Boondoggle: A Texas-Sized mess of a highway plan for Houston
June 24th, 2019
June 17, 2019 - Opinion - Gideon Weissman and Matthew Casale -
Houston expands a highway through its center, for a staggering $7 billion
In this year’s installment of its annual “Highway Boondoggles” report, Gideon Weissman of Frontier Group and Matthew Casale of U.S. PIRG Education Fund deliver a stark warning about the billions of dollars states spend on unnecessary highways that fracture our cities, deprive transit of scarce funds, and pollute our environment. Below is the second of nine installments detailing case studies of these harmful roadways: a massive highway project in Houston that would displace residents and destroy businesses, while sucking billions of dollars from transportation priorities.
Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, is fast-growing and sprawling, and as of 2012 had more highway lane-miles per person than all but two cities in the country. The city’s over-reliance on cars has created big problems for residents. Long trips on congested highways mean that Houston workers have America’s second-most expensive commutes.
The metro area’s roads are also the deadliest in the nation, and according to the Houston Chronicle, the “death toll is the equivalent of three fully loaded 737s crashing each year at Houston’s airports, killing all aboard.” Vehicle pollution is also harming air quality in Houston, which in 2019 was ranked ninth-worst in the country for high smog days by the American Lung Association.
Read more: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2019/06/19/highway-boondoggles-lone-star-states-texas-sized-mess/
Houston expands a highway through its center, for a staggering $7 billion
In this year’s installment of its annual “Highway Boondoggles” report, Gideon Weissman of Frontier Group and Matthew Casale of U.S. PIRG Education Fund deliver a stark warning about the billions of dollars states spend on unnecessary highways that fracture our cities, deprive transit of scarce funds, and pollute our environment. Below is the second of nine installments detailing case studies of these harmful roadways: a massive highway project in Houston that would displace residents and destroy businesses, while sucking billions of dollars from transportation priorities.
Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, is fast-growing and sprawling, and as of 2012 had more highway lane-miles per person than all but two cities in the country. The city’s over-reliance on cars has created big problems for residents. Long trips on congested highways mean that Houston workers have America’s second-most expensive commutes.
The metro area’s roads are also the deadliest in the nation, and according to the Houston Chronicle, the “death toll is the equivalent of three fully loaded 737s crashing each year at Houston’s airports, killing all aboard.” Vehicle pollution is also harming air quality in Houston, which in 2019 was ranked ninth-worst in the country for high smog days by the American Lung Association.
Read more: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2019/06/19/highway-boondoggles-lone-star-states-texas-sized-mess/