Remember the concept of extreme commuting? There’s not that much of it here in Texas, at least compared to some other places, but that may change.
“Extreme commutes” — those of an hour or more — are much rarer in Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth than in the metro areas of the East Coast.
That could change, a transportation researcher said Thursday, unless Texas cities can keep pace with expected growth in the coming years.
Currently, researcher Alan Pisarski said, 9.7 percent of Houston-area residents and 7.2 percent of Dallas-Fort Worth-area residents have commutes of more than an hour, compared with 18.4 percent of New Yorkers and double-digit shares in some other metro areas.
However, Texas will have a much greater population growth, accounting for 15 percent of the U.S. total, through 2030, he said.
I presume the implication of that is that more people in Texas will be living farther away from where they work. It doesn’t have to be that way, of course – we could do things that encourage mixed-use and transportation-oriented development, thus encouraging more of an urban lifestyle. Since I can’t even type that with a straight face, much less imagine it happening, figure we’ll hear more about folks with 50-mile-plus commutes in the coming years. Eye on Williamson has more on related matters.