Transportation

Mobility continues to bedevil the Houston region. For more than a generation, transportation planning has been almost exclusively focused on driving. The result is civic places, businesses, shopping centers, schools, sports facilities, and everything else designed first and foremost to accommodate cars, and often not at all for the benefit of people, who are - generally speaking - creatures with two legs who begin and end all trips by walking. Freeways have divided and even destroyed dozens of neighborhoods, and instead of their purpose being city-to-city transportation conduits, they have become the urban main streets, where retail and offices are established, and where moving from one place to another really requires a car. Even in urban areas, it is not uncommon for people to drive from the parking lot of one strip center across the street to another strip center, and vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among young people.

The Costs of Driving

The average household in the Houston region spends 22 percent of its income on transportation - more than in any other metropolitan area in the United States, according to Driven to Spend, a report produced by the Surface Transportation Policy Project and the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Houstonians pay more money to get around than they do on housing, food, health care, or education. Highly expansive development forces families to rely on automobiles, an expensive mode of transportation. In fact, each household in the Houston area spends $8,740 of its $8,840 annual transportation budget on buying, operating, and maintaining vehicles.

Automobile-based transportation comes with a host of other problems. On-road vehicles are responsible for 24 percent of the region’s volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions - both precursors to ground-level ozone formation, according to TNRCC data (see Air Quality section). Expansive roadways increase runoff and flooding, and destroy open space and wildlife habitat.

Highway Expansion

Despite the high price area residents pay to own and operate vehicles - in time, money, and pollution - the region continues to focus on highways rather than significantly improve public transportation or implement land use, pedestrian, and bicycle measures to reduce motorized transportation needs. A growing conviction among transit experts says that adding freeway lanes actually increases congestion.[i] One study shows that motorists can lose more time during road construction delays than they will ever save in years of driving on the "improved" road.[ii] California’s governor announced in 2001 that his state would build no more highways, and several other cities are beginning to remove highways instead of expanding them.

In Houston, though, business and political leaders plan to expand every major local freeway and add several new highways. Most notably, Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2001 that allows the state to borrow money to finance highway construction; Harris County has an aggressive plan to establish toll roads all over the county – without any public input.

Although there is almost a panic to construct as many lane miles of highway as possible as fast as possible, the emerging national consensus about more diverse directions for mobility are beginning to be taken seriously in Houston regional planning. Connecting land use to transportation planning, accommodating bicyclists and pedestrians, transit-oriented development, and many other more sustainable concepts are being advocated within the vast transportation planning community that is centered at the Houston-Galveston Area Council, where the Transportation Policy Council oversees federal transportation money spend in the eight-county area.

Katy Freeway (I-10)

The most imminent major project is the $1 billion-dollar expansion of the Katy Freeway. Because 80 percent of the traffic between Loop 610 and the Beltway is local, suburbanites have to fight their way through incredible congestion, which now endures nearly all day long, in both directions. The TX-DOT solution: widen the 11-lane freeway to 18 lanes, adding another HOV lane, one freeway lane in each direction, and another frontage lane in each direction. Harris County has now proposed that the freeway be expanded even more, to 20 lanes, including two toll road lanes in each direction to replace the HOV lanes altogether. The Harris County plan would push the high-speed bus service into “diamond” lanes where they would mingle with other traffic, and essentially strip Metro of its right of way and possibly end any plans for future rail in the corridor.

Grand Parkway

Plans continue to construct a 177-mile loop circling the city approximately 40 miles from its center. Its original purpose, and some say its continuing purpose, was to spur development in environmentally sensitive areas far from the city. Opponents of the Grand Parkway are concerned it will promote urban sprawl and destroy prime open space. The proposed route slices through wildlife habitat near Lake Houston State Park and Brazos Bend State Park. It also destroys the center of the Katy Prairie and some of the remaining wetlands and bottomland hardwood forests in the region. In the southern portion, the road would essentially form a 10-foot-high dam across the lower watershed. The project made Taxpayers for Common Sense and Friends of the Earth’s top 50 most wasteful roads in America in 1999, and that report set the cost for the complete Grand Parkway at almost $2 billion.[iii] Recent estimates have that cost approaching $4 billion. Environmental Impact Statements are due on a number of segments of the highway.

Recent Progress

High-capacity transit

Metro’s new “Metro Mobility 2025” plan outlines a broad plan for improving mobility, including studies of three corridors for “advanced high-capacity transit.” It is widely assumed that Metro will propose expanding the Main Street light rail system, but it will not be clear until late in 2002 what options will be weighed. One of the central issues is whether Metro will use advanced high capacity transit to serve suburban communities as it does with its Park and Ride bus programs, or will focus more on dense inner city areas before expanding to the suburbs. For example, one of the study corridors would go from Main Street to Hobby Airport, serving two Universities and several neighborhoods, and another would go from downtown to Bush Airport, serving the Near Northside and the Greenspoint District. The former would be about seven miles long and is all inner city, whereas the latter is about 30 miles and would begin to deliver service to distant suburbs – possibly including the Woodlands. In any event, the age of heavy transit has begun in Houston.

Westheimer Corridor

One of the most promising planning exercises is along the Westheimer corridor west of Loop 610, one of the most prominent “traffic sewers” in the region. The Houston-Galveston Area Council is conducting a study about redevelopment there, and early plans are for true urban redevelopment that would transform Westheimer into a street conducive to pedestrians and streetside retail.

Rail

METRO recently broke ground on Houston’s first light rail line in 2001. Despite the fact that construction was underway, rail opponents were able to gather enough signatures to require a vote in November 2001 on whether or not to hold a special election to determine the future of the project; that measure was defeated.

The 7.5-mile, $350 million route will run from downtown to Reliant Park. Officials expect construction to be completed by 2004. By itself, the rail line will do little to solve Houston’s traffic or air quality problems, but it is intended to be the starter line for a more extensive rail system. In fact, the US Congress’s recent transportation spending appropriations included $10 million for a travel study to determine the potential for future high-capacity transit in the region, among other transportation options; Representative Tom DeLay (R-Sugarland) initially banned federal funding for the original light rail line, so that project is being paid for entirely by local dollars.

Houston-Galveston Traveler Choice Plan

In October 2001, the Houston Regional Group of the Sierra Club, the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP), BikeHouston, and Just Transportation Alliances released their Houston-Galveston Traveler Choice Plan. The document calls for changes in funding priorities and transit development to improve air quality and public health, as well as improve quality of life by offering more choices to an auto-dependent city. The complete plan is available at http://www.ghasp.org.

Bicycle and pedestrian

Traveling by foot or bicycle reduces air pollution, relieves traffic congestion, improves physical fitness, and offers independence to those who cannot or do not want to drive. The region’s warm climate and flat terrain make it ideal for year-round cycling and walking. However, the lack of bicycle and pedestrian facilities, the distance between destinations caused by urban sprawl, and a car-only design approach make biking and walking difficult.

The Comprehensive Bikeway Plan, developed in 1993, provides for the design and construction of 367 miles of bikeways in a citywide network of on-street bike lanes, rail-to-trails, and bayou trails. Once completed, Houston will be ahead of most cities in miles of bikeways. The Houston-Galveston Area Council has also drafted a Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan for the eight-county area, which proposes 2,800 miles of bicycle and pedestrian trails.

Early on, actual construction of planned bicycle routes was slow, bogged down by funding and interagency disputes. Problems with poor design and maintenance of several on-street routes continue to anger motorists and cyclists. However, the situation is expected to improve as more bikeways are completed and more cyclists use them.

To date, 207 of the 367 miles of Houston bikeways are complete and 50 more have been approved by city council for design. A map of planned routes and project progress can be found at http://www.houstonbikeways.org.

In 2001, the City of Houston hired a new Bicycle-Pedestrian Coordinator, who is charged with coordinating the Houston Bikeway Program and pedestrian education activities.

Texas bicyclists also celebrated several legislative victories last session. The Matthew Brown Act creates a Safe Routes to Schools program and allows cyclists to take the entire lane, rather than share it with an automobile, if it is less than 14 feet wide, among other provisions. SB 238, which would have allowed counties to arbitrarily ban bikes from certain roads, died in committee.

In 2001, bicycle advocates launched BikeHouston, a coalition organization meant to represent the collective interests of the entire Houston area cycling community. BikeHouston is to serve as as a collective voice for all cyclists, bicycle clubs, bicycle retailers, and bicycling professionals at the local and regional level, in order to safeguard bicycle access to safe roads and trails.

What You Can Do

Take public transportation

Contact METRO at (713) 635-4000 for bus routes, schedules, and fares. METRO also coordinates carpool and vanpool options.

Ride your bike or walk

Take advantage of the city’s growing network of hike and bike trails.

Report bikeway problems

To report maintenance problems on the off-street network, contact the Parks & Recreation Department at (713) 645-HELP. To report problems associated with the on-street network, call the Department of Public Works & Engineering, Office of the Bicycle-Pedestrian Coordinator, at (713) 837-0003.