Houston Strategies

City of the Future, top diversity, real livability, downtown's non-issues, declining transit, and more

I'm back from CA with this week's items, including my own comments:

• Houston #3 City of the Future across the Americas, behind only NYC and SF.
• LA Times: How Houston has become the most diverse place in America
• Planning for the two streams of upcoming autonomous vehicles
• WSJ: Chicago entices companies to return downtown. I think this might be less about generational preferences and more about how much average work tenure at a company has shortened, especially in the age of LinkedIn and aggressive headhunters.  People used to think they might move to Peoria or a suburb and spend many years – if not a career – with one company. But now they know they’re likely to switch in 2-3 years, and they want to have lots of switching options without having to move. That’s big cities.  In Chicago’s case, the loop freeways are so weak that employers feel they have to be downtown to draw from employees across the metro (as well as the millennials in the core of the city).
• A little crude, but good points on why some Canadian cities aren't as "liveable" as some top rankings imply. Hat tip to George.
• Chronicle: Planners stress need to balance growth, affordability downtown.  I really don't understand the obsession with attracting families to live downtown? Why? It's a perfect place for singles and couples - why does it need families? Do you ever hear about big suburban subdivisions worrying about attracting more singles?  Singles/couples and families are looking for different amenities (like bars and nightclubs being a positive vs. a negative). Downtown should embrace being a specialized neighborhood for singles and couples, and let the suburbs handle families like they always have.  And as far as arguing that downtown needs more affordable housing, downtown is the *least* in need of affordable housing with direct rail to 3 affordable neighborhoods!
• Transit Ridership Down 2.3% in 2016. Rail particularly looks bad:

"In some cases, the decline in bus ridership more than made up for increases in rail ridership. Phoenix light-rail ridership grew by 10.6 percent, but for every light-rail rider gained, Phoenix transit lost nearly four bus riders. Los Angeles light-rail ridership grew by 8.7 percent, but for every light-rail rider gained, Los Angeles lost nearly six bus riders. Ridership on Nashville’s Music City Star grew by 2.6 percent, but the city lost more than 30 bus riders for every new rail rider. Denver opened a new rail line to the airport but lost more than 1-1/2 bus riders for every rail rider gained. Charlotte lost more than 15 bus riders per new rail rider, while Portland lost nearly 2 bus riders per new light-rail rider. 

Other major rail systems couldn’t even record gains. Washington’s Metrorail fell by 10.4 percent; Atlanta fell by 4.7 percent; and the biggest shock of all, New York City subways fell by 0.8 percent. Heavy-rail ridership also feel in in Baltimore (-13.2%), Chicago (-1.3%), Miami (-3.8%), and Philadelphia (-4.5%), among other places.
...
Light-rail ridership declined in, among other places, Buffalo (-6.1%), Cleveland (-4.7%), Dallas (-1.7%), Minneapolis (-0.2%), Philadelphia (-6.0%), Pittsburgh (-4.3%), St. Louis (-4.6%), and Sacramento (-3.5%). Commuter-rail ridership fell in Albuquerque (-7.7%), Austin (-3.5%), Dallas-Ft. Worth (-6.1%), Los Angeles (-4.3%), Maryland (-1.9%), Miami (-1.6%), Orlando (-8.5%), and Philadelphia (-5.9%), among other places. 

Salt Lake City has been getting more federal transit funding per capita than any other urban area, but the region seems to be losing its bet on light rail and commuter rail. Except for paratransit, every mode of transit in the region declined. The same thing happened in Dallas-Ft. Worth, which has built more light rail than any region in the country. Transit in San Jose, home of one of the nation’s worst-managed transit agencies, took a real nosedive, losing 10.0 percent of light-rail riders and 8.5 percent of bus riders."

Labels: autonomous vehicles, commuter rail, demographics, downtown, mobility strategies, rail, rankings, transit, world city

posted by Tory Gattis @ 6:20 PM