Only No. 24!

Memorial Day weekend traffic jam fodder: Houston traffic is actually gettingbetter with less congestion

Houston traffic is not so awesome. That's not news to anyone hoping to beat the crawling Memorial Day weekend traffic. But how does the city rank compared to others across the United States?

According to the INRIX traffic scorecard, Houston's congestion is 24th out of the 100 cities measured. Considering how big our metropolitan area is, that's actually a pretty decent showing.

INRIX says Houston drivers spent over 21 hours in traffic congestion over the past year on average, but that's actually an improvement.

INRIX says Houston drivers spent over 21 hours in traffic congestion over the past year on average, but that's actually an improvement. Whether it's due to high fuel prices or changing lifestyles, Houston's INRIX index — which measures the percent of extra time spent driving due to traffic congestion — data taken from April 2011 through April 2012 was down 16 percent from the 12-month period before then.

So what are the worst cities for driving? Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. In Hawaii's capital a quarter of the time spent driving is waiting in traffic, but hey, at least the views are good.

The study also ranked the worst road corridors for congestion. Houston's worst stretch of traffic is on heading north o US-59 from Buffalo Speedway to Interstate 45, a five-mile stretch that takes an average of 12 minutes to travel, making it the 36th most congested road in the country. Other miserable drives around H-Town that made the top 100 include include Loop 610 northbound between Braeswood and Woodway (No. 55), Northwest Freeway from Mangum to N. Eldridge (No. 62), Loop 610 southbound between Highway 290 and Evergreen St. (No. 77) and US-59 southbound from Quitman to 288.

Of course, if any of these freeways are a part of your commute, this isn't exactly news to you.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”