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Houston needs better transit if we are going to continue to be an economically competitive city, and we’re falling behind our peers. Cities like Dallas, Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Los Angeles have been rapidly expanding their transit systems, and they have ambitious plans for more. In Houston, with…

Downtown Houston Got Its First “Don’t Block the Box” Sign (Christopher Andrews) Austin’s RideScout Bringing Back Failed Downtown Circulator Bus Route (KXAN) Not-for-Profit Hospital Joins Proposed Casino in Supporting Unhealthy Sprawl (Houston Chron) Georgetown Looking to Add Transit, Asking Teens What They Would Want (KXAN) Metro Votes “No” on MetroLift Outsourcing (Houston Chron) Inspectors Check North Texas Bridges for Earthquake […]

I'm well on record as saying the second downtown rail line is probably the most important piece of transportation infrastructure in the city of Dallas.  Since I've now been asked my opinion on the various routes about five times this week, I thought I might as well share my perspective.  I suspect people are seeing the pros and cons with each and there are some making it difficult to discern a preferred option. The most important thing is that it gets built because of the ripple effects it allows up and down all of the lines. Because we can't fit any more trains on the existing line through downtown means we can't fit any more trains on any of the lines, which means we can't reduce headways which is critical to convenience and ridership.  Getting it built and having multiple ways around downtown might even allow for 'new' lines.  For example, every line runs back and forth on its set line. Now think about London.

Since all of Oak Cliff is spending all of their litigious days toiling away on facebook, I though I might pose a question I raised in one of the endless and countless threads about Oak Cliff development.  It’s one that I don’t believe has an answer: We could argue that more [business owners] need to […]

“When it comes to parking, people’s mental activity drops to a lower level.”  Parking guru and recently retired professor from UCLA, Donald Shoup. —————————————- I thought it worthwhile to post this article and this story/radio piece about parking in LA and like all things urban, the counter-intuitive nature of how it really works. The first […]

On June 18, City Council took its first look at an ordinance to make it easier to build granny flats, also known as ADUs or backhouses. A granny flat is a small home on the same lot as a single-family home. They have traditionally been used to keep multi-generational families together or as an affordable option for […]