On the heels of the #NoNewRoads campaign, new Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner gave a "rousing" speech calling for the state of Texas to change its thinking about highway widening projects.
"Newly elected Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner gave a remarkable speech [last week] in Austin [PDF], calling on the state to change its transportation priorities and stop pouring billions into widening highways," reports Angie Schmitt.
"Turner told the Texas Transportation Commission, the appointed board that leads Texas DOT, that the state needs a totally new transportation paradigm," adds Schmitt. Mayor Turner even cited the infamous Katy Freeway expansion as evidence of the old way of doing business in the speech. Schmitt provides a couple key passages from the speech as well.
Schmitt was following on news originally made public by Jay Blazek Crossley for Houston Tomorrow. That article also notes that Mayor Turner cited an example of the right kind of highway work: the collaborative project by TXDOT – Houston District staff on a proposal for the I-45 corridor in Houston.
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