Tag Archives: traffic

More speed bumps coming

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Like ’em or not. Houston officials are speeding up the process of slowing down residential street traffic. A laborious process to improve traffic and safety by installing traffic calming devices such as speed humps is radically streamlined in a new … Continue reading →

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Will driverless cars fix Houston’s traffic problems?

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Tory Gattis thinks they might. The second step is understanding the ramifications of coming new technologies — specifically self-driving cars. While the general vehicle fleet will take decades to turn over as people slowly replace their cars, we can expect … Continue reading →

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Turner wants to rethink transportation

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I like the way he’s thinking. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, in less than a month on the job, has hit the streets at full speed. First he tackled potholes. Last week he tackled a state transportation department that’s spent the … Continue reading →

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The Prop 7 funds are already being claimed

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Get ready for a lot more road construction in the near future. Voters have a little more than a week to decide whether to give Texas highways a $2.75 billion annual funding boost, but Houston-area officials are already making plans … Continue reading →

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Three views of traffic in Texas

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

It’s getting worse. Houston-area leaders love to trumpet the region’s affordable cost of living and low taxes, but the costs of sitting in traffic are taking a record share of workers’ incomes, according to a comprehensive annual study. The average … Continue reading →

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Harris County road bond

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Harris County voters may be asked to vote on a bond issue this fall. Rapid population expansion and development in unincorporated areas of Harris County have strained roads, facilities and infrastructure so much that for the first time in eight … Continue reading →

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I got those reverse commuting blues

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

The Woodlands is growing as en employment center, which means it is also seeing a lot more traffic in what used to be the reverse commute direction. There is no longer a simple drive to this onetime bedroom community, which … Continue reading →

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Now how much would you pay to drive on that toll road?

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

How about ten bucks each way at peak times, beginning on May 30? Toll rates on the I-10 lanes, also known as the Katy Managed Lanes, will increase as officials seek to ease congestion by reducing use of the lanes … Continue reading →

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Montgomery County tries to figure out what it wants

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Can they ever pass a road bond? Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal says he will hold community meetings to assess what direction the county should go to improve mobility after a $350 million road bond package was defeated by county … Continue reading →

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Save Uptown from what?

Posted on May 23, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

From Swamplot: The Uptown Property and Business Owners Coalition is out today with a new website (portrayed here) meant to drum up opposition to the Uptown District and Metro’s plans to install dedicated bus lanes down Post Oak Blvd. The … Continue reading →

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An Uptown BRT skeptic

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s one guy who doesn’t like the idea. Ridership models developed by the Uptown TIRZ board project that the new bus route will carry 10,000 riders per day in 2018. This estimate is outrageously inflated, given that the more than … Continue reading →

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Uptown needs bikes

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

So says this op-ed. Always susceptible to gridlock, especially at Christmastime, the traffic jams now happen year-round and last longer each day. Clearly, Uptown badly needs convenient, reliable alternatives to cars for the tens of thousands of workers and residents … Continue reading →

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Heights-Northside mobility study

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Mostly of interest for folks in my area, here’s the city’s report on mobility for neighborhoods in the upper left quadrant of the Inner Loop. Final Report: Heights-Northside Sub-regional Mobility Study The Planning and Development Department, in partnership with the … Continue reading →

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How does a 25 MPH speed limit for downtown Houston grab you?

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Christopher Andrews makes the case in Gray Matters: Does anyone know the speed limit in downtown Houston? Probably not. Casual observation shows speeds there normally range anywhere from gridlock to Gran Prix. I don’t believe there are any speed-limit signs. … Continue reading →

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Who needs managed lanes?

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Not TxDOT, and not on 290. State transportation officials have changed plans for widening U.S. 290, increasing capacity for people driving alone but reducing opportunities for alternatives to solo driving. After initially planning four or five general use lanes in … Continue reading →

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Rearranging the traffic

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Not sure how much of an effect this will have. Among the 200,000 motorists who traverse Interstate 45 just south of downtown every day, a fair number find themselves weaving frantically from lane to lane as they approach the connection … Continue reading →

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The trouble with the Southwest Freeway

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I think the problem is easy enough to identify. The solution is another matter. Houston-area transportation planners are considering some novel strategies – at least for Texas – for managing traffic to ease congestion on U.S. 59 between downtown Houston … Continue reading →

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The downside to downtown’s boom

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

More traffic, less parking, and lots of construction. Where have we heard those complaints before? Construction crews are clearing city blocks once dedicated to surface parking, readying the sites for multistory office buildings, hotels and residential towers. Adjacent sidewalks and … Continue reading →

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The wheels on the bus go round and round, even in The Woodlands

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Welcome to the wonderful world of transit. With help from regional officials, The Woodlands is entering the bus business, a decision that might give south Montgomery County commuters more options down the road. Population gains pushed the Woodlands-Conroe area from … Continue reading →

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How to solve the traffic problems of The Woodlands

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

All that growth has its downsides. The Houston-Galveston Area Council, along with local entities including The Woodlands, Montgomery County, the City of Oak Ridge North and the Texas Department of Transportation, are working on a South Montgomery Mobility Study that … Continue reading →

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It takes time to park, too

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The Atlantic Cities had an article a couple of weeks ago about light rail in Houston. It’s an overview written for people who aren’t from Houston, so other than the extremely high opinion of themselves of some rail opponents – … Continue reading →

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Medical Center mobility

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The problems they face today pale in comparison to the problems they will face in the future. Already the world’s largest medical complex, the Texas Medical Center is poised to get much bigger, prompting a raft of ideas ranging from … Continue reading →

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The downtown lifestyle

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Demand for residences in downtown Houston is up. For Krishnan Iyer, moving downtown meant a lot of things: Not having to use his car in auto-dependent Houston, being able to walk to work, to restaurants, to the movies. The 34-year-old … Continue reading →

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No stopping the San Felipe Skyscraper

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Not at this time, anyway. A Harris County district court judge has denied an opposition group’s request to immediately halt construction on a 17-story office tower in a River Oaks area neighborhood. The group, which filed suit in February against … Continue reading →

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Ashby II: Highrise Boogaloo

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The Ashby Highrise lawsuit may be over, but its legacy lives on. A lawsuit seeking to stop a 17-story office tower under development in a River Oaks-area neighborhood blasts the project as “abnormal and out of place” in a grass-roots … Continue reading →

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So what is the capacity of the Katy Freeway these days?

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

This story was about the increase in the toll on the managed lanes of the Katy Freeway, but there was a tidbit at the end that caught my eye. When officials started widening the freeway in 2003, at an eventual … Continue reading →

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More construction on Yale

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

It’s Alexan Heights II: Midrise Boogaloo. For residents near Yale and 6th street, Independence Day fireworks were nothing compared to the sparks flying when news of another proposed apartment complex came to light July 5. A heads-up notification from District … Continue reading →

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Alamo Drafthouse at Regent Square

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

This is an interesting development. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, which is opening its second area location Thursday in Vintage Park Shopping Village, just announced that it will open a third location in the Inner Loop mixed-use project Regent Square, where it … Continue reading →

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Alexan Heights update

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The developers of the Alexan Heights project on Yale will go before the Planning Commission tomorrow to get a variance that would remove a single-family restriction on part of the property. Some folks in the neighborhood have been petitioning against … Continue reading →

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Conroe is growing up

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Good for them. Conroe native Jay Ross Martin says he never imagined his rural hometown in the piney woods developing bustling retail centers, a thriving housing market and a population that’s more than doubled in the past 20 years. The … Continue reading →

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There’s an app for beating red lights

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Do you ever get frustrated when you get stopped by a string of red lights while driving? If you’re like me, you sure do. Wouldn’t it be nice to know how (legally) fast you should be going to maximize the … Continue reading →

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Petition for safer walking and biking

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

From Marty Hajovsky: Stephanie Riceman with the Heights Kids Group, a 900-strong (at least) group of families in and around the greater Houston Heights, has put together an interesting online petition that says as much about how many new families there are in … Continue reading →

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There’s congestion on I-10: Film at 11

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

I’m sure you will be completely unsurprised to hear that I-10 has bad traffic congestion. You may be surprised to hear where the worst of it is, however. Just in time for Thanksgiving travel, a new study has found that … Continue reading →

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The Wayside Wal-Mart

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

For what it’s worth, I don’t have an opinion about the new Wal-Mart at I-45 and Wayside, whether it’s a Super Center or not. Other than a few comments at Swamplot and on the Stop Heights Wal-Mart Facebook page, I … Continue reading →

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