JLWM8609

Finally, the tunnels are a "non-space" similar to an airport or walking through hospital corridors. They disorient the pedestrian and provide no context for space or time since they lack sunlight.

LED lighting in the ceiling that would slowly change hue depending on the time of day would help provide some context when there's no sunlight. There's similar lighting on aircraft that changes during the day on long haul flights.

Can we move to redesignate 290 as an Interstate now that it links up to two parents on either end? Some work would need to be done between Houston and Austin to bring the road to Interstate standard, but it would be useful to rebrand the highway as an Interstate.

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.

http://www.houstonch...ide-5979111.php

This is big news. The same bus service that is used for league city to Galveston will provide pearland to medical center (downtown?). Once the HOT lanes are built it will be a quick way for residents to get in the city.

Your link keeps going back to this thread.

I'm sure money is the main reason, but why design this line without extending it to Hobby? Harrisburg turns into Broadway, which leads to the airport.

 

The Green line doesn't seem to go anywhere compared to the Purple and proposed Richmond/Uptown lines.

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

IMO it would make more sense to upgrade SH 71 between Bergstrom Airport and Columbus to Interstate standard, and designate the corridor as a spur of I-10.

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/

 

- Last year, a bridge in Washington state, that was admittedly open in 1955, had been damaged by a too-tall vehicle, was not "structurally deficient" but rather "functionally obsolete". A newer type of bridge would've been able to sustain a hit like that.

 

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?

Westheimer and 6 is incredibly dangerous, with a combination of impatient jacknapes, inattentive boobs, testsoterone-driven speed demons and just general putzes. Gotta give it a count of 5 after the light turns green before inching out.

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

Those pecan tree lined streets are still lovely. But some of those street signs are still missing. It was a nice drive this morning, seeing such a variety of home styles on such large lots, in close proximity to downtown. I was trying to figure out which house Ralph Wallace, State Representative grew up in... my friend thinks it is 7545 Santa Fe...anyone know for sure?  it had a grand piano in the living room and a back sun porch that left an impression on me, as a teen.  

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.

right, and they were raised again by politicians who wanted to be reelected by people who feel that they are entitled to get to their destination 54 seconds faster by going 5mph quicker over a 10 mile freeway drive.

 

they should be lowered again. the quality of air every other person in this town breaths shouldn't be subject to one person feeling like they are better than everyone else.

 

if that's the case then they should let people start smoking in restaurants and office buildings again.

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 

In order for this to work, the homeless need to be removed from this area, the urine stench is unbearable and they accost people walking by for money.

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)

Did Houston ever drop speed limits in 2001? I mean, the arterial highways, for instance: have they not always been 65?

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

Nice street scene. There is so much going on. It's interesting to see what people spot in the picture.  The traffic signal/ light pole stood out, to me...It  is amazing, all that detail.

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