People make transportation decisions based on a whole host of factors—convenience, safety, comfort, economics, and much more. But one of the most salient misassumptions of people involved in transportation-related planning is that citizens make these decisions in a rational, cerebral manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. While some people certainly make transportation based […]
Inventing neighborhood names for neighborhoods that don’t really exist is a favorite pastime of the real estate industry. Whether it’s to distance a development from an undesirable neighborhood or just create buzz around something that sounds new, it happens all the time. Houston is no different. And with a booming economy and new construction reforming […]
When you think of biking, you tend to think of progressive cities like New York, San Francisco and Chicago. Amusingly, when it comes to the bike share game, these expected leaders are trailing the pack to some unexpected trailblazers.
Even in car-centric Houston, they’ve finally passed a safe passing ordinance to help keep cyclists safer on the road. That’s saying something, considering it’s the same city that, just a few years ago, wildly opposed a pedestrian bridge over a bayou, arguing that the only people that walk anywhere are vagrants and thieves, and that […]
Whenever anything project of note is discussed, there will be detractors. No matter what’s presented, they will invent reasons for why a project, especially one using public money, will be a failure and should not be pursued. Discovery Green in Houston was no different. Critics said it would be a haven for homeless, crime and […]
An recent article on KUHF’s site claims that Houston convention business is booming. That’s amusing, considering they’re building the new convention center hotel precisely because they felt like they were missing out on too many conventions. What’s more amusing are the examples they give as proof of this boom—the Rodeo, the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), […]
Houston has been making a number of transportation improvements lately that don’t center around the almighty automobile. And now they’re doing more to attack the famous first mile/last mile issue that reduces the effectiveness of many transit systems. How? The Houston light rail system will soon feature new cars designed to better accommodate cyclists. They […]
It all comes down to leverage. Like the kind of leverage you get when a corner of your property is essential to a giant government project like a major highway expansion. That’s when your $9 piece of land can go for $500, and could have gone for $2,509 if you had been stubborn enough. Read […]
I recently read an article about bicycle infrastructure and how widening a standard bike lane from a standard five feet to a more generous eight feet increased rider safety. And then I did a double take. Five feet is a standard bike lane? In my neighborhood, the bike lanes (like the one above) are three […]
How many times have you ridden a bus where you were the only passenger? Or watched a bus pass by nearly empty? While busses in dense urban areas are usually packed like the passengers are escaping a localized apocalypse, busses in more sprawling areas frequently operate at a fraction of their capacity. GOING SMALL IN […]
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