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Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

texasmonthly.com

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Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#331

Post by refurb »

larrydag wrote: post #8

I live in Texas. This assertion is true of most cities in Texas also. Houston is the largest population center in Texas with 6M+ in the city. Also Houston is a busy center for interstate and international commerce especially for trucking.

I'm sure I'll get down voted, but I don't find the Bay Area all that different. In the Bay Area it's just different towns all interconnected, while in Houston, all those towns were consolidated into one massive city (like LA).

SF is only 1 million people and the dense, downtown core is not that big. Outside of the downtown cores of SF and Oakland, it's all just suburbs wrapped around the bay. And plenty of people have absolutely brutal commutes due to the sprawl.

The only difference is they commute from "another city".

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#332

Post by throw_away »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #241
paganel wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wide boulevards certainly helped the French Army in drowning the Commune in blood soon afterwards, though.

The Commune was also fairly unique among French revolts as it did not begin in Paris, rather it was Paris reacting to their emperor getting captured in battle.

There was a bit more than just Napoleon III getting captured. Paris was subsequently sieged and captured by the Prussians. Afterwards, the Prussian troops were kept nearby and occasionally paraded through the streets. The Commune arose also due to power disagreements with the new Third Republic and an attempted seizure of cannons in Paris.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#333

Post by ghaff »

philwelch wrote: post #303
hannasanarion wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US used to have tons of small groceries everywhere. The legislative mandate for free parking everywhere has put them out of business, and many were demolished to build freeways.

Yes, but now the US has tons of supermarkets everywhere.

In the nearby major city I'm most familiar with, most of the grocery shopping you'd do would be in supermarkets--often Whole Foods some of which on the smaller side. Other than convenience stores, there are also some bakeries, produce stands, and butchers. But most of your shopping is probably going to be at supermarkets (which have parking).

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#334

Post by refurb »

kaesar14 wrote: post #33
mixedCase wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I don't think this direct comparison is valid (at least let's also have the per capita numbers, which I believe is around 60% higher in Houston if Google snippets are to be believed) one could argue that a portion of that GDP is enabled by road infrastructure such as this interchange.

America is the richest country on earth. It's such a kneejerk reaction of our countrymen to defend our insane way of life by bringing up GDP numbers instead of stuff like life expectancy, quality of life, access to equitable transportation. America being rich is known fact already. Edit: From your own happiness survey link - "The U.S. GNI per capita income is actually higher than in most of the countries ahead of the…

Don't give a damn about GDP.

Really? Because it's GDP that funds all those government services and social programs.

I'm always confused when people don't give a damn about economics (i.e. during the Covid shutdown debate) when without economics you wouldn't have a functioning society.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#335

Post by com2kid »

binarytox1n wrote: post #251
yason wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

supermarket has never been more than 2 miles away - certainly not a 20 minute drive and it's even within biking distance I'd consider that far, far away. My walk to the nearest train station is about one mile, takes about 15 minutes to get there on foot, and that's irritatingly far, too, considering the trip is two way and repeats every day. Something like a grocery shop should be accessible within decent walking dis…

American in Texas here - maybe this is a behavior encouraged by the very thing we're discussing, but going to the grocery store _every day_ is a big yikes to me. I go once a week and get everything I need for that week. Because I take my car, I can carry that amount of stuff.

pre-covid I stopped by the grocery store almost every day to pick up whatever I wanted for dinner.

Back when I lived across the street from a grocery store I'd sometimes go get food for dinner, talk a bit with guests for what we wanted for desert, then walk over and pick up whatever we'd decided on. When the grocery store is across the street it is basically an on-demand food pantry.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#336

Post by Flobin »

adrianmonk wrote: post #252

One factor that hasn't been mentioned here is climate. Siena seems to have a very mild climate. Its average high temperature[1] in August is 28.3°C (82.9°F). Compare that to Houston's monthly high for August, which is 35°C (95°F). Houston is also very humid[3]. Most people don't want to take a 10-minute walk when it's 95°F and humid. You arrive at your destination panting and very sweaty. It's more comfortable to tak…

You say that as if there are no dense cities in places that have a similar climate as Houston. What about Taipei, for instance?

Houston has a July average high temperature of 34,7 degrees C with an average relative humidity of 74,4. The same data for Taipei is 34,3 degrees C with a humidity of 73.

Yet Houston has a population density of 1398,76/km2 whereas Taipei 9700/km2, almost 7 times as high.

Data from Wikipedia.

Actually, perhaps this map says it best: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tkoekp0or12ppjc/Screenshot%202020-...

(If anything, building densely can create a lot of shade, which can be quite beneficial.)

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#337

Post by Animats »

xg15 wrote: post #111

> But it wasn’t strictly an “everything is bigger in Texas” ethos that caused Houston to sprawl the way that it does. Rather, Cold War–era urban design philosophy in the U.S. prioritized sprawl because older cities that had urbanized pre–World War II—New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit—were seen as being susceptible to nuclear strikes. Less-dense cities such as Los Angeles and Houston were less likely to be…

It was real enough that IBM moved their corporate HQ from Manhattan to Armonk, NY. HQ is still there.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#338

Post by EarthIsHome »

CydeWeys wrote: post #255
RangerScience wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO this is part of why why protests started marching down freeways. In LA, if you protest by marching down basically any freeway, you snarl up that freeway (and likely more) for tens of miles, at least (AFAIK). (the 101 between hollywood and DTLA is essentially a single thing, the 10 between DTLA and West Side, the 405 from culver city up to over the pass in sherman oaks...) AKA, the "center" isn't geographic, but..…

It also gives a great sense of your own power (which is very important to protest movements) in marching along and shutting down a freeway, which you could never in any other situation just calmly walk down the middle of. Critical Mass is invigorating for the same reasons.

For those curious about power and mass protests, John Berger's piece from 1968[0] provides an excellent overview on mass demonstrations.

[0]: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isj/1968/no03...

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#339

Post by laurent92 »

xxxtentachyon wrote: post #249
mikece wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm not mistaken, the 5-star logo only applies to sections of interstate highway that have at least one mile of level and straight road in any given 5-mile stretch. The idea was that an "Eisenhower Freeway" could be used as an impromptu landing spot for Air Force planes. While I'm sure this ability was tested at the beginning I don't know if there are regular drills and exercises making use of this feature.

I would love to see a plane try to decelerate from 200+ mph with the surface quality changing every 200 yards and with 18-inch-deep potholes every so often. I wonder what sort of maintenance budget the original interstate plan envisioned

Several planes land on highways per year, I don’t find the source but it was from AVWeb and the order of magnitude is ~10 per year. It’s actually much safer han fields. But those are Cessnas at 80mph, not Boeings.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#340

Post by Flobin »

binarytox1n wrote: post #251
yason wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

supermarket has never been more than 2 miles away - certainly not a 20 minute drive and it's even within biking distance I'd consider that far, far away. My walk to the nearest train station is about one mile, takes about 15 minutes to get there on foot, and that's irritatingly far, too, considering the trip is two way and repeats every day. Something like a grocery shop should be accessible within decent walking dis…

American in Texas here - maybe this is a behavior encouraged by the very thing we're discussing, but going to the grocery store _every day_ is a big yikes to me. I go once a week and get everything I need for that week. Because I take my car, I can carry that amount of stuff.

When a grocery store is very nearby and you go to the grocery store, you can get your produce fresher. And you don't have to plan your meals, which may or may not be a positive side (it is for me).

Check out this Canadian talking about his grocery trip in Amsterdam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYHTzqHIngk.

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