Local and regional transportation planners responded skeptically to data from the Texas Department of Transportation showing Texans driving less.
"According to Texas DOT’s data, the average Texan is driving less every day, and Dallas, Tarrant, and Harris counties saw a decline in total driving mileage, even though they added millions of people," according to an article by Jay Blazek Crossley to summarize revelations made in earlier coverage.
The current article digs deeper into the implications of the data for growth in Texas. First, however, Crossley considers the question of whether the data can even be trusted. Count Alan Clark, transportation planning director of the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC), among those who believes TxDOT's data to be erroneous.
Clark believes that TXDOT traffic data does not accurately reflect how much people are driving in his region, and he’s worried that TXDOT will use this possibly flawed data to shortchange Houston out of several billion dollars in transportation funds that will be spent elsewhere in the state.
According to Crossley, Clark is not alone in his reluctance to accept the idea that Texas residents have drastically changed their travel habits. Meanwhile, how the state plans for its future, with new funding enabled by Prop 7, as approved by Texas voters in November 2015.
Read the full story: Is Something Wrong With TXDOT’s Data on Driving?
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One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
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