Houston-Area Transportation Agency Issues Warning For 2050

Anyone who drives in the Houston area would be able to make the following statement:

"Future growth and the resulting travel is expected to surpass our ability to meet regional mobility needs by relying solely on increased roadway capacity."

But those words were written by the transportation policy council of the Houston-Galveston Area's Council, the local planning agency responsible for distributing federal transportation finds, and should be seen as a warning by anyone who spends time in a car on area roads and highways.

Now, according to the Houston Chronicle, transportation planners are recommending the formation of a task force that will focus on the metro area's long-range transportation plan with the goal of advancing the cause of high-capacity transit, namely rail.

The regional transportation plan is revised every five years, and the current iteration runs through 2040. Rail has been a component of the plans for a long while, but high-capacity systems have not caught on in Houston, which is definitely a car city.

Some of them [rail idea] have been in three or four editions of our plan and they are no farther along than they were 15 years ago," Alan Clark, director of transportation planning for the area council, told the Chronicle.

By 2050, analysts predict that 14.2 million people will live in the eight counties in the Houston area, and it's obvious that the current road and highway system won't be able to handle the anticipated number of cars that will be on the road then if rail infrastructure is not improved. The council is anticipating this, and the new task force focusing on making rail a priority could be approved on March 24, when the council holds its next meeting.

— Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons/Socrate 76