Two recent editorial pieces from cities as disparate as Columbus, Ohio and Houston, Texas call for a federal commitment to de-clog our airports and highways with long-term investments in high-speed intercity rail. Proponents in Texas argue that state officials need to move beyond 20th century policies and not to sell short on the state's transportation system in the 21st. Both pieces argue that high-speed rail has shown benefits in improving a nation's carbon foot print, and help to relieve congestion at major airports, especially for short-distance intercity travel. They conclude that it is time to provide Americans with a safe and reliable transportation network that includes intercity rail.
Texas Triangle
By 2050 about 35 million people, or 70 percent of the population of Texas, will live in the four metropolitan areas that comprise the Texas Triangle. Three of the nation's 10 largest cities are in the Triangle, including Houston, which has a port that handles more foreign tonnage than any other U.S. port. Efforts to create a NAFTA superhighway from Mexico to Canada could create a developed corridor through San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas. Tradition and economics create the potential for economic collaboration between the metro regions, which could also address serious environmental concerns. Location: Eastern Texas
Principal Cities: Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio
Population 2000: 16,131,347
Percent of U.S. Population: 6%
Population 2025: 23,586,856
Projected Growth: 46%
2005 GDP: $817,510,000,000
Percent of US GDP: 7%
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Regional Plan Association and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy convened scholars and planners at a research seminar in Healdsburg, California last April to explore an emerging urban form: the megaregion. Megaregions are networks of metropolitan areas linked by economic and trade relationships, transportation infrastructure, large natural systems, and growth concerns. First identified as "megalopolis" in the 1960s, the Northeast Megaregion, from southern Maine to northern Virginia, presents the most recognizable example of this urban form. The report includes four scholarly papers examining case studies of megaregions in California,Texas, the Midwest, and Western Europe. Read the press release.Download the full report (15 MB)
Download the report in sections:
Cover and Table of Contents (6 MB)
Introduction by Armando Carbonell
Megaregions in California: Challenges to Planning and Policy by Michael Teitz and Elisa Barbour (2 MB)
Connecting the Texas Triangle: Economic Integration and Transportation Coordination by Ming Zhang, Frederick Steiner, and Kent Butler (5 MB)
U.S. Regional Economic Fragmentation & Integration: Selected Empirical Evidence and Implications by Edward Feser and Geoffrey Hewings (1 MB)
Polycentric Mega-city Regions: Exploratory Research from Western Europe by Peter Taylor and Kathy Pain (.5 MB)
Summary of Meeting (.6 MB)
Continue reading New Report Highlights Planning Challenges at the Megaregional Scale.
March 6-10, 2006 Three teams of graduate planning students from the University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas and University of Michigan, gathered this month for a week-long workshop on megaregion planning with a faculty of esteemed European planners in Madrid, Spain. The student teams were engaged in urban planning, architecture or engineering courses at their respective universities, exploring the emergence of megaregions in the Northeast, the Texas Triangle and the Great Lakes. Working in groups, they began the week with presentations that defined their megaregions, analyzing demographic and economic trends, and proposed potential strategies to address challenges encountered at the megaregional scale.
Continue reading International Megaregion Planning Workshop.
Maps
