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Congestion is a problem of poor traffic management by the civic engineers.

I won't pay higher taxes because of their f*up.

In Houston, Greenie Weenies reduced the traffic flow on Houston roads when they restriped them with an unused bicycle lane. It was not uncommon for a 4 lane road to be reduced to two lanes reducing the throughput by half. Increased congestion.

Also traffic lights in this town are often 180 degrees out of phase. Go from one light to the next and wait.

The new rail system downtown has right of way at all intersections. Unlike other towns where a rail must wait for a green light, all lights go red (or are supposed to) in the vicinity of any trolly so again cars must stack up and wait.

All of that waiting contributes to congestion and pollution.

Don't pay for civic f*ups.

When I lived in Houston, I wouldn't drive on the loops at all unless it was at least a couple of hours before or after rush hour. On the other hand, the access roads were wonderful highway substitutes. I preferred waiting at the occasional red lights on the parallel access roads to parking on the inner or outer loop.

Thank goodness now Houston has mass transit. /sarc

...traffic lights in this town are often 180 degrees out of phase. Go from one light to the next and wait.

I have noticed that in a lot of places across the Fruited Plain... There is an agenda behind it too... I am glad I moved to Southern Oregon...

San Franfreako won't be far behind London I read somewhere. Problem is, I think their over inflated real estate market is about to be hit by a major collapse.

Rail system? Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is plagued by scandal, budget overruns, and crime. I don't live in Houston, but I'll bet you will see a lot of the same in the coming years...

"Congestion?" While we're on the subject, let's ban couples from having more than one child. Liberals will make China's draconian policy only a tad less severe by taxing every other child extra. In a few decades, no more congestion. Doubtless they'll find creative ways to make up for the lost revenue due to fewer people being around.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

Congestion is a problem of poor traffic management by the civic engineers.

This is not true at all. What you have to understand is that effectively dealing with traffic congestion is basically impossible. This is mainly because traffic congestion is primarily a function of the unpredictable nature of transportation. For example, it's relatively easy to design a water supply system or a building structure because water always behaves in a predictable manner and structural loadings are distributed through a building frame in a predictable manner.

Human behavior, on the other hand, is inherently unpredictable. In a free society it impossible to design a transportation system that functions adequately over a long period of time because there are so many variables (household size, number of registered vehicles per household, housing development patterns, office and retail development patterns, an endless number of origin/destination combinations for people traveling from home to work, variations in driving skills by age and level of intelligence, etc.).

Give me 90 days, and I could design a transportation system for your city that would not have any congestion at all. I am sure, however, that you would never want to live in the city after I am done with it -- mainly because you would have to live where I tell you to live, work where (and when) I tell you to work, shop where (and when) I tell you to shop, drive the vehicle I tell you to drive, and have no more (and no less) than exactly 2 children.