dug begley

After years of anchoring morning radio newscasts, Rod Rice is an early riser. This made it easy for him to be first in line for a city permit to drive his personal vehicle and pick up passengers. Being retired didn’t hurt, either, said Rice, who stepped down in January from his position at KUHF, the… Continue reading

A waterway beneath Interstate 10, just west of the Sam Houston Tollway, is an unlikely place to find the makings of a transportation revolution in Houston. This area is the heart of the Energy Corridor, a place where glass towers rise out of green manicured lawns, and where oil companies like BP, Shell and ExxonMobil… Continue reading

Based on data from Houston TranStar, which oversees traffic management in the region and distributes congestion data online, there likely will be more truck accidents in the city by year’s end than in any other year. With three months of the calendar year to go, 2014 is projected to easily surpass the 2013 total of… Continue reading

To qualify, the vehicle being replaced must have failed a state emission inspection or be at least 10 years old. The state will pay $600 for repairs and up to $3,500 toward the purchase of a new vehicle that meets certain conditions. All drivers in the Houston, Dallas and Austin areas pay the $6 fee… Continue reading

The data from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute show that Houston’s congestion persists stubbornly in the same spots where it has historically been most severe, even as development spreads farther from the urban core. The worst spot in the state, according to the institute, is along Loop 610 West, between Interstate 10 and U.S. 59.… Continue reading

The sound comes from all directions if you’re standing atop a mound of dirt overlooking Interstate 45, less than a mile from where the trees and subdivisions of Harris County give way to the trees and subdivisions of Montgomery County. Below, traffic whizzes along I-45 in neat clusters. In 30 minutes, it’ll slow to a… Continue reading

From meager beginnings, Houston’s bikesharing program has blossomed into a big draw for visitors and locals looking for a quick ride. For the first six months of 2014, Houston B-Cycle logged 43,530 checkouts, according to agency data. The system had about 2,000 checkouts in all of 2012, the year it started with three stations and… Continue reading

Texas drivers will have a little less clutter on their windshield next year when the familiar green inspection sticker goes away, but it comes at the price of requiring inspections in order to renew vehicle registrations. As of March 2015, vehicles registered in Texas will no longer need separate vehicle inspection and registration stickers. Inspections… Continue reading

Bob Falcon waited years for better transit near his Lindale Park house – so long, in fact, that he retired in the interim. Disembarking from a Metropolitan Transit Authority train Monday afternoon, however, his spirits were high. “In this neighborhood, we’re really banking on it,” Falcon said, just before yanking his bike off the hook… Continue reading

In a rare court win for a property owner in a condemnation case, a Harris County judge ruled that state transportation officials improperly acquired land for a future transit project that was too vaguely defined. The decision, if it survives a possible appeal, could cost the state millions of additional dollars in legal and research… Continue reading