Worst of the worst

Hitting the road for Labor Day? Beware of these chronically congested highways

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) released its 2011 list of the 100 most congested roadways in Texas just in time for the Labor Day getaway. It comes as no surprise that Houston has a traffic problem: Four of the top 10 worst traffic roadways (ranked in order of annual hours of delay per mile) are in Harris County and it becomes five of the top 10 if you sort the list by annual cost of delay.

TxDOT, working with traffic congestion experts at Texas A&M's Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), measured actual traffic speeds as opposed to traffic density on the roadways. The group noted that the current list looks a lot like the one from 2010, with only a few minor shifts.

"Texans know that traffic is bad . . . The list is important for planning purposes, but most of the same highways are still in the top tier of most congested," Dr. Tim Lomax, research engineer with TTI, said in a statement.

Ranked sixth on TxDOT's list is the length of US 59 between IH 10 and SH 288, with 433,650 annual hours of delay per mile and a $66.99M annual cost in lost time (the delay cost is an estimate of the value of people's lost time in passenger vehicles and the increased operating costs of commercial vehicles in congestion.)

Other local problem stretches include IH 10 between IH 45 and US 59 (405,231 annual hours of delay and a $25.18M annual cost); the 610 loop between IH 10 and IH 45 (392,562 hours and $62.04M cost annually); and IH 45 between IH 10 and 610 (378,038 hours and $86.13M cost annually).

You (and your wallet) might be consoled by the fact that you don't live in Dallas/Fort Worth region. Some roadways in Dallas County cost commuters up to 5.7 million hours of delay and $141.12 million per year — more than two million hours more than Houston's stretch of IH 45 between IH 610 and SL 8, which accounts for 358,438 hours of delay per mile and a whopping $88.36 million annually.

Take a look at the entire list and check out a mitigation plan for each stretch here.

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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.”