Streetsblog Texas – Page 101 – Connecting people to information about how to improve walking, biking, and transit

Today’s Headlines

By Caitlin McNeely | Nov 25, 2015 | No Comments

Retail, Housing, Parks Planned for Houston Texas Medical Center’s New Walkable Campus (Urban Edge)
TXDOT Believes Adding 800 Miles of New Roads Is Efficient
Houston’s Outgoing Sustainability Director on Healthy Policies and a Greener Town (Houston Chronicle)
Austin’s Transportation ‘Brain’ Could Get More Help to Ease Congestion (KXAN)
NSC Estimates 433 People Will Die, 52,300 Will Be Seriously Injured in Car Crashes This Holiday Weekend
With Resident Help, Austin City Council Is Ranking Projects for Transportation Funding (Community Impact)
Politifact: Costs of Texas Congestion Claims Need Clarification (Houston Chronicle)
UH Architecture Students Design Urban Farm for Houston’s Sunnyside Community
The 5 Worst Crash Spots in San Antonio (KENS5)
Uber Español Has Come to San Antonio (SA Current)

via $Car Free Austin$

The $400 Million Question: How Accurate Is Austin Traffic Planners’ Crystal Ball?

By Car Free Austin | Nov 24, 2015 | No Comments

Will there be more traffic in the future? Congestion will be worse than you can possibly imagine! Vehicle counts will nearly double over the next 15 years! Austinites will waste untold millions of extra hours sitting in traffic on South MoPac, traffic planners say, unless we do something to fix it. That something, according to the Central Texas Regional […]

Today’s Headlines

By Caitlin McNeely | Nov 23, 2015 | No Comments

Stalled Mixed-Use Project in Montrose Ready to Move (Houston Chronicle)
Pearland Seeks to Foster ‘Sense of Place’ Through Giant Pear Sculpture Trail, Instead of Replanting Pear Trees (Houston Chronicle)
Discuss Great Streets and Transpo Planning with SA City Officials Via Virtual Town Hall Meeting (SA Tomorrow)
Forum Tonight in Dallas: New Urbanism Explained
Crowdsourced Map of Cities That Got Rid of Parking Minimums (Strong Towns)
TIGER Restored, But Transit Expansion Funds Cut for 2016 (Streetsblog Network)
US News Blames Congestion and Traffic Deaths on Economic Recovery
Show Your Support for the Proposed FHWA Urban Street Design Changes by Dec 7 (@schlthss)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

via $Austin On Your Feet$

9 Things People Always Say at Zoning Hearings, Illustrated by Cats

By Dan Keshet | Nov 23, 2015 | No Comments

If you watch enough zoning hearings, the testimony begins to sound pretty repetitive. That novel argument you’re making? The Council members have heard it a million times before. Here are 9 of the things we hear most often at zoning hearings, illustrated by cats. 1. I’m not opposed to all development. Just this development. Those […]

via $Austin On Your Feet$

5 Things We Learned From City Council’s Vote on Granny Flats

By Dan Keshet | Nov 20, 2015 | No Comments

Yesterday, City Council voted to make it easier to build a backyard cottage (aka ADU, granny flat, garage apt, etc). Read the details at the Monitor. Here’s the lessons I took from the debate: 1. Party Labels Don’t help Understanding Land Use Politics The granny flat resolution was introduced by Greg Casar, whose main claim to fame before City Council was […]

Today’s Headlines

By Jay Blazek Crossley | Nov 20, 2015 | No Comments

That Weird DDI Thing TXDOT Designed for a Freeway Overpass in Round Rock Now Open
Austin Reduces Parking Requirements (Austin Monitor)
San Antonio Historic and Design Review Commission Does Not Side With NIMBYs (Rivard Report)
More Drivable “Mixed Use” Development With Single-Family Homes Coming to Dallas (Morning News)
Forum Today: Why Should Austin Become a Compact Walkable City? (Texas Architecture)
TAPS Public Transit Bus Service Scaling Back to Bare Minimum Services (Morning News)
Houston Chronicle: Plans for a High-Speed Rail Station Outside Loop 610 Risk a Disconnected System
Texas Transportation Officials Unsure of How to Regulate Google Robot Cars (Statesman)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

The High Price of Cheap Gas

By Joe Cortright | Nov 19, 2015 | No Comments

At least on the surface, the big declines in gas prices we’ve seen over the past year seem like an unalloyed good. We save money at the pump, and we have more to spend on other things, But the cheap gas has serious hidden costs—more pollution, more energy consumption, more crashes and greater traffic congestion. [...]

Today’s Headlines

By Caitlin McNeely | Nov 19, 2015 | No Comments

Biden: Dallas-Houston HSR the Beginning of New Transportation Era in America (Morning News)
House Republicans Want to Raid Federal Reserve to Pay for Transportation (American Conservative)
Biden Applauds Spending on Ped/Bike Trails and Light Rail Connections in Houston (Chron)
Funding Discussion for Lone Star Rail Postposed Until 2016 (Rivard Report)
TAPS Public Transit to Lay Off 60 Percent of Employees and No One Will Get a Check (Morning News)
2 Dead After 18-Wheeler Plows Into Broken Down Car (Chron)
Car Strikes School Bus, 6 Students Injured (Chron)
Watch the Texas Transportation Committee Meeting Live

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

via $Street Smart$

The Best Satire Is Blissfully Ignorant Non-Satire

By Patrick Kennedy | Nov 18, 2015 | No Comments

You might be surprised to hear me say it (read me write it), but LA has some of the smartest thinking and political leadership in the country right now regarding how they’re changing courses to build a leading 21st city. You can’t see it now, but when thinking about urban planning, you have to think […]

Tell FHWA You Want Safer Designs for City Streets

By Angie Schmitt | Nov 18, 2015 | No Comments

Earlier this fall, the Federal Highway Administration proposed a major policy change: Instead of requiring roads that receive federal funding to be designed like highways, the agency would change its standards to allow greater flexibility. The implications for urban streets were huge — with less red tape, cities would have a much easier time implementing safer designs for walking [...]

Today’s Headlines

By Jay Blazek Crossley | Nov 18, 2015 | No Comments

City of San Marcos Passes Ban on Driving While Using Hand Held Devices (The University Star)
Mary Pustejovsky: No One Should Have to Lose a Friend in Traffic (Vision Zero ATX)
What Does It Mean That Ross Perot is Building Drivable Mixed-Use Development? (Morning News)
El Paso Bike Plan Open House, Wednesday, December 2 at El Paso Public Library
Houston Neighborhood Would Like to Pretend Region Isn’t Growing by 3.5 Million People
KEYE Hosts Austin Town Hall on Traffic Violence and Vision Zero
13-Yr-Old Hit by Driver While Riding Bicycle in Houston, in Critical Condition (Fox26)
San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor to Give Pecha Kucha Talk as Part of Vision 2020 (Rivard Report)
Houston – Galveston Area Council Releases End of Trip Facilities Planning Guide

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

via $Houston Tomorrow$

Quality of Life and Sustainable Economic Growth Go Hand in Hand

By caitlin.mcneely@houstontomorrow.org | Nov 17, 2015 | No Comments

Candidates for public office and other community leaders gathered at the Esperson Gallery downtown at GreenStreet last week to hear local experts talk about the way forward toward sustainable quality of life in Houston. Anchoring that panel was Texas House Urban Affairs Chair Carol Alvarado, Houston Housing Authority Lance Gilliam…

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