wilcal

To be clear, I was laughing at the idea that Houston can achieve carbon neutrality be 2050. The transportation ambitions are insane!

The bus stops on Polk will be "floating" bus stops as well. Basically, the bike lane will be encumbered by bus passengers crossing the lane instead of being encumbered by the bus itself. I've haven't seen any drawings, but think something like this (albeit much smaller)

CoH released their Climate Action Plan to get our metro carbon-neutral by 2050 (please stifle your laughter) and it addresses market-based parking as part of that plan. Full plan: http://www.greenhoustontx.gov/climateactionplan/20190725-draft-CAP.pdf As much as we hate to think it, 2030 is only 11.5 years away. The city has made previous comments that they want to expand the market-based parking if it's successful, so it'll be interesting to see if we could it expanded as far as BW8 in the next 10 years.

Maybe there is some confusion here. The Planning Commission is a 26 person panel that approves what people want to do to their personal property, etc. We also have the Planning & Development Department. They oversee tons of stuff like Complete Communities, the Bikeway implementation, and all sorts of other stuff.

It begins!

This is intriguing to me. Surely they have the legal authority to do what they want. I know that there are some state restrictions for speed limits, but things like lane width they definitely have control over. An ex Houston planner told me once that they utilize the setback requirements to help exert influence over projects. Like the thai food high rise on Montrose. Gave the minimal setbacks in exchange for less parking in the project. The elimination of min parking requirements inside BW8 was listed in the draft carbon-neutral Houston by 2050 proposal that just came out. I think it said implementation by 2030 though for that covenant. You would think that it would be easier for our planning department to do things like complete streets since we are the largest city in the US without a separate city transportation authority.

Well, from what I understand, that date was somewhat flexible and really construction just needs to have started, not be finished. Yes, the Polk deal is a big one, although it kills me that there are a few blocks in EaDo around Emancipation that will not have connectivity due to road construction that is supposed to last for awhile. No, it's ridiculous. And it's only this wide for fourish blocks. I'm still outside the industry at this point, but we're talking about paint with the implementations they are doing currently. Planning has been really cautious and getting lots of community feedback and I think that it basically wasn't worth their effort for a four block section that doesn't go anywhere (right now). I think things are changing for the better, but the change is way too slow. I think that they were hamstrung by City Council and the council is finally coming around and realizing shit has gotta change. Even the most basic changes draws massive gnashing of teeth. Stuff like Zipcar wanting to add more cars in dedicated on-street parking (which they pay for parking for) was met with chagrin from some far-flung city councilmembers ("we need somewhere to park when we visit downtown"). But yeah, we're getting there!

Agreed, and they are really only getting the best bang for the buck for ROW when they have to have every inch, like at Polk. Tuam west of Bagby was recently completely redone and instead of utilizing the ROW they just threw all of the extra width into lane width, which just causes people to drive faster. They didn't even put in any crosswalks. That car on the left parked and barely taking up half of the lane is a 6.5' wide Cadillac SUV. This road and this section was on the Houston bike plan and really doesn't need this crazy lane width.

Hey, that's my blog's twitter account I have a little more info I've gotten since then. Part of the delay was getting Hardy/Elysian finished evidently. Hardy needed the parking standoffs installed, and that took awhile. This isn't set in stone, but this is the general order of completion for remaining projects: La Branch (sharrows/signage only. Edit: and repaving), Polk, Austin, and Gray. Unknown about Cleburne. Hopefully, that's not up in the air. There is some equipment related to signal work that takes a while to be delivered and most of that is going on Austin and Gray. Polk is a big project and they'll be adding some cool 'floating bus stops' a la something like this:

Market-based parking ordinance has passed!

Market-Based parking headed before City Council next week: The map that is being presented:

Awesome maps, was really considering doing that myself. I really want to think that they'll at least run some service on the weekend, but maybe not. At least some multi-stop service like they run during the day instead of non-stop P&R level of service.

Nowhere else to really post this, but the city has added a four-way stop to Bagby @ Pierce street. This is a big improvement as there were many pedestrians trying to cross who were not heeded the right of way and some cars traveling down Pierce St were having difficulties getting across.

Snapped a pic while grabbing some totally healthy breakfast next door:

Or even painted crosswalks at the intersections without lights. There is so much pedestrian activity here that there should be HAWK signals as well.

I was told by CoH planners that bike lane was set to be two-way on Austin specifically because the construction on Caroline would be taking so long. They would be interested in splitting in between the two roads in the future. Would be relatively easy to convert a two-way bike lane into a single-way with a strong buffer. With that being said, a 5' bike lane sucks. No buffer (typically 3') is not great, but it looks like the restriction is mostly the southernmost part. Also dumb to do the bike lane between on-street parking and driving lanes

He was actually parked there, but I believe they were part of the crew putting the finishing touches on construction. It's a Memorial Heights Redevelopment Authority (TIRZ) project. A recent update PDF from Jones Carter They have some coverage on their site here And they actually link to my blog post about it here

BCycle has still not launched their pilot program. They told me that they are putting a more rigorous GPS tracking system on the bikes. More and more I think that the actual end solution will be the sit-down styled electric bikes. They look like this: They're much more stable/better for older folks/etc. Would love to have them here.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Pearl-Marketplace-opens-in-Midtown-Whole-Foods-13968634.php?utm_campaign=CMS Sharing Tools (Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral It appears it did open today.

I know this is ultra trivial, but it's just 787-8, not -800. Like mini nails on a chalkboard for me (for no real reason). Also, I want to fly on that Ethiopian flight REAL BAD

Pretty sure TxDOT highway funding is under 40% from gas tax/registrations. I did research on it awhile back but can't find it.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/WhyHotels-to-open-pop-up-location-in-Camden-s-13914727.php Looks like you'll get the opportunity to stay there for a night without having to rely on AirBNB WhyHotel, a temporary housing company that partners with residential developers to offer short-term stays in vacant units of newly developed buildings, has struck a deal with Camden Property Trust to turn 100 apartments in a new downtown tower into essentially hotel suites. The Washington D.C.-based company will lease the units from Camden in its new 21-story, 271-unit apartment building now under construction near the Toyota Center and the George R. Brown Convention Center at 1515 Austin. The company refers to it new location as a pop-up hotel, since it will operate for a limited time. It will begin accepting its first guests late this year, with the local operation running through late 2020. (more in link)

Houston @ White Oak got green paint and armadillos Saturday morning, completing the project right there. Looks great!

Houston BCycle just announced an ebike pilot program for June and July. Only 4 bikes though 😕

No low hanging fruit. Airfares are very low, so there has to be high biz class demand, and a lot of that from Houston is very localized due to O&G only going certain places. You'd think we could see UA start IAH-HKG on a 789, but UA won't even bring back IAH-CDG which supposedly has a way bigger market.