Archive for the 'transportation plan' Category
Is Metro’s budget train about to derail?
Closed Published by Tory Gattis December 6th, 2007 on Houston StrategiesThis post is actually not about Metro’s FTA problems. Instead, it’s about this ominous Dallas Morning News article on DART rail budgets spiraling out of control. A new line from downtown through Irving to DFW airport has a new cost estimate that is a…
The Metro board met today to make some big decisions on the rail plan (Chronicle story). The bombshell is that all the lines they thought were going to start as bus rapid transit (BRT) are being upgraded to full light rail (LRT). Evidently the numbe…
Reason analysis of the feasibility of commuter rail in Atlanta
Closed Published by Tory Gattis May 11th, 2007 on Houston StrategiesIt’s a very busy time at my software startup, so just a quick pass-along this morning from Reason. They look at how realistic commuter rail is for sprawling Atlanta, a city not unlike our own. Although we do have almost twice the density they do (I t…
Items of interest from the 2007 Houston Area Survey
Closed Published by Tory Gattis May 6th, 2007 on Houston StrategiesLast week I was able to attend Dr. Stephen Klineberg’s GHP luncheon presentation on new findings from the 2007 Houston Area Survey. Both the presentation and a central findings document are available on his site if you want the full story, but here ar…
Preliminary 2035 HGAC Regional Transportation Plan
Closed Published by Tory Gattis May 3rd, 2007 on Houston StrategiesLast week I was able to attend a Livable Houston presentation by Kari Hackett of the Houston-Galveston Area Council on the preliminary 2035 Regional Transportation Plan, a process they go through every 5 years. I thought I’d cover a few highlights tha…
Senator Hutchison Amendment Threatens HOV to HOT Conversions
Closed Published by Tory Gattis January 1st, 1970 on Houston StrategiesCaught this in Bob Poole’s most recent Surface Transportation Innovations newsletter from Reason. Considering that Metro is actively working on converting our HOV lanes to HOT (”high-occupancy toll” lanes - congestion-priced express lanes open to all,…
Green space award, density vs. sprawl, good transit, Yao, stadium, flights, and an event
Closed Published by Tory Gattis January 1st, 1970 on Houston StrategiesClearing out the queue of smaller items again, which seems to grow faster and faster these days.A good friend of mine, Dr. Chris Bronk at Rice in the Baker Institute for Public Policy, is putting on “The Conference on Convergence and Connectivity 2008:…
Transportation conference, zoning debate, and tourism stories
Closed Published by Tory Gattis January 1st, 1970 on Houston StrategiesBefore I get to some smaller misc items, I’d like to first remind everybody that Texas Lyceum is having a public conference on state transportation issues at the Reliant Center this Wednesday, December 3rd. It looks like a pretty interesting agenda wit…
State and local transportation issues, part 1
Closed Published by Tory Gattis January 1st, 1970 on Houston StrategiesI spent all day Wednesday at a a statewide conference on “Transportation Infrastructure: Establishing Public Policy Priorities” put on by Texas Lyceum at Reliant Center, with the objective of getting something substantive done at the upcoming legislati…
State and local transportation issues, part 2
Closed Published by Tory Gattis January 1st, 1970 on Houston StrategiesContinuing from last week on the transportation conference:The second-to-last segment on financing priorities and options was moderated by Bill King. It also turned into the feistiest session, with some back-and-forth on the practicality of density an…