Traffic

A recently released study by Michael Emerson of Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research compared Houston and Copenhagen.  He found that both residents of Houston, the nation’s most automobile-dependent city, and Copenhagen, the Green Capitol of Europe, agreed that traffic was their city’s biggest problem.

The difference came in how they define traffic:

“In Houston, an area almost completely dependent on cars for mobility, people think there are too many cars for the number and size of roads, and more lanes are needed to improve the traffic flow,” Emerson said. “This was starkly different from what Copenhagen-area residents regarded as ’traffic problems.’ To them, traffic meant too many cars causing pollution and a lower quality of life, and too many people not using the alternative forms of transportation.”

Emerson said that nearly half of Copenhagen residents – 46 percent – use public transit, compared with only 4 percent of Houstonians.