Is the Houston Metro "Beautiful?" (appointed, credit)

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

I'll take the frontage roads and the ugly strip malls that go with them. The lack of feeder roads is a pain in the backside, IMHO. I have to drive in LA and Pittsburgh several times each year, and the lack of feeder roads there drive me nuts. It removes too much of the functionality of the freeways.

For those of you who have lived in Austin, which is more functional, the 35 or Mopac? Specifically think about when you miss an exit or especially when there is a wreck.

Yes, freeways without the feeders don't have the commercial properties lining them, but you're still on a freeway (that is less functional and less convenient). If you don't like how the freeways look, don't live next to them.

When you miss an exit on 35, you take the next one and just go back. You can do that because 35 goes through the actual city of Austin where the streets are in a grid. Miss your exit on a freeway in the strip mall sprawl part of Houston and you take the next one and take multiple U turns on the feeders (which are always jam packed with traffic) to get back to where you needed to be.

[Nairobi]

Quite frankly, I wish the majority of our freeways were submerged.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

Quite frankly, I wish the majority of our freeways were submerged.

They have been.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by jm02

This thread is not about the relative functionality of freeways with and without feeders, which would be the subject of another debate. It's titled "Is the Houston Metro Beautiful?" I contend the feeder roads have made the approaches in and out of Houston pretty unattractive compared with metro areas without feeder roads. This is my personal point of view, based on travel to 48 states - quite a bit of it on interstates. It is not a fact, and some share my assessment while others do not. It would seem from your first sentence you agree with my opinion, however.

Yes, Houston would be a prettier city without the feeders and even more so without the freeways.

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

They have been.

Okay. Ha ha.

[jerbear30]

Originally Posted by jm02

Feeder roads have led to aesthetic problems in Houston. They allow for miles and miles of uninterrupted strip development and big box stores. Outside of Texas, I've noted most interstates do not have feeder roads. Instead, they have only off-ramps, where the commercial development is concentrated. In between, the highways are usually landscaped, or at least lacking commercial development. Here are a couple of examples:

I-20 just south of Atlanta's downtown: http://goo.gl/maps/8EzJa
I-80 jsut west of Sacramento's downtown: http://goo.gl/maps/76DUS
I-10 just north of Phoenix's downtown: http://goo.gl/maps/YizDn
I-90 just west of Cleveland's downtown: http://goo.gl/maps/4vF0n

No these are not particularly beautiful stretches of highway, but they are not ugly either. Now look the Gulf Freeway: http://goo.gl/maps/ncsG2. To bad Houston didn't develop all its freeways like 288 South: http://goo.gl/maps/cLWf7

Next time you're driving out of state, take a look at how they handled interstate access.

This point about feeder roads is spot-on. I've actually told my wife that there's a great country song waiting to be written about the feeder roads. They are somehow the least aesthetically impressive thing about Texas in general and the most existentially resonant. I mean, I can't get past them. I've always loved highways, btw and I think highways are gorgeous. Having grown up in what was literally a one-stoplight town, I and many of my friends held the interstate highway system in a kind of mystical esteem; it meant escape. The feeder roads (or "the frontage" as my wife calls it) are certainly fascinating architectural objects in their own right, but they are somehow very different from the freeways themselves.

[Nairobi]

Every major city I know of has feeder roads. It's feeder roads with businesses lined up along them that's mostly unique to Texas.

[crone]

Originally Posted by crono_clone

Myopia, most likely. They probably never envisioned that those feeder roads would lead to ugly strip malls. And of course, the builders of those strip malls probably don't care that they're ugly, they only care that they make money.

As an old woman, I remember when the Gulf freeway was built. It is where i learned to drive. Every Sunday, I drove to Galveston with my dad, had lunch at Gaido's then drove back. The Houston freeways were designed for retail.

In other states, when a freeway was announced, the townsfolk did everything they could to avoid an exit in their town. Houston wanted an exit at every major crossroad. They knew retail and billboards would be on the feeder. Back from the retail, apartments, then condos, then farthermost, subdivisions. It was set up to be ugly. Always has been, always will be.

The Houston city fathers were in the Villages, the hill country or France. They did not give a damn what the peasants had to see each and every time they got into their cars.

[Pine to Vine]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

Every major city I know of has feeder roads. It's feeder roads with businesses lined up along them that's mostly unique to Texas.

Take a look at the links I provided. I don't see feeder roads. I see on- and off-ramps. After living in 7 states, Texas is the only one I've lived in with them.

Here are a few more cities:
I-25 west of downtown Denver: http://goo.gl/maps/4t34j
I-95 southwest of downtown Philadelphia: http://goo.gl/maps/Tz8vV
I-5 south of downtown Seattle: http://goo.gl/maps/Dnxu8
I-70 heading into downtown Kansas City: http://goo.gl/maps/XOsZX
I-4 just south of downtown Orlando: http://goo.gl/maps/vrx60
Capitol Beltway DC: http://goo.gl/maps/rMKgK
US 52 just south of Minneapolis: http://goo.gl/maps/SJLrQ

[jerbear30]

Originally Posted by crone

As an old woman, I remember when the Gulf freeway was built. It is where i learned to drive. Every Sunday, I drove to Galveston with my dad, had lunch at Gaido's then drove back. The Houston freeways were designed for retail.

In other states, when a freeway was announced, the townsfolk did everything they could to avoid an exit in their town. Houston wanted an exit at every major crossroad. They knew retail and billboards would be on the feeder. Back from the retail, apartments, then condos, then farthermost, subdivisions. It was set up to be ugly. Always has been, always will be.

The Houston city fathers were in the Villages, the hill country or France. They did not give a damn what the peasants had to see each and every time they got into their cars.

Awesome post!