On-demand is the future of transit, #2 friendliness = Houspitality, benefits of no-zoning, red vs. blue urbanists, and more
This week's items:- A Travel and Leisure magazine survey ranked Houston #2 in the country for friendliness, just behind San Antonio. Somehow Dallas ended up on the rude list. Yet another reason Houspitality should be our image/brand!
- Good Chronicle story on Houston's history with zoning battles - the best mistake we never made!
- "Study: On-demand shared vehicles provide better service for citizens ― Traditional bus lines with fixed routes and timetables likely to disappear":
"Under a shared mobility system, the Gini co-efficient dropped from 0.27 to 0.11 for access to jobs; from 0.26 to 0.08 for access to health services; and showed near perfect equality at 0.01, down from 0.26, for access to education. The more efficient use of vehicles makes it possible to cut current prices of public transport journeys in the city by 50% or more without any subsidies."
- NYT: How anti-growth sentiment, reflected in zoning laws, thwarts equality
- Love this! Great observations, so true: On Urban Housing Issue, Liberals And Conservatives Talk Past Each Other
- Cool maps from Kinder on where Houston's renters live
- The Antiplanner on commuter rail flops, including Dallas.
- What Transit Can Do and What It Can’t Do. Summary excerpt:
"...transit can provide mobility for people who can’t or don’t want to drive, but it can’t relieve congestion, reduce transportation costs to taxpayers, save energy, reduce pollution, create real estate development, or stimulate the economy of a region."
"...these self-driving fleets will be significantly cheaper than owning a car, which sits idle roughly 95% of the time. With the savings, you will be able to escape your cramped apartment in the city for a bigger spread farther away, offering more peace and quiet, and better schools for the children.
Your commute will be downright luxurious, quiet time in a vehicle designed to allow you to work or relax. Shared self-driving cars will have taken so many vehicles off the road—up to 80% of them, according to one Massachusetts Institute of Technology study—that you’re either getting to work in record time or traveling farther in the same time, to a new class of exurbs."
Finally, a great piece in the City Observatory on "Why Houston has been special since at least 1999," which goes into great detail about how we've been able to add more affordable density in the core, especially townhomes.
"...Houston’s lack of an official zoning code actually does allow for more flexibility, and densification, than the vast majority of American cities."
Labels: affordability, autonomous vehicles, census, commuter rail, governance, history, home affordability, identity, inequality, mobility strategies, rankings, transit, zoning
posted by Tory Gattis @ 6:41 PM
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