A Houstonian with a 25-minute commute spent 55 hours extra in 2001 — a full work week plus two days — creeping along in traffic instead of sleeping late, earning money or reading the newspaper, according to an annual study by Texas A&M University.
Those whose commutes took longer than 25 minutes, the national average, wasted even more time locked in their wheeled cubicles.
There is some good news in these all-too-familiar statistics. The amount of time needed for a typical commute increased just 1 percent from 2000 — a blip compared to increases in other major cities such as Denver, which recorded a 3.5 percent jump.
And Austin is doing its best to catch up with us, while San Antonio had mixed news.
And I’m not sure the powers that be even care.
A few weeks ago, the city retimed the Dairy Ashford lights at Westheimer and Alief Clodine. This simple act resulted in two 1/3 mile stackups and added 15 minutes to my commute.
A call to 311 got Westheimer fixed but they won’t budge on the other one.
Charles M: Did they give any reason why they won’t budge on the retiming of the second? Maybe it’s worth emailing Council?
No reason given. I’ll try mailing council. The intersection is in District F but I’ve had better luck on Dairy Ashford with District G. Maybe he’s hungrier.
tnx for the suggestion.