Houston METRO bus stop by Sean Davis licensed under Creative Commons.

Houston METRO shelves important BRT corridor. A collapsed road connecting Idaho and Wyoming reveals housing issues on both sides. Supercommuter numbers increase again.

Houston METRO shelves important BRT corridor: The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) announced Tuesday, June 18, that it won’t be moving forward with its University Avenue bus rapid transit project, leaving $1 billion in federal funds on the table citing financial impacts on current operations. The new mayor, who appoints a majority of the METRO board, has made a number of pro-car decisions of late and has opposed car lane removal. The BRT project would have connected four universities and major destinations with the popular main street line. (Adam Zuvanich | Houston Public Media)

Collapsed road reveals housing issues: A mountain pass between Victor, Idaho, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, collapsed earlier this month. The road’s failure, which requires people to drive 85 miles out of the way now to get to work, highlights a growing housing shortage and the burden it places on workers who live in Victor and the businesses that employ them in Jackson Hole. (Molly Absolon | Whitehall Ledger)

Supercommuter numbers increasing again: The number of super commuters is increasing as work-from-home policies allow workers to live further away from their jobs in lower-cost areas and only commute a few days a week. New research from Stanford University suggests super commuting, defined as traveling more than 75 miles to work (about five hours roundtrip), has increased by a third since the start of the COVID pandemic. Commuting over 40 miles to work has increased from 15.8% to 18.5% of all commutes. (Andrew Dorn | The Hill)

Can tiny homes help combat homelessness?: All over the country, cities looking to reduce the number of homeless encampments are turning to constructing tiny homes to be an interim space between homelessness and permanent housing. Advocates for people experiencing homelessness don’t see them as a humane or a long-term solution to the housing crisis. Some see value in the cramped quarters as a way to push people to make harder life decisions. (This article may be behind a paywall). (Ronda Kaysen | New York Times)

Banks finally realize climate impacts on housing: Mortgage loan officers are starting to worry about climate change when lending money to home buyers, especially as it relates to the value of the housing being used as collateral. At the same time, home insurance is harder to find as extreme weather events increase payouts and reduce industry profits. But lenders have also been slow to create solutions, like loans for hardening or moving to safer areas. (This article may be behind a paywall). (Chris Baraniuk | Wired Magazine)

Quote of the Week

“It was really hard to work on-site at a property, especially for people with any compassion or humanity. Because we would survey all our tenants when they moved out to find out where they were going, and a lot of them would tell you they were moving back in with family. It seemed so unsustainable.”

Former revenue officer at Cortland Management, who wished not to be identified, in The American Prospect discusses the use of an algorithm to leave empty apartments open to make more money.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast we’re joined by Michael Batty, Professor of Planning at the University College London. We chat about his book, The Computable City.