Houston Strategies

My interview on Houston's transportation future, our traffic is better and housing more affordable than you think, and more

Apologies for going almost a month without a new post.  The big new item is my interview with KPRC Channel 2 on Houston’s transportation future that finally aired this week, promoting MaX Lanes of course.  I start at the 2:29 point after Kyle Shelton from the Kinder Institute at Rice. On camera is not my strength, but I think it came out ok.  Oddly, they also included a separate 5m video with my complete raw interview (including some stuff that honestly should be outtakes), but the benefit is it includes many more of my points, as awkward as it is.  It was quite loud next to the freeway, and they were yelling questions from a good distance away.  Kyle also has his 26m raw interview video where he makes some great points.

Ok, getting to the backlog of smaller items:

• This is really encouraging! Houston population growth fueling expansion of commuter bus options. Great quote from Christof:

"Any rail system we build will not stop at the corner of McKinney and Main," said Metro board member Christof Spieler. "We are talking about a service that is better than commuter rail."

• The Antiplanner on transit ridership declines and the futility of rail building:

"Eventually, driverless cars are going to completely replace transit. Until that happens, it makes sense to only spend money on transit buses, which are inexpensive, flexible, can start new service tomorrow, and don’t require 30 years of debt payments. That’s a lesson most major American cities have yet to learn."

• Houston is much less traffic congested than you think according to the new INRIX study.  And getting better. At least relatively speaking.  We dropped to #37 in the world, and ten cities in America are worse than us, despite us being the 5th biggest metro area.  That's good vindication for our aggressive freeway building strategy.

"You Can Build Your Way out of Congestion 

Los Angeles is still the most congested urban area in the world, according to the latest INRIX traffic scorecard. However, what is more interesting is that congestion seems to be declining in several fast-growing cities in Texas, thanks to construction of new highways. 

Dallas is twice as big as Seattle and Houston is three times as big. The Dallas and Houston urban areas are both growing nearly twice as fast as Seattle’s, but Seattle is concentrating its growth in the city while Dallas and Houston allow more people to settle in the suburbs. INRIX found that congestion was worse in Seattle than either Dallas or Houston, which was a direct result of Washington’s growth-management policies. 

Moreover, while INRIX’s congestion index for Seattle — and most other cities — grew worse since last year’s scorecard, the congestion indices for Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and El Paso all improved."

• Hugh Pavletich (Christchurch, New Zealand) and COU Senior Fellow Wendell Cox published the 14th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, which evaluates house prices in relation to incomes (the “median multiple”) in nearly 300 metropolitan areas in 9 countries.  Houston has a reasonably affordable multiple of 3.7 with a median price $234k and a median household income $63k.
• Inclusionary Zoning Flops in Portland. It basically crashed their new construction rate.
• Is Zoning Popular? The Evidence is Weak - Market Urbanism
• Houston #2 metro for corporate growth.  Hat tip to George.
• Autonomous Cars Are About To Transform The Suburbs - Joel Kotkin

That's enough for this week - more next.

Labels: affordability, autonomous vehicles, commuter rail, companies, growth, home affordability, MaX Lanes, mobility strategies, rail, rankings, transit, zoning

posted by Tory Gattis @ 6:04 PM