Why City Design is Important (and why I hate Houston)
Not Just Bikes Not Just Bikes
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 Published On Premiered Jul 19, 2021

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I'm not an urban planner, so you might ask, why do I run a YouTube channel about urban planning and walkable cities? It all comes down to a life of travel, and a terrible walk in the suburbs of Houston.

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References and Related Reading

Federal Highway Association National Household Travel Survey
https://nhts.ornl.gov/vehicle-trips

What's wrong with comparing Seattle to Houston?
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2...

Out of Control - Houston’s roads, drivers are country’s most deadly
Houston Chronical
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...

Eerste van der Helststraat
Stadsarchief Amsterdam
https://archief.amsterdam/beeldbank/d...

Historical Photos of London, Ontario
https://images.ourontario.ca/london/7...
https://images.ourontario.ca/london/7...
https://images.ourontario.ca/london/2...
https://images.ourontario.ca/london/2...
https://images.ourontario.ca/london/2...

Historic Photos of Houston
https://digitalcollections.lib.uh.edu...
https://digitalcollections.lib.uh.edu...

Giant Brontosaurus Rib: 5 Must-Try BBQ Dishes at Mighty Quinn's
Tasty (YouTube)
   • Giant Brontosaurus Rib: 5 Must-Try BB...  

High Frequency: Why Houston is Back on the Bus
Streetfilms (YouTube)
   • High Frequency: Why Houston is Back o...  

A Year After Bus Redesign, METRO Houston Ridership is Up
https://kinder.rice.edu/2016/08/16/a-...

Houston just dramatically improved its mass transit system without spending a dime
https://www.vox.com/2015/2/18/8056039...

Houston Rolling Back Parking Requirements
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2019/07/1...

How does Houston plan without zoning?
City Beautiful (YouTube)
   • How does Houston plan without zoning?  

The Energy Corridor District unveils west Houston's first protected intersection
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/neig...

More performative pedestrian infrastructure
https://cityobservatory.org/more_myth...

No, Houston isn’t a walkable city, but you have to start somewhere
https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/202...

Katy Freeway by Aliciak3yz - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

Katy Freeway by Socrate76 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

Reducing congestion: Katy didn’t
City Commentary
https://cityobservatory.org/reducing-...

What Dallas, Houston, Louisville & Rochester can teach us about widening freeways: Don’t!
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2...

Houston commute times quickly increasing
https://www.click2houston.com/news/20...

Houston’s $7 billion solution to gridlock is more highways
Curbed.com
https://archive.curbed.com/2019/8/5/2...

North Houston Highway Improvement Project
http://www.ih45northandmore.com/pub_h...

The big picture for a big plan
https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/201...

“The truth about a city's aspirations isn't found in its vision. It's found in its budget.” - Brent Toderian

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Chapters

0:00 Intro
0:05 A Brief History
1:19 Living car-free when unemployed
2:23 Insane amounts of travel
3:42 A fateful trip to Houston
4:25 The walk in Houston (Willowbrook)
7:26 Urban planning and history
9:00 Forgetting those who don't drive
11:13 Houston: sprawl and average BBQ
11:51 What Houston is doing right
13:12 There's still a long ways to go
15:19 Conclusion
16:29 Patreon shout-out
16:40 Outro

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