Houston as a Model City: Meeting the challenges of an environmental crisis
Transportation choices key in becoming a model city
by Vicki Wolf, August 2006

By 2035, the Houston-Galveston area is expected to have a population of nearly 9,000,000, or 3,358,000 more people. The historic response to growth has been to build more roads and more suburbs. If this trend continues, the area will have more cars, more pollution, more travel time and less green space. People living in the suburbs already complain that all the building around them is taking away their view as well as the peace and quiet they moved away from the city to find. They also are spending more time alone driving in their cars.

It is possible to accommodate the expected population growth and foster a higher quality of life for all Houston area citizens, but a paradigm shift is needed. Citizens who want to create a new model for growth are involved in “Envision Houston,” an initiative by Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) and aided by Blueprint Houston. A group of 1,000 participants have gathered in workshops to discuss what it would take to make Houston a livable city.

“What is different about this process from traditional transportation planning is that we are putting community values and environmental values at the front of the plan, rather than doing an environmental impact statement after the plan is finished,” says Alan Clark, H-GAC director of transportation and air quality planning.

The community and environmental values that “Envision Houston” participants describe include:

• A healthy environment with cleaner air and water
• Parks and more open space, including parks along the bayous
• Reduced risk from flooding
• Increased access to public transportation and variety of transportation options
• The ability to choose to live closer to the things they do and need – work, schools, shopping

“Envision Houston” is not the first group of Houstonians to express these or similar values. Gulf Coast Institute has documented dozens of planning meetings and workshops dating back to 2000, where citizens have expressed desires for a more livable city.

To create the new “model” and manifest the vision of a livable city, the Houston-Galveston area must take the focus off of mobility and congestion relief – the main objectives of traditional transportation planning – and shift the focus to access – getting people where they want to go. “If you use land wisely, it’s easy. If you use land unwisely, it’s more difficult,” says David Crossley, president of Gulf Coast Institute. “If you get things close together you have short trips. When you spread everything out, much more time is spent driving.”

Building more roads never reduces congestion, according to Crossley. “If it’s free, people use it until it’s gone,” he says. “Land speculation supports road building and gets the money flowing. Development increases traffic. It’s a vicious cycle,” he adds.

The new model that creates access for all people – even those who cannot afford cars or who can’t drive – requires creating town centers, or urban villages, where people can walk or bicycle to work, to the movies, to school, with parks and open space.

Houston has about 20 major centers that have as many jobs as downtown Miami or Seattle. These centers have become hubs and could become a network of garden cities, connected by rapid mass transit, and offer mixed use consisting of homes and businesses, while preserving green space for gardens, parks, walking paths and bicycling trails. Tomorrow: Houston 2035, a publication created by Gulf Coast Institute, illustrates what Houston might look like in the future. Hundreds of garden cities could grace the landscape. This future offers a higher quality of life when compared with the heat islands and urban sprawl that traditional transportation plans offer.

So what would it take to make the new vision of Houston a reality? Policy makers will need to be convinced that this new model is the best value for their customers, the people who live in the Houston-Galveston area.

The current Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) calls for spending about $84 billion. A report from the Texas Metropolitan Mobility Plan (TMMP) says another $62 billion is needed to really deal with congestion and repair old roads and bridges. The RTP calls for building more than 11,000 new lane miles of roads. TMMP says to deal with expected congestion that population growth will bring, more like 14,000 miles of new roadway will be needed. Both of these projections use the traditional model of low density suburbs for housing that takes urban sprawl farther and farther out, increasing drive time and gobbling up green space. Crossley notes that no other region in the United States is taking this approach

“Envision Houston” participants believe $84-$146 billion could be spent more wisely. “To change old habits and patterns, millions need to be spent on planning,” Crossley says. “It may be difficult to get this funded because policy makers think they already know what’s needed – more roads.”

“This kind of development is wrong,” Crossley continues. “Generally, for every dollar a taxing entity collects from residential development, it spends $1.15 for all the services it provides. But it has been the American paradigm for so long it is accepted on faith that it’s what you do.”

Alan Clark, director of H-GAC’s air quality and transportation plan says, “We don’t know how policy makers will respond. The next step will probably involve more planning on a more detailed project basis.” He says “Envision Houston” calls for thousands of projects -- some are now in development, and some are being constructed. Some projects are for next year, and some are for 20 years from now. Ultimately, the citizens of the Houston-Galveston area will need to participate in the process and speak out in larger numbers, more loudly than ever before, to let policy makers know that it’s time for a change. Leaders need to hear that community values like healthy, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, open spaces and sustainability are more important than freeway capacity or elusive goals like congestion relief.

Houston leaders will need to think outside the box of roads and freeways and into making Houston more liveable if they are to lead the way to becoming a model city. Citizens must demand leadership that takes steps in planning and implementation to preserve green space, reduce pollution and drive time, and increase access for all people.