Comments on: Context-Sensitive Streets

By: Keep Houston Houston

Keep Houston Houston — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:45:39 +0000

I can personally attest to *regularly* tooling down West Alabama at 40mph or more. The “narrow lanes as traffic slowing tool” thing only works in western cities where people are used to 11-or-12 footers. Go to NYC or Boston and watch madmen doing 70+ through 9.5-foot lanes on Moses’s original parkways. With enough “context sensitive streets” you’ll see the same thing here.

Iain name-dropped Monderman, and he’s right. A few choice mini-roundabouts along West Alabama (and similar streets) would completely break up the 40mph drag-race. Then again, if you look deep in our heart of hearts, does anyone in this wonderfully autocentric city *really* want to go 30/35 mph? I think if you look at the *design* of the roads (rather than what it says on the MUTCD-standard aluminum) the answer is obviously no.

No, the 35mph default is an ass cover for entering sight distance calculations and driveway spacing. If we were actually honest about our arterial speeds, traffic engineering standards would dictate a more strictly-designed streetscape. And that messes with the flow of commerce.

Of course, there’s no reason that ped-friendly streets need slower speeds. Washington, DC’s multiways regularly flow at 40-45mph in the off-peak. (Check your speedometer next time you hit the tunnel under DuPont Circle.) We can build streets where both cars AND people thrive, together, in happiness. And if there’s any place where that’s possible, it’s definitely H-town.

By: Iain

Iain — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:53:54 +0000

I don’t know anything about transportation issues, but it seems to me that I’m not sure people really go slower on Alabama because of the dividing line … or perhaps that’s too much of a Hans Monderman-ian comment.

By: Appetitus Rationi Pareat

Appetitus Rationi Pareat — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:53:22 +0000

Well, I have to be honest, I too am a little disappointed on how behind Houston is in terms of infrastructure improvement and development that really increases the quality of life for residents. It often seems that the overarching concern here is always cost and how cheap they can do this or that.

But that being said, I don’t necessarily have anything against developers and I’m perfectly happy if they are financially successful. I just want developers to develop communities that provide a better quality of life for residents and patrons. That means, they take into account the environment, community spaces, education, transportation options and, yes, even aesthetics along with cost.

But I agree Joe, the amount of work that is required in a place like Houston can often seem overwhelming. I find myself sometimes just happy to be able to walk on a decent sidewalk in my neighborhood without tripping over cracks or falling in the mud when the sidewalk ends! It’s pretty exasperating sometimes.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:18:10 +0000

Let’s just say I’ve been involved in Houston politics for at least 45 years, and I know people in this city who have been on road commissions since the 50′s. I know how it works. Roads aren’t built in this city or Harris County to look pretty or make sense for subdivisions or homebuyers. They’re built with developers in mind, and developers here have all the power, and the roads are built to get those homebuyers to highways and stores and schools the qiickest and shortest way they can with the cheapest material and labor they can use. The politics of roads here will never change. There’s too much land, it’s too spread out and there’s too much politics involved, and there always has been and there always will be. The rail itself wasn’t made for anything else but to get people from the bars and restaurant buildings on the north part of downtown and the baseball park, (owned by innercity millionaire politician developers), all the way to the zoo thru the Medical Center to Reliant Stadium, and have a complete captive audience dropping money along the way. It was not meant to take cars off the road. It was a way for big developers and investors with friends of the mayor to make a lot of money…just like the builders who buy up 2,000 acres of riceland and build 4,000 houses on it, and then the friends of the mayor who already have the land rights far in advance to build gas stations and shopping centers and malls…and the roads to get them there. My suggestion is do a little digging on your own. Look who was on the Highway Commission back in 1959. You’ll see a well known Mayor from Houston, in his younger days….probably just before he invested in a bunch of real estate and MUD investments all around Houston.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:57:39 +0000

“Not with that attitude it won’t!”

Ok, Joe, thanks for the feedback.

I’ll happily admit that things don’t change easily, but things clearly do change. If you really think it cannot and will not ever change, please do me the favor of sharing your reasoning. I’m interested to know why specifically you think it’s impossible.

Thanks!

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:29:00 +0000

“and we need to get Houston’s outdated street design requirements out of their way.”

That will never happen, I can promise you that.