The battle for Houston, rapidly arriving autonomous taxis, big success with big sports events, and more
A big backlog of smaller items this week:- The big item of the week: David Brooks mentioned my Center for Opportunity Urbanism in a recent column! It's good to see our message getting out.
- Joel Kotkin in City Journal: The Battle for Houston: America’s most opportunity-rich city faces a long-term challenge from “smart-growth” advocates pushing for more regulation.
- The New Zealand delegation I helped host in Houston to explain our free market development model has released their report with recommendations to ease New Zealand's outrageous housing costs, including implementing a version of Houston's MUDs to stimulate development. Hat tip to George.
- The Antiplanner on Tracking Housing Affordability with a lot of discussion of Houston.
- Good shout out to Houston Metro for their cost-efficient bus network redesign: Austin wants high-dollar transit
- A detailed explanation of why rail to the airport doesn't make sense vs. improving commuter service. Excerpt:
"Commuters who use public transit typically use their regular route on the order of 500 times a year. If they also take public transit for non-work trips around the city, the number goes even higher, perhaps 700. In contrast, people who fly only fly a handful of times per year. Frequent business travelers may fly a few tens of times per year, still an order of magnitude less than the number of trips a typical commuter takes on transit."
- Light rail average cost is $202 million/mile. The article contains some great stats on the costs of bus vs. BRT vs. rail. Excerpt:
"Clearly, at $4 per ride, bus-rapid transit is the most cost-effective use of transit dollars. Bus-rapid transit requires minimal new infrastructure, and most of that infrastructure won’t become obsolete if and when driverless ride-hailing replaces transit. Bus-rapid transit also tends to have smaller cost overruns and ridership shortfalls than rail projects.
...
Still, when buses can carry riders for $4 per trip, why are cities planning rail lines that cost $10, $20, or $151 (!!!) per trip? A big part of the answer is the desire to get “free” federal dollars."
- Autonomous taxis are coming faster than we expect and they will be very disruptive, especially to transit agencies, which will either learn to embrace them or obstruct them (sadly, I expect a lot of the latter). Hat tip to Oscar.
- Can Transit Survive Driverless Ride Hailing?
- Speaking of impressive autonomous vehicles, check out this very cool video on Zoox (hat tip to Oscar).
- Great stats on Houston's success landing big sporting events:
"Where the most major neutral-site sports event by city/metropolitan area have been held since the turn of the 21st century or are already booked in the future:
New Orleans (9) – 2002 Super Bowl, 2003 Final Four, 2008 NBA All-Star Game, 2012 Final Four, 2013 Super Bowl, 2014 NBA All-Star Game, 2017 NBA All-Star Game, 2022 Final Four, 2024 Super Bowl.
Houston (8) – 2004 Super Bowl, 2004 Major League All-Star Game, 2006 NBA All-Star Game, 2011 NCAA Final Four, 2013 NBA All-Star Game, 2016 Final Four, 2017 Super Bowl (LI), 2023 Final Four.
Phoenix (7) – 2008 Super Bowl, 2009 NBA All-Star Game, 2011 MLB All-Star Game, 2015 Super Bowl, 2017 Final Four, 2023 Super Bowl, 2024 Final Four.
Indianapolis (7) – 2006 Final Four, 2010 Final Four, 2012 Super Bowl, 2015 Final Four, 2021 Final Four, 2021 NBA All-Star Game, 2026 Final Four"
That's probably more than enough items for one week. More to come next week...
Labels: affordability, autonomous vehicles, home affordability, Metro, mobility strategies, opportunity urbanism, rail, smart growth, sports, transit
posted by Tory Gattis @ 5:22 PM
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