I will start: F Houston. That place sucks. There is construction everywhere, I swear the population is at least that of China and every one of those richards has at least 2 cars. Shit will drive you to drink and fast. If you don't absolutely HAVE to be there, I suggest you just stay out. Took me an hour and a half to get to a hotel room that was 32 miles away, which brings me to another F Houston. Hotels, there have to be over 1000 of them, how can there be NO ROOMS available. Had to stay in the Woodlands if I didn't want to share a room with a crackhead at some 2 bit sugar shak like the Motel 5.
I'll be in Houston in a couple days, at times I get around there better than BTR. The place I like driving the best, Pierre Part.
I live in The Woodlands and our office recently moved to 290/Beltway. Yes, traffic does suck if you have a lengthy commute like mine. I will eventually look for something closer to home, even if that means a 25% cut.
I tell people, find your job, then look for your house in Houston. BTR was by design, they figured if they got you to go through the town you would stop. Where is the only place the I-10 goes down to one lane? Much of the problem, for years most of the BTR mayors came from Baker, an never had to fight traffic. Woody, Tom Ed, etc
The engineer that laid the ground work for Lafayette's roads had to be drunk. That place is growing like a weed.
Stay out of L.A. 3rd worst traffic in the country but #1 in rush hours per day. Add to that what is likely the largest population of unlicensed drivers. And almost all of them have no insurance. Ever drive behind an Asian female driver? God willing you never will. Torture.
Traffic -- Roads -- Civil Engineers?????? Hate to insult any of the homies, but what is up with Civil Engineering? Is it a designation for those that finish last in their class? Or maybe those that drop out. Of just those that can do nothing else, like a step below the Walmart Greeter? Road after road, intersection after intersection, dysfunctional stop lights, even more dysfunctional merge and turn lanes. Sorry guys, but the buck stops at the door of the civil engineers. So many foul ups, so many poor designs, so much introduced, gratuitous chaos. OMG!!!! Lets put it this way. If aero engineer projects were as bad a fail as those of the civil engineers, no one would set foot on an airliners or any airplane. Six Sigma and all that.
I find fewer problems with engineering design than I do with . . . Systemic failure of politicians to fund enough upgrades to aging infrastructure. Utter, pathetic, inexcusable failure of city/parish/state highway departments to properly maintain roads and bridges. If there is one tax increase that the voters can all agree on, it is to build and maintain better roads.
I have spent time in most of America's big cities and in a number of European ones and the one thing they all have in common is that the traffic sucks there. It would be bad enough if it were just the local traffic, which is dense enough, but the commuter traffic wrecks havoc everywhere. The exodus of the affluent and much of the middle class to the suburbs and countryside because of cheap gas in the last 50 years has made commuting a nightmare for those who choose not to live close to their work. It is going to take a huge infrastructure investment to address this. Or . . . it may be self-correcting. We are running out of oil rapidly and long before it is depleted prices will skyrocket. Wars will be fought over oil. Rationing will happen. When gasoline is $15 a gallon and rationed, it will change the game radically. Nobody will be able to afford a long commute. People will return to cities or at east closer to their workplace. People living in the country may reorient to active small towns where services can be had without long drives to Superstores and Malls in the city. But there will most assuredly be far less traffic on our roads. We need to consider this when making long-range plans for traffic control. I foresee the return of neighborhood stores, village strip centers, condos and townhouses clustered closer to universities, factories and business districts. I see more pedestrian and bicycle trails and better public transport in smaller cities. Anything to reduce the gasoline consumption. A smart long-term investor should consider companies doing urban re-development, subways and streetcars, neighborhood market chains, neighborhood schools, planned villages in both rural and suburban settings, on-line shopping & delivery, and real estate closer to major workplaces.
