Thanks for the reply! I do think you are correct in your belief that conservatives are more car-centric, but overall, I lean towards the idea that our way of doing things is cultural and not political.

As we both know, living here is hot, hot, hot (as evidenced by today). Public transportation is great and this is a perfect time to use it, but for so long our city has not had the transportation in place, leading people to become accustomed to their car’s air conditioning.

We do need to make significant changes to our methods of getting around, not just for the environment, but for the city itself.

Again, great blog, and keep up the fantastic writing!

Thanks for your comment. I’m sorry if I wasn’t very clear in what I was stating… it wasn’t meant to be a dig at conservatives at all. I too am a fairly conservative person.

My point was this:

In my experience, the people who most strongly identify themselves as “conservatives” or “Republicans” tend to place a moral value on living in the suburbs that it doesn’t deserve.

I often feel significant pressure from the more conservative of my family members to ‘move out to the burbs and get a house like a responsible adult’. That, and the fact that my wife and I share a car really baffles most of my conservative friends and family.

On the other hand, my more liberal friends and extended family tend to look favorably on living close to the city and using only one car since it works for us.

The irony here is that conservatives, who are supposed to be the champions of time-tested American values and morals, tend to also be the chief proponents of the auto-centric suburban development – which is a radical social experiment of recent invention that has been heavily promoted by the government starting with FDR.

Meanwhile, liberals, who are supposedly trying to advance the avant-gard also tend to advocate ‘new urbanism,’ which is really just a return to traditional town building practices.

I believe that our nation is at a tipping point, the recently conventional suburban development patterns are still dominant, but there are cracks in the armor. If and when conservatives shift to strongly support traditional urbanism, the US will experience substantial change – change I think would yield tremendous positive returns to society.

Thus, my comment was meant to call out to conservatives, and try to connect them to the idea that the CONSERVATIVE way of building cities is highly connected, walkable, urbanism. This pattern of building prevents the issue Rivercrest faces from emerging in the first place.

Again, thanks for your comment, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to respond to your reaction!

Other than that, great post.

Now, apart from the obvious problems with this area’s drainage system (that is another topic entirely), I think it also highlights another issue with forcing all traffic on just a few major thoroughfares. When these thoroughfares are blocked (because of say, flooding), people are essentially trapped and unable to get from place to place. If there were more connector roads, this would help not only relieve traffic congestion on “normal” days but limit the immobilizing effect of such a large rainstorm.

@Doug: I’m not very familiar with the issues in TMC, but I can see why Wyndale would attract a lot of traffic. I am aware they’re making connectivity improvements in the area, if I hear anything exciting I’ll be sure to post it.

Good luck with your effort to work with TMC!

While you’re at it, can you have the Texas Medical Center Inc. build their 2006 proposed east-west thruway connecting VA Hosp. and newly widened Bertner Ave? I and my neighbors currently (and for the last 2 years) have > 500 autos passing our homes on Wyndale, M-F…and that is only the morning commute. TMC and Baylor College of Medicine also have proposed a four lane road to “T” intersect at my driveway so Baylor College of Medicine officials can travel more easily between their main campus and mid-campus, (which they began, but don’t have the money to complete).
I and my neighbors have proposed a WIN-WIN situation to protect our neighborhood, create a transition between old neighborhoods and modern medical facilities, but TMC Inc. doesn’t budge. They would lose some parking places and that is one of their main sources of income.

I would like to add that we have an even better example how well an Urban Network adapts to a major change a little further south than your neighborhood.

I live in Audubon Place (roughly Westheimer t o Alabama, Montrose to Audubon Place) and when the Spur 527 construction was planned (several years ago, now) there was great fear in the area regarding cut through traffic on our streets.

The thing is: It never happened. The city made Alabama into three lanes (reversible) and rerouted some of the bus traffic down to Richmond, but the network took care of the traffic with little congestion.

I will be interested to see how it handles the traffic once the Richmond Rail (The University Line) starts (and ends!) construction.

d