We have traffic, yes we do

Yeah, no surprise.

Surprise, surprise. The No. 1 road for traffic congestion in the entire state is — drumroll, please — the stretch of Interstate 45 between the North Loop and Beltway 8.

In fact, Harris County was home to six of the top 10 most congested roads in Texas. A list of the top 100 was released Tuesday by the Texas Department of Transportation. A third were in Harris County.

You can see the Harris County listing, which is basically “I-45 anywhere inside Beltway 8, plus two other stretches of road”, here. The state list is here, along with links to TxDOT’s plans to do something about them. I’m curious as to the methodology for ranking the pieces of road. The second-ranked bit of highway in town, third overall in the state, is I-45 North between I-10 and 610, yet its “Annual Hours of Delay” is by far the lowest among those listed. I-45 between I-10 and the South Loop has the second highest hours of delay figure, but comes in behind it. There must be some other factors here, but I cannot tell what they are. In any event, I will note that this particular stretch encompasses the Pierce Elevated, which as you know is a problem I think we’ll always have. At least, if there’s a plan to do something about it, I’m not aware of it.

Speaking of plans, I received the following statement from Peter Brown regarding this article:

“This report shows the clear need for real traffic solutions in Houston. Residents are wasting far too much time stuck in traffic, and that’s got to change. That’s why I released a detailed transportation blueprint last month, laying out clear, practical proposals to improve our city and deal with our traffic problems.”

Brown’s traffic plan is here, and my commentary on it is here.

Related Posts:

• I-45 Coalition gives its feedback to TxDOT
• Time for another report on how much traffic sucks
• Where the congestion is