Infrastructure - Austin vs. Houston vs. Dallas vs. San Antonio (Fort Worth: insurance, credit)

[SweethomeSanAntonio]

San Antonio freeway system website. In depth look at SA's freeway network.

The San Antonio Area Freeway System

[testmo]

houston has about a third of the mileage of light rail than dallas has, but nearly the same ridership. overall the rail in houston is more successful. it concentrates on the core of the city vs the dart which tries to serve and concentrate on bringing people outside of the city into it

[lepoisson]

I think the problem with Austin is that it's really supposed to be a medium sized college town and state capital. It should have 400,000 residents MAX. But since the population is more than double that, things haven't been doing so well.

Places like Houston and Dallas have had large populations since the 70s and were designed to have large populations. Back in the 70s, Austin's population was less than 300,000!

Imagine what would happen if Boulder, CO's population shot up from around 100K to 300K in only 10 years. Things would be insane!

[TheOverdog]

According to traffic measuring sites, Austin & Houston have the worst traffic in TX, but both are way below (ie, their traffic is better) their peers size-wise.

For example, Houston has the 12th worst traffic in the US, but Houston is the 5th largest metro in the US.

Dallas has the equivalent traffic to Baltimore, which has 50% of it's city population and only 50% of it's metro population, and will soon be passed in terms of traffic congestion by the RGV for 3rd worst in TX.

San Antonio traffic is comparable to minor college towns.

So Texas road infrastructure is way oversized compared to most states in the US, and mostly accounts for it's lack of rail and poor bus ridership.

[DTXman34]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

So Texas road infrastructure is way oversized compared to most states in the US, and mostly accounts for it's lack of rail and poor bus ridership.

Amen! Also add in lack of pedestrian friendly infrastructure.

[Yellow pool of piddle]

Originally Posted by Logicist027

So Texas is known for its massive growth rates. However I have been hearing complaints (especially from Austin) about the infrastructure being too far behind to keep up.

So here is the question - which of the large Texas cities is doing the best in terms of keeping up with infrastructure? You can compare streets, traffic, public transportation, Water/Sewer, Garbage/recycling whatever.

You can trust that any government official will waste hard earned tax payer money. Especially those that utilize the term infractructure. Unfotunately, after electing them, never in the history of mankind has any lawyer done the right thing by spending as little as possible. That is the reason so many folks today are uprooting themselves from other states and moving to Texas.

[dollaztx]

Originally Posted by testmo

houston has about a third of the mileage of light rail than dallas has, but nearly the same ridership. overall the rail in houston is more successful. it concentrates on the core of the city vs the dart which tries to serve and concentrate on bringing people outside of the city into it

Dallas is no shining example and should take a closer look at Houston's riders per station, but don't forget that the metro also has The T, and DCTA. Adding all rail up in DFW puts it at 120K according to the latest report.

[Gunion Powder]

Considering the massive size of the urban area, Houston's rail system is just too little too late. DART can still take you many more places by rail. That counts for a lot in my book.

[Yellow pool of piddle]

Originally Posted by testmo

houston has about a third of the mileage of light rail than dallas has, but nearly the same ridership. overall the rail in houston is more successful. it concentrates on the core of the city vs the dart which tries to serve and concentrate on bringing people outside of the city into it

DART didn't muck things up by running its lines to places that were already working. Houston did. For example, DART didn't run its line along Jefferson and Zang Boulevards in North Oak Cliff. Houston ran its line in the vicinity of the straight corridors of Fannin and South Main. If a corridore is already working, you don't run a lightrail track down it. Instead, you enhance it by running the line parallel to it a few blocks over.

[Spade]

TBH, I think if Houston built the entire University Line along with the Post Oak line, it would surpass the DART ridership. Houston's rail system is really a tram though. An Urban transit system. Won't call it a tram in the US but Europeans that visit or look at videos of Houston's rail system says it is comparable to the tram systems in Europe. I think the tram shouldn't go outside the loop for right now. If it does, only go only a few miles outside of the loop. For areas outside the loop, I wish Houston could look at HRT technology. IMO, Houston would actually make a HRT system work better than Dallas.