The economics of Texas roads

“Can you think of economic arguments against this arrangement?” Sure, I can think of a simple one. High density cities that have multi-purpose buildings and extremely few fatalities per passenger-mile (i.e. the number of travelers on a stretch of road for a given time period). With high-density towns and cities we would see lots of competition for passengers (i.e. Railroads, Street-Cars, Taxis, Buses, and, of course, regular automobiles). Get the government out of the road-building enterprise altogether and soon this is what we would see. If you are looking for evidence, just look at any road that was developed for for-profit (and non-government) purposes (or any development in America before 1900, which was about the time of big government involvement). Some recent examples are Malls, Apartment complexes, Condominiums etc. They tend to get as many buildings and enterprises on the least amount of land. They don’t bother having high-speed roads, because that would mean that you are flying past possible for-profit real-estate. Also, highways are very expensive to build and maintain, so they would want tenants there anyway.

I am sorry if this was a little off subject, but highways are,in general, a terrible and extremely dangerous design.

Those roads are called “Frontage Roads” and they’re standard throughout Texas on the major interstates and other major highways in and around large cities (yes, El Paso is large, it has ~500,000 people). I think the reasons they’re like that here are probably many, but I’d guess that the majority of it stems from city planners. It does help keep the highways moving along faster, and I think it makes getting in and out of strip centers near the highway much easier. Economically, I’d guess that this design allows businesses to get a lot of exposure to volume by proximity to the highway, while allowing easy-access to any interested patrons.

To begin I believe that the clustering argument is a good one. Also, based on the photo alone, the design has a very high land cost, bulky, wide, etc…

Despite land abundance in this area of the country, it still is probably not the most efficient use of resources. Road pricing could never hurt in order allocate all of said resources in a more efficient manner. Without one, any system is providing subsidy to users, therefore with the high use of land, this one is subsidizing users rather heavily.

-ty

Houston, and most cities in Texas, are built on large, flat plains and are primarily post-WWII development. Land costs are not usually an issue, especially when these freeways are getting built. (I currently live in the SF Bay Area, which of course is quite the opposite. I miss the frontage roads.)

I grew up near a highway intersection in Austin that started as two divided highways and grew into a freeway-highway intersection, with all of the associated road paraphenalia. They still managed to cram the frontage roads in on much of the upgraded freeway.

I grew up and learned to drive in Houston. The best thing about the frontage road system is that it allows for easy error correction. If you miss your exit, just take the next exit (usually no more than a mile or two down the road), do a U-turn under the freeway, and jump right back on going the opposite direction. This is rarely possible in any other town I’ve driven in (including New York and Los Angeles). Outside Texas, missing an exit is a major hassle; you’ll often have to drive around local streets for several minutes (much longer if you don’t know the area) to find another entrance to the freeway. Sometimes the opposite-direction entrance doesn’t even exist.

That said, the frontage road system is one reason Houston is often considered an “ugly” town and has a difficult time attracting events like the Olympics. The first thing anyone sees while driving through Houston is the endless line of billboards and businesses lined up along every freeway. The flipside, as Tory notes, is that the commercial areas provide a buffer between the freeway and residential areas. Having a nice view from the freeway generally means having the freeway abutting attractive — usually residential — areas.

Here in Houston, they’ve introduced one of the best road design improvments since the jersey barrier: Multi level on/off ramps. Basically, when you’re exiting the freeway, you don’t have to deal with the cars entering the freeway, because they’re entering the freeway on the overpass over your head.

You can see a picture of it (J & K) here:
http://www.texasfreeway.com/Houston/photos/59sw/59sw.shtml

The economics of the freeway here in Houston are simple: Land prices stay low. Run out of land in Sharpstown, start building in Stafford and Mo City. Run out there, start building in Sugarland and Greatwood. Most of us no longer work inside the beltway, so traffic there doesn’t affect us. Hence our housing prices have been completely stable. The average family of four can afford their average $120k house here. I don’t think the same thing can be said for D.C. or S.F..

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