The time to talk about mobility is now
The most recent Kinder survey of Houston-area residents noted that 36% of respondents think traffic is the biggest problem facing Houston. That’s an increase from 25% of respondents last year.
And no wonder.
Houston is growing. And I don’t mean just people moving to our city. Every Monday through Friday, the population of Houston increases by 27% as people come into the city for work, shopping, recreation and more. That’s like putting another city the size of Atlanta or Nashville into Houston on a daily basis.
The historic pattern of focusing our roadway investments at the periphery of our region and concentrating on single-occupant vehicles has encouraged sprawl. And sprawl creates congestion, exacerbates flooding, hurts air quality, encourages climate change, and destroys natural habitats.
When we talk transportation, we need to be thinking not just about moving cars, but about connecting people to economic opportunity, creating great walkable places that people enjoy, attracting the next innovative workforce and even reducing flood risks on our city. We must ensure that our transportation investments create a compact, livable and sustainable city that attracts major corporations and the most talented people and corporations in the world. It is all about enhancing connectivity and getting people to their destination as quickly and safely as possible.
We must invest, as a city and as a region, in multi-modal transportation. And that is exactly what we are doing.
I recognize that streets are not just about moving people, but also about moving goods and keeping you safe. Our streets serve many purposes. Often, they are the only thing keeping water out of your home. They are also what brings the items you buy to the stores or directly to your door. It’s our job to ensure that they function efficiently and effectively in every capacity — they must be complete. Our Complete Streets program plans infrastructure improvement through a broader lens — one that looks at everything a street must do.
In the Safer Streets initiative, we’ve streamlined the way we fix sidewalks. The City has also joined Vision Zero, which seeks to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2030.
Our Bike Plan has more than 50 miles of high-comfort bikeway either in design or under construction.
The privately-funded High Speed Rail project is another opportunity for a signature transformative moment for Houston, Dallas and the region. It will be an economic multiplier for our city.
There are 1,100 railroad crossings in the region, 700 in Houston alone, that can block vehicle traffic. We need to work with railroads and grade separations that will improve safety and enhance mobility for both trains and vehicles.
Metro is a critical part of our transportation system. An upcoming bond election will ask voters for approval to borrow money to fund a number of projects, including rail and bus rapid transit, with no tax increase.
Another government agency that is partnering with the city is the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), which is revamping the I-45 Freeway through downtown and north of the city’s core. I appreciate TxDOT listening to the public and re-evaluating its plans to connect to existing roadways and how the project impacts local communities.
I’ve always said, in Houston, if we can dream it, we can do it. We must dream big. This is not the time to be incremental. If we remain where we are and do nothing in terms of transportation, that is failure. It works against residents and businesses because other cities are moving forward.
