Streetsblog Texas – Page 97 – Connecting people to information about how to improve walking, biking, and transit

Today’s Headlines

By Caitlin McNeely | Jan 13, 2016 | No Comments

GM, Lyft to Launch First Self-Driving Cars in Austin (PBS)
Mock-Ups of Scenic Houston’s Broadway St. Beautification Project Are Missing Crosswalks (Houstonia)
Creators of the New Bus Network Weigh In on Climb in Houston METRO Ridership (Urban Edge)
New Grand Parkway Segment Will Open Early February, and the Sprawl Machine Continues (Houston Chronicle)
SH 114 Witnessed 30% Jump in Crashes in 2015, Despite Highest Rate of Traffic Tickets Nearby (Dallas Observer)
Go Walk By the Interesting New Art on Bagby, Downtown Houston
3,000 Toyota Employees May Move From California to Plano and Bring Their Cars With Them (Morning News)
Edible Landscaping Featured in 2,000-Home ‘Agrihood’ Master-Planned Community, Fort Bend County (HBJ)
Market-Based Approach to Lowering Carbon Emissions Could Mean New Costs for Automobile Users, New Funding for Transit (Bloomberg)
Bowie Street Sign Changed to Honor David Bowie in Downtown Austin (Austin 360)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

Today’s Headlines

By Caitlin McNeely | Jan 12, 2016 | No Comments

Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt: “We Cannot Remain Stuck in Our Cars on Endless Ribbons of Asphalt” (Austin Monitor)
Look at All Those Nice Walkable Elements on Lower Greenville, One of D Magazine‘s Best Blocks in the City
Dallas Will Add More Congestion on I-35 and US 67, But They Might Also Build a Deck Park (Morning News)
Want to Comment on TxDOT Projects or Funding for Their 10-Year Plan? Online Meeting Jan 21
TxDOT Will Replace Contractor for I-45 Work Since Job is Only 9.3% Done After Year and a Half (Houston Chronicle)
Best Hiking Trails In and Around Houston According to CultureMap
Hear the Planning Directors from Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio Discuss “Game Changers” at the American Planning Association Texas Big Six in March

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

via $Houston Tomorrow$

Let’s End Traffic Deaths

By jay.crossley@houstontomorrow.org | Jan 11, 2016 | No Comments

In 2014, 667 people died on the streets in the Houston region, 227 of them in the City of Houston. We expect to find that there were more deaths in 2015. Will 2016 be the year that road violence on the streets of Houston begins to go down? Will our…

Today’s Headlines

By Jay Blazek Crossley | Jan 11, 2016 | No Comments

Why Is the North Texas Council of Governments Assuming Old Models of VMT Growth? (D Magazine)
San Antonio Express News Sets Goal to Provide More Transit Funding to VIA, Relaunch Light Rail Plans
Corpus Christi Bridge Plan Moves Forward, Will Upend Historic Black Neighborhood (Express News)
TransportationCamp Texas — an Unconference During ASCE Conference — Will Be in Houston June 26
Man Who Didn’t Care That He Swerved Into Two People Riding Motorcycle Indicted (Morning News)
Interactive Map: 2015 Was Austin’s Deadliest Year on Record With 102 Traffic Deaths (Statesman)
63-Year Old Man Killed While Trying to Walk Across Street in El Paso (KFOX)
Hit-and-Run Driver Kills Unidentified Man in East Travis County (KXAN)
Driver Kills Pedestrian Cody Allen Comeaux, 30, in Port Arthur (12NewsNow)
Michael “Alex” Hill, 23, Killed By Hit-and-Run Driver in Montrose (About)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

Texas DOT Isn’t Learning From Its Horrific Road Fatalities Calendar

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 8, 2016 | No Comments

Graphic: Texas DOT This calendar is published by the Texas Department of Transportation as part of its traffic safety efforts. It shows how many fatal collisions and traffic deaths happened every day of the year. On average, someone is killed every two and a half hours on Texas streets, and someone is injured every two minutes, according to TxDOT [PDF]. Texas hasn’t had a [...]

via $Street Smart$

Dallas’s 2014 Uptown/Downtown Population Change

By Patrick Kennedy | Jan 8, 2016 | No Comments

I don’t need Christmas presents. All I ask for is new data. The US Census slid down my chimney with 2014 ACS data at the census block group level. Block groups are the smallest level that the census publishes, which means I can look at city’s at a more up-to-date and granular level, neighborhood by […]

Today’s Headlines

By Jay Blazek Crossley | Jan 8, 2016 | No Comments

Chase Moving 6,000 Employees to Plano Freeways, Hopes DART Figures Out Transit (Morning News)
Commuter Rail Plan Rises From Ashes of Actual Good Urban Rail Plan for San Antonio (Express News)
Austin Council Member Suggests Adding Hundreds of Feet of Sidewalk to Fix Terribly Dangerous Road (KXAN)
Houston Planning Commission Grants Grid Disabling, Traffic-Generating Variance to “Protect” Area (CM Dave Martin)
Susan Combs to Texas Women: You Are Invited to Get Into Politics (Texas Tribune)
TXDOT Traffic Death Calendar Is Terrifying — There Are No Deathless Days (Kostelec Planning)
Houstonians: Take the Coordinated Economic Development Strategy Survey, Choose Walkable Urbanism

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

via $Houston Tomorrow$

Walkable, Mixed-Use Projects Taking Off in Houston

By jay.crossley@houstontomorrow.org | Jan 7, 2016 | No Comments

Like a lot of things, single family and multifamily construction development is expected to slow down this year. But another kind of development is expected to rise and carry the residential development market through the slump: Mixed-use, walkable urban projects. According to chief economist for CMD construction research group, Alex…

Today’s Headlines

By Caitlin McNeely | Jan 7, 2016 | No Comments

Openly Carrying Guns Now Allowed on Houston Buses and Rail (Metro)
Red Light Running Driver Smashes Into Starbucks, Three Customers Hospitalized (Morning News)
Pothole Reporting Triples After Turner Promises to Fix Them in 24 Hours (Chron)
Call for Applications: James L. Oberstar Safe Routes to School Award
Agenda 21 Conspiracy Theory Morphs Into Billionaire Funded Anti-Transit Campaigns (Governing)
New Service ‘Get Me’ Enters the Uber/Lyft Game in San Antonio (Express News)
TAPS to Suspend Service for 90 Days So Staff Can Focus on Finances (Morning News)
Final Food Truck Throwdown at the Boardwalk on Bulverde This Weekend (SA Current)
No Pants Bus Ride on DART This Sunday January 10

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

via $Houston Tomorrow$

Help Houston Bike Share Site 71 New Stations on a Wiki

By jay.crossley@houstontomorrow.org | Jan 6, 2016 | No Comments

Houston’s bike share system, Houston BCycle, will be adding 71 new stations thanks to a $3.5 million grant through the H-GAC TIP Call for Projects, according to the Houston Chronicle. Houston BCycle is opening up the process of selecting the best locations through an online wiki at WikiMapping. They have…

Today’s Headlines

By Jay Blazek Crossley | Jan 6, 2016 | No Comments

TXDOT Declares That Mission Is Vision Zero — Zero Fatalities at Road Construction Sites (TXDOT Pharr)
Austin Mayor Adler Wants Managed Toll Lanes to Allow Rapid Bus and Rail Starter Line (Biz Journals)
Petition Drive to Make Jersey Village Streets More Dangerous and Ban Red Light Cameras (Houston Chron)
Houston Bike-Share Stations on Bayou Greenways Trails See Highest Use in 2015 (Houston Chron)
What Did MIT Media Lab Tell TXDOT About the Future of Urban Mobility?
Texas Cities: Apply for Transit-Oriented Development Technical Assistance (Smart Growth America)
San Angelo City Council Bans Driving While Using Handheld Devices (Go San Angelo)
DFW Region Building 750 Homes 40 Miles From Downtown Dallas (Morning News)
The City of Houston Now Has a Periscope Account to Show Live Video of Events

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

via $Street Smart$

What Dallas Can Learn From Houston’s Bus System

By Patrick Kennedy | Jan 5, 2016 | No Comments

Previously Houston had a system much like DART buses with convoluted route systems that served the entire service area equally poorly. Thus, ridership suffered. Instead, they focused on route efficiency, prioritizing corridors with high potential for ridership (high levels of origins and destinations), and increased frequency to improve reliability that you wouldn't be standing for an hour waiting for the next bus and improved travel speeds to get you to your destination. The market is responding. And because it is responding so strongly, I have to imagine this will lead to bumps in real estate value along some of these frequent bus corridors. And they did it without a change to the operating budget, which means service levels of certain areas dropped. Such is the trade-off when acknowledging the inherent hierarchical nature of transit. All areas and all people can't be served equally. And the effort to do so undermines the overall service level and, in turn, ridership.

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