Recent Streetsblog TEXAS posts about Highway Expansion

Houston’s Big Chance to Turn Back the Tide of Car Traffic

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 29, 2016 | No Comments

TxDOT’s $7 billion plan for downtown Houston may tear down the Pierce Elevated Freeway while expanding I-45. Some civic leaders question why more resources won’t be devoted to transit. Image: TxDOT via Swamplot There’s a lot riding on Texas DOT’s $7 billion plan for downtown Houston freeways. TxDOT has been working for more than a decade on a plan [...]

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4 Ways Road Builders Game the Numbers to Justify Highways

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 23, 2016 | No Comments

The people who make the case for highways often present themselves as unbiased technicians, simply providing evidence to an audience subject to irrational bias. Forecasts said motorists would make 21,000 trips per day on Greenville’s Southern Connector, a public-private toll road. In real life they made fewer than 9,000. Map via Toll Road News But traffic forecasting is not a neutral, dispassionate exercise. It [...]

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Clinton Pledges to Make a Big Infrastructure Push in Her First 100 Days

By Angie Schmitt | May 25, 2016 | No Comments

The industry groups behind last week’s “Infrastructure Week” campaign got exciting news today when presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton announced she’s going to make a big $275 billion “infrastructure” push in her first 100 days. Photo: Gabe Skidmore via Flickr An anonymous Clinton aide told the Washington Post: This proposal would represent the most significant increase in infrastructure investment [...]

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Anthony Foxx Wants to Repair the Damage Done By Urban Highways

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 30, 2016 | No Comments

During the first two decades of constructing the Interstate Highway System, almost half a million households were forced to leave their homes. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is offering a surprisingly honest appraisal of America’s history of road construction this week, with a high-profile speaking tour that focuses on the damage that highways caused in black urban neighborhoods. U.S Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx spoke [...]

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The Complete Case Against Highway Widening

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 2, 2016 | No Comments

Detroit in 1949 versus today. Images: AtDetroit.net Michigan DOT wants to spend $1 billion rebuilding and widening I-75 to Detroit’s sprawling northern suburbs, at the expense of the city and close-in suburbs. Royal Oak, a walkable suburb that borders the city, is not having it. The City Council passed a resolution unanimously this week officially opposing the widening [...]

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Sober Non-Partisan Analysis: America Wastes a Ton of Money on Highways

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 24, 2016 | No Comments

Photo: Dhanix/Wikipedia A good deal of the $46 billion the federal government pours into highway spending each year is going to waste, according to a new Congressional Budget Office report [PDF]. The conclusion won’t surprise regular Streetsblog readers, but it’s the source that’s interesting. The CBO is not an advocacy group or an ideologically-minded think tank. It’s a non-partisan budget watchdog charged [...]

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