Do you think that walkability and bicycle safety are regionally significant transportation concerns?
Yes. Walkability – especially in your more developed, metropolitan areas, your downtown areas where a lot of the people choose to live because they choose not to drive. They want to be close to maybe their work, and don’t have the resources to drive. I guess that’s one aspect that we always have to consider in our planning, is making sure we have some reasonable facilities out there to accommodate folks. Also, we have folks who just want to get out and walk for health reasons. We always need to take that into account in planning our transportation facilities. It comes down to – like everything we do as a governmental agency, and everything the private industry does – it comes down to dollars and putting your dollars where your biggest risks are and your biggest benefits are. There’s really not an apples to apples comparison between the number of vehicles on the road right now versus the number of walkers and the number of bicyclists. Does that mean we should ignore the walkers and bicy
They’re an important part of the overall transportation model. New urbanism and livable lifestyle centers are becoming the trend. Rightfully so. But really, we’re being retroactive. We’re going back to what the best of the original cities in this country had to offer, and deleting the bad things. That’s what new urbanism is, and transportation-oriented development. If we’re going to manage the growth that’s coming our way, those are two important things that we have to address. Many leaders in the Houston-Galveston area support the creation of the Grand Parkway, yet many organizations believe that its construction will be detrimental to organizations and citizens and contribute to sprawl. How is this project objectively better for people in the Houston area than other uses of transportation funds? Well, I’m not an advocate of the Grand Parkway. At least the portion on the north side. I understand the long-term complications, but I think we – I mean, the long term viability of it – I th
