Easier to get to!! (If you've got the money.)

Hey Pearland!!! You are about to either a) enter a bright new day of easy commuting to downtown Houston, or b) add to our area's smog problem via the addition of more concrete laid down for the rich to use while the less well-off suffer.

It's a matter of perspective, we guess.

State Highway 288 has become one of the stranger commuter roads in Texas with the boom in Pearland and other points south. Rush hours feature unmoving back-ups while drivers look longingly at the massive grassy median between the main lanes, wondering why the hell that property's sitting unused, not even adorned with trees or anything beyond grass.

More »

One thing we in Houston are unfortunately used to is traffic. Most of us spend an awful lot of time driving in it and too many of us are victims of traffic accidents at one point in our lives. It is the price we pay for living in a city that requires a vehicle to get around.

But if you are going to take your life into your own hands and hit the highway every day, it might make good sense to find out where the more dangerous spots are on the roads, and one local attorney, Stewart Guss, has created an embeddable interactive traffic map. Using data from Houston and surrounding counties, he has compiled traffic accident locations on a Google map and offers it for anyone to use on his Web site.

More »

Police are investigating a fatal traffic accident that happened on the North Sam Houston Parkway service road around 12:10 a.m. on Sunday. Apparently an unidentified male victim, 38, drove at a high rate of speed through a construction zone and was killed when his vehicle hit a concrete support pillar.

The police report says the vehicle, a Kia Soul (um, what?), was driving fast through the construction area when it jumped a curb and hit the pillar. The driver was ejected from the car as a result and was pronounced dead when paramedics transported him to Ben Taub General Hospital.

More »

F you!

A study released this week by Washington, D.C.-based TRIP illustrates something we all know: This place completely blows for motorists.

According to the TRIP report "Texas' Top 100 Transportation Challenges and the Improvements Needed to Address Them," 17 shit shows for roads -- which TRIP calls "challenges" -- are in the Houston area. (Remember, this is a big freaking state, so that's nothing to shake a stick at.)

Holding down the second spot for the most ass-sucking asphalt throughway in terms of deterioration and congestion -- right behind Interstate 30 in Dallas-Forth Worth -- is Interstate 45 from Interstate 610 to Beltway 8.

More »

Blame the Tigers, cher.

It won't be pleasant driving on the west side this weekend -- but you've been warned.

First, A&M is continuing its surprisingly positive introduction to the SEC by taking on LSU at Kyle Field. Houston is loaded with Tiger fans, as anyone who's gone by a shrimp-and-oyster joint on a football Saturday knows.

Houston is also filled with Aggies, as anyone who's seen grown men cry after A&M loses yet again to the Longhorns knows.

More »

Better rethink that trip.

The Texas Department of Transportation has released its annual list of the most angst-producing stretches of highway in the state, and once again the Houston area is not to be denied.

Four of the top 10 most congested "roadway segments" are within driving distance, if by "driving" you mean "sitting in traffic waiting in vain to move."

We don't have the number one spot -- that honor goes to I-35 between I-30 and State Highway 183 in Tarrant County. And number two belongs to Dallas County, LBJ between I-35 and the Central Expressway.

After that, though, it's Houston time.

More »

Dam problems on the west side.

Back in June, we looked at how extensive new development along the Grand Parkway is contributing to a scary scenario where the Addicks and Barker dams could fail with Katrina-like effects.

Now a federal judge has agreed with us, kinda.

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison has issued a 42-page memorandum ruling (first reported by the Houston Chronicle) that says the Army Corps of Engineers has failed to analyze fully potential flooding problems.

But he refused to block further work on the road project.

More »

Brake lights will be out in force.

Your quick and jaunty trip down the scenic environs of the East Freeway just got a little less quick and jaunty.

The already somewhat depressing ride will feature something extra this weekend -- lots of slow-moving traffic.

The cause: more work on the Meadow Street Bridge east of downtown Houston, which got rammed by some too-tall trucks earlier this year.

All eastbound lanes of the freeway will be closed from 59 to Gregg Street from Friday, August 3, at 9 p.m. until Monday, August 6, at 5 a.m.

More »

App: Inrix Traffic
Platform: iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile
Website: InrixTraffic.com
Cost: Free

Mr. Burns once called sitting "the great equalizer" on The Simpsons, but I tend to think it's traffic. We all get stuck in it and we all curse the day we were born as a result. In Houston, we are particularly cursed with god-awful traffic as commuters haul their tired selves home to the burbs.

I don't normally drive in traffic because I have a flying car, just like the cartoons I watched as a kid told me I would have...in the future. But, for those who have to peddle along in the gridlock, there are apps for that. I wrote about Waze last year and I still use it, but it is more of a social app for finding out what's going on right now where you are. It's cool, but limited in what it can tell you. For more comprehensive coverage, you need Inrix.

More »

Houstonians want more of these

The recent outbreak of hysterical excitement around the city can only mean one thing: the Metro board will soon decide on ballot language for the General Mobility Program referendum. With this fateful day closing in, the board convened last night to take in more public input on the issue.

Speakers generally rehashed familiar arguments. Businessmen tended to support the GMP, which siphons 25 percent of transit sales taxes into city budgets for stuff like road maintenance and drainage projects, while basically everyone else opposed it. Two women showed up wearing T-shirts that said "spend transit $ on transit."

More »