Roundabouts: Why we don’t see them yet in Houston and Texas?

(The case for more traffic roundabouts)

From Priceonomics: “The roughly 3,700 circular traffic intersections in the U.S. are feared, avoided, and even loathed…Australia has more than 10,000. France features 32,000. The U.K. boasts 25,000, the most in the world as a proportion of total road space.

In every single metric, roundabouts outperformed intersections in terms of efficiency. Average delays were cut by 65%; no more than one-third of vehicles were not in motion at any given time, and the circle never went over 22% of its full capacity.”

From Discover: “The roundabout is the single most important device ever created to help control traffic safely and smoothly.”

Click to read the rest of this Article.

O’Connor Land Forecast Luncheon: Simmi Jaggi – Jones Lang LaSalle

BY RAY HANKAMER
rhankamer@gmail.com

Takeaway: Demand for retail and industrial sites remains strong, and multi-family is having some activity, but no demand exists for office sites. There is a healthy demand for
residential both in infill and in the far suburbs. There are some transactions for land for medical development, but now that the large 20 acre satellite hospitals are mostly in place
around the far suburbs, future development should be on smaller sites.

 

Click to read the rest of this Article.

CCIM LUNCHEON: Bob Ethington-Director of Research and Economic Development, Uptown Houston Association

BY RAY HANKAMER
rhankamer@gmail.com

Takeaway: Uptown Houston, otherwise loosely known as “The Galleria Area”, is equal to Houston’s Central Business District (CBD) in total developed square footage, including retail, office, hotel, and residential [!]. It is equal to the downtowns of Denver, Portland, Cleveland, or Baltimore. Mobility to and within the Uptown area has not yet caught up with the rapid growth. The project currently underway is set to correct these deficiencies. Uptown Houston’s designated area has been expanded to include Memorial Park, which is almost twice the size of Central Park in New York City. Exciting new enhancements are well underway in our park.

Click to read the rest of this Article.