Over the past two decades, changes in transportation demand of agriculture and rural industry have interacted with the deregulation of the transportation sector. This has resulted in the abandonment both of the regulation of truck rates and competition, and of many rural rail links that were deemed inefficient. Agricultural industrialization and the move towards applying market principles to guide production decisions have had a profound impact on rural transportation infrastructure. Together with strategic rail decisions to terminate inefficient services, these changes have resulted in larger and heavier truck hauling agricultural products over longer distances on pavements and bridges that were not constructed to withstand these loads. Clearly there is a need to better understand the strategic challenges and issues as well as the critical role that transportation plays in promoting competitive agriculture and a vibrant rural economy. The objectives of this project were to (a) explore the rural agriculture/industry-transportation relationship, (b) provide information on major rural stakeholder, industry, and trucking views, (c) highlight the factors that result in greater demands on rural roads from the perspective of the Texas Department of Transportation, (d) present a methodology to prioritize rural transportation needs in transportation planning decisions, and (e) list a number of policy options to address rural transportation concerns.

Since World War II, Houston has become a burgeoning, internationally connected metropolis—and a sprawling, car-dependent city. In 1950, it possessed only one highway, the Gulf Freeway, which ran between Houston and Galveston. Today, Houston and Harris County have more than 1,200 miles of highways, and a third major loop is under construction nearly thirty miles out from the historic core. Highways have driven every aspect of Houston’s postwar development, from the physical layout of the city to the political process that has transformed both the transportation network and the balance of power between governing elites and ordinary citizens. Power Moves examines debates around the planning, construction, and use of highway and public transportation systems in Houston. Kyle Shelton shows how Houstonians helped shape the city’s growth by attending city council meetings, writing letters to the highway commission, and protesting the destruction of homes to make way for freeways, which happened in both affluent and low-income neighborhoods. He demonstrates that these assertions of what he terms “infrastructural citizenship” opened up the transportation decision-making process to meaningful input from the public and gave many previously marginalized citizens a more powerful voice in civic affairs. Power Moves also reveals the long-lasting results of choosing highway and auto-based infrastructure over other transit options and the resulting challenges that Houstonians currently face as they grapple with how best to move forward from the consequences and opportunities created by past choices.