Punching Above Its Class -- Austin Traffic

From Urban Returns

July 9, 2009

The Texas Transportation Institute has issued its annual report on congestion in American cities. As usual, Austin doesn't do well, punching well above its class. Tthe average Austin traveler experienced an annual delay of 39 hours in 2007. That's up from 32 hours in 1997, although no worse than 2006.

Ryan Avent puts the Austin figures in perspective:

The average traveler in the New York metro area faces 44 hours wasted per year, for instance, while the average traveler in Los Angeles loses 70 hours per year to congestion, even though New York’s metropolitan population is much, much larger than LA’s. More interesting still, Austin and Raleigh aren’t that far behind New York with 39 and 34 hours wasted annually, despite the fact that both metro areas have less than two million people while greater New York is home to 20 million people.

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Fort Worth Becoming a Biking Mecca

From 360 Blogs

By: Jason Whaley Tuesday June 16, 2009

An interesting read on the future development of a cycling-friendly Fort Worth. …

When you think of the best bicycling cities in the U.S., Fort Worth probably doesn’t spring to mind. But there are some changes coming. Hundreds of miles of new bike lanes, “road diets” and a proposed streetcar system could fundamentally change the way people think about getting around town there.

Fort Worth is one of the fastest-growing cities in America, and Streetsblog Network member blog Fort Worthology has been doing a great job of documenting the challenges that growth poses. Blogger Bike Friendly Oak Cliff of Dallas has an interview with Don Koski, one of the planners who is helping shape Fort Worth’s streetscape. He talked about the role of transit-oriented development, how to incorporate bikes into road design from the beginning, and why Fort Worth isn’t too hot for bike commuting.

In Fort Worth we are planning and developing more mixed-use centers and urban villages and redeveloping and infilling downtown and other neighborhoods near downtown. We are also planning for higher-density development along existing and future commuter rail stations and potential streetcar lines. Making these areas and the city as a whole more accessible by bicycle is consistent with these plans and visions.

Regarding temperature, I don’t buy the argument that people won’t bike because it’s too hot/cold/wet/etc. Look at the cities that have the highest bicycle commute rates in the country: Portland (wet), Minneapolis (cold), Seattle (wet), and Tucson (hot). Certainly there are many cyclists who won’t bike for transportation purposes when it’s hot, but there are other ways to address that, like by promoting the provision of shower and change facilities at major employers. In fact, I would say Fort Worth has great potential as a bicycling city: relatively flat, decent street block pattern, great trail system to which to make connections, great cycling weather 8 months out of the year, etc.

While we don’t yet have quantitative data, we definitely feel that bicycling is beginning to take off as a mode of transportation in Fort Worth. When gas rose to $4 a gallon a year ago, bicycles began showing up all over, and even with the cost of gas relieved somewhat, anecdotally we believe the numbers are still higher than they’ve been in a long time. For a long time Fort Worth has had a number of substantial bike clubs primarily interested in cycling for recreation. We believe a good piece of that advocacy has crossed over into a call to make the city’s transportation network more accommodating of cyclists as well.

Dallas barely sneaks ahead for 8th place in population

San Diego dips in rankings
By Lori Weisberg
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
2:00 a.m. July 1, 2009

As population rankings go, San Diego's descent this decade has been swift. First it was Phoenix that knocked the city down a notch from its No. 6 berth, and a few years later along came San Antonio, dislodging it from No. 7. Now, Texas has struck again.

By a margin of fewer than 600 people, Dallas has bragging rights as the nation's eighth-largest city, pushing San Diego to No. 9, according to population estimates released today by the Census Bureau.

As of July 2008, San Diego's population stood at 1,279,329, compared with Dallas' count of 1,279,910. Not since the 1970s has San Diego been ranked as the ninth-largest city.
But Dallas may not be able to gloat for long. San Diego's population last year grew by 1.5 percent — faster than Dallas' 1 percent, suggesting that America's Finest City could easily recapture eighth place if growth continues at a healthy rate.

Credit Dallas officials with last year successfully challenging the Census Bureau's estimate of their city's population by documenting nearly a decade of building-permit activity.

The result is that the bureau's latest estimates show the city's population jumping substantially over the past several years. That means, unbeknownst to Dallas and San Diego, the two had switched places two years earlier.

“Six hundred, that's a small, small difference,” observed demographer Ed Shafer of the San Diego Association of Governments. “San Diego could easily switch back next year. A 1.5 percent growth rate is pretty good.”

As far as Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert is concerned, it's not hard to understand why his city is moving up in the population rankings. Its business climate, he said, is hospitable to companies, its cost of living is reasonable, downtown is enjoying a renaissance, and the city is close to completing a huge arts complex.

“Yes, we're a little short on oceans and mountains, but our quality of life more than makes up for it,” Leppert added.

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The Future of Fort Worth

From Bike Friendly Oak Cliff
June 15, 2009

As we noted in a recent article, Fort Worth has unveiled an incredibly progressive infrastructure plan based on a people-first model. 400+ miles of bike lanes, bus only lanes, streetcars, and “road diets” are being planned throughout the city with an ambitious timeline for implementation. To help pull the project together, the city hired Don Koski, an experienced planner from the Twin Cities area (ranked in the top 10 for North American bike friendly communities). BFOC was able to catch up with Don to find out more details about Fort Worth’s bold new initiatives in planning:

First of all, thank you for taking the time to talk with us. Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

I’m a native of Minnesota and spent all but the last 4 years of my life in Minnesota and Wisconsin. I’ve been in the transportation planning field for over 10 years, including stints with state and metropolitan governments in Wisconsin and Minnesota, with Dallas County Public Works, and now with Fort Worth for two and a half years. I have a lot of experience in the planning of bicycle and pedestrian transportation systems and the development of bicycle and pedestrian transportation projects. Bicycle and pedestrian planning has always just been one of the many duties that I have had, along with arterial street system planning, project identification and prioritization, capital program development, and others. I jumped at the opportunity in Fort Worth because of the tremendous challenges and opportunities the city has with its rapid pace of growth and evolving development strategies. I was intrigued by Fort Worth’s walkable downtown, investment in mixed-use urban villages, relatively unconstrained growth potential, and interest in improving its bicycle and pedestrian transportation systems.

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How urban can Houston become?

Big changes to our development code loom, but some worry flooding, parking and other problems will follow
By MIKE SNYDERCopyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
June 28, 2009, 10:44PM

Density hasn’t been kind to Cottage Grove, a small neighborhood with narrow streets, few sidewalks, poor drainage and scarce parking for the owners of its many new homes and their guests.

Like many neighborhoods inside Loop 610, Cottage Grove in recent years has experienced a flurry of construction of large townhomes that loom over 80-year-old cottages next door. Two or three dwellings crowd sites where one house stood previously. Streets are cluttered with vehicles parked every which way. Water stands in the streets after heavy rains.

“It was shocking to see this jewel of a neighborhood in this condition,” said former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy, a senior fellow with the nonprofit Urban Land Institute who toured Cottage Grove two years ago. “It was about the ugliest thing I’d ever seen, to be honest with you.”

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TX Smart Growth and Houston Urbanism

by Tory Gattis
http://houstonstrategies.blogspot.com/

In case you missed it, Governor Perry vetoed a smart growth bill that came out of the recent legislature (Houston Tomorrow, Kuff, HRG). Setting aside all of the negative impacts that have come from smart growth plans elsewhere (the CA housing bubble, among others), and as relatively toothless as it was, I roughly agree with Perry and the Austin Contrarian that it was a misguided attempt to impose a state solution on what is fundamentally a local problem.

Where I disagree somewhat with AC is his comment on TXDoT and community control of their transportation. While the agency has run a bit roughshod, transportation is fundamentally a network that connects places, and that means it needs a master architect with control rather than every locality going their own way. Think about how master-planned communities prefer cul-de-sacs over street grids - nice for residents, totally unhelpful for people trying to pass through. Imagine that approach on a larger scale. Cities decide they don't like pass-through traffic so they constrict incoming boundry roads to 2-lanes - or worse put big tolls on them. Imagine if Bellaire could decide they don't like the 610 loop and they tore down the segment inside their city limits? Everybody wants the big infrastructure somewhere else - NIMBYism run amok is what we'd get. TXDoT has to have the power to break through those NIMBY barriers, even if it's not always pretty.

You might have also caught the Chronicle's front page story today on coming changes to our development code. Given the success of what we've seen inside the Loop, I'm all for expanding it out to the Beltway. But I agree refinements might help. Requiring some minimal guest parking is prudent. Make the new higher-density developments retain more runoff and drain it more slowly to prevent flooding. A simple barrel or underground tank linked to the gutter system should do it. If trees are removed, require the developer to sponsor new equivalent greenery coverage on site or elsewhere in the neighborhood (street medians, bayou edges, parks, etc.). These are relatively minor costs that would mitigate most of the issues.

Work begins on Denton County's A-train commuter line

12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, July 1, 2009
By WENDY HUNDLEY / The Dallas Morning News whundley@dallasnews.com

LEWISVILLE – Preparations for the A-train rail line – Denton County's long-awaited foray into commuter rail – finally began this week.

Workers began unloading 20-ton lengths of steel track in Lewisville and Lake Dallas along the route of the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. The 1,600-foot lengths of steel will form the backbone for the new 21-mile railway that is expected to be completed by December 2010.

"This is the first evidence that real progress is taking place," said Dee Leggett, a spokeswoman for the Denton County Transportation Authority, which is managing the project.

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