About the traffic: Does building more highways make things worse?

That argument has floated around a while. New lanes alleviate traffic for a little while, but it encourages people to buy more cars. Soon enough traffic is just as bad as it was before - maybe worse. Click here for a critical assessment of the consequences of widening I-10 - a $2.8 billion project. Should alternative means be used to lessen traffic? Apparently power brokers in Houston increasingly think so, including the newly elected mayor.

In a recent speech, the mayor called for a "paradigm shift." Instead of concentrating on widening highways and encouraging more use of autos - with single occupants - the city broaden the types of transportation opinion available to residents.

For more on the subject:

- Houston Mayor Calls for “Paradigm Shift” Away From Highway Widening. 

- Talking Points for Turner's speech to the Texas Transportation Commission.
- Turner's transportation platform.
- New Houston Mayor to Texas DOT: Wider Roads Mean More Traffic.

As of yet, these are still merely proposals. Texas continues on a trajectory the focuses primarily on highways construction. Much of this is built into the Texas Constitution. Funding for highways is designated in the document and strong constituencies exist to continue highways construction in the state. There's lots of money spent on highways, and the businesses who profit from those expenditures are not anxious to give it up. As of now the Texas Department of Transportation plans to continue widening highways stateside and in the local area.

- Click here for an announcement of current plans.

Here's what s planned for the Houston area, more widening of highways lie ahead:

• I-45 Gulf Freeway widening from NASA to FM 518. This project is expected to cost $112 million. Congestion relief funding will be $106.4 million. Construction is proposed to begin in Spring 2017 and be completed by Summer 2020. This project will aid in improving mobility on a heavily traveled hurricane evacuation route and primary freight corridor. This project is part of the overall project to widen IH 45 Gulf Freeway from NASA 1 to Galveston Island.

• I-10 Katy Freeway widening from FM 359 to the Brazos River in Waller County. This project is expected to cost $242 million. Congestion relief funding will be $131.8 million. Construction is proposed to begin in Summer 2017 and be completed by Spring 2021. This project is one of the pieces of the overall project to add two lanes on I-10 between Houston and San Antonio. The project will aid in improving connectivity as well as improving mobility on a hurricane evacuation route and primary freight corridor.

• IH 610 West Loop/ IH 69 interchange improvements. This project includes the reconstruction of multiple connector ramps and is projected to cost $287 million. Congestion relief funding will be $209.2 million. Construction is proposed to begin in Summer 2017 and be completed by Spring 2021. Reconstruction of the I-610/I-69 interchange

The battle over the future of transportation in the state promises to heat up - perhaps this winds up on the agenda of the 85th session.

From the Houston Chronicle: Long road ahead for Old Spanish Trail centennial

For historical context we've been looking at the development of the United States westward - which included getting rid of Spanish, French, British, and Mexican claims to the land. While the west - along with the Gulf Coast and Florida - was sparsely populated under Spanish control a road connected San Diego and San Augustine, Florida. It was called Old Spanish Trail and it would later form the basis for  a network of highways and Main Streets almost 100 years ago.

As the centennial approaches, some groups would like to celebrate it by reviving the road - or at least signage designating it. The development of highways - along with all types of transportation means - has been central to economic expansion.

- Click here for the article.

By 1925, when a travel guide for the route was published and leadership of the Old Spanish Trail Association was in San Antonio, Houston was a major destination. The Rice Hotel boasted "the finest cafeteria in the south," other lodging was available in fireproof facilities - a closely watched offering then - and Hermann Park could host up to 1,000 cars.

"Travel was expensive," Kahl said. "There were tourist camps before motels and motor courts. You camped out."

Travel also took much longer. Speed limits, not to mention automotive capabilities for safe travel, put top speeds at about 20 mph - even less in cities. Some paved roads were not exactly smooth, often made from crushed local materials. Rocks and shells taken from Oyster Creek in Sugar Land likely ended up in many East Texas road projects.

Drivers had a more hands-on approach to their maintenance needs. Automobiles and trucks of the time required personal care. Roadside assistance wasn't yet a thing. Tires were especially unpredictable.

"Drivers would carry patch kits like you would for bicycles," Kahl said.
Tourism was only a part of the impetus for the Old Spanish Trail. Movement of goods played a large role as well.

Businesses that made products in Pensacola or New Orleans wanted reliable ways to get raw materials from Georgia or Texas. Farmers in East Texas needed a way to get their crops to markets in San Antonio, and not everything was worth shipping in large rail bulks.

Trucking could fill in the gaps if routes were paved and reliable. Those routes became the first iteration of the interstate system, in part devised by Gen. John J. Pershing, commander of U.S. Forces in World War I, who envisioned a national network for military movement. Another general, Dwight D. Eisenhower eventually made the interstate map a reality.

Moving goods required wider roads, often outside downtown areas. Old Spanish Trail was moved to swing around Houston's growing urban core, using what had been called the "Old Spanish Trail cutoff" in 1935. The detour, sometime after 1935, led to the current U.S. 90 Alternate, the road now called Old Spanish Trail and the proliferation of motels along the highway.

From CityLab: 12 of America's Biggest Highway Boondoggles

When we look at budgeting in the state of Texas we'll note that spending on highways - which is listed under economic development - is the very large. We'll look at the numbers soon enough, but high levels of spending does not necessarily mean the money is spent well. Transportation in Texas continues to be primarily oriented around cars and the highways they drive on. When highways get crowded, the standard solution is to expand them, but sometimes that only provides a temporary solution. More cars are purchased, more people move in the affected area, and soon enough traffic is just as bad - or worse.

A recent report suggest that's exactly what happened with the recently completed expansion of I-10 heading west out of Houston. It's prominently featured in a list of ill thought out highway projects recently completed - or underway - in the US.

- Click here for the article.
- Click here for the report.

When Texas expanded the Katy Freeway in Houston a few years back, the expectation was that making the massive road even wider would relieve traffic. Some $2.8 billion later, the 26-lane interstate laid claim to being the “world's widest freeway”—but the drivers who commuted along it every day were no better off. More lanes simply invited more cars, and by 2014, morning and evening travel times had increased by 30 and 55 percent, respectively, over 2011.

The lesson of the Katy Freeway is precisely the one that U.S. PIRG hopes to convey in its new report, “Highway Boondoggles 2,” the sequel to a 2014 effort. Given that expanding highways at great public cost doesn’t improve rush-hour traffic, there are better ways to spend this money, argue report authors Jeff Inglis of Frontier Group and John C. Olivieri of U.S. PIRG. They identify a dozen road projects, costing $24 billion in all, that are “representative” of the problem.

From History.com: This Day in History- 1962: Comedian killed in Corvair crash

Why does this matter?

Because it was an agenda setting event that would lead to the passage of auto safety regulations.

The comedian was Ernie Kovacs and the car - a Corvair - would soon be the subject of a book written by an unknown Harvard educated lawyer named Ralph Nader. The book - Unsafe at any Speed - would lead to Congress passing the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. It's the reason you have to wear safety belts, and have a fair shot at surviving auto crashes.

- Click here for the article.

On this day in 1962, Ernie Kovacs, a comedian who hosted his own television shows during the 1950s and is said to have influenced such TV hosts as Johnny Carson and David Letterman, dies at the age of 42 after crashing his Chevrolet Corvair into a telephone pole in Los Angeles, California, while driving in a rainstorm. Kovacs, who often appeared on camera with his trademark cigar, was found by police with an unlit cigar, leading to speculation that he had been reaching for the cigar and lost control of his vehicle. The Corvair was later made infamous by Ralph Nader’s groundbreaking 1965 book “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile,” about unsafe practices in the auto industry.

Ralph Nader, who was born in 1934 and graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, published “Unsafe at Any Speed” at a time when U.S. automakers were still largely unregulated. His book accused car companies of designing vehicles with an emphasis on style and power at the expense of consumer safety. One chapter of “Unsafe at Any Speed” focused on handling problems with the Chevrolet Corvair, a car produced by auto giant General Motors (GM). In February 1966, Nader testified before the U.S. Congress about some of the issues in his book. Shortly after Nader’s congressional testimony, the news media reported that Nader had been followed by detectives. It was later determined that GM had sent investigators to spy on Nader and look into his personal life in an effort to discredit him. Nader sued GM for harassment and invasion of privacy and won a settlement. The publicity surrounding GM’s actions helped make “Unsafe at Any Speed” a best-seller and turn Ralph Nader a household name. Nader’s public advocacy on auto-safety issues helped lead to the passage of the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which sought to reduce the rising number of injuries and deaths from road accidents by establishing federal safety standards for every American-made vehicle, including safety belts for all passengers. The Corvair, which suffered from slumping sales due in part to the negative publicity from Nader’s book as well as to consumer lawsuits (the car’s suspension system was blamed for rollovers), was discontinued by GM in 1969.

For related topics:

- Ernie Kovacs.
- Chevrolet Corvair.
- Ralph Nader.
- Unsafe at any Speed.
- National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The NHTSA has recently been active in establishing the legal framework for self-driving cars. The following article predicted that Obama was going to mention them in his State of the Union speech - but if he did I missed it.

- Obama to discuss self-driving cars in State of the Union.

This Day in Texas History: The Red River Bridge War

This is a new one on me.

I guess Texas and Oklahoma almost went to war. And it had nothing to do with football. It was about who had access to each bank of the Red River and included concern that Texas was being invaded by Oklahoma.

Seems like we're always concerned about being invaded by someone.

- TSHA: Red River Bridge Controversy.
- Wikipedia: Red River Bridge War.

The Red River Bridge controversy between Texas and Oklahoma (sometimes called the Red River War) occurred in July 1931 over the opening of a newly completed free bridge, built jointly by the two states, across the Red River between Denison, Texas, and Durant, Oklahoma. On July 3, 1931, the Red River Bridge Company, a private firm operating an old toll bridge that paralleled the free span, filed a petition in the United States district court in Houston asking for an injunction preventing the Texas Highway Commission from opening the bridge. The company claimed that the commission had agreed in July 1930 to purchase the toll bridge for $60,000 and to pay the company for its unexpired contract an additional $10,000 for each month of a specified fourteen-month period in which the free bridge might be opened, and that the commission had not fulfilled this obligation. A temporary injunction was issued on July 10, 1931, and Texas governor Ross S. Sterling ordered barricades erected across the Texas approaches to the new bridge. However, on July 16 Governor William (Alfalfa Bill) Murrayqv of Oklahoma opened the bridge by executive order, claiming that Oklahoma's "half" of the bridge ran lengthwise north and south across the Red River, that Oklahoma held title to both sides of the river from the Louisiana Purchase treaty of 1803, and that the state of Oklahoma was not named in the injunction. Oklahoma highway crews crossed the bridge and demolished the barricades. Governor Sterling responded by ordering a detachment of three Texas Rangersqv, accompanied by Adjutant General William Warren Sterling, to rebuild the barricades and protect Texas Highway Department employees charged with enforcing the injunction. The rangers arrived on the night of July 16. On July 17 Murray ordered Oklahoma highway crews to tear up the northern approaches to the still-operating toll bridge, and traffic over the river came to a halt. On July 20 and 21 mass meetings demanding the opening of the free bridge were held in Sherman and Denison, and resolutions to this effect were forwarded to Austin. On July 23 the Texas legislature, which was meeting in a special session, passed a bill granting the Red River Bridge Company permission to sue the state in order to recover the sum claimed in the injunction. The bridge company then joined the state in requesting the court to dissolve the injunction, which it did on July 25. On that day the free bridge was opened to traffic and the rangers were withdrawn.

Meanwhile, a federal district court in Muskogee, Oklahoma, acting on a petition from the toll-bridge company, had on July 24 enjoined Governor Murray from blocking the northern approaches to the toll bridge. Murray, acting several hours before the injunction was actually issued, declared martial law in a narrow strip of territory along the northern approaches to both bridges and then argued that this act placed him, as commander of the Oklahoma National Guard, above the federal court's jurisdiction. An Oklahoma guard unit was ordered to the bridge, and Murray, armed with an antique revolver, made a personal appearance in the "war zone," as the newspapers labeled it. No attempt was made to enforce the Oklahoma injunction, but on July 24, with the free bridge open, Murray directed the guardsmen to permit anyone who so desired to cross the toll bridge. On July 27 Murray announced that he had learned of an attempt to close the free bridge permanently, and he extended the martial-law zone to the Oklahoma boundary marker on the south bank of the Red River. Oklahoma guardsmen were stationed at both ends of the free bridge, and Texas papers spoke of an "invasion." Finally, on August 6, 1931, the Texas injunction was permanently dissolved, the Oklahoma guardsmen were withdrawn to enforce martial law in the Oklahoma oilfields, and the bridge controversy was laid to rest. The bridge was dynamited on December 6, 1995, to make room for a new one.

From the Atlantic: These 2 Charts Prove American Drivers Don't Pay Enough for Roads

While most Americans would argue they are overtaxed, the author argues that we are in a road funding crisis because we are not paying enough for roads and our infrastructure suffers as a result.

He points out that the federal gas tax has not been raised since 1993, and that Highway Trust Fund is expected to run out of money in two years as a result.

Chart one shows that we pay more for roads than we earn in road revenue, especially when compared to other nations:



Chart two show how much less American pay in road taxes than other nations. The authors point out that this means that funding for roads has to diverted from other sources.



They suggest that our current model for funding roads is unsustainable.

Road Trip

I've just finished a road trip on Route 66 from Ludlow, California to Tulsa, Oklahoma and will start the regular postings soon. The civility papers--for my 16 week classes--will be graded beginning next week. We will also start discussing the next paper assignment--the one on Plutarch's Lives--after the next round of quizzes are over.

The development and demise of Route 66 provides an interesting case study of the impact of technology on the relationship between the national and state and local governments. It evolved slowly after each separate state and city along the route developed independent roads in response to the increase popularity of automobiles. Eventually policy entrepreneurs, Cyrus Avery among others, began to organize in order to connect these roads so that people could more easily travel west.

Technology at this point advantaged smaller towns which were able to provide services to travellers, but additional technological developments, in addition to Eisenhower's push to develop an interstate highway system, allowed these towns to be bypassed. Route 66's development evolved because the federal government was able to facilitate a cooperative relationship between the states. Its demise occurred because the federal government was able to impose itself on the states.

What remains is a fascinating time capsule of life as lived in the 30s, 40s, and 50s.