Traffic Congestion in U.S.: Houston ranks 6th worst

How in the heck do they measure "people per vehicle"??

One of the things I will never forget from a priest who came to teach a catechism class in my church was "why does everyone ride ONE per car in the United States, particularly in Houston? No wonder you have such huge traffic problems here." He's right... there are lots of mass transit options in many of the largest urban areas... but Houston is barely getting a rail. We're young in that category and hopefully some of the congestion will decrease because of it.

 

DC seriously has the worst traffic because it was not designed for automobile traffic in the slightest and the drivers are all insane.

 

No way Houston is worse than Chicago. Just the 90/94-55-290 highway bottleneck area alone is bad enough to put it as top 5.

 

At least the cities worse than houston have a decent public transport system. Even LA has a pretty decent subway.

 

I remember one episode of Modern Marvels talking about traffic and how on a freeway out in Cali one inattentive driver could cause huge backups. They also commented that Houston's freeway designs and electronic alert signs are very efficient.

 

Houston has the best freeway system. Stay hatin A&M

 

Slate is pushing for more tollways?

 

More highways does not solve the problem. Better transit options are the solution. Trains, subways, monorails, ferries, etc. For extremely congested areas, light rail is okay but not as efficient an option for riders. Bus rapid transit is a joke and buses are the biggest joke.

 

did someone say monorail?

Spoiler

 

i still can't believe we dont have at least ONE FREAKING RAIL that takes passengers in from the katy/pearland/southwest/woodlands area.

what do we do instead..oh ya ADD MORE LANES so more dumbass drivers can take up the left lane going 45mph.

 

Let us look at the options for transport:
1. Subways: not feasible in Houston because of flood zones
2. Taxis: Houston is too wide spread as a city, making this option not realistic
3. Buses: Express Buses are fine, but the local buses are a total joke
4. Light Rail: cool, but too small of an area with limited efficacy
5. Rail: I would love for the rail lines to prop up around Houston, but how many people would actually use the train???. If people use the train, they would be forced to take local buses in Downtown Houston and around the town. As a result, the Taxis industry would see a spike in service and demand

However with all this being said, people love cars here(most folks have atleast 2), and the Auto industry keeps churning out new vehicles here in the city. And in our city, auto is king. So for now, our state and city will continue to try repairing the roads, bc that is the only mode of transport that people care for...

 

From freakonomics

Don’t get me wrong, auto travel has tremendous individual benefits, but as I’ve written in the past, collectively we overindulge in it because drivers create all sorts of costs that are borne by society and for which they don’t directly pay (e.g. pollution, congestion, much of the cost of accidents, and road damage). Slap a few curves on a graph, and it’s easy to see that society would be better off if we factored these into the price of driving.

 

I know rite. Pretty racist.

 

That would be one huge-ass rail.

 

yeah, i don't get why so many idiots drive in nyc. i have a car but i don't use it much, just shuttling the boys to ball games (some of which are in jersey, long island, upstate, etc.) and getting the h out of d. the subway is great, without it this city would be uninhabitable.

 

I always love how they talk about having people pay to use the roadways. As a student in economics, I can understand the theory behind it, but in practice, I believe something like that would result in a situation in which people are paying to sit in line. I'd rather not pay if I'm going to have to sit in line. Traffic is the result of a fundamentally flawed system that will never be addressed.