Ring Roads of the World (Houston, Dallas: neighborhoods, live in, costs)

[SouthernBoy205]

IDK for some reson I thought that there was another larger ring than Grand Parkway that would enclose it.

[DANNYY]

Originally Posted by A&M Bulldawg

Will this "ring" ever get built? Is this the Grand Parkway project or is there another larger ring than that one?

The ring they showed in the picture already exists and has existed for a good 35 years +. We like to call that ring Beltway 8. We already have the largest ring road in the world, but with Grand Parkway (SH-99) we'll only be beating ourselves here with an even larger ring.

[SouthernBoy205]

Thanks for the clear up because I was sooooo confused.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by DANNYY

The ring they showed in the picture already exists and has existed for a good 35 years +. We like to call that ring Beltway 8. We already have the largest ring road in the world, but with Grand Parkway (SH-99) we'll only be beating ourselves here with an even larger ring.

The ring they show in the pic doesn't look like 8 at all. it looks more like 6

Originally Posted by A&M Bulldawg

IDK for some reson I thought that there was another larger ring than Grand Parkway that would enclose it.

you were probably thinking of 6. 6 is a semi ring that encloses beltway 8, which encloses 610, but all of the above will be enclosed by Grand Parkway

[DANNYY]

A&M let me show you all of Houston's rings. Look for the loops in red lining. Besides Loop Highway 6, I couldn't find a map that had a red lining map for it. So just bear with me on this one.

Loop 610 (Inner Most Loop):


Loop Beltway 8 (Middle Loop):


Semi-Loop Highway 6 (Intermediate Semi-Loop): [The most outer one you'll see in this picture is Semi-Loop Highway 6]


Loop SH-99 "Grand Parkway" (Outer Most Loop- Under Construction):


^^ The segments you see on there are broken down to 11 segments for construction phase. Segment D and l-2 are already complete, with the rest finally financed and secured as of May 2010 they got the entire funds for the project and will now commence to get it completely ASAP.

[Malvie]

I didn't have any problem with the poll at all.

I agree: if Houston had mass transit to rival its road, freight rail and port infrastructure, we'd be second to none in the world.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by DANNYY

A&M let me show you all of Houston's rings.

Loop 610 (Inner Most Loop):


Loop Beltway 8 (Middle Loop):


Semi-Loop Highway 6 (Intermediate Semi-Loop): [The most outer one you'll see in this picture is Semi-Loop Highway 6]


Loop SH-99 (Outer Most Loop- Under Construction):


^^ The segments you see on there are broken down to 11 segments for construction phase. Segment D and l-2 are already complete, with the rest finally financed and secured as of May 2010 they got the entire funds for the project and will now commence to get it completely ASAP.

okay from your last map I can see that the loop they use is definately highway 6.

I can also see from your maps that Houston looks very much like an armadillo

[Newsboy]

Houston has lots of roads, but how do they look? Design, landscaping, scenery, views? Are they all straight and flat? Elevated or at ground-level? Reason I ask is, I have driven around DFW and consider their freeways rather ugly. Functional, but not real exciting visually. Atlanta's road system, on the other hand, is beautiful -- all the freeways are ultra modern and lined with trees, etc. It helps that Atlanta is so green and hilly because the freeways curve and dip a lot too, similar to Austin. Didn't know if HOU was similar or kinda boring like DFW.

The Ga. 400 tollway in Atlanta -- with MARTA trains running down the middle and tunnels through the Buckhead skyline -- is one of the most fun roads you'll ever drive on. Great road + transit combined!

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Houston has lots of roads, but how do they look? Design, landscaping, scenery, views? Are they all straight and flat? Elevated or at ground-level? Reason I ask is, I have driven around DFW and consider their freeways rather ugly. Functional, but not real exciting visually. Atlanta's road system, on the other hand, is beautiful -- all the freeways are ultra modern and in the many of the suburbs they've got really nice parkways lined with trees, etc. Ga. 400 tollway in Atlanta -- with MARTA trains running down the middle and tunnels through the Buckhead skyline -- is one of the most fun roads you'll ever drive on.

It helps that Atlanta is so green and hilly because the freeways curve and dip a lot too, similar to Austin. Didn't know if HOU was similar or kinda boring like DFW.

Houston for the most part is flat, but many of the highways are elevated.

Many of the major streets heading out of the inner loop are 4 to 6 lanes wide and almost all of them are lined with trees.

Richmond, Westheimer, Bissonnet, Memorial, Bellaire, etc are all lined with trees. Houston is really green because of all the rainfall.

many streets in the loop look like this:







the second pic is one of my favorite streets in Houston. It is between the museum district and Montrose. Five minutes from downtown. The red brick path is in the middle of the median running in the center of the street.

[DANNYY]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Houston has lots of roads, but how do they look? Design, landscaping, scenery, views? Are they all straight and flat? Elevated or at ground-level? Reason I ask is, I have driven around DFW and consider their freeways rather ugly. Functional, but not real exciting visually. Atlanta's road system, on the other hand, is beautiful -- all the freeways are ultra modern and lined with trees, etc. It helps that Atlanta is so green and hilly because the freeways curve and dip a lot too, similar to Austin. Didn't know if HOU was similar or kinda boring like DFW.

The Ga. 400 tollway in Atlanta -- with MARTA trains running down the middle and tunnels through the Buckhead skyline -- is one of the most fun roads you'll ever drive on.

Nahh Houston has changed up its aesthetics.

Like take a look at this outdated picture for example (I couldn't find a current one), see the concrete sides that are like 30 feet tall, they planted lush green plants along side it. Its very pretty seeing that in a drive now, its very green.

Here is the picture before the plants made way though:



Wait found one with the greenery along the side now:


There aren't really any good pictures taken but in real life its a lot prettier with green plants on the side with a few flowers sprouting and new looking freeway that goes below grade with overpass pedestrian bridges (4 of them) going from the above.

As for the tunnels, I wish pictures of those existed, or that I knew what they were called. We have some tunnels like that too, but I'm just not able to find picture for it at all.
And for the rail line and road combination, yeahhh Houston doesn't have that yet. But its road infrastructure is still better than Dallas's.

With Houston its a city that you have to drive in at night on roads like Katy Freeway, 290, 288, US 59 towards Downtown, below grade and the tunnels, and things like that to know how nice its road network really is. Its a hell lot better than Austin's, I go to school in Austin, and although the hills are nice, the roads just lack...