• subunit317@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 year ago

    Houstonian of 30+ years here.

    Even with the insane number of lanes available, driving anywhere inside beltway 8 between like 12 pm and 8pm is hell on earth. And outside those hours, you’re playing chicken with drunk drivers.

    Before I started working remote, I used to clock my average speed to and from work. Most of the time it was 15-20mph on a 65mph freeway. Literally bicycle speeds. Without cars or gridlocked traffic, I could have commuted faster on a bike.

    More than one person dies in Houston traffic every day on average. This is probably the shittiest and most expensive form of mass transit mankind will ever build. At least I hope this is as bad as it ever gets, lol.

    • masterspace@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      It’s absolutely insane how many people die every single day because we thought it was a good idea to let everyone operate multi-ton pieces of heavy machinery at hundreds of km per hour on the reg.

      How the fuck is there more regular testing and training for people driving forklifts than Dodge Rams?

  • cron@feddit.de
    2·
    1 year ago

    After widening was completed in 2008, a portion of the highway west of Houston is now also believed to be the widest in the world, at 26 lanes when including feeders. - (Wikipedia)

    WTF

        • darvocet@infosec.pub
          0·
          1 year ago

          I e moved out of Houston but if i recall correctly they also removed the rail line that was adjacent to this highway for the expansion.

          There was a killer hamburger place off like Gessner that i still miss.

          • notacat@mander.xyzEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            Is Houston aware that some cities pay hundreds of millions of dollars to install a rail line to address this exact problem?

          • cron@feddit.de
            1·
            1 year ago

            An old railway running along the north side of the freeway was demolished in 2002 in preparation for construction which began in 2004.

            Form the wiki article linked above

    • Thisisforfun@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 year ago

      That sounds like extremely bad planning. In essence they could have had several smaller highways that better suited the needs of the users without forcing them all onto this clusterfuck.

      • WalrusDragonOnABike@kbin.social
        1·
        1 year ago

        There’s already another highway 4 miles north and 4 miles south of it. There’s some 2-lane each way roads between, but anything bigger or more grade-separated would be further isolate communities, take away alternative transportation routes, and take away greenspace.

  • Aopen@discuss.tchncs.de
    1·
    1 year ago

    This will soon become top 100 most popular photos. Its synonymous with car dependency and post WWII American urban planning