Great rankings, better commuting, and more
Some smaller items have piled up over the last couple of weeks:- Chief Executive magazine ranks Texas #1 for business seven years straight. Illinois, NY, and CA are the bottom 3 - no surprises there. And, speaking of Illinois, Businessweek has a feature profile of the new Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and how desperate he is to attract business and jobs to Chicago. Good luck with that, Rahm. Hat tip to Jessie.
- A much needed op-ed on the value of converting HOV to HOT lanes, which Metro has talked about for years but seems to be moving *glacially* slow in implementing, despite the huge benefits. Why can't we just make this happen?
- CNT has an analysis of how gas prices affect transportation in Houston and what you can do to mitigate. Mostly common sense: live close in and ride transit, bikes, or walk when possible. I definitely think more Houstonians with long-distance commutes should run the math vs. Metro's park-and-rides. They might be surprised at the attractiveness of the economics in a world of $4 gas, not to mention the productivity benefits of being able to do email during your commute...
- Density is not all that helpful in reducing vehicle miles traveled (HAIF conversation). Hat tip to Jessie.
- Houston is #1 for information technology jobs according to CIO magazine.
- Houston beats NYC, DC, and Chicago for lower average commute times. And yet we think commuter trains will help? Yet another hat tip to Jessie.
- USA Today: Texas bucks the national unemployment trend.
At this point, I've upgraded my "wish tolerance" for a Texas tropical depression to a tropical storm, or maybe even a weak category 1 hurricane. And if this drought and heat goes on much longer I might even delude myself into thinking a cat 2 or higher would be ok (no big city direct hits, please)... but let's hope it doesn't come to that...
Labels: density, economy, Metro, mobility strategies, rankings
posted by Tory Gattis @ 8:36 PM
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