Looks like the Grand Pkwy will be completed (Houston, Dallas: condo, transfer)

[team3a]

all 4 Grand Parkway!!!!

[CoderGeek]

Originally Posted by ssgmun5000

Exactly its all about compromising. If people want to live further out cause its a so called better area then deal with traffic. If they want something affordable closer without much traffic then buy in a so callled bad area.

Huh?

I moved to South Katy to get away from the traffic.

I work near Greenway Plaza. I lived in Galleria before I moved to South Katy.

I now live 22 miles FARTHER AWAY, but my commute is only 5 minutes longer because there's less traffic on the highways than there is in the urban streets in Galleria.

As for public transit (which I never used), it would be a 30 minute bus ride to my old apartment in Galleria. My car ride to South Katy averages 30 minutes.

[CoderGeek]

Originally Posted by EM1956

It's not always because people want to live in the suburbs- many factors come into play-

Mainly cost of housing and schools (if you have kids).

You tell me where you can buy a new or refurbished 1700 sq foot house close in for 150,000 in a decent neighborhood?

The burbs are affordable for a large portion of the population.

Don't forget not wanting to be dealing with the perpetual flooding that is the east side of town.

[CoderGeek]

Originally Posted by txstate

Another circle around Houston brilliant, The G parkway is actually useful especially from Sugar Land to Katy extend it to 290 and I will be ok.

Wasn't the I-10 to US-290 portion being fast-tracked due to the congestion on 290 (and the fact widening of 290 wont even begin till 2010)? Granted, they are making it a Toll Road... hopefully it wont cost as much to go through the middle of nowhere on Tollway 99 as it does to go from I-10 to 290 on BW8.

[West Side Houston]

Originally Posted by westres1

This is copied and pasted from the Chronicle article about worst stimulus projects one of which is the Grand Pkwy:

Among examples of abusive spending are four in Texas, including one that has broad bipartisan support in Houston.
Here are Coburn's Texas "worsts," accompanied by the senator's commentary:
1. Texas Department of Transportation plans to spend $181 million on a new road opposed by local environmentalists. Grand Parkway outside of Houston has caused controversy among local residents upset that a new road would devastate Katy Prairie, the last vestige of a large undeveloped green space.
The highway will commence the construction of a fourth ring-road around Houston and encourage the urban sprawl opposed by the Obama Administration by enabling the construction of a new development called Bridgeland.


I dont think we need another ring around Houston but if we continue to grow I guess we will have to have it or face more gridlock.
Does anyone know if it will be a toll at some point?

BUILD IT NOW! Yes prairies this and that. That is the price for living in a major metro area. It is a pain to drive local on Fry north to get to the 290. The Grand Parkway is much needed here!

[mboyle1988]

Originally Posted by ssgmun5000

Exactly its all about compromising. If people want to live further out cause its a so called better area then deal with traffic. If they want something affordable closer without much traffic then buy in a so callled bad area.

um...or you could just build a decent highway system and people could live farther out with a better area and no more traffic...

[EasilyAmused]

Originally Posted by mboyle1988

um...or you could just build a decent highway system and people could live farther out with a better area and no more traffic...

Out doesn't mean better.
Also, farther out is in OTHER counties. We can't be responsible for what other counties won't pay for. Harris County (other than 290) has a massive and farely new freeway system.

[ssgmun5000]

Just got back from my honeymoon in spain. The transit systems in Madrid and Barcelona make me just shake my head when comparing it to houston. It was pretty cool that I could get to wherever I needed to go without a car. This grand pkwy is a joke.

[Malvie]

You're not going to stop the growth. You're not going to contain it. Attempts to do that elsewhere have failed. The thing to do is get out ahead of it with projects like the Grand Parkway.

When I lived in Little Rock, a Judge blocked the AHTD from widening a freeway, stating that the widening of the freeway would encourage "white flight" and therefore result in less integration in schools.

There was no reduction in "white flight", the suburbs grew exponentially, and the traffic came to a standstill. By blocking the expansion, she cost the State MILLIONS more dollars, because when they finally DID get to expand the freeway, the land values where so high and the engineering problems so bad (due to growth of business along the highway), not to mention the pain involved for the drivers (commuters and otherwise, this was on IH 30 south and IH 40 West), that it was a colossal boondoggle.

You can't tell people where to live here. This is the United States, not Red China. People live where they will.

And several posting on this thread hate me because of my opinions on children, but here's one that will surprise them: if a couple wishes to live in Fulshear, or Brookshire, or Brenham, or Waverly, because they want "a better life" for themselves and their children, and if they are willing to make the drive every day (shudder), and as long as there is a builder willing to build them a house in a subdivision they can afford, who am I (or who are you) to tell them they can't do that?

There is no shortage of builders and there is no shortage of people looking for a better life. Perhaps the aforementioned couple can't AFFORD to live in Bunker Hill Village; perhaps they don't WISH to live of off Broadway around Hobby Airport, with the urban blight; perhaps they don't WISH to live in a 2 bedroom townhouse because that's all they can pay for. Perhaps they prefer to live in Brookshire, even though they know they're going to drive an hour or more each way to work.

As I say, with all the above circumstances, the cities are going to keep growing. You can either get ahead of the curve (like building the Grand Parkway NOW, while the land is still "affordable"---not cheap, but more affordable than land, say, on the West Loop---and before the infrastructure is built up around it, or you can wait till the need is critical and then start to figure out how to fix it.

Planning is better.

[EasilyAmused]

The money would be better spent creating trains in, rather that roads going around.