JLWM8609

I don't see this happening anytime soon, but it would be cool if 290 in our area became an extension of I-27 from Lubbock as part of the Ports to Plains highway. From Lubbock southward, I-27 would split at Midland and Odessa, rejoin south of Midland and Odessa, jog over to San Angelo, then follow US87 to TX71 to 290 into Austin and Houston. Alternate routes could take I-27 through Big Spring or Colorado City before going into San Angelo.

Your link keeps going back to this thread.

A light rail connection to Hobby is in the long range plans for the Green line.The old 2035 plan that was released in 2007 showed extensions of both the Green and Purple lines to Hobby. You can see that on a map on page 16 of this document: http://www.h-gac.com/taq/plan/documents/2035_final/2035%20RTP%20Main%202007-10-26%20REVISED.pdf

Since TxDOT seems gung-ho on suffixing every branch of I-69, why not have I-69D branch off downtown from I-69 and multiplex with I-10 to Columbus and along 71?

Dolcefino wasn't alone in shooting down Turner's 1991 mayoral bid. He got his information from Clyde Wilson, a legendary private investigator who was old friends with Lanier. Wilson tipped KTRK on the story, but a member of Lanier's finance-team, Peary Perry, another private investigator, was the one who came up with the detailed information about Turner. Sources: http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/man-who-knows-everything?fullpage=1 http://www.houstonpress.com/1999-05-06/news/the-channel-13-exclusive/

If the bridge were newer and designed to current standards, it would have had a high enough vertical clearance to avoid being hit in the first place. It has a 18 ft clearance over all lanes now vs. the 15 ft 6 in clearance it had over the lane that the too-tall truck was traveling. Some of us can remember the old Hazard St. bridge over US 59. It was built in 1960 and only had a vertical clearance of 13 feet 11 inches. It was a cast-in-place concrete bridge and had been hit so many times that chunks of the outside beams of the superstructure were missing on the section over the northbound lanes.

I was trying to find info about this Houston based company. The owner of Parker Brothers owned a house in Riverside Terrace that has been owned by members of my extended family since the late 60s. For years, I noticed that one of the bathrooms had a tug boat outline designed into the floor pattern, but never knew why. I was told that Parker Brothers owned a concrete company, and I've found a photo of a Parker Brothers Sand and Gravel Building on Navigation, but I've also found results for Parker Brothers Shipyard. That would explain the tug boat outline in the bathroom floor. Were the two companies owned by the same person?

41 years is nothing for a bridge. There are overpasses on the Gulf Freeway that are 66 years old near downtown, though they were widened in the 80s. The northbound I-45 overpass over the railroad tracks just north of the Causeway was originally built in the late 1930s for US 75 and was later widened to interstate standards.

I just noticed something about this map after viewing it a few times. Many of the historically black and Hispanic areas (Third Ward, Fifth Ward, Fourth Ward, Independence Heights, Denver Harbor, Magnolia Park) are shaded in. The legend doesn't show anything about the shading, though. I guess it's redlining?

That's one intersection that could benefit from a grade separation.

Some suburbs are being built in the vicinity of Brookshire.

The Houston Chronicle believes the likely candidates will be Sylvester Turner, Ben Hall, Stephen Costello, Chris Bell, Bill King, Marty McVey (I so wanted to type McFly), and Sean Roberts. I don't see McVey or Roberts making it past the runoff. I think it'll mostly likely be a runoff between Turner and Bell come next December. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/houston/article/A-dozen-candidates-actively-weighing-mayoral-bids-5953836.php#/0

Wow! You'd think after six, going on seven plus years, they'd have the signs replaced by now. I guess nobody in the neighborhood is calling 311 to report the signs. I wonder if they're being stolen or if something else like wind damage or car accidents took them out?

As a child, I remember 102 playing the snot out of this during the Christmas season. Having it beat into your head should make you dislike it, but how can you hate the Temps?

Possibly. Demand for the 747 has dropped, too. Airlines want long range, twin engined widebodies. It looks like the it may be the end for the four-holer jet as a whole outside of military and cargo operations.

The Griggs and OST and England St. SNAFU intersection can be confusing for the uninitiated. I can't imagine how it was before the grade separation.

Vehicular emissions aren't the only contributor to bad air quality. The bulk of it comes from refineries. When you look at an ozone map on a particularly bad day in Houston, the source of ozone isn't from the highways. It comes from the east side and spreads in whatever direction the wind is blowing that day and circulates in the days following. After new EPA standards went into effect in 2005, peak ozone concentrations began to drop sharply. By 2009, Houston began to meet the Federal Air Quality Standard for the first time in 35 years, and it wasn't because people were driving 65 mph instead of 70 mph. It was because petrochemical companies began to fix problems that led to chemical leaks and took initiative to reduce accidental releases. Other sources of pollution include print shops, gas stations, and dry cleaners, which can all put out more VOCs than refineries. Here's some stories about Houston air quality as it relates to refineries. http://www.npr.org/2013/05/30/185993899/breathing-easier-how-houston-is-working-to-clean-up-its-air http://www.npr.org/2013/05/31/187459766/houstons-petrochemical-industry-source-of-jobs-and-smog Cars today have cleaner emissions than the ones sold 10-12 years ago, and they're getting cleaner. You have more hybrids and electric cars on the road, and diesel vehicles with particulate filters running on Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel, synthetic diesel, or Biodiesel, which all produce lower or even no particulates compared to the Low Sulfur Diesel that was being sold 10-12 years ago. http://www.epa.gov/otaq/fetrends.htm

I'm pretty sure other cities with retail districts in their downtown areas have homeless people in the area and they're not an impediment to shoppers. Heck, there's homeless people in the Galleria area. They don't impede shopping there.

If you are interested a quick domestic trip just to ride on a 747, Delta has a ATL-MSP-ATL run on the 747 scheduled for November 30th. I don't know if any seats are left. They are flights DL 744 (ATL-MSP) and DL 1799 (MSP-ATL)

Yes. The speed limits were dropped to 55 on all highways in the Houston District. Previously, on most freeways in Houston, it was 60 inside the loop and on the loop itself, 65 between the loop and beltway, and 70 outside the beltway and on the Tollway. Interestingly, I think the HOV lanes were exempt. I remember the HOV lane on the Southwest Freeway retaining its 70 mph limit for years in the section outside the Beltway while the mainlanes in that same section were reduced to 55 and later increased to 65.

Drooling.... http://jalopnik.com/maybach-is-back-meet-the-200-000-mercedes-maybach-s-1660559741

In the Dallas and Fort Worth Districts, they are raising the speed limits back to the pre-2001 levels or higher based on the 85th percentile operating speed, and the road design. http://www.nctcog.org/trans/committees/rtc/documents/Item_9.rtc111314.pdf

The traffic signal pole stood out to me, too. When I was a little boy, I thought those old neon WAIT/WALK pedestrian signals were neat. The COH replaced them in the late 90s with the now ubiquitous hand/man pedestrian signals.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the recent passing of Tom Magliozzi, especially since this thread shares the same name of Tom and Ray's legendary radio show. http://www.npr.org/2014/11/03/357428287/tom-magliozzi-popular-co-host-of-nprs-car-talk-dies-at-77?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=202503

Rumor has it that Dallas based Sewell Motors is going to open up a new Mercedes-Benz dealership near Katy. It would be the seventh Mercedes-Benz dealership in the area (eighth if you count the Beaumont dealer). I was told that it would be on the site of an abandoned Walmart, but there's no abandoned Walmart on I-10 in Katy. However, there IS an abandoned Sam's Club at I-10 and Highway 6. HCAD shows that it's owned by LWA Properties LLC in Dallas as of January 2014. I checked the ownership of Sewell Cadillac a few miles down the highway and it's owned by Sewell 10 LLC, which has the same address as LWA Properties LLC. I just don't know when they plan to open or if they've started construction since it's been months since I've been on that side of town. Anyone know anything?