[scottlocklin]

Houston's population was 1.7 million in 1970[0], it's 6.4 million now. I'm making the guess that their highway system was approximately done in 1970, but it's basically the same story if you put that number at 1980 (2.4 million) and so on.

FWIIW underutilized modern highways are amazingly efficient and pleasant to drive on. As far as I can tell they're limited to recent construction in Europe (Spain for example; it appears to have a 2005 era German highway system designed for 2-3x their population).

[0] https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/23014/houston/population

[kevin_thibedeau]

There are small cities with overbuilt ring roads in the US that have little traffic. Sometimes porkbarrel spending is a win.

[tc313]

We have two loops in Houston — an inner loop and an outer loop. Freeway expansion is non-stop and we still don’t have enough road for all of our traffic...

[stephenhuey]

Actually, 99 Grand Parkway is almost an entire third loop around the city about 180 miles in length!

[ryanmarsh]

I'm making the guess that their highway system was approximately done in 1970

LOL, so much bullshit propagated about a city with 9M residents you can actually visit or research.

The beltway didn’t open until the late 80’s. I-10 was widened twice since then, and the 99 “Grand Parkway” loop is ongoing.