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I always thought that C&D is informational site with forums. Bit more civilized Craiglist. So people from other cities/countries can come and write their opinions so other people can benefit from it. You guys are acting like there should be just patriotic, balanced, unbiased, always keep positive style posts....
I can tell you such super positive posts are quite useless and I would say they go against the spirit of information site for non-locals. If I would be considering moving to Houston I would be looking for controversies/negatives... I can find positives myself or read about them in any city sponsored page or tourist book.
Why don't you create houstoncirclejerk.com forums for people that are overly sensitive and offended by threads here?
Thanks. As an 'out-of-towner' (actually, 'out-of-country-er'), I'm using city-data.com to find honest, subjective information prior to my move to Houston. I don't need patriotic fan boys and girls, just straight-up honesty, with unbiased and balanced views.
To me, a move over the ocean from the UK to Houston is a massive life change. I need information here to help me make it a positive move.
Thanks to everyone that contributes, I really appreciate it.
No , its not. Adding more lanes doesn't solve the problem, but since Texas is an Oil in love with state unlike mine you won't get it. LOL intill its to late. And it is my bussiness Interstates are Federal and i pay for a piece of it. LOL and also highways are not efficient Texas , my friend shows me daliy snarls form Dallas & Houston. Your bigger and better image has lost some of its steam.
Nothing in Texas can beat our highways , even though there old , some are built to Autobahn Standards, and there is some talk that the speed limit might be raised to 90mph. My friend took that picture , its 12 lanes of pavement. And thats the more narrow part , by Newark its close to 18 lanes. They tried widening it , but decided to add more tracks to the Northeast corridor which is at 8 tracks. Although they are widening the southern section , thats the only part getting widened. NJ has learned that more lanes doesn't = less or smoothier traffic.
I always thought that C&D is informational site with forums. Bit more civilized Craiglist. So people from other cities/countries can come and write their opinions so other people can benefit from it. You guys are acting like there should be just patriotic, balanced, unbiased, always keep positive style posts....
I can tell you such super positive posts are quite useless and I would say they go against the spirit of information site for non-locals. If I would be considering moving to Houston I would be looking for controversies/negatives... I can find positives myself or read about them in any city sponsored page or tourist book.
Why don't you create houstoncirclejerk.com forums for people that are overly sensitive and offended by threads here?
This is why I find this particular forum useless. I've been reading it for months and observe that WHENEVER someone writes so much as ONE sentence against the city of Houston ALL hell breaks loose. I can mosey over to the California forum and find plenty of negatives interspersed with positives and people aren't bursting veins and arteries over it either. I guess free speech/ opinion rights depend on where you live.
Nothing in Texas can beat our highways , even though there old , some are built to Autobahn Standards, and there is some talk that the speed limit might be raised to 90mph. My friend took that picture , its 12 lanes of pavement. And thats the more narrow part , by Newark its close to 18 lanes. They tried widening it , but decided to add more tracks to the Northeast corridor which is at 8 tracks. Although they are widening the southern section , thats the only part getting widened. NJ has learned that more lanes doesn't = less or smoothier traffic.
Have you seen the Katy Freeway? It's 24 lanes in some segments. Texas highways are much better than the highways in the Northeast (which are almost all tolled, too).
I didn't say "cheap"; I said "efficient." Highways aren't built for aesthetics, although incidental considerations to the issue should be taken into account. It's just the way inner city highway development occurs in Texas.
Which is why Texas cities are perceived as cities that are built cheap, suburban, tacky, and unorganized.
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I think the more recent construction of the Katy Freeway expansion in west Houston is a better example of newer highway development in inner cities within Texas. And $2.2B for construction of the expansion project certainly shouldn't be considered "cheap" by any use of the word. That project certainly trumps anything in Jersey...
I guess. I don't necessarily care for it. I would like to see the money go to both rail and road. Not just one or the other. I'm sure reconstruction was needed. But not that much. 26 lanes impresses nobody. It only satisfies the likes of Culberson and his followers.
^^I would have much rather preferred the Katy Corridor Coalition plan for the expanded I-10. It had four lanes each direction, one lane HOV each direction, and rail down the middle (also had the three lane feeder roads). Too bad Culberson was in charge. He raised hell when the light rail went overbudget, but you didn't hear a sound from his fatass when the Katy Freeway more than doubled in coast. Luckily, the support columns on the Katy Freeway were built to be able to hold a commuter rail train, so we'll see. I doubt the tollway gets ripped up.
To the OP about "pretty"...we were lured from Houston to a "pretty" place-Wyoming. We lasted 4 months. It was cold, the people were downright dreadful, the snow stuck around, and I couldn't find a decent pick of produce to make a good meal. The cost of living was ridiculous and the opportunities were non existent.
We came back to Houston for the friends, family, people, opportunity, housing, and affordability. Let's not forget great food! We can always visit "pretty" but making our home where opportunities are abound and the affordability factor is high was top on our list. Our 2nd grader dropped from a 97 in math to an 81, just being in a WY school for 4 months...no math focus.
We're originally from here and we thought we'd like WY...I should've known when we pulled up to our new house in WY and saw the "God hates Texas" stickers all over the cars.
We're home and here to stay...I'll take my "pretty" on my weekend trips to the Hill Country or vacays to Florida. I love Houston and all that it has to offer. And for the record, I'm glad I learned to drive in Houston-I feel like I can drive with the best of them!
@Nexis4Jersey:
While your post implies a concern for the environment – a concern which I share – it’s obvious that you don’t have clue when it comes to sensible solutions for our current day transportation infrastructure, as well as what can be realistically implemented in the future. Not to mention the basics of road design. I grew up on L.I. and in North Jersey, so it’s not difficult for me to compare and contrast.
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Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey
Texas seems to love big freeways and highways and they do not seem to learn for other parts of the country where that hasn't worked.
This seems to imply that other places have built state of the art freeways, learned from their “mistakes,” and subsequently followed more enlightened avenues. Where, exactly, has that occurred? The answer is nowhere. Only the Northeast Corridor of this country has well-developed mass transit options, along with, to a more limited extent, Chicagoland and the Bay Area. This infrastructure is by no means visionary; it is the result of high density development wherein mass transit can satisfy many of its resident’s transportation needs.
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Eventually when another oil crisis hits they will wake up and smell the fresh air and build more Railways and Transit in there cities and dense suburbs.
We’re not about to tear down vast swaths of the nation and start over to suit this model, despite the naïveté of too many posters on CD’s forums (most notably, General U.S.) What will happen is to make our infrastructure work with newer and better fuel-efficient (and eventually fuel-replacement) technologies.
Therefore, well engineered roadways are key to our continued development. TxDOT historically has the largest budget of any transportation agency in the U.S., and when Texas builds and refurbs freeways, it employs state-of-the-art engineering that is second to none. Redevelopment like the Katy Freeway (I-10 west of downtown) and the multi-level stack @ Beltway 8 are engineering marvels, studied by transportation agencies worldwide.
The rail “solutions” of the Northeast are hardly a solution. Do you think that overhead electrical power (such as the ALP-46 locomotives on the NE Corridor Line) or 3rd-rail power (PATH, the NYC subways), have no impact on the grid? LOL, the impact is massive. Moreover, the rest of NJ Transit’s lines use diesel locomotives. The environmental impact of the old GP40FH-2 engine, or even the newer PL42-AC, is significant, and is not offset much by ridership/vehicular ratios. That’s why NJ is studying biodiesel alternatives to offset the problem. In fact, clean diesel (such as VW/Audi’s TDI) and emerging biodiesel are the best short-term solution we have; far better than the inane hybrids with their toxic, landfill-destined LiIon batteries. Energy giants like Exxon-Mobil, headquartered here in Texas, will be at the forefront of emerging technologies. Texas, the sunbelt, and most of the nation will not simply wither away.
Still, NJ, like most places, is heavily automobile dependent. The difference is most of your roads are antiquated. Ahh, the Jersey Jughandle…the only place in the world where you regularly have to turn right in order to turn left. Great engineering and use of land there. And the famous Jersey Traffic Circles, which have no rhyme or reason, and where right of way is determined by – get this – “historical precedent.” The substantial dangers of this design are inherent. Furthermore, roads like the Turnpike and Parkway, among many others, cut giant swaths into the landscape, and carry the ecological impact that goes with it. What were you saying about Texas learning from other parts of the country again?
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What is up with those 5 story+ stack interchanges what a waste of money. You couldn't build a low - level interchange?
No, stacks facilitate high speed traffic flow. Low-level interchange? You mean like cloverleafs? They do exactly the opposite, are considered 1st generation, obsolete engineering, and are being phased out. They inhibit safety and traffic flow. Yet, NJ still uses cloverleaf designs, even in the majority of its onramps. Nothing like slowing people down in a situation where rapid acceleration is needed.
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Nothing in Texas can beat our highways
LMAO. Virtually every road in Texas beats your highways. Ask any engineer, or anybody who’s driven extensively in both places. In the future, before you cast stones at other areas, you might be well served by actually studying the issue at hand, and concentrating on doing something to help your own area’s rather abysmal transportation infrastructure.
Agree with paradoxcop - but this is another issue.
As a Realtor, I normally don't enter I hate Houston/I love Houston threads. It's personal for people - some hate it and can't wait to get out of here. Others love it instantly. Still others don't like it so much at first, and then Houston starts to grow on them. I was the third category many years ago.
What is absurd is coming on a city's forum and saying the equivalent of "I just visited your city and almost vomited" and then becoming hurt and "aghast" when people take offense. Really? You really can't understand the reaction? Come on, you know you did it to stir the pot. Otherwise, you would have just said there was a lot to like but you were feeling overwhelmed by the freeways - and asked for people's thoughts on that.
That being said - now I will venture where I normally don't go: Houston has a lot to offer, especially with the comparable favorable economic climate here, and due to that, will experience unbelievable growth in the next few years. The rate of growth will not be something most Houstonians will be happy about. Given that we are due to be overwhelmed with new people, we would like to be able to like the ones moving here, that are going to crowd in on us a little. People who don't like it here need to know: we don't want you here. We are not begging you to come. Just stay where you are and feel vastly superior in whatever it is that makes you feel superior. We won't miss you.
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