Houston Freeways Book Reviewed

[pineda]

Great book on Houston freeways

There are a lot of books on bridges, one or two on roadbuilders like Robert Moses, a couple on road agencies, and a few on the big long city-to-city roads. Cities are where roadbulding is the most difficult, where it finds the greatest engineering, financial and political challenges. But until this book on Houston's roads there has been no serious study of the history and future of a major intra-urban highway system. Wait, there's David Brodsly's "LA Freeway" but it's an essay, a short history with some nice old maps, cartoons and photographs but weighed down by psycho-sociological claptrap - lots of earnest interpretations of the 'real meaning' of freeways, what they 'say' about our 'values', and the like. Pretentious fluff. A special kind of jargonish gobbledegook that gets people university jobs. Better than nothing, but not much.

In sharp contrast "Houston Freeways: a historical and visual journey" by Erik Slotboom is a serious and substantial work and a quantum advance in documenting and discussing the history of roadbuilding in a discrete metro area. It's a hefty tome: 404 pages of 8x11in (A4) and meaty. Photographs are gotten out of archives or they are originals taken for the book by Slotboom, and they excellent, and keyed with clever minimaps so you can see quickly wher you are looking. The book is comprehensive, describing first the general history of the area and its roads, then in considerable detail describing the development of each of 16 major freeway facilities. Larger diagrammatic maps use different colored notation to show the stages of development. Tables summarize stuff. Slotboom seems to be a methodical researcher because he produces a thorough and detailed narrative of all the battles of each road and mentions the main actors.

Some of the stereotypes are confirmed. In Houston they think big. There are plenty of 10 lane freeways and expressways in America, and a few 12 and 14 laners. Most of them got to be that wide by a process of several widenings and rebuilds. Only one place, so far as I know, have they gone out and built a 10-lane freeway from scratch - Houston's Southwest Freeway (US-59) in Houston built inside the I-610 Loop back in 1957 with 2x5-lanes. Slotboom, the author, has clearly lived in Texas too long. He's doesn't think to mention that this build-big approach is unusual.

Same with interchanges. Houston has built them from the beginning almost entirely with direct connector ramps. Loops, or 'cloverleaves' as Slotboom mistakenly calls them, are almost unknown. (A cloverleaf is a full interchange with four loops, one for each left turn movement.) Loopless interchanges of course have to be high. Houston with nine radials and three ring motorways (including the downtown ring, the I-610 Loop and the Sam Houston Beltway-8) has 16 four and five level interchanges, great spreading arrangements of rising and curving and intertwining ramps. He doesn't even count the 3-levels. Slotboom dubs Houston "stack city."

And with a couple of exceptions the Houston freeways and the tollways too have frontage roads. Though pioneered on Long Island (on the Long Island Expressway and the Shore/Belt Parkway,) only Texas has made frontage roads a standard. Four-fifths of the Houston system has frontage roads or 'feeders' as they call them locally. They 'feed' the freeway mainline with slip lanes which substitute for interchange ramps. Three lanes each direction they are very logical in some respects. They allow staging, the frontage roads acting as signalized arterials until the grade-separated inner lanes, in what starts out as a 90m (300ft) wide grass median, get built. The frontage roads go on catering to short distance trips, that would otherwise load up the freeway, so they increase its capacity for long trips. Finally frontage roads provide valuable substitute capacity when the mainlanes are out of service, whether from an accident or road works.

But all the multiple roadways make Houston's big roads real monsters. Their right of way starts at 90m (300ft) but 122m (400ft) is more common and some go to 137m (450ft).

With businesses fronting the frontage roads and vying for the attention of motorists with billboards and signs they become vast cluttered commercial corridors, a glitzy blur of brandnames and logos and business shapes. These are the antithesis of parkways - 'anti-parkways' Slotboom observes. In this regard Houston type freeways are a totally different driving experience from New York expressways and pretty different from Los Angeles or Phoenix freeways. The ugliest of the Houston interchanges are the earliest where they hoisted the mainlanes up to the top of the stack creating vast wide ungainly shadow-making slabs of roadways. By contrast the later ones have a certain sculptural splendor with narrow curving ramp connectors perched on single central posts and soaring on high.

But it is all totally manufactured, industrial. The author observes that if you want pleasantly landscaped highways you'd better not come to Houston. It's lots of harsh, hard concrete and commercialism at its most commercial. Maybe it's hopeless to try and soften that.

Poor loadbearing soils and a high watertable require pavement in the Houston area to be structural concrete slab construction often 40cm (16") thick, no asphalt.

Depressing the freeways below ground level is especially troublesome here too. The area is flat and liable to torrential and sustained downpours of rain, so pumps cannot cope and the depressed segments of freeway becomes canals. The book has a bunch of marvelous photos of flooded freeways with the tops of tractor trailers all there is to show there's a road down under water!

Another Houston stereotype is that there has been no serious opposition to building these big roads. Untrue. Many of them have been a prolonged struggle to build. Large swathes of houses have had to be acquired and cleared, and people's lives uprooted. They have fought, sometimes winning odd routing jogs or restrictions on width. A couple of planned freeways have been defeated. It remains true that Houston does have as extensive and complete a freeway network as any sizable metro area in America, probably in the world. In LA and Washington DC perhaps half the planned freeway system was defeated, in New York a third. In Houston the proportion might be 10 percent.

The chapters on the Hardy Toll Road and the Sam Houston Tollway give due credit to the great work of HCTRA's Wes Freise in developing the system, and the importance of support from the county's chief exec.

The book has deficiencies. It would be nice to have a few more tables - showing the mileage of different parts of the system, lane numbers, and traffic.

The discussion of freeways' impact on the shape of Houston is unsatisfactory. Slotboom writes that Houston's unusually vigorous and successful development of freeways shaped Houston's development. The freeways being such a comprehensive network certainly improved the quality of life of Houstonians, improved the efficiency of the metro area economy and the standard of living of its people, and saved many lives that otherwise would have been ended in wrecks at signalized intersections. But did they really change the shape of the city much? I'm not convinced. Boston, the Washington DC area, Phoenix AZ, Denver CO, Portland OR are cities of comparable size but with far less impressive freeway systems than Houston, but in the end they all turn out rather similar to Houston in form. Like Houston they all have decent-sized but far from dominant central business districts. They all have predominantly suburban development of single family houses, but considerable amounts of townhouses and apartments. They all have 'edge cities' like the Galleria. They all have various non-central concentrations of an industry like Houston's energy corridor. They all have mixes of development.

Just as transit enthusiasts exaggerate the impact of an expensive subway in shaping a city, so I think Slotboom, in his concluding commentary, exaggerates the role of its freeways. It is accomplishment enough, surely, that the freeways allow people get around their metro area in a quick, efficient, safe, and hassle-free fashion. That's more than can be said of other systems.

Disappointing too is the complete absence of any reporting of Houston's Quickride system under which tolls are levied in the peakhours on what would otherwise be underutilized HOV lanes. Houston has more miles of these HOT lanes than any other place in the world, but you wouldn't get that news from this book.

Slotboom writes that the future of Houston freeways may be in tollways - because the gas tax source is drying up. But he has almost nothing on electronic toll collection, nothing on HCTRA's pathbreaking efforts in opening up the middle of its toll plazas for full highway speed ETC. And nothing on the use of variable tolls to manage traffic. He just mentions the proposed "managed lane" components of several rebuild projects. But I suppose all this could add another 50 pages to an already large book.

Slotboom does have great pictures of the barrier separated HOT lanes and their great variety of special interchange ramps, not just the familiar T-ramps, but several Wishbones, and one called The Pretzel.

(as seen on tollroad news website book reviews)

[westguy]

Is MaxConcrete the author of this book? I've read some of his usenet postings, and posted bits and pieces in this forum before.

[MaxConcrete]

Is MaxConcrete the author of this book? I've read some of his usenet postings, and posted bits and pieces in this forum before.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yup, I'm the book author. Thanks to Pineda for posting the most favorable review! :-)

I'm down to the last few copies of available books and I hope to have it out of print this month.

I have a full preview online at the book web site

www.HoustonFreeways.com

as well as lots of fun stuff like the freeway historical challenge and aerial challenge.

For those wondering why I wrote the book, there are several reasons. First, growing up in Houston (Sharpstown to be precise) I had an interest in the subject since childhood. I always wanted to know the history behind each freeway, but it wasn't documented anywhere. In the early 1980s I came across the L.A. Freeway book, and I thought to myself "someone needs to do this for Houston." The idea lingered in my mind. In 2000 I started TexasFreeway.com, which included historical and modern freeway photos from around Texas. Response was good, suggesting that there was somewhat of a market for a book. When the high tech bust hit in 2001 it became clear that I would be out of work for a long time, so the time had come for me to write the book. It is only the second book focusing on a city's freeway system, and far more extensive than L.A. Freeway. In fact, it's probably safe to say that no other city will get something comparable due to the effort required and (unfavorable) economics. So Houston is in a class of its own!

[NYC Texan2]

I would be really interested to hear your take on the role of developers in the planning process vis-a-vis service roads. I really feel like there is heavy influence that is below the surface of our political scene for whatever reason, and, as a result, our cityscape is more bleak.

An interesting question is what would the city look like without feeders. I think we can safely conclude that commercial ventures would remain on main commercial avenues. I believe that streets such as Westheimer would be more interesting, without ten billion tiny strip stores. The demand for inner city land would be higher, as the lack of feeders would strip a vast amount of commercial real estate off the market. Downtown might be more dense, and midtown might never have gone down the tubes the way it did in the 80s. Without the feeders to supply that land, land values would be higher in town, and there would be greater population density with more midrise/highrise construction.

I realize much of this probably sounds like speculation, but I believe the choice to go with freeways (at a huge waste of money) has done more to scar our landscape and decrease the quality of life than any other major decision during the last 75 years.

[pineda]

Max Concrete - just curious, do you actually live in Houston these days?

[MaxConcrete]

Max Concrete - just curious, do you actually live in Houston these days?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not at the moment. I managed to land some contract work in Dallas in April after 18 months of high-tech bust (12 months of it writing the book). I make trips to Houston monthly and should be back around the end of the year.

[MaxConcrete]

I would be really interested to hear your take on the role of developers in the planning process vis-a-vis service roads.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The book provides extensive treatment of frontage roads, including their origins with the Gulf Freeway in 1948, and their persistence and expanding role as time went on. In fact, the book concludes by saying Houston is the world's most freeway-influenced city mainly because of frontage roads.

Developers have been influential in the widespread use of frontage roads, but so have the highway department, local governments, and the public. I would say local governments including the city of Houston have been most influential, since they perceive frontage roads as increasing property values and relieving them of the responsibility of providing good quality arterial streets (saving them money).

In terms of how the city would develop without frontage roads, I don't think there would be much difference. Just look at Atlanta, Phoenix, Southern California, South Florida, etc. Same sprawl and development patterns, the only difference is that commercial centers are located along arterial streets, usually near freeways. Would Houston be better off if our freeways looked like Atlanta's (universal forest buffers) or Southern California's (landscaped and irrigated)? Maybe, maybe not.

The commercial clutter of frontage roads is certainly one freeway characteristic where Houston trumps all other cities, for better or for worse. On the other hand, in other places (especially California) homes are built right up to the edge of the freeway right-of-way, which really isn't a good idea due to the freeway pollution plume. Frontage roads provide a lot of benefits for the motorist.

In spite of the visual impact of the commercialization of frontage roads, my view is that frontage roads are an essential ingredient to making Houston what it is. Houston is distinctive with its frontage roads. It makes for something unique compared to nearly all other cities in the world (only San Antonio is even close to Houston in terms of frontage roads, with DFW respectable but well behind. Other cities don't even register). The frontage road city is distinctive and different, although not necesarily better. Everything has its pluses and minuses. It's one reason why Houston needed it's own freeway book. :-)

[pineda]

Max Concrete-

In your opinion, do you see just building more highway miles our only way of decreasing congestion in the Greater Houston area? Do you believe that Houstonians are so tied to their automobiles that other possibilities can't compete? Do you find it just a little bit unsettling, not to mention dangerous, that at least 50% of all cars on the road in the Houston area are being driven by uninsured motorists? With all the new population projections about Houston's future and the fact that the growing number of poor people included in those projections are without personal transportation, what do you see as viable options for the Houston area? P.S. If you are a lobbyist for any oil/gas/road building firm/concrete company/car manufacturer, please note that disclaimer in your answer. Thanks in advance for your opinions!

[dbigtex56]

Max Concrete,

Haven't read your book yet, but it's on my 'to-do' list. I'm especially impressed by your earlier post regarding the engineering challenges of building freeways in Houston.

The matter of frontage or access roads is of interest to me, because I rely on walking, public transportation and sometimes bicycling to get where I'm going. Several times I've intended to patronize businesses only to find out that they are virtually inaccessable except by automobile. Likewise, I was tallking with a young woman who lived near an exit off the Southwest Freeway. She had to call a cab to go to the grocery store (a distance of only a few hundred feet) because crossing the street on foot posed an unacceptable risk.

I realize that these concerns are not those of the majority of people in Houston. But even so, hasn't it struck some people how absurd it is that you have to get in your car, go back on the feeder, and park again just to go to the building directly next door? What seems like an efficient system (access roads) can lead to some odd inefficiencies.

[MaxConcrete]

In response to Pineda and dbigtex56, let me first say that I'm in no way connected to the highway construction industry, real estate development industry, or any other industry that promotes freeway construction. I worked for Schlumberger (oilfield services) as an engineer in Sugar Land for most of the 1990s before being lured into tech work working for dot-coms. Basically, I'm just a "Joe Sixpack" who is fascinated by transportation, always liked the freewheeling spirit of Houston, wanted to write a book, and decided to "just do it". I'll be licking my financial wounds for a while, because you don't make money on books like this. It was a personal passion, so I decided to do it in spite of the economics.

I agree Houston is very auto-dependent. I feel that's what most people in Houston want - to drive their personal automobiles and live in a typical single-family home. The arguments on this subject can be long and loud, so it's best to avoid it. (I suspect most people in this group don't like freeways.) I realize that freeways can't solve all transportation problems or larger urban problems. Houston is at an extreme with its freeways and frontage roads, which made it such a good subject for a book. You get something that some people like, some people dislike, but generally promotes the establishment's objective of undeterred growth better than any other investment. Everything in life is a trade-off to a certain extent, as are freeways. We have gained a lot with them, but some things have been sacrificed, of course.

I don't know what the answer is for the long-term, but we can look to plenty of other cities and see that drastically curtailing freeway/tollway construction is NOT the solution. Problems just compound since most people can't use transit or don't want to. Just look at DC or Atlanta.

That being said, I am a big proponent of HOV lanes. In fact, I dedicate a whole chapter to the subject. Remember, transit is not about how any trains you build. It is about how many people you get out of their cars. Our HOV lanes are far more cost-effective than rail solutions because they can be built at a low cost and serve a large area. So the short answer is that we should focus on HOV/managed lanes in terms of transit.

Is it in Houston's interest to try to be like other cities that are less freeway-focused? That's another question to arouse strong opinions, but to me the answer is no. We should build on our strength, which is freeways. I see big, modern freeways as a way to project the image of a strong and powerful Houston, and that's the Houston I grew up in and know best. As I say in the book, if you want to live someplace that's pretty and attractive, Houston is probably not your place. If you like big freeways, big skyscrapers, big commercial clutter and continuous renewal, Houston is your place.