Tag: Traffic

Apartments
07/22/09 9:21am

Rejected Again: The Ashby Highrise’s Latest Failing Grade

by
Boulevard Oaks, Condos, Development Regulations, Highrises, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Southampton, Traffic
44 Comments

Wondering what’s been going on with the Ashby Highrise? Developer Matthew Morgan tells the River Oaks Examiner that Buckhead Development intends to respond to “the city’s attempts to reach an agreement” with a new submission for the proposed 23-story residential tower on Bissonnet, next to Southampton.

But the city rejected the highrise’s plans again yesterday . . . for the 10th time. The city said its own analysis showed the project as currently proposed would result in an “F” level of traffic at the corner of Shepherd and Bissonnet:

However, “A significant reduction in peak-hour trips, including appropriate trip offsets, could have a potential to address heightened concerns,” a city engineer, Mark L. Loethen, wrote in his comments.

Computing traffic level involves a formula that rates intersection flow from “A” (no traffic) to “F” (very slow).

The rejected plans were submitted April 7, making the three months until they were returned to the developers unusually long.

Rendering of proposed Ashby Highrise, 1717 Bissonnet: Buckhead Investment Partners

, , , , , , , , , ,
Comments
07/17/09 3:07pm

Comment of the Day: Freeway Traffic Backups Bring the Customers

by
Freeways and Toll Roads, Quicklink, Retail, Signage, Strip Centers, Traffic, Upper Kirby
No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: FREEWAY TRAFFIC BACKUPS BRING THE CUSTOMERS “I visited the store the first weekend it was open, and overheard the general manager talking about how much more foot traffic the store is getting. He stated the obvious, which I’m surprised no one has commented on yet–think of the hundreds of thousands of people who are stuck in traffic every day on the elevated portion of 59 across from the store. The store’s sign is eye-level to those commuters (whereas it’s actually harder to see the stores on ground level), and you gotta think at least some of them are going to be interested in the store’s wares. Compare that to a low-profile location on Portwest that probably gets 1/10000th the traffic of 59. This is a rare case where being on the second floor of a strip center actually helps a company in Houston.” [Triprotic, commenting on The Finest Strip-Center Recital Hall in Houston]

, , , , , , ,
East Downtown
05/18/09 5:07pm

Getting Around the East Downtown Soccer Blockstopper

by
Streets, Traffic, Transportation
3 Comments

Worried the Dynamo soccer stadium planned for the superblock between Texas, Dowling, Hutchins, and Walker is gonna block traffic between Downtown and the East End? Citizen rail designer Christof Spieler solves the tangle:

There are two parts to this idea. The first is to make Texas alongside the stadium a two-way street. Instead of two eastbound traffic lanes and two light rail tracks, Texas gets two eastbound traffic lanes, two westbound traffic lanes, and two light rail tracks. That all fits in the existing right of way. The second part is to use the “squiggle” in the light rail tracks for traffic lanes as well. This does two things: it gives the westbound traffic on Texas a way to go, and it cleans up those messy intersections.

So now, to get from the East End to Downtown, you simply follow Harrisburg, which flows right into Texas, and then you make a left turn onto Capitol. And you will not hit an awkward intersection or have to cross the rail line to do it.

Map: Christof Spieler

, , , , , ,
Comments
05/13/09 4:08pm

Comment of the Day: Inner Loop Traffic Scare

by
Freeways and Toll Roads, Quicklink, Sugar Land, Traffic
12 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: INNER LOOP TRAFFIC SCARE “I’m always surprised at the people in the Houston metro area who live in the suburbs in order to avoid scary traffic. To me, the traffic in the commercial centers of the suburbs is just as bad, if not worse, than what I encounter within the Loop. My boss dropped me off at home once, with the surprised comment that ‘wow, you can drive from the Med Center to the Heights without going on the highway’. Then proceeded to tell me that the reason he lived in Sugarland was that his wife was terrified of highway driving. I still don’t get it.” [Sunsets, commenting on Sub-Suburban SUV Adventure: Braving That Big Trip “Downtown”]

, , , , ,
Freeways and Toll Roads
05/12/09 7:50pm

Sub-Suburban SUV Adventure: Braving That Big Trip “Downtown”

by
Katy, Traffic, Transportation
44 Comments

Spurred on by family members waiting patiently at the Carrabba’s on Kirby — and the promotional whizzes at GM and CBS Radio, who’ve furnished her with a brand-new vehicle to drive for 8 weeks — mommy blogger and new Chevy Traverse spokesmom Stephanie Click ventures out from her “own little world” in Katy to . . . the scary and purportedly trafficky Inner Loop!

Will she make it? How will her blogger-swag loaner car stand up to the rigors of multi-lane Houston driving?

, , , ,
Comments
04/13/09 2:59pm

Comment of the Day: Small Street Additions to the Galleria Area

by
Galleria, Quicklink, Streets, Traffic, Transportation
6 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SMALL STREET ADDITIONS TO THE GALLERIA AREA “The Uptown TIRZ and District are actively working to build a grid in Uptown. Much of it will be funded by existing and new developments by the TIRZ funds and not from the general taxpayer base. . . . [This map shows] their planned addition of grid style layout to uptown. . . . It’ll take existing private access roads and convert some to public streets.” [kjb434, commenting on Uptown Traffic Grid] Map: Uptown Houston District

, , , , , , ,
Downtown
04/10/09 11:56am

Uptown Traffic Grid

by
Galleria, Quicklink, Streets, Traffic, Transportation
16 Comments

UPTOWN TRAFFIC GRID “As we all know, traffic is incomparably worse in Uptown than it is in Downtown. Downtown has more of everything: more streets, more freeways, more transit, more pedestrian use. The most important part, though, is that Downtown has the grid, and Uptown does not. Uptown is a lot less dense than Downtown, and yet it’s reaching a breaking point. There are critically few ways in and out, and even though those are mega-roads, they concentrate traffic BY DESIGN rather than diffusing traffic as the grid does. If Uptown had a fine-grained local street grid the traffic there would be a fraction of what it is today, but it’s too late to put in a grid now. The best we can hope for is for benevolent developers to include new connecting streets to break up some of the super-blocks when they come up for redevelopment.” [NeoHouston]

, , , , , , ,
Freeways and Toll Roads
02/06/09 12:19pm

Katy Freeway Report

by
Quicklink, Traffic
17 Comments

KATY FREEWAY REPORT “Has anyone else noticed that traffic on I-10 is still not great? I have a ‘reverse’ commute on I-10 every day. Before the expansion traffic was fine inside the loop outbound in the morning, slow outside the loop. Inbound in the evening it was slow outside the loop, fine inside, except near the 10-45 interchange. Now things are much smoother outbound, no delay at all. Inbound, however, is a nightmare. Traffic comes to nearly a complete stop approaching the 10-45 interchange, and is usually very slow all the way back to Shepherd / Durham. Observing the ‘regular’ commuters across the median, things are of course worse. In the mornings the backup to get onto the loop or through the 10-45 interchange is insane, it’s bad in the evenings as well.” [NeoHouston]

, , ,
Freeways and Toll Roads
10/29/08 11:42am

Katy Freeway Construction Officially Done

by
Transportation, West Houston
4 Comments

Aerial View of I-10 West at Sam Houston Tollway, Houston

Let the Great Katy Freeway Lane Rush begin! More than 5 years and $2.8 billion in the making, West Houston’s new 18-car-wide and rail-free Main Street is at last officially complete — and open for more traffic than ever! The tollway on the four inside “managed lanes” won’t be instituted until April. Until then, those lanes are meant for cars with more than one passenger.

Photo of I-10 West and Sam Houston Tollway interchange: Flickr user Rustypicstx

, , ,
Online Resources
04/11/08 12:05pm

Live Search Maps Update: A Road Runs Through It

by
Streets, Transportation
No Comments

Live Search Maps Aerial View of Downtown Houston with New Street Highlighting and Labels

Microsoft has updated its Live Search Maps with a number of new features, the most striking of which is the ability to view a street-map overlay on the maps’ signature 3D aerial views. This should be especially helpful to the armchair pilots among you who have been flying blind through Microsoft’s “bird’s eye” views, trying to figure which street is which as you rotate around a property.

Since HAR’s recent update, Live Search Maps are now linked directly to property listings. However, those maps do not include the new street-highlighting feature. To see this new feature, go to maps.live.com and enter an address, then click on the “Bird’s eye” button at the top. Street highlighting automatically appears, but you can turn it off by clicking on the button at the top marked “Labels.” As before, you can rotate the direction of your view by clicking on the N, S, E, or W in the top left corner.

Now here’s a problem: What happens when the newly highlighted streets run behind a tall building? As our sample image above shows, they don’t just run — they dash!

After the jump: How to avoid traffic online!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , ,
Commercial Real Estate
11/15/07 11:36am

Stuck in Traffic? Pull Over for a Philly Cheesesteak by the Wayside

by
Development Strategy, East End, New Construction, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers
No Comments

New Shopping Center at the Northeast Corner of I-45 South and Wayside, Houston

The Lenny’s Sub Shops continue their Houston conquest. The franchise is now up to seventeen stores, with eleven opening soon, including one in this new shopping center about to begin construction on the Gulf Freeway feeder just north of Wayside. That’s almost a third of the way to the company’s goal!

The I-45 (northbound) and Wayside property developer is Bobby Orr, who complained to the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff about the glut of suburban strip centers back in June: “We’re going urban,” he said. And really, the Orr Commercial properties are all over the map. But don’t be fooled by the side-of-the-freeway location and strip-center layout on this one: Luring hungry drivers out of inner-loop freeway traffic jams is an important part of Houston’s urban spirit.

, , , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page