Transportation in Texas

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Transportation in Texas
Cycle track, Austin, Lime scooters, Austin

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is a governmental agency and its purpose is to "provide safe, effective, and efficient movement of people and goods" throughout the state.^[1] Though the public face of the agency is generally associated with maintenance of the state's immense highway system, the agency is also responsible for aviation in the state and overseeing public transportation systems.

Highways

Texas

Another common characteristic found near Texas overpasses are the Texas U-turns which is a lane allowing cars traveling on one side of a one-way frontage road to U-turn into the opposite frontage road (typically crossing over or under a freeway or expressway) without being stopped by traffic lights or crossing the highway traffic at-grade.

Most roads, such as rural two-lane roads, rural divided expressways and interstates, and urban interstates are posted at 75 mph (121 km/h), but some rural freeways and interstates have 80 mph (130 km/h) speed limits, and one toll road, Texas State Highway 130, has an 85 mph (137 km/h) speed limit, the highest in the United States.

Traffic safety considerations

Texas and California are comparable being the two largest states in the contiguous United States. This perhaps explains why these two states experience higher traffic fatalities than other states.^[2]

There were more traffic fatalities in California than in Texas till 2007. Since 2017, there have been more fatalities in Texas than in California.^[2]

The fatality rate by travelled distance and by population is worse in Texas than in the USA.^{[citation needed]}

Fatalities in Texas	Fatalities in Texas by zone
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.	Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Fatalities in Texas by VMT	Fatalities in Texas by population
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.	Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Sources: https://cdan.nhtsa.gov/SASStoredProcess/guest (Eurostat/CARE for comparison to France and Germany)

Airports

The

Part of the state's

Passenger rail service in Texas is at this moment^[when?] extremely limited from both network viewpoint (with only three routes) and frequency viewpoint (only daily or tri-weekly service), and is certainly to be considered below par for a developed state.

Currently three Amtrak trains serve Texas:

• the daily
  San Antonio
  , where through cars are coupled to the Sunset Limited.
• the tri-weekly
  El Paso
  .
• the daily
  Gainesville
  .

v t e Texas passenger rail stations
Legend
Texas Eagle to Chicago Heartland Flyer to Oklahoma City Marshall Gainesville Longview Mineola Downtown Denton Transit Center Shiloh Road MedPark 12th Street Highland Village/Lewisville Lake CityLine/Bush Old Town UTD/Synergy Park Hebron Knoll Trail Trinity Mills Addison Transit Center Downtown Carrollton Cypress Waters DFW Airport Terminal B Dallas Union Station DFW Airport North Victory Medical/Market Center Grapevine-Main Street Downtown Irving/ Heritage Crossing North Richland Hills/Smithfield West Irving North Richland Hills/Iron Horse CentrePort/DFW Airport Mercantile Center Bell North Side Trinity Lakes Fort Worth Central Station T&P Station Cleburne McGregor Temple Sunset Limited to New Orleans Taylor Beaumont Leander Lakeline Howard (Under construction) Broadmoor Kramer McKalla Crestview Highland MLK Jr. Plaza Saltillo Austin–Downtown Austin San Marcos Houston San Antonio Del Rio Sanderson Alpine Central Time Mountain Time El Paso Sunset Limited / Texas Eagle to Los Angeles   Diagram is not to scale
Key
Amtrak only A-train DART Silver Line (under construction) TEXRail TEXRail & Trinity Railway Express Trinity Railway Express CapMetro Rail All stations are accessible

Mass transportation

There are three mass transportation agencies in the

Tarrant County through 3 member cities, providing bus and rail service DCTA that was created by the Texas Legislature in 2001 and approved by Denton County voters in 2002, providing a bus and commuter rail service, including the TRE and TEXRail. DCTA serves Denton County through three member cities, Denton, Lewisville, and Highland Village with bus and A-train commuter rail service. The city of Arlington

remains the largest city in the United States not served by a public transportation system, instead using a ride-share service since 2017.

The

Reliant Park

. However, construction begun in 2008 on a 30-mile (48 km) extension of the light rail system that was completed in 2013.

VIA Metropolitan Transit (VIA for short) operates bus service in the San Antonio area. VIA is expected to add bus rapid transit service to the area by 2012.

The

Capital MetroRail

commuter rail line.

The

Brownsville Urban System operates bus service throughout the city of Brownsville, Texas

.

Ports

Main article: List of ports in the United States

Over 1,000

tenth worldwide tonnage.^[10] The Houston Ship Channel is currently 530 feet (160 m) wide by 45 feet (14 m) deep by 50 miles (80 km) long and continues to be expanded.^[11]

Trans-Texas Corridor

Main article: Trans-Texas Corridor

The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), officially canceled in 2011,

freight, commuter, and high-speed rail. The Texas Department of Transportation intended to "charge public and private concerns for utility, commodity or data transmission" within the corridor,^[14]

in essence creating a toll road for services such as water, electricity, natural gas, petroleum, fiber optic lines, and other telecommunications services.

See also

• Transportation in Dallas, Texas
• Airlines of Texas
• List of Texas railroads
• Plug-in electric vehicles in Texas

References

1. ^ "Texas Department of Transportation". Retrieved August 4, 2007. Providing safe, effective and efficient movement of people and goods.
2. ^ ^{a b} Walden, Troy D.; Ko, Myunghoon; Wu, Lingtao. "Comparative Analysis of Fatal Crashes in Texas vs. California and Implications for Traffic Safety in Texas" (PDF). Texas A&M Transportation Institute – via Texas Department of Transportation.
3. ^ "We Weren't Just Airborne Yesterday". Southwest Airlines. May 2, 2007. Retrieved June 9, 2007.
4. ^ International Air Transport Association. "Scheduled Passengers Carried". Archived from the original on April 30, 2007. Retrieved June 10, 2007.
5. ^ East Dallas, TX from the Handbook of Texas Online accessed May 7, 2008
6. ^ "Texas-Transportation". Advamag, Inc. 2007. Retrieved May 4, 2006.
7. Texas Railroad Commission. October 1, 2005. Archived from the original
   on November 20, 2007. Retrieved May 4, 2008.
8. ^ ^{a b} "About Texas Ports". Texas Ports Association. Retrieved May 7, 2008.
9. ^ "Benefits of Texas Ports". Texas Ports Association. Retrieved May 7, 2008.
10. ^ "General Information". The Port of Houston Authority. March 31, 2008. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved May 7, 2008.
11. USACE, December 2005, webpage: "USACE Galveston - Houston-Galveston Navigation Channel Project Online Resource Center". Archived from the original
    on January 9, 2009. Retrieved October 28, 2008. USACE-HGNC]
12. ^ "Texas Legislature Online - 82(R) History for HB 1201". capitol.texas.gov.
13. ^ Crossroads of the Americas: Trans Texas Corridor Plan Report Summary Archived April 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
14. ^ "Crossroads of the Americas: Trans Texas Corridor Plan". February 27, 2008.

External links

• Texas Department of Transportation
• Drive Clean Across Texas (DCAT).