Why City Design is Important (and Why I Hate Houston)

I guess Houston is the poster boy for sprawl? But Atlanta and Austin, for example, are actually less densely populated.

 

I haven't been to Lake Conroe in a coon's age, but Travis, as @tinman's image shows very well, is getting incredibly crowded, especially during the summer months. Still beats Conroe, but Lake Buchanan is far better. It's always been loads better for sailing, of course. Travis is not really the right kind of lake for it, unless you're on a Sunfish or something like it, but Buchanan, as I'm sure you know, is a great sailing lake. Sort of like a wide open bay, but with areas in the upper lake that are fun to explore if you have a boat with a motor, or a canoe and some muscles. Heck, I haven't been there in a long time, so it could be very developed, for all I know.

 

The ugly sprawl has something to do with it. Getting from GWB to anywhere else, you get at least 10-15 minutes of uninterrupted urban dirt and shrub patches. Austin's highways are poorly planned to the point where tourists aren't going anywhere past Hyde Park and that plays with perception.

 

Yea… I think how ugly the frontage of Houston’s freeways play a part. However I think Houston has one of the best freeway systems in the country with its hub and spoke model. There’s lot of traffic, but it moves. I hate driving in Austin or DFW moreso during rush hour.

 

Austin is the worst of both worlds. Absolute garbage public transit, garbage road infrastructure, and massive urban sprawl relative for its size as a city.

 

Houston developed like a mutant starfish while Austin developed mostly north and south with only a few roads to the wealthy, western hill country.

I got family in Steiner Ranch in the hills…. That’s a tough commute.