metroid_84 said:

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I'm late to the punch but wanted to put my two cents in...

1) I hate cars speeding by when my kids are crossing the street, but if by urban you meant a public transit bus went by my front door and there was a coffee shot and a small grocery store two blocks away, I am all for that. Buses and being able to walk to restaurants and grocery stores is my definition of urban.

2) I can't even imagine how you'd fit more traffic on Texas. As it is, I take lots of backroads to avoid being on Texas, and your question implies you want to make that more difficult for me.

3) I have no real opinion on this. If I had to design neighborhood streets, I would want silly things, like giant roundabouts filled with trees.

4) I grew in a suburb where I could walk to the grocery store if our car wouldn't start (and that happened more than once as a kid, and I was the eldest, so it was my job to get food while got rides to work).

5) Ah, yes, I absolutely cut through neighborhoods. If you're at Target, why drive to Texas & University to get to Fishdaddy's, when you can take Holleman, to George Bush, to Dominic, to Munson, to Francis, to Oakhaven, to University? The latter is much easier and quieter.

6) I dunno. I rarely go as far as Rock Prairie, so I suspect how new developments are designed isn't going to impact me.

7) I know many people on here complain a lot about BTD, but public transit is the only escape valve we have to consolidate traffic as the city and the university continue to grow, and I just want to say how important it is for the cities and the county to support BTD and public transit. (Which, yes, I do use.)

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Bob Yancy said:

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Bob Yancy said:

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https://share.google/aimode/pbfikT0bjPNF1hbsk


"Based on municipal thoroughfare data and structural network designs, College Station has more linear miles of arterial roadways than The Woodlands."

"Network Comparisons"

"College Station: Operates as an independent city center with an expansive grid that relies on a higher volume of strategic arterials. Major corridors like Texas Avenue, University Drive, and Harvey Mitchell Parkway (FM 2818) serve the heavy traffic volumes of a university town. The entire regional Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) network, which heavily features College Station's network, coordinates over 124 centerline miles of core regional paths."

"The Woodlands: Built as a master-planned community specifically designed to minimize heavy internal thoroughfare grids. It emphasizes winding residential streets and loops. The community restricts high-volume through-traffic to just a few major, heavily landscaped arterial spines like The Woodlands Parkway, Research Forest Drive, and State Highway 242."

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"The Woodlands experiences significantly more severe overall traffic congestion than College Station. <Nod to staff's approach is duly inserted here>


"While College Station experiences localized gridlock during Texas A&M University rush hours and major game-day events, its overall baseline traffic does not compare to the daily bottlenecking found in The Woodlands.

The main drivers behind the difference in congestion include:1. Major Highway BottlenecksThe Woodlands: The community is bisected by Interstate 45, which is heavily populated by Houston-bound commuters. The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) regularly ranks several road segments in and around The Woodlandsincluding I-45, Rayford Road, Research Forest Drive, and Woodlands Parkwayamong the most congested roadways in the state.

College Station: Major routes like Highway 6 and Texas Avenue see heavy flow, but they rarely face the long, multi-hour regional gridlock typical of the Greater Houston commuter basin.2.

"Commuter Patterns vs. Localized Spikes"

"The Woodlands: Suffers from standard, predictable, and punishing large-metropolitan morning and evening rush hours. Traffic crawls as tens of thousands of residents attempt to exit or enter the master-planned network simultaneously.

"College Station: Congestion is highly cyclical and tied closely to the university. Severe gridlock is mostly compressed into class-change times, moving weekends, or the massive influx of over 100,000 visitors on football game days. Outside of these times, the city's thoroughfare grid clears up rapidly.3.

Population Density and Metro Influence

"The Woodlands: Directly absorbs the spillover of being part of the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metroplex, which consistently ranks as one of the top 20 most congested areas in the United States.

College Station: Operates as a distinct, standalone small-to-midsize urban area, allowing it to maintain a lower baseline volume of daily commercial freight and pass-through commuters."

If you are interested, we can look closer into the average commute times for residents in both areas or review specific upcoming expansion projects planned by TxDOT for I-45 or State Highway 6?

Me: yes, please. And after you answer that, tell me who experiences worse traffic after controlling for population density.







Me: so any fair and objective reading justifies staff's approach if getting there faster and spending less time on the road is the goal- which of course it must be.

The tradeoff for efficient mobility versus a quiet neighborhood is a balancing act with every decision.

Yancy out

Respectfully

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