Why City Design is Important (and Why I Hate Houston)

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I'm not an urban planner, so you might ask, why do I run a YouTube channel about urban planning and walkable cities? It all comes down to a life of travel, and a terrible walk in the suburbs of Houston.

Patreon: https://patreon.com/notjustbikes
Twitter: https://twitter.com/notjustbikes
Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/notjustbikes
One-time donations: https://bunq.me/notjustbikes

NJB Live (my bicycle livestream channel):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9v57F4xz46KaDsvWfCv8yw

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References and Related Reading

Federal Highway Association National Household Travel Survey
https://nhts.ornl.gov/vehicle-trips

What's wrong with comparing Seattle to Houston?
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/11/1/whats-wrong-with-comparing-seattle-to-houston

Out of Control - Houston’s roads, drivers are country’s most deadly
Houston Chronical
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/Houston-s-roads-drivers-are-nation-s-most-12865072.php

Eerste van der Helststraat
Stadsarchief Amsterdam
https://archief.amsterdam/beeldbank/detail/0aad26fc-e9bf-e57e-55a5-602f535594d3

Historical Photos of London, Ontario
https://images.ourontario.ca/london/70147/image/168885
https://images.ourontario.ca/london/70144/image/168864
https://images.ourontario.ca/london/2416638/image/1231809
https://images.ourontario.ca/london/2416643/image/1231822
https://images.ourontario.ca/london/2416632/image/1231791
 
Historic Photos of Houston
https://digitalcollections.lib.uh.edu/concern/images/v692t673c?locale=en#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-2574%2C-326%2C13507%2C6475
https://digitalcollections.lib.uh.edu/concern/images/t722h945k?locale=en#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1597%2C-187%2C7702%2C3693

Giant Brontosaurus Rib: 5 Must-Try BBQ Dishes at Mighty Quinn's
Tasty (YouTube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81ed0qZHdNI

High Frequency: Why Houston is Back on the Bus
Streetfilms (YouTube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYc9T6Nxh4w

A Year After Bus Redesign, METRO Houston Ridership is Up
https://kinder.rice.edu/2016/08/16/a-year-after-redesign-metro-ridership-is-up

Houston just dramatically improved its mass transit system without spending a dime
https://www.vox.com/2015/2/18/8056039/houston-transit-reimagining

Houston Rolling Back Parking Requirements
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2019/07/19/houston-rolling-back-parking-requirements/

How does Houston plan without zoning?
City Beautiful (YouTube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaU1UH_3B5k

The Energy Corridor District unveils west Houston's first protected intersection
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/neighborhood/katy/news/article/The-Energy-Corridor-District-unveils-west-15884757.php

More performative pedestrian infrastructure
https://cityobservatory.org/more_mythical_performative/

No, Houston isn’t a walkable city, but you have to start somewhere
https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/2021/03/08/houston-is-not-walkable-city-yet-pedestrian

Katy Freeway by Aliciak3yz - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40222519

Katy Freeway by Socrate76 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7444029

Reducing congestion: Katy didn’t
City Commentary
https://cityobservatory.org/reducing-congestion-katy-didnt/

What Dallas, Houston, Louisville & Rochester can teach us about widening freeways: Don’t!
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/8/23/what-dallas-houston-louisville-rochester-can-teach-us-about-widening-freeways-dont

Houston commute times quickly increasing
https://www.click2houston.com/news/2014/02/04/houston-commute-times-quickly-increasing/

Houston’s $7 billion solution to gridlock is more highways
Curbed.com
https://archive.curbed.com/2019/8/5/20754435/houston-traffic-highway-i-45-north-txdot

North Houston Highway Improvement Project
http://www.ih45northandmore.com/pub_hear_doc.aspx

The big picture for a big plan
https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/2019/06/24/houston-i-45-expansion-txdot-NHHIP

“The truth about a city's aspirations isn't found in its vision. It's found in its budget.” - Brent Toderian

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Chapters

0:00 Intro
0:05 A Brief History
1:19 Living car-free when unemployed
2:23 Insane amounts of travel
3:42 A fateful trip to Houston
4:25 The walk in Houston (Willowbrook)
7:26 Urban planning and history
9:00 Forgetting those who don't drive
11:13 Houston: sprawl and average BBQ
11:51 What Houston is doing right
13:12 There's still a long ways to go
15:19 Conclusion
16:29 Patreon shout-out
16:40 Outro

YouTube url:	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxykI30fS54
Created:	21. 9. 2021 12:37:52

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Why City Design is Important (and Why I Hate Houston)