Our Focus
Lack of transportation options is a significant barrier to reaching opportunities – affordable housing, education, work, healthcare, and grocery stores. Household savings related to Houston’s relatively low cost of housing are often outweighed by travel time and car-related expenses. Disasters – from hurricanes to debilitating illness – exacerbate the need for transportation alternatives, such as better public transportation, safe and accessible sidewalks, and protected bike paths for people. LINK Houston’s work focuses on four areas: ensuring better transit; improving safety and access for people walking and biking, keeping communities connected in the face of the I-45 highway expansion, and exploring how affordable housing and high-quality affordable transportation serve families and individuals, and what decisionmakers should consider for future projects to keep housing truly affordable. LINK Houston is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that uses research and civic engagement to work on transportation issues. The organization does not work on ballot measures, elections, or specific legislation.
Ensure Better Public Transit
Ever heard someone say, “No one rides the bus?” Think again. Local bus service is Houston’s primary system of public transportation with 165,000+ boardings each day. We believe high-quality local bus service should be accessible, frequent, and reliable. We want the bus to come often, on-time, day-and-night, and be easy to access from the street.
We advocate for improvements in local bus networks so that they seamlessly enable people to navigate diverse communities and commercial districts across Houston’s 627 square miles.
Pedestrian-Bicycle Safety and Access
We’ve all seen streets where sidewalks or crosswalks are either non-existent or dangerous. In many cases, they can be deadly for people who walk, use a wheelchair, or ride their bikes to reach employment, school, or services.
Our advocacy aims to improve safety and access for people walking and biking along key corridors. Ultimately, we want to reduce the frequency and severity of crashes involving people walking and biking in Houston.
Keep Communities United
With the major capital infrastructure project in progress to modernize and expand I-45N, advocacy is key to amplifying the voices of historically under-resourced communities facing displacement from their homes, community sites, and street connections for neighbors walking and biking to the grocery store or schools. Highway infrastructure projects of this magnitude displace residents and divide communities—from one another and from services the community has depended upon for generations.
Our advocacy focuses on improving the I-45 highway expansion, transforming the project into one that maintains communities and provides access – instead of a barrier – for under-resourced communities to reach important destinations and opportunities.
Affordable Housing + High Quality Affordable Transportation
According to the Center for Neighborhood Technology, Houstonians on average spend 25% of their household incomes on housing and another 20% on transportation, making Houston less affordable than New York City. LINK Houston is exploring where affordable housing and high-quality affordable transportation currently coexist in the city, how well they serve families and individuals, and what decisionmakers should consider for future projects to keep housing truly affordable.