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Combustion Charge Zone

The Combustion Charge Zone should reduce congestion and raise funds for the transportation system. In addition to this, the Combustion Charge Zone should help reduce air and noise pollution.

Free-Market Parking

Today I want to take a look at the free-enterprise approach to parking in more detail. Let’s look at why the free-enterprise system makes sense in the first place, then we’ll try to understand why free-market parking solutions would work in Houston. The common-sense argument against parking regulations First, remember that the traffic patterns flowing to [...]

A Tale of Two Shops

Today I want to take a look at two local businesses, and see what they can teach us about the reality of parking and the ability of parking ordinances to address parking supply and demand. The two business are both located on West Alabama St., near the intersection of West Alabama and Hazard. My home [...]

The Pseudo-Science of Parking Ratios

Continuing in our series on the problems with parking ordinances, today I want to look at fundamental problem with parking ratio requirements. Tomorrow I’ll follow up with a local example of the consequences of these poor policies. Because he explains these things better than I ever could hope to, I’m going to quote heavily from [...]

The Economics of Parking

A few days ago, Wendy Siegle asked me a question about the current situation with Houston’s parking ordinance. The gist of her questions was this: What is the real issue with parking in Houston? She observed that the perceived problems seem to be confined to Central Houston, and that different people want different things to [...]

Holes in the Long Tailpipe

Every time I hear someone argue that electrical vehicles (EVs) have no benefit because they only shift the point of pollution from the vehicle to the powerplant, I want to mock that person using the same voice that Eddie Murphy used in Beverly Hills Cop to say, “I’m not falling for the banana in the [...]

Lightweight Mass Transit

A look at how important the weight of our vehicles is to the performance of our transportation networks. From compact cars to space ships, technology to reduce the weight of vehicles offers impressive safety and performance benefits. By neoHOUSTON’s newest contributing author, Dean Hall.

Cable-Propelled Challenge

I got some very insightful feedback on my CPT post from Steven Dale, who runs the Gondola Project – the site that was the source of the flurry of conversations about Gondolas that has been echoing through the Houston blogosphere. But more on that in a minute… Steven also proposed an interesting idea – a [...]

CTC’s Christof Spieler named to METRO board!

Mayor Parker names new METRO board appointees – Houston Tomorrow. I somehow missed this yesterday evening, but a hearty congratulations is due to Christof Spieler of Citizens’ Transportation Coalition. Mayor Parker has named Christof to the METRO Board of Directors. I see this as a huge win for the people of Houston. Christof is a [...]

Cable-Propelled Transit

Via Houston Strategies, I found this article about modern cable-propelled transit systems very interesting. Say the words “cable car” and most people think of trolleys being towed up and down San Francisco’s hilly terrain. Most view them as a charmingly antiquated heritage system for the tourists, not as modern mass transit. But cable cars are [...]