Why City Design is Important (and Why I Hate Houston)

Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: 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. Sign up to Nebula and watch ad-free and sponsor-free: Patreon: Twitter: Reddit: One-time donations: NJB Live (my bicycle livestream channel): --- References and Related Reading Federal Highway Association National Household Travel Survey What’s wrong with comparing Seattle to Houston? Out of Control - Houston’s roads, drivers are country’s most deadly Houston Chronical Eerste van der Helststraat Stadsarchief Amsterdam Historical Photos of London, Ontario Historic Photos of Houston Giant Brontosaurus Rib: 5 Must-Try BBQ Dishes at Mighty Quinn’s Tasty (YouTube) High Frequency: Why Houston is Back on the Bus Streetfilms (YouTube) A Year After Bus Redesign, METRO Houston Ridership is Up Houston just dramatically improved its mass transit system without spending a dime Houston Rolling Back Parking Requirements How does Houston plan without zoning? City Beautiful (YouTube) The Energy Corridor District unveils west Houston’s first protected intersection More performative pedestrian infrastructure No, Houston isn’t a walkable city, but you have to start somewhere Katy Freeway by Aliciak3yz - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Katy Freeway by Socrate76 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Reducing congestion: Katy didn’t City Commentary What Dallas, Houston, Louisville & Rochester can teach us about widening freeways: Don’t! Houston commute times quickly increasing Houston’s $7 billion solution to gridlock is more highways North Houston Highway Improvement Project The big picture for a big plan “The truth about a city’s aspirations isn’t found in its vision. It’s found in its budget.” - Brent Toderian --- 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