Exploring Houston’s Public Transportation

Since Houston got its first railroad line in 1856, Houstonians have been arguing about public transportation. Our history is full of trolley, bus, and light rail lines that shaped the city we know today—and unbuilt projects that hint at what Houston could have been. In this two-part course, Christof Spieler, an urban planner, author, and former Houston METRO board member, will take us through the history of Houston public transportation, from the 1920s streetcars through the creation of METRO, the unbuilt monorail, the park-and-ride network, the light rail lines, and bus rapid transit. Mr. Spieler will outline the current landscape: what plans are on the books, their current status, and who is making these decisions. He will discuss the role of public transit in Houston, how more transit could change the city, and how Houston compares to other cities. In the second session, we will experience first-hand today’s transit system, riding a freeway express bus, our only BRT (bus rapid transit) line, the busiest local bus in Texas, and the light rail.

Christof Spieler, PE, AICP, LEED AP is director of planning at Huitt-Zollars, a lecturer in transportation at the Rice University School of Architecture, and the author of Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US Transit (Island Press, 2018). His planning work includes reimagining regional rail in Philadelphia, bus transformation in Boston, bus network redesign in Fort Worth, a rail station in Austin, alternatives to a proposed freeway expansion, a community vision for Galveston, commuter rail planning in Albuquerque, greenways in Houston, street design manuals for Dallas, and flood resilience in Houston.