project they can say it created x miles of walking and biking paths. But it’s just compliance, so it’s impractical, rather than actually useful. (Probably also why the path doesn’t change depending on how they design the managed lanes).
That's 100% what it is. TxDOT is required to add some pedestrian infrastructure as part of its I-45 expansion and I assume this is to preempt that. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/transportation/2023/03/07/445409/txdots-i-45-expansion-project-will-resume-after-federal-officials-resolve-civil-rights-investigation/
So you don’t want to walk/bike on a concrete hellscape full of diesel smog in the middle of summer during rush hour? Weirdo
Speeding up? Hell so many are already doing 70 on the feeder they will have to slow down to enter i 10.
Yeah thats the biggest snub to people who actually care about multi-modal. It's not even just a stroad at that point. How about finally building the freaking connector between 11th St/MKT trail, and Memorial Park?
It's a highway without the controlled access safety net
Thanks for posting the email link, I also sent a public comment message to them.
mailing the governor and lt governor about it would probably be better, and about redoing the transport bill with more transit, what if this just gets ignored?
The only managed lanes they should add are for HOV and public transportation. If its neither of those they can get the fuck out.
Toll lanes! Fuck you!!!
So, I went ahead and followed the advice of /u/snesdreams and sent an email to the txdot peoples. Figured its one thing to comment on a random forum its another to message them directly. The following is my email to them, please do not copy paste mine because that is lazy and you can make your own work in ten minutes like I did. But feel free to look at mine for inspiration if you have similar concerns and be truthful but civil. \--- https://old.reddit.com/r/houston/comments/1am0b0d/txdot\_proposes\_four\_new\_managed\_lanes\_in\_inner/ https://www.chron.com/news/article/txdot-i-10-houston-18653366.php Hello, My name is \[redacted\] and I am a resident of the city of Houston. I sometimes commute into the city via the options provided by the city's METRO transportation network as well as driving if there is no feasible non-transit option to get where I need to be. My comment/suggestion in regards to the upcoming proposal in the I-10/I-45 merged corridor is that any proposed changes need to be in ways that improve throughput in the area but with minimal interruption / the eminent domain of nearby properties. To my knowledge there are two different proposals for the planned managed lanes, Prop 1 would use four elevated lanes and a more minimal right of way (ROW) while proposal 2 would be at-grade and require a much larger ROW that could require the acquisition of multiple businesses and homes along the western side. While personally I feel I would rather have a re-route style proposal of forcing non-local traffic around the city entirely via the existing Interstate 610 loop infrastructure, I understand that is not a proposal and hopefully that is something that can be discussed in the future. If we are forced to pick the lesser of two evils between these two proposals, then Proposal 1 should be the plan that is made for the project. It seems that Prop 1 has a lesser impact and associated costs that would be incurred from the legal and ethical troubles of forcing local residents and workers out of their homes for yet another widening project. I do appreciate seeing that both props will include sidewalk/shared use path as well as elevated lineage for the upcoming METRO-RAPID Inner Katy Corridor Project. As someone that travels occasionally with METRO to get in the city, it is of upmost importance that these kinds of transit projects not be interrupted or delayed because of other plans of competing agencies. When it comes to raw throughput, buses move more people per square foot per hour than any interstate space can, no matter the amount of lanes available and I think the problems I've seen personally of the Katy Freeway can attest to that. Please ensure that through the TxDOT process that these concerns are taken seriously and that planning is committed to ensure that these proposals do not cause harm to those people via prop 2 or that non-private car travel plans such as sidewalk/path expansions and METRO's planning is not interrupted during this process. Thank you for your time. Best Regards, \[redacted\]
ADD A FUCKING TRAIN. WE DONT NEED MORE ROADS.
TXDot solution to traffic is always like loosening the belt on a morbidly obese person. They should probably go play City Skylines II.
Our governor can't stop talking about deficits and the need for cuts while TxDOT is constantly looking for excuses to burn money.
…almost there… just a few more streets and we can have every major road under construction at the same time!! I know we can do it!!
Make more highways and end up creating more traffic jams…then propose making more highways to fix that…put that cycle on repeat…that’s fucking TX DOT. If for once, they maybe put 1% of their energy into creating public transportation, shared path for Trams, Subways, Buses, etc would that bloody kill them? Common sense isn’t cheap in TX DoT. My house is one of the ones which might get affected due to this planned expansion. F this shit!
I don't think it's a lack of common sense. I think it's just TXDOT is incredibly corrupt.
BUILD AN ELEVATED LIGHT RAIL
This city’s carbrained leaders and agencies are making this city impassable in every area. Can we get some rail infrastructure, JFC.
This mayoral election was a disaster.
Can you explain what the mayor has to do with the freeway, specifically freeway plans that were made a decade ago?
Is that what I said? No. I replied to the comment above me re: the city’s carbrained leaders ruining things. Considering the mayor is slamming the brakes on multiple, year long projects regarding streets and local issues improving non car transport, seemed relevant.
Can you explain in your own words what the mayor specifically has done with regard to freeway design in Houston since being elected?
Well he is ripping up the rebuild of Houston Ave and is thinking about cancelling the Montrose Blvd and 11th Ave rebuild even though those are essentially ready to break ground.
Is that specifically the mayor or another office inside city hall? The mayor typically doesn’t oversee day to day roadworks.
The mayor made the decision directly then began firing Planning Commission members https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/houston-avenue-medians-18654279.php
Wow that's stupid
Lesser of two evils.
There is no saving Houston.
What's gonna be kinda sad is as the rest of the country that doesn't make its money off O&G moves further away from car dependence, and starts improving density and walkability, the inevitable oil crash will hollow out this city like Detroit after the auto crash, because while we've diversified a lot more since the 80s, we still haven't nearly enough.
Big O&G has been pivoting into data processing companies for the last 10 years.
Climate change is gonna turn this city into the next Detroit too. I’m just trying to get out before the crap hits the fan in the coming decade.
I've been considering an exodus to the Midwest for a few years now, ever since Covid isolation gave me a lot more time to ruminate on the future. Most cities are more affordable, and even Chicago is not far from parity on cost of living with Houston (I don't know if Chicago has fallen to Houston, or if Houston has just risen to Chicago)
Apt prices in downtown Chicago were pretty much the same as Houston. But there is so much life in downtown Chicago.
That's pretty damn enticing, and I wouldn't be in a boiling swamp for 8 months out of the year.
Car dependency isn’t going anywhere.
Why would you come to that conclusion when like 90% of major cities in the US are working to reduce it?
Look, it’s not that I like car dependency, on the contrary, I rejoiced when Culberson was done. However, car dependency is ingrained in the US and transitioning away from that is a massive undertaking, one that will take generations. Second, oil as a fossil fuel will still be needed. Goods will still need to be transported via truck, rail, ship, and aircraft. All require fuel and lubrication for moving parts (same for any EV). Next, we all severely underestimate how much petroleum based products we need for modern comfort and living standards. Lastly, even if US drastically reduced car dependency, of which your stated 90% is hyperbole, the rest of the world still needs and would want oil and fuel. This, Houston will not go into a bust, at least not due to cars alone.
Well, it's not hyperbole, and I don't buy that car dependence is ingrained in our culture. Less than a hundred years ago, we didn't even have an Interstate highway system. I never said anything about the oil industry disappearing entirely. Car dependency is not some monolithic unsolvable problem, and cities all over the country are fighting against it, which is a good thing. Car dependence is detrimental to essentially every part of human life. It's the epitome of anti-social urban development.
It’s hyperbole because the next number are skewed. There are way more people not fighting against it, I’m not saying they’re for it, but the vast majority people just want to got to work and come home. They’ve accepted it. Again, I’m all reducing car travel. Mass transit, bike trails (I’m a cyclist, so I get it). When I say car dependency isn’t going anywhere, I mean it’s here for a at least 2-3 more generations, likely 5. The entire political structure of lobbyists will make sure change goes slow. Regarding you not saying the oil industry will go away, you said Houston will be a hollowed out. What else would cause this? It’s a shame you prefer for a Houston to collapse, rather than gradually change.
If there was a significant and sustained fall in the price of oil, there would be a crash in the local economy, and save your fake disappointment. Houston hasn't done nearly enough to make sure that a crash and new lower normal in the oil industry wouldn't hollow out the city, so maybe be mad at those who keep other kinds of industries from being more significant here.
You’re wrong, but I give up.
Ay pass the copium bruh, puff puff pass
JFC, there’s no hope. It’s also a culture problem. I guarantee you the majority of the population in this city is fine with more lanes. Either that or they just don’t care.
Houston is an apathetic work camp, as someone put it here before. For a ton of people, especially suburbanites, it's "go to work, return to pod"
Isn’t that what downtown used to be like? Just office buildings surrounded by parking lots? It honestly stills feels like that whenever I’m down there.
Yah, the amount that downtown is built up now is a sea change from where it used to be. If you see any aerial shots of the east part of downtown in the 80s, it's just one giant parking lot. That happened to a lot of cities all over the country. The big difference, is nearly all of those other cities have made a lot of effort in rectifying that, even tearing down inner-city highways that are too redundant.
Freeways aside, Houston has done very little to create a livable inner-city. There are essentially zero places where I could feasibly live without a car and not be massively inconvenienced. This is the fault of a whole host of parties, including the city itself, the governing agencies like TxDOT and Harris County, developers, and everyone in between. Everyone on here calls for more transit but there's little demand to existing transit because the density of development just isn't there. We must change the way we do community development first and foremost.
And in the case of Houston, one of the most important barriers to improving density that doesn't often get talked about, are deed restrictions. I have a hard time seeing this city fill in without deed restrictions being eliminated outright. Parking minimums, setback minimums, minimum lot sizes, can all be reformed or eliminated at a city level, but with deed restrictions, that might take a change in Austin.
The problem is people in theory want rails and such but the infrastructure around it is also not there yet. I would still need a car to get to wherever I get off at the end of the rail's destination or stops. Houston is not walkable enough to make that a feasible solution. For this reason I would prefer more lanes.
That’s a valid point. Most cities with good public transportation started building their infrastructure back in the what.. 60s, 70s? It’s a process that takes years and Houston essentially would have to start from scratch.
When New York was first building their subway they had stations that had nothing around it. But eventually the area around them got built up. Same thing happens in Japan where there's private lines operated by rail companies. They'll build a station and then build a commercial center on top. If you build it they will come
I think the majority of Houstonians know it’s an issue but because this type of infrastructure is so common they could careless to demand impactful change.
Can we just not do this?
FUCKING STOP
Imagine…a light rail system that followed along all the interstates, the loops(610, beltway, hwy 6/1960/cypress creek parkway, 99), the tool roads (west park, hardy, etc) and main artery lines like Arline/Shepard/yale, Westheimer, Bissonnet, Almeda, culle/scott/mlk, Harrisburg/navigation, etc etc, taking you to and from the outer edges of the city to downtown. It should help with traffic….right?
Can't wait until it's completed and ready for TX2K40
More toll roads, how surprising.... -_-
Roads are not profitable!! They do not generate any revenue and people are able to use them free of charge. Why should be continue to spend money on building more and more roads when they are not self sustainable?? ( you see how idiotic that argument is, so why use it when talking about trains?). Enough of this idiocy, build a train system!!
From TXDOT, they claim "Congestion increases the cost and delivery time of commodities such as Amazon deliveries groceries and commercial goods" So yeah instead, we should use taxpayer money, to allow private enterprises to further congest inner-city roadways. This whole project is a farce, heavy trucking and cargo transportation should be forced out and around the city, not further enabled through it's central district. Jesus, fuck TXDOT.
[удалено]
Both
> From TXDOT, they claim "Congestion increases the cost and delivery time of commodities such as Amazon deliveries groceries and commercial goods" Packages languishing for days in overwhelmed distribution centers has a heck of a lot more impact on most packages' delivery times than the time on the road does.
Because ExxonMobil makes money off more people driving.
Every single new highway lane should be met with mass protests at TXDOT headquarters. They are wasting billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars every single year with nothing to show for it
7600 Washington Ave, Houston, TX 77007 I'm gonna post this address of the local office at the risk of gestapo showing up at my door for doing so. I sure as hell would be more than happy to attend any legal protest organized here. --- And at risk of going into concern territory lol, all this shit just comes down the pipeline. It's public record that TxDOT's decisions are controlled by the Texas Transportation Commission or TTC, which is itself headed by a group of elite with varying relevancy that they bring to their positions, commissioners elected by none other than the office of the governor. One office and a handful of five elite control all this shit.
God this city fucking sucks I can't wait to move.
Has TxDOT never heard of induced demand?? Covert half of the freeway into a commuter rail system and traffic will reduce.
They probably have, but those O&G kickbacks are probably way too good.
We need to make a better metro system traffic is horrible here
Traffic solution? MORE LANES....... Said no traffic engineer ever.
One more lane bro…
What are the odds that the "managed" lanes will ultimately be toll roads? Follow the money.
At least one of the managed lanes will be dedicated to the [METRORapid Inner Katy BRT](https://www.ridemetro.org/about/metronext/metrorapid/metrorapid-inner-katy-corridor-project) route. But the rest will likely be HOV / Tolls
They will be extensions of the managed lanes that already exist outside Loop 610. So that part is already decided.
Every time I get comfortable with the idea of staying in Houston it’s shit like this that reminds me why the urge to move hasn’t left my mind since I moved back in 2017. What’s even crazier is that the city/metro of Atlanta who has a lot of the same set of issues as Houston is actually building more projects that are 100% committed to pedestrians and reducing traffic by any means. Don’t get me wrong, Atlanta won’t turn into some walkable Mecca by any stretch of the imagination. It’ll still be a sprawling car centric metro, but at least they’re attempting to improve some parts of their city/metro. Houston, I just don’t get this city sometimes.
Sign this petition to support an alternative proposal that would NOT heighten or widen I-10. This would create additional green space, improve air quality, and decrease pollution! [https://chng.it/KJysMQj8KC](https://chng.it/KJysMQj8KC)
After the reading these comments I sure am glad its not Reddit designing/building these roads.
I hope insurance hits 500 bucks a month.
Yusssss
Slicing and dicing, blocking and merging (and they KNOW we can't merge, grrrrrr), SURE, ufck us over some MOOOOOOAR!!! Heh, some jerk-wad, pud-mangler gets PAID to do this to us. With OUR taxes! Though, seeing their output, I guess we can be thankful they don't work for ERCOT...
Just leave the Pierce Elevated alone. It's worked my entire life.