Category Archives: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

In Houston, the trucks drive you

Posted on May 1, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Yet another driverless truck story. Autonomous freight trucking company Embark will make Houston the hub for its new Texas operations and launch an autonomous trucking route along Interstate 10 to San Antonio. The San Francisco-based company this month said it … Continue reading →

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Now you really need to avoid the 59/610 interchange

Posted on April 29, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Welcome to hell. Starting this weekend, Texas’ worst bottleneck is going to be an even bigger pain for drivers as the rebuild of the Interstate 69 and Loop 610 interchange turns a corner and takes out a key connector ramp. … Continue reading →

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The next street safety project my neighborhood will be fighting about

Posted on April 29, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

My wife came back from this month’s civic association meeting and handed me a flyer for this, along with more or less the exact words I’ve used in the title of this post. North Main Street runs north from I-10 … Continue reading →

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Our deadly roads

Posted on April 24, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

It was a bad year last year. Last year was the second deadliest on record for vehicle fatalities on Texas roads, reflecting a lethal trend here and throughout the nation, especially in large urban areas. In 2021, 4,480 people died … Continue reading →

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Mask mandate lifted for planes and trains

Posted on April 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

And other forms of mass transportation. The Biden administration will no longer enforce a U.S. mask mandate on public transportation, after a federal judge in Florida on Monday ruled that the 14-month-old directive was unlawful, overturning a key White House … Continue reading →

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Texas Central owes some property taxes

Posted on April 16, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

deep sigh A planned high-speed train between Houston and Dallas, backers say, would allow travelers to avoid costly and time-consuming freeway traffic. Before it can deliver that relief, however, the company behind the high-speed rail project will have to stop … Continue reading →

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White Oak bike trail extension update

Posted on April 11, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I drive by the construction work being done to extend the White Oak bike trail so that it connects to the Heights bike trail on the north side of the MKT Bridge. I’ve been keeping an eye on its progress … Continue reading →

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State wants feds to un-pause I-45

Posted on April 5, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

We all want things. State highway officials held fast to their plans for rebuilding Interstate 45 in Houston on Thursday, offering a litany of benefits the project will bring and pressing federal officials to lift a 12-month-and-counting pause on development. … Continue reading →

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The I-45 project gets a wee bit more expensive

Posted on April 3, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Eh, what’s another $750 million? Typically, $750 million is the total cost for a major highway project, one that would take years to spend that kind of money. In the case of TxDOT’s plans for a mammoth rebuild of Interstate … Continue reading →

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Metro approves I-10 Inner Katy BRT route

Posted on March 26, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Big step forward. Metro officials Thursday settled on the route for a busway along Interstate 10 that they predict will improve transit for urban and suburban travelers, whether they hop on board or not. The elevated busway planned along the … Continue reading →

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San Antonio airport tunnel approved for feasibility study

Posted on March 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

This crazy idea keeps finding a way to move forward. A plan by Elon Musk’s Boring Company to build a tunnel between San Antonio’s airport and downtown was selected Wednesday by the local regional mobility authority for a feasibility study. … Continue reading →

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Turns out it’s not great debuting a transit service in a pandemic

Posted on March 14, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

What are you gonna do? The future of Houston transportation is not moving many people, even as traffic rebounds to pre-pandemic levels and ridership returns to many Metropolitan Transit Authority lines. The Silver Line, billed as a viable alternative to … Continue reading →

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Metro electric bus update

Posted on March 8, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Some new details here. Within the next year or so, you’ll see electric-powered buses buzzing around Bayou City. The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) recently awarded a $22 million contract to Saint-Eustache, Canada-based Nova Bus for the production … Continue reading →

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The White Oak bike trail extension is officially under construction

Posted on March 6, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Actual photo of the construction activity, from this past Thursday: See here for the background. I first noticed some construction equipment in place maybe two weeks before that, and actual activity the following week, which is to say the last … Continue reading →

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“You put an electric engine…in a DeLorean??”

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Everything old is new again. Hold onto your flux capacitors: The DeLorean Motor Company is back and making San Antonio its home. Economic development officials announced Monday that the once-defunct 1980s-era car manufacturer, whose gull-wing car was best known as … Continue reading →

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Here comes Waymo on I-45

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

They’ve actually been on this road for a couple of months, but now they’re doing more. Waymo will begin hauling freight for North America’s largest logistics firm on autonomous big rigs traveling between Dallas and Houston on Interstate 45. The … Continue reading →

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San Antonio airport tunnel update

Posted on February 9, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

This continues to boggle my mind. A plan by Elon Musk’s Boring Company for a project that would connect the San Antonio airport to downtown via twin underground tunnels is among two proposals a local transportation agency is considering. In … Continue reading →

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MKT Bridge repairs finally on the schedule

Posted on February 7, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

About time. Houston Parks Board has good news to share about the MKT Bridge! The plan documents needed for the additional repairs to address damage caused by the August 2020 fire have received expedited approval by the City of Houston … Continue reading →

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On speed limits

Posted on January 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Food for thought. Speeding is a national health problem and a big reason why this country is increasingly an outlier on traffic safety in the developed world. More than 1 in 4 fatal crashes in the United States involve at … Continue reading →

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Get ready for more construction in 2022

Posted on January 5, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Happy New Year! Here are the places you’ll want to avoid driving in 2022. Flush with green, Houston area transportation officials have a whiteboard full of highway and transit projects poised to start in 2022, but rolling out all that … Continue reading →

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Still no Metro redistricting

Posted on January 2, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Check again in 2031. Growth in western Harris County outside Houston’s boundaries was not enough to tip Metro’s board to 11 members during the 2020 Census, transit officials said “It didn’t occur, so we have the same board composition,” said … Continue reading →

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One reason for the fight to stop the I-45 project

Posted on January 1, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Because the project as it now stands would be bad for a lot of kids. Principal Shawn Nickerson can see the highway connector from Bruce Elementary’s basketball court. Cars whiz by, spewing dangerous pollutants into the air. And if the proposed Interstate … Continue reading →

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The Shepherd and Durham Major Investment Project

Posted on December 30, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Get ready for some major construction, but the end result will be well worth it. Beginning next month, those who travel along North Shepherd Drive and Durham Drive in the Heights are going to have to cope with road construction … Continue reading →

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Here comes that Universities BRT map

Posted on December 23, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Show me the route! The largest and most-sought segment of Metro’s planned bus rapid transit expansion in Houston is poised next week to officially move from being just lines on a map to the starting line — even if construction … Continue reading →

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Federal complaint filed over I-45 project

Posted on December 21, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Missed this in the barrage of news from the last few days. Critics of the plan to remake Interstate 45 north of downtown Houston filed a nearly 100-page complaint to federal officials Thursday, urging even greater scrutiny of the project’s … Continue reading →

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Why do driverless trucks love I-45?

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

For a combination of reasons. Texas, particularly the stretch of highway between Houston and Dallas, has emerged as one of the nation’s main proving grounds for autonomous trucking, with freight trucks driving themselves from pickup destinations to shipping warehouses hundreds … Continue reading →

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Some I-45 work to resume

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Just some design work, for now. Federal officials have lifted their pause on a small piece of the planned Interstate 45 mega-project that will remake downtown Houston’s freeway system and has divided state transportation planners, community groups and local politicians. … Continue reading →

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Yeah, traffic is worse than before

Posted on November 29, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

You’re not surprised, are you? By most measures, traffic is back to pre-COVID congestion levels — or even more clogged in some cases. What seems to have changed, based on a handful of studies that looked at different facets of … Continue reading →

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Metro approves electric bus purchase

Posted on November 22, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

We should have them in a few months. Metro is charging ahead with its plan to add electric buses to the local transit fleet. Board members Thursday approved a $22 million contract for 20 new buses and chargers that will … Continue reading →

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Rolling coal

Posted on November 21, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

From last week. A teen who struck six cyclists while allegedly blanketing them in black smoke along a Waller County road faces six felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. “One for each of the people he almost … Continue reading →

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Republicans want to get the I-45 project going again

Posted on November 15, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

We all want things. Seven Republican members of Congress from the Houston area are urging federal transportation officials to quickly wrap up a review of Texas’ planned Interstate 45 rebuild, arguing that much of the opposition to the project is … Continue reading →

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Another look at I-35 expansion

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

From Slate: Built on top of tree-lined East Avenue, the road opened in 1962, cutting off Black and Mexican-American East Austin from Downtown. Like urban renewal projects in other American cities, the road’s destructive legacy has recently been reconsidered in racial terms. … Continue reading →

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Elon Musk’s underground adventure

Posted on October 22, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Say what now? When it surfaced two months ago, the notion of Teslas whizzing through underground tunnels between San Antonio International Airport and downtown seemed fanciful. Now, there’s a sign the idea may have gained some traction. The Boring Co., … Continue reading →

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Still more driverless trucks

Posted on October 9, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

A familiar story by now. Some trucks hauling FedEx deliveries from Dallas to Houston may soon be missing a key feature: drivers. Autonomous vehicle company Aurora announced this month it has partnered with FedEx and truck-manufacturer PACCAR to begin testing … Continue reading →

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