samagon

widening highways does contribute to this flashy headline: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/environment/article/houston-traffic-largest-greenhouse-gas-emission-17773932.php

here's a video. https://www.cnbc.com/video/2023/02/07/why-traffic-cant-be-solved-with-more-highway-lanes.html

it's not the best use of the land 30 years from now, it's the best use of the land now. if you look at the area, this is a huge uplift to the area, sure it could have been more, but there is more right across the street, and there will be more in the coming years. first steps are often not the biggest steps.

this is a good question. there is the crowd sourced rating, which is basically, if I just don't like the idea of Conrad Hilton, I can go ping every Hilton with a 1 star review that I have time to hit. then there's a thing right next to that which states whatever the 'official' rating is. the best I can find on that is this: https://support.google.com/hotelprices/answer/7219055?hl=en#:~:text=Google gathers data for these,%2C room size%2C and amenities. so they don't really give any specifics, but it's not a direct from Michelin, or AAA, or whatever other travel company someone might prefer as their hotel ratings provider.

I'd agree with @s3mh, if you can wait, wait. even waiting until summer may be beneficial. the used car price trends. https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/price-trends/ average of all used cars sold YoY -8.7%. 90 day is -5.3% drop. you do see a tick up for January in prices, but there are some that believe this to be similar to a 'dead cat bounce' you might see in the stock market before the bottom really drops out. I mean, no one can predict the future, but the signs point to things getting softer as we go on. also, depending on the price you're targeting for your daughter, we're getting into tax season, and lower priced cars are always a bit higher demand during tax season (use the return to make a down payment on a <$10,000 car). anyway, yeah, if you aren't doing a trade in, there's not a compelling reason to buy a car right now unless your back is against a wall. if you are doing a trade in though, you have to consider that your trade will absolutely be going down in price (same index as the chart referenced above), so maybe now isn't such a bad time to buy if you have a trade in? especially if you are buying new, and especially if the car you want to buy is already being discounted.

thanks for the additional insight, unless I misread, whether it's EED, or city that's put forth and receives the funding the results are the same, street closures in an already hard to access area of the east end. I think you and I have discussed this same topic in other threads, but the streets that are not through streets because of this west belt rail line, and then the streets that aren't through streets from downtown because of all sorts of civic projects (convention center, baseball, basketball, soccer, and soon to be freeway), it's kind of ridiculous how disjointed the whole mess is, and forcing people to drive through neighborhood streets as a result. indeed disheartening is the right word.

great idea on the sidewalk part, although the fee needs to be set to an average price for pouring a sidewalk. right now $12psf is the high end of a sidewalk install psf, (at least according to top results from Google), but at some point the cost is going to go up, and it'll be cheaper to pay than to put in a sidewalk, which may counter the intended purpose. as for the other mention in that article, looks like Ashby highrise haters have made density more difficult city wide. good job for them. I hope the developer builds as large as he possibly can and makes it 100% low income housing.

work on this gas station was moving too slowly, now it's moving too fast, I'm not ready for this to be open by 2026. seriously though, I would expect that the builder/owner is aware of this: https://www.eastenddistrict.com/district-partners-for-west-belt-railroad-crossing-elimination-grant/ specifically from that: it does look like they poured the lot so that there would be an entrance from York, but if that's going to eventually be an underpass, then that entrance becomes nothing. overall as this pertains to moving around in the greater east end, closing crossings, even at grade, is a horrible plan. money hasn't been approved yet, so I guess there's still a long time for this to shuffle around.

BRT is mass transit. I'm sure when the university line is completed we'll see more density along that corridor as well, the bottom line is that the city is creating infrastructure that isn't as easily moved as a bus stop sign, and eventually developers will see that too and decide they can invest in a high density/cost project in a mass transit corridor.

I know I get super excited when I see higher density going in next to a mass transit project. makes me feel like it's working. I wonder if people who are completely against mass transit are disappointed when they see high density infilling next to mass transit?

as much of a chance as you have had in other threads. which isn't to say the data doesn't exist, I just don't care to waste my time looking it up when you don't offer the same courtesy.

what's crazy, and I mean, like mind blowing. is that from the upgrade of the transit line down main street the commute time got better by a factor, they increased the amount of people that could be transported by mass transit, and they reduced the commute time. and guess what, we don't have to look at some crazy maths to know that after 5 years the commute time was still down from before the red line being built. and guess what, 20 years after it was built commute times are still lower than they were before the red line was built! I want to see anyone say that about any freeway. and we don't even need to get into any arguments about pollution.

can we look at it the other way 'round? H-3 cost 80 million per mile to build, while the original red line cost 43 million per mile to build. highways get rekt by the cost savings of public transit!

confirmation bias is so fun.

using an example of a rail network being built in an exceedingly isolated location that is prone to seismic activity as the reason why fixed guideway transit shouldn't be built is kind of weird.

sooooo, no, you don't have the data.

@Houston19514do you have data from before the expansion that corresponds to data from after the expansion that refutes the NYT article?

fair enough, I admit I didn't see that very important nugget, and yeah, that would be comparing apples and chickens. the statement is still true though, if you are going to accuse them of lying, you need to provide the proof. whether it's a topic seen by 10 people or 10,000 people (which might get NYT attention), it is a very serious accusation and you absolutely need to deliver proof. I'm not a subscriber of the NYT, but maybe since Editor is (and a longstanding subscriber) perhaps he can ask them to site the references for their sources of the data from prior to the expansion.

am I taking crazy pills? this is what you said: prior to expansion peak travel times were around 30 minutes (data from the chron article I posted). 5 years after expansion peak travel times not only were worse, but they were up to (and over) 50 minutes (data confirmed from multiple sources including transtar). what am I missing? now, if you have any concrete evidence that the NYT lied (which is a libelous statement by the way without actual facts to back up your claim, I'm not sure what the actual number of readers is on this thread, but it's probably not enough for the NYT to even lift a finger), it really needs to be shared. at the moment this isn't a good look for you.

wahoo, I found some published data, and bonus, not behind a paywall... https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Expanded-Katy-Freeway-shaves-minutes-from-commute-3941203.php so there we go, prior to expansion, commute times from Barker Cypress to Taylor took 33 minutes prior to expansion. and there's even data on the reverse commute. they state that the actual winner was off-peak hours, which at the time were better. I think now they are probably just as bad (remembering my own experience with I10 before the expansion). anyway, so maybe now we can all agree that the article isn't lying.

the roundabout will be at Jensen, Runnels, Navigation intersection (blue outline). this is where Navigation goes under the rail line, and then Commerce and Hutchins intersect (red outline). my guess would be Hutchins will not be invited to the party, and Commerce would be an underpass and a signaled intersection under the track will be a thing. also I suspect Bastrop will no longer intersect Commerce.

how do you know they didn't look at pre-expansion travel times?

it is also a fact that those cities are far more populous than Houston. could you imagine what a Houston with the population of either of those cities might have to look like with our current transit options? or another way, could you imagine either of those cities without mass transit? so I thought I'd update this post with some information, so it's not just questions without some facts to have in your mind when you're thinking about the questions. 39% of New Yorkers use the subway. 80% of Londoners take mass transit. in contrast, 80% of Houstonians are driving alone in their cars. for sources, I pulled these numbers from wikipedia.

you forgot the rest of this statement. ....traffic volumes increase when no other reliable transit options exist.

I believe the BRT is included, but I don't think the BOOST is. so yeah, get ready for more density in the Galleria area, and also once the University BRT is built, that will spur density too. and sure it's not the specific topic of highways don't fix traffic, but the only way to continue to grow population in a region is to increase ways for increased population to move around, so if you aren't creating more roads for more pollution, you need to create alternatives, and then change the rules near those alternatives.