Houston Texas Transtar System

Benefits of Houston TranStar

The Houston Texas Transtar System benefits are well documented and quantified by the Texas Transportation Institute, the transportation research arm of Texas A&M University.

TranStar’s transportation management activities have reduced the public’s travel times and fuel consumption (more than $2.5 billion has been saved since the program’s inception), and have lowered exhaust emissions (4,592 tons of hydrocarbons, 30,177 tons of carbon monoxide and 6,465 tons of nitrogen oxides). In 2009, the savings in travel time lowered fuel consumption by 21.2 million gallons. The reduction of 21.2 million gallons of fuel is equivalent to an estimated reduction of 458 tons of hydrocarbons; 2,964 tons of carbon monoxide; and 667 tons of nitrogen oxides.

Emergency management activities and warnings have decreased the number of injuries, deaths, and extensive property damage caused by floods and other weather-related and/or man-made events such as the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. They can get a little rambunctious.

The annual cost to operate Houston TranStar is $27.7 million. Divided into TranStar's annual benefit of $274 million, the benefit/cost ratio is 9.9. So for every $1 spent on Houston TranStar, the region realizes a benefit of $9.90. Since its inception 13 years ago, TranStar has saved commuters nearly $2.5 billion in reduced travel delays and fuel costs.

Houston TranStar Dynamic Message Signs

When you’re planning to drive in and around Houston, the Houston TranStar website has a page that shows you the messages of all their message signs on Houston freeways which you can use to plan your route. On the website, the sites are made to look just as they would on the road: Black backdrop with an arrangement of yellow light bulbs that light up to display the message set for each sign. Of course, the messages could change between the time you’re at your computer and you physically see the sign on the road. If they don’t change then you should probably expect a serious traffic problem.

The dynamic message signs available on the Houston TranStar are categorized by the road the signs are posted on: I-10 Katy, I-45 Gulf, US-59 Southwest, Beltway 8-North, Beltway 8-South, Beltway 8-West, and Westpark Tollway. On each page, the signs categorized by the direction you would be traveling when you see them: northbound, southbound, eastbound, or westbound. On Fridays, they should probably just be changed to Outbound since everyone is trying to get out of town for the weekend.

Each dynamic message sign will warn drivers of conditions that could slow them down or alter their route such as:

FREEWAY CLOSED AT SH 99 THRU 5AM MON
TRAVEL TIME TO BELTWAY 8 11 MIN AT 5:06
ROAD WORK AT IH 10 LEFT LNS CLOSED

These are just examples of what you may see on these dynamic message signs whether you see them while you're driving or you're looking at the Houston TranStar website. You might even see, “CAUTION: ZOMBIES!” when some prankster hacks into the system and changes the message.

Houston TranStar's Traffic Cameras

Houston TranStar has installed cameras around major roads throughout Houston to monitor traffic conditions at all hours of the day. Freeways monitored by Houston TransStar are: IH-10 Katy and East, IH-45 Gulf and North, IH-610 Loop which has a traffic camera for each direction (north, east, south and west), US-59 Southwest and Eastex, US-290 Northwest, SH-288, SH-249, SH-225, SH-146, SH-6, Spur-330, Beltway 8 North, West and South, Fort Bend Toll Road, Hardy Toll Road and the Westpark Tollway. To avoid Big Brother, stay off those roads.

When you visit the Houston TransStar website, you can view these cameras by clicking on the Traffic Cameras link. Once you're on the Houston TranStar Cameras page, you can select Freeways, Streets, Ferry, or Regional to view cameras in the different types of areas monitored by Houston TransStar. Under Freeways, you have the option to select one of the freeways listed above along with a street of which the freeway intersects. There's even an option to view some cameras that are outside of Houston. The Streets tab allows you to view cameras on some of the busier streets in the Houston area at specific intersections. The Ferry tab allows you to switch between Galveston Landing and Bolivar Landing, each with three cameras at three different locations. The Regional tab shows traffic on freeways that go through Houston, but the camera views are from areas outside of Houston. No matter where you drive, some random lookee-loo on the Internet can see you driving. Creeeeeeeeepy.

There are also the Camera Map and Mobile Access tabs. The Camera Map is a bird's-eye-view map using symbols and colors along with a map key to show you where the cameras are located as well as information about traffic such as congestion, road closures, and construction. The Mobile Access page is a list of links to the different cameras and traffic information for easy viewing on a mobile device.

Houston Transtar on Twitter

HoustonTransStar makes heavy use of Twitter by having an array of accounts for the various major roads in and around the Houston area. By following any of those accounts on Twitter, you can receive up-to-the-minute updates on traffic just by looking at your Twitter timeline. Houston TransStar's Twitter accounts and the information each one delivers is as follows:

1. houstontranstar - General traffic information from Houston TranStar
2. ih10kt_traffic - IH-10 Katy Traffic Updates From Houston TranStar
3. ih10e_traffic - IH-10 E Traffic Updates From Houston TranStar
4. ih45s_traffic - IH-45 Gulf Traffic Incident Updates From Houston TranStar
5. ih45n_traffic - IH-45 North Traffic Updates From Houston TranStar
6. ih610w_traffic - IH-610 West Loop Traffic Updates from Houston TranStar
7. ih610n_traffic - IH-610 North Loop Traffic Updates from Houston TranStar
8. ih610e_traffic - IH-610 East Loop Traffic Updates from Houston TranStar
9. ih610s_traffic - IH-610 South Loop Traffic Updates from Houston TranStar
10. us59sw_traffic - US-59 Southwest Traffic Updates from Houston TranStar
11. us59n_traffic - US-59 Eastex Traffic updates from Houston TranStar
12. us290nw_traffic - US-290 Traffic Information From Houston TranStar
13. sh288_traffic - SH-288 Traffic Alerts from Houston TranStar
14. sh225_traffic - SH-225 Traffic Alerts from Houston TranStar
15. sh249_traffic - SH-249 Traffic Alerts from Houston TranStar
16. wpark_traffic - Westpark Tollway Traffic Information From Houston TranStar

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