Texas Teen Sentenced to Probation for Killing Four While Driving Drunk
Ethan Couch, a 16-year-old who killed four people and injured nine others in a drunk driving crash last June, won’t serve any jail time, after a decision handed down by a Texas judge yesterday. In a...
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Will Old Transit Systems Eat Up All the New Starts Grants?
The first Core Capacity grant of the New Starts program will ease overcrowding on Chicago’s red and purple lines. Photo: Michael Boyd/Chicago Reader One of MAP-21’s many mixed blessings was the New...
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San Antonio to Tear Out the “Best Thing” City Has Done for Cycling
Score one for the NIMBY crowd in San Antonio. Bike San Antonio called the South Flores Street bike lane the best thing the city had ever done for cyclists. Photo: Bike San Antonio City Council...
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How Brownsville, Texas, Is Using Bikes to Address Social Problems
Brownsville’s open streets event, “CycloBia,” has been a huge success. Photo: CycloBia Brownsville This post is part of a series featuring stories and research that will be presented at the...
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In Dallas, You Can Get a “Sustainability” Grant to Widen a Road
Want to widen a road in the Dallas region? You can get “Sustainable Development Funds.” Want to extend a transit line? No such luck. Image: North Central Texas Council of Governments Some folks on...
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Don’t Drive? It’s Getting Harder to Vote in Texas
Today is the first federal general election since the Supreme Court struck down key portions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Texas and other states have taken full advantage of their new ability to make...
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Parking Madness 2015 Elite Eight: Tampa vs. Fort Worth
It’s almost a shame that these two titans are meeting in the second round of the Parking Madness tournament, because both Tampa and Fort Worth look like they have champion potential. Yesterday,...
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Parking Madness Elite Eight: Parkersburg vs. Amarillo
There’s just one spot left in the Final Four of Parking Madness, and it’s going either to Parkersburg, West Virginia, or Amarillo, Texas. Gaze upon on these sad city spaces and despair. Then vote to...
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Parking Madness Final Four: Camden vs. Fort Worth
We started this Parking Madness tournament with 16 soulless parking craters from California to New Jersey, and you’ve narrowed it down to the Final Four: Camden, Fort Worth, Syracuse, and the very...
View ArticleIs the Lord For or Against a Texas County Road Bond? Opinions Mixed
Things are really getting heated in Montgomery County, Texas, just outside Houston, over a proposal to issue $350 million in bonds to maintain and expand roads. Like fire-and-brimstone heated. Earlier...
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The Movement to Eliminate Traffic Deaths Gains Strength in Texas Cities
Last week, 54 people stood on the steps of San Antonio’s City Hall, one for each pedestrian killed on city streets in the past year. The demonstration marked the start of the city’s Vision Zero effort,...
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Will Texas Voters Enshrine Failed Transpo Policy in the State’s Constitution?
When Texas voters go to the polls this November they will decide an issue of enormous consequence to the future of the state. Adding more lanes isn’t going to fix Texas’s transportation problems....
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Dallas Council Member: Texas Poised to “Compound Errors of the Past”
The entire Texas highway machine — suburban real estate moguls, the construction industry, the governor, and the legislature — is pushing voters to approve Prop 7, a constitutional amendment that would...
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Transit vs. Highways: Which Came Out on Top in Local Elections?
Ed Murray’s Move Seattle plan got a $900 million nod from voters yesterday. Photo: Seattle Bike Blog There were several local ballot measures with big implications for streets and transportation...
View ArticleLobbyist Holds Up Spectacular Example of the Futility of Widening Highways
Crossposted from City Observatory. Here’s a highway success story, as told by the folks who build highways. Several years ago, the Katy Freeway in Houston was a major traffic bottleneck. It was so bad...
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Texas DOT Isn’t Learning From Its Horrific Road Fatalities Calendar
Graphic: Texas DOT This calendar is published by the Texas Department of Transportation as part of its traffic safety efforts. It shows how many fatal collisions and traffic deaths happened every day...
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Highway Boondoggles: Texas State Highway 45 Southwest
The water pollution control plans for SH 45 allow for oil, grease, and other pollutants resulting from construction and use of the highway to enter the area’s surface water and groundwater. Image:...
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Caption Contest: TxDOT’s Shiny Happy People Sucking in Highway Exhaust
Your caption here. Source: TxDOT This rendering of State Highway 45 Southwest in Austin — one of 12 highway boondoggles singled out by U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group this year — inspired some mockery...
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Houston Mayor Calls for “Paradigm Shift” Away From Highway Widening
Newly elected Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner gave a remarkable speech yesterday in Austin [PDF], calling on the state to change its transportation priorities and stop pouring billions into widening...
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Highway Boondoggles: Texas State Highway 249 Extension
In a new report, Highway Boondoggles 2, U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group profile the most wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building. Today we highlight the proposed 30-mile extension of...
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