Here's how far Houston's robust population of 'super commuters' drive to and from work every day

on the road again

Nearly 80,000 workers in the Houston area travel at least 90 minutes each way for their jobs. Photo via Getty Images

If you’re a workday commuter in the Houston metro area, you may be among the many motorists who’ve cursed the snarled traffic on I-610/West Loop Freeway. This route routinely takes the crown as the most clogged roadway in Texas.

But imagine if you were one of the nearly 80,000 workers in the Houston area who travel at least 90 minutes each way for their jobs. That’s an even more gripe-worthy commuting scenario.

U.S. Census Bureau data gathered by Apartment List shows that as of 2022 in the Houston area, 79,645 workers were tagged as “super commuters.” These workers represent three percent of all commuters in the region.

The Houston area’s 2022 number is down slightly from the pre-pandemic year of 2019, when 82,878 workers across the region were super commuters, according to Apartment List.

Igor Popov, chief economist at Apartment List, says 3.7 million American workers spent at least 90 minutes traveling each way for their jobs in 2022. These extreme commutes are becoming more commonplace as suburban populations rise and employers pull back on remote work, he says.

Nationally, the number of super commuters jumped by 593,000 in 2022 compared with 2021, when the pandemic caused the figure to plummet by more than 1.5 million.

“Generally, super commuting is most common for transit users, workers who live on the fringes of the metropolitan area, or those who commute to separate metros entirely,” Popov says.

Super commuting is also common among high-income workers who are willing to travel longer distances for higher-wage jobs, according to Popov.

A recent study by Stanford University and travel data provider INRIX mostly aligns with the Census Bureau data cited by Apartment List.

Since the pandemic, the study says, the share of one-way commutes covering at least 40 miles has gone up in the country’s 10 largest metros, including Houston. In the Houston area, the share of one-way super commutes, which the study defines as those over 75 miles, grew 18 percent from 2019-20 to 2023-24.

Among the 10 areas examined in the study, a typical two-way super commute lasts nearly four hours and 40 minutes.

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Here's how the Bayou City ranks on list comparing longest commute times. Photo by Manuel Velasquez on Unsplash

Houston gets a surprising brake on new list of U.S. cities with worst commute

tick, tock

Given the continuous gridlock Houston drivers face, it would be safe to assume our fair city faces the worst commute time in Texas and the even the nation. Not so.

A new report by SmartAsset ranks a surprising Texas city as the worst in the Lone Star State for commute time: Garland. The north Texas city ranked No. 3 in the nation for longest commute time, according to the SmartAsset survey.

Garland ranked No. 3 worst, only out-trafficked by two California cities — Stockton and Bakersfield — which came in first and second, respectively. (Another shocker: Los Angeles didn't lead the list, which landed at No. 25.)

Houston doesn't appear until much further down the list at No. 23 — tied with Dallas. The average commute time in Houston is 26.1 minutes, while 5.8 percent of Houstonians face a "severe" commute of 60 minutes or more. Houstonians spend a tiny bit more of their income on transportation costs than Dallas drivers do (9.9 percent vs. 9 percent). In Dallas, the average commute time in Dallas is 25.7 minutes; 6.5 percent of Dallasites face a "severe" commute.

The only other Texas city to land in the top 10 is El Paso, which comes in seventh. The city ranks second overall for transportation costs relative to income, with commuters paying 14.13 percent of their median household income for transportation in the city and surrounding areas, SmartAsset says.

Elsewhere in Texas, city rankings were:

  • Arlington, No. 33
  • Fort Worth, No. 47
  • Irving, No. 50
  • Plano, No. 52
  • San Antonio, No. 55
  • Lubbock, No. 61
  • Austin, No. 64
  • Corpus Christi, No. 78
  • Laredo, No. 81

Interestingly, SmartAsset notes, despite the rise in remote work the past few years, the average commute time went down by only one minute in five years. The national average decreased from 26.6 minutes in 2016 to 25.6 minutes in 2021, they say, while the percentage of remote workers has tripled in about half the time.

"Workers in 2023 will average almost 222 hours (or a little over nine days) driving to and from work," the report says. "And these hours spent in transit cost commuters more than just their time. The price of fuel, public transit passes and other commuter-related costs can add up quickly."

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Here's how much time Houstonians spend in traffic. Photo via Getty Images

Report: Houstonians lose days-worth of time each year due to rush hour

not in the fast lane

Traffic is a part of life in Houston. But a new study quantifies just how much time the average Bayou City dweller spends sitting in rush hour gridlock every year—and the results are eye opening.

According to a study released this month by CoPilot, Houstonians lose nearly four days of time each year due to rush hour commuting.

The report found that rush hour extends Houstonians' commute by an extra 22 minutes per day. Annually, that totaled an additional 91.6 hours commuting due to rush hour.

This earned the Houston area (including the Woodlands and Sugar Land) a No. 8 spot on CoPilot's list of cities where commuters lose the most time to rush hour.

Evening commutes saw the highest increase in time in Houston, with the average commuter spending 14 additional minutes on roadways due to rush hour. Morning rush hour in Houston added about eight minutes to commuters' daily drives.

Houston was the only Texas city to make CoPilot's list of the top 15 cities that lost the most time to rush hour traffic. New York drivers lost the most time to rush hour, which adds about 32 minutes to daily commutes and 132 hours a year, according to the report. Los Angeles drivers lost the second-most time, followed by urban Honolulu, Miami, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Birmingham, Alabama.

The report found that drivers in Houston spend about eight more minutes commuting during rush hour than the average driver in the county. That totals to about 30 more hours per year than the average U.S. driver.

Commute times have been dropping nationally, reaching a low of 25.6 minutes in 2021 compared to 27.6 minutes in 2019, as more workers have transitioned to hybrid schedules or working from home, according to CoPilot

In 2020, Houston drivers even witnessed a 33 percent drop in traffic compared to in 2019, according to a study from Rice.

Still, Houston roadways are consistently ranked among the most congested in the country. Last year, a similar study found that the typical Houston driver wasted 46 hours due to traffic congestion.

Portions of the 610 West Loop are notorious for being ranked as the state's most congested roadways, and other stretches of roads are known as some of the worst bottlenecks in Texas.

According to a report, Houston traffic is actually the worst. Local.AllState.com

Houston drives to top of list of Texas cities for worst traffic congestion

slow moving

Honk if you hate Houston traffic. According to a new study, you’re more than justified in laying on the horn to express frustration over Houston’s clogged roads.

The study, released by geolocation technology company TomTom, shows the typical Houston driver wasted 46 hours last year due to traffic congestion. Houston’s traffic congestion rate was 20 percent. This means average travel times in jammed-up traffic were 20 percent longer than they were in uncongested traffic.

While those figures alone highlight the drive-me-up-a-wall status of Houston commutes, what’s worse is that the city ranks first in Texas, No. 16 in the U.S., and No. 214 in the world for snarled traffic in 2021. The study says Houston’s traffic congestion went up 4 percent compared with 2020 but went down 4 percent compared with pre-pandemic 2019.

Where’s the worst of the worst traffic in Houston? According to Texas A&M Transportation Institute data published in December, the 610 West Loop was the state’s most congested stretch of roadway in 2020, trading places with I-35 in Austin, which held the top spot in 2019.

On top of that, Houston is home to 10 of the 14 worst trucking bottlenecks in Texas, according to an American Transportation Research Institute ranking released earlier this month. The absolute worst: I-45 at I-69 and U.S. Highway 59. The institute deemed that intersection the third worst trucking bottleneck in the country for 2021.

“Bottlenecks around the state continue to waste time and money, further damaging the already fragile supply chain,” John Esparza, president and CEO of the Texas Trucking Association, says in a news release. “With the newly available federal resources for infrastructure projects, there’s no excuse — these bottlenecks must be addressed. A reliable and stable transportation network is essential to our economy — just like the trucking industry.”

Here’s how other major Texas cities fared in the TomTom study:

  • McAllen ranked second in Texas, 18th in the U.S., and 218th in the world for traffic congestion. Time wasted in traffic last year for a typical driver: 46 hours. Congestion rate: 20 percent. Congestion up 4 percent from 2020 and up 1 percent from 2019.
  • Austin ranked third in Texas, 21st in the U.S., and 221st in the world for traffic congestion. Time wasted in traffic last year for a typical driver: 46 hours. Congestion rate: 20 percent. Congestion up 2 percent from 2020 and down 7 percent from 2019.
  • Dallas-Fort Worth ranked fourth in Texas, 37th in the U.S., and 305th in the world for traffic congestion. Time wasted in traffic last year for a typical driver: 39 hours. Congestion rate: 17 percent. Congestion up 4 percent from 2020 but down 2 percent from 2019.=
  • San Antonio ranked fifth in Texas, 41st in the U.S., and 318th in the world for traffic congestion. Time wasted in traffic last year for a typical driver: 36 hours. Congestion rate: 16 percent. Congestion up 3 percent from 2020 and down 3 percent from 2019.
  • El Paso ranked sixth in Texas, 44th in the U.S., and 324th in the world for traffic congestion. Time wasted in traffic last year for a typical driver: 36 hours. Congestion rate: 16 percent. Congestion up 4 percent from 2020 and the same as 2019.

Not surprisingly, the TomTom study awards New York City the title of the worst-congested place in the country. In 2021, the typical New York driver wasted 80 hours in traffic, with a 35 percent congestion rate.

Racking up a congestion rate of 62 percent last year, Istanbul, Turkey, claimed the title of the world’s worst city for traffic. There, motorists wasted 142 hours in traffic in 2021.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

The city of Alpharetta, Georgia, is utilizing the chipset to improve response times by their fire department, while Houston has deployed 500 chips across the city's school zones. Photo by Eileen Falkenberg-Hull

New next-gen technology in Houston is enhancing vehicle navigation

Traffic control

The dawn of smart cities is upon us, using the internet of things to solve both big and little problems. In Georgia, Texas, and Hawaii, a new technology is being used that will ease traffic woes for public safety vehicles.

The technology uses dual mode chipsets by Israel-based Autotalks that are installed in roadside units, such as traffic control boxes. Autotalks has teamed up with Applied Information Inc., an Alpharetta, Georgia-based provider of intelligent transportation infrastructure solutions, to provide traffic signal preemption technology that helps emergency vehicles reach their destination safely and quickly.

Traditionally, emergency vehicles travel through traffic with their lights or siren, or a combination of both, activated when on the way to a call. When they near an intersection, drivers must navigate the traffic signals, pedestrians, vehicles, and any road hazards, often times while at speed, all while receiving evolving information about the situation they are approaching.

In 1914, American Traffic Signal Company installed the first traffic light that could be used by police and fire personnel to control the signals in the event of an emergency. Over the last century, the traffic signal preemption technology has evolved, offering acoustic, line of sight, localized radio signal, and GPS technology.

Generations of drivers grew up seeing Rad-O-Lites by the now-defunct Relco Emergency Light Company out of Erie, Pennsylvania, flashing white signals on the same line next to traffic lights alerting them to the presence of a nearby emergency vehicle that was responding to a call.

The new technology being implemented was developed and allows emergency vehicles equipped with the units to initiate traffic signal control measures. While the technology's main use case is in emergency vehicle traffic signal preemption, it can also be used by transit buses for traffic signal priority and vehicles involved in roadside work zones.

The City of Alpharetta, Georgia, was the first in the U.S. to deploy the company's technology. According to a spokesperson for the Alpharetta Department of Public Safety, the RSUs are featured on all traffic signals controlled by the city — approximately 150 units.

In Harris County, Texas, the chips are used in over 500 School Beacon Flasher Timers.

"The AI/Autotalks solution enables roadway operators to confidently deploy V2X technology today so the infrastructure is ready for the auto industry deployment, while providing 'Day One' benefits such as safer, faster emergency vehicle response times now," says Bryan Mulligan, president of Applied Information.

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This article originally ran on AutomotiveMap.

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9 can't-miss Houston business and innovation events for March

where to be

Editor's note: March is here, and that means the return of some of Houston’s signature innovation events, as well as insightful talks and a Mardi Gras block party. Here are the Houston business and innovation events you can't miss in March and how to register. Please note: this article might be updated to add more events.

March 5 – SheSpace Women’s Day Open House

Connect with like-minded women during a free day of coworking at SheSpace. And while you're there, take a break and enjoy a floral arranging class, complimentary breakfast, pop-up shops, happy hour and raffle prizes. Space is limited.

The event is Wednesday, March 5, from 9 a.m.–7 p.m. Click here to register.

March 5 — Science and the American Presidency

Hear from former presidential science advisors—Kelvin Droegemeier who served under President Trump, Neal Lane who served under President Clinton and Alondra Nelson who served under President Biden—as they discuss their experiences leading the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and how science is used to address issues from climate change and public health to national security and economic competitiveness. An exhibit inside Baker Hall will complement the event. The Baker Institute Science and Technology Policy Program and Rice Innovation will host the talk.

This event is Wednesday, March 5, from 5:30–8 p.m. at James A. Baker Hall. Click here to register.

March 6 — Ion Block Party - Mardi Gras Edition 

Let the good times roll this week while networking with potential collaborators, mentors and investors at the Ion. Food and drink will be available while supplies last and the Ion will provide drink tickets for one free drink at Second Draught upon check-in.

This event is Thursday, March 6, from 4–7 p.m. at the Ion. Click here to register.

March 10-14 — CERAWeek 2025

The foremost annual gathering in the energy sector returns to Houston March 10-14, 2025. Themed "Moving Ahead: Energy strategies for a complex world," CERAWeek 2025 will focus on the challenges ahead for energy security, supply, and climate ambitions. More than 10,000 participants from over 2,050 companies across 80 countries will convene in Houston for this ambitious event. CERAWeek comprises three platforms: the Executive Conference, the Innovation Agora, and Partner Programs. We'll dive into comprehensive CERAWeek recommendations in future articles.

This event begins Monday, March 10. Click here to register.

March 11 — Energy Venture Day at the Ion

Preview pitches from 40-plus energy ventures competing at CERAWeek's Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition, co-hosted by the Rice Alliance, Ion, HETI, and TEX-E. This free, fast-paced pitch event offers an alternative to the CERAWeek event, which requires an Agora pass.

This event is Tuesday, March 11, from 9 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Click here to register.

March 13 — Code4Y'allMeetup

Connect with fellow coders at Code4Y’all's meetup at the Ion. Andrew Baines, Founder of No Experience Jobs, will present "How I Built a Job Board to Help Entry-Level Tech Talent (And What I Learned)." Hear from Baines and learn lessons from job seekers.

This event is Thursday, March 13, from 6–7 p.m. Click here to register.

March 17 — Women in Innovation 

Celebrate Women's History Month with an engaging panel discussion hosted by the University of Houston's Division of Energy and Innovation. UH's Tanu Chatterji, Stacey Gorniak and Chrysa Latrick will discuss the achievements of trailblazing women across various industries, as well as share challenges and experiences. Lunch will be provided.

This event is Monday, March 17, from noon–1 p.m. at UH's Faculty Cafe. Find more information here.

March 24-28 — H-Town Roundup 2025

Celebrate innovation, entrepreneurship and collaboration this month during Houston Exponential's H-Town Roundup. During the fifth-annual free event series, previously known as Houston Tech Rodeo, attendees can expect insightful talks, workshops and networking events at venues across the city like the Ion, Greentown Labs, University of Houston and more.

This event begins Monday, March 24. See the full schedule of events here.

​March 27 — NASA Tech Talks

Every fourth Thursday of the month, NASA experts, including longtime engineer Montgomery Goforth, present on technology development challenges NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the larger aerospace community are facing and how they can be leveraged by Houston’s innovation community. Stick around after for drinks and networking at Second Draught.

This event is Thursday, March 27, from 6-7 p.m. at the Ion. Register here.

Texas startup's lunar lander aces moon touchdown with special delivery for NASA

Touchdown

A private lunar lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA touched down on the moon Sunday, the latest in a string of companies looking to kickstart business on Earth's celestial neighbor ahead of astronaut missions.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, aiming for the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the moon’s northeastern edge of the near side.

Confirmation of successful touchdown came from the company's Mission Control outside Austin, Texas, following the action some 225,000 miles away.

“You all stuck the landing. We’re on the moon,” Firefly’s Will Coogan, chief engineer for the lander, reported.

An upright and stable landing makes Firefly — a startup founded a decade ago — the first private outfit to put a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over. Even countries have faltered, with only five claiming success: Russia, the U.S., China, India and Japan.

A half hour after landing, Blue Ghost started to send back pictures from the surface, the first one a selfie somewhat obscured by the sun's glare. The second shot included the home planet, a blue dot glimmering in the blackness of space.

Two other companies’ landers are hot on Blue Ghost’s heels, with the next one expected to join it on the moon later this week.

Blue Ghost — named after a rare U.S. species of fireflies — had its size and shape going for it. The squat four-legged lander stands 6-foot-6-inch tall and 11 feet wide, providing extra stability, according to the company.

Launched in mid-January from Florida, the lander carried 10 experiments to the moon for NASA. The space agency paid $101 million for the delivery, plus $44 million for the science and tech on board. It’s the third mission under NASA’s commercial lunar delivery program, intended to ignite a lunar economy of competing private businesses while scouting around before astronauts show up later this decade.

Firefly’s Ray Allensworth said the lander skipped over hazards including boulders to land safely. Allensworth said the team continued to analyze the data to figure out the lander's exact position, but all indications suggest it landed within the 328-foot target zone in Mare Crisium.

The demos should get two weeks of run time, before lunar daytime ends and the lander shuts down.

It carried a vacuum to suck up moon dirt for analysis and a drill to measure temperature as deep as 10 feet below the surface. Also on board: a device for eliminating abrasive lunar dust — a scourge for NASA’s long-ago Apollo moonwalkers, who got it caked all over their spacesuits and equipment.

On its way to the moon, Blue Ghost beamed back exquisite pictures of the home planet. The lander continued to stun once in orbit around the moon, with detailed shots of the moon's gray pockmarked surface. At the same time, an on-board receiver tracked and acquired signals from the U.S. GPS and European Galileo constellations, an encouraging step forward in navigation for future explorers.

The landing set the stage for a fresh crush of visitors angling for a piece of lunar business.

Another lander — a tall and skinny 15-footer built and operated by Houston-based Intuitive Machines — is due to land on the moon Thursday. It’s aiming for the bottom of the moon, just 100 miles from the south pole. That’s closer to the pole than the company got last year with its first lander, which broke a leg and tipped over.

Despite the tumble, Intuitive Machines' lander put the U.S. back on the moon for the first time since NASA astronauts closed out the Apollo program in 1972.

A third lander from the Japanese company ispace is still three months from landing. It shared a rocket ride with Blue Ghost from Cape Canaveral on Jan. 15, taking a longer, windier route. Like Intuitive Machines, ispace is also attempting to land on the moon for the second time. Its first lander crashed in 2023.

The moon is littered with wreckage not only from ispace, but dozens of other failed attempts over the decades.

NASA wants to keep up a pace of two private lunar landers a year, realizing some missions will fail, said the space agency's top science officer Nicky Fox.

“It really does open up a whole new way for us to get more science to space and to the moon," Fox said.

Unlike NASA’s successful Apollo moon landings that had billions of dollars behind them and ace astronauts at the helm, private companies operate on a limited budget with robotic craft that must land on their own, said Firefly CEO Jason Kim.

Kim said everything went like clockwork.

“We got some moon dust on our boots," Kim said.

Houston startup Nap Bar pivots with VR and big plans for growth

power nap

Houston’s Khaliah Guillory takes a 30-minute nap every day. She says this is how she’s so productive.

The habit also led to the founding of her white-glove, eco-friendly rest sanctuary business, Nap Bar.

Guillory launched the luxury sleep suites company back in 2019 to offer a unique rest experience with artificial intelligence integration for working professionals, entrepreneurs and travelers who needed a place to rest, recharge and rejuvenate. The company was named a Houston Innovation Awards finalist last year.

She says naps are backed by science. And by her professional network, too.

“Once I polled and surveyed my friends, most of them said that they also took naps during their lunch break, whether it be in their office or in their car,” says Guillory, former vice president of marketing strategy at Wells Fargo. “Once they overwhelmingly agreed that they would absolutely use a dedicated place for them to take naps if I created it, I got to work, and Nap Bar was born.”

Simply put, Guillory has effectively made it acceptable and, yes, even cool for working adults to take naps.

“I played D1 basketball at the University of Central Florida and that’s really where I learned the art of a power nap and the benefits of it,” Guillory says. “And I just continued to nap throughout my corporate career. So, in November of 2018, I retired from corporate America … I just knew I had a higher calling to do something else.”

Guillory first opened up shop in Rice Village as a beta test for her novel nap idea and it took off. She soon forged strategic partnerships with organizations like UT Health, where Nap Bar provided much-needed naps to postpartum mothers.

“Nap Bar showed what the benefits of a good nap was, specifically to postpartum moms in terms of mental stressors, productivity, and things of that nature,” Guillory says.

In November 2019, Guillory moved Nap Bar to The Galleria and says the business produced revenue from day one. However, in March 2020, she was forced to shut us down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I promised myself that I was not going back to corporate America, so I pivoted. I moved forward by creating a better sleep box, with a vegan pillow mist and soy-based candle. I also became a certified sleep coach. And I just kept pivoting from there, reinventing Nap Bar as a company,” she says.

One pivot included adding a virtual reality sleep experience, MetaSnooze.

“MetaSnooze is a really cool technology that offers sleep therapy and relaxation that I curated myself,” Guillory says. “Basically, the user puts on the VR headset, and it escapes them. They're transported to places all over the country. For example, they're sitting in serene environments all the while listening to these rhythmic beats that are designed to help them release and relax. Visualizations have been scientifically proven to improve one’s mental health and mental stressors.”

Guillory initially rolled out MetaSnooze in 2020 at events like South by Southwest and kept improving the experience and building her business. By February 2024, she was curating a wellness experience at The Grammy Awards.

“That was huge for us,” Guillory says. “Being able to get feedback from the celebrities, with a handful of them even inquiring where they could purchase the headset. They were excited about the future of Nap Bar, so that was really, really cool.”

The widespread interest in Nap Bar has Guillory thinking big. She aims to expand to 30 locations in three years.

“When I say that, it sounds ambitious,” says Guillory. “It is, but I come from the school of thought that if you shoot for 30 and you get 25, no one's going to shake their finger at you for doing that, right? It's really aiming towards this big, hairy, audacious goal. I learned that in corporate America. So, what we're looking to do now is raise money like crazy.”

Guillory says she’s now looking to scale the business by partnering with like-minded investors with experience in the wellness space.

She envisions locations at national and international airports, which she says offer ripe scenarios for patrons needing to recharge. Additionally, Guillory wants to build on her initial partnership with UT Health by going onsite to curate rest experiences for patients, caregivers, faculty, staff, nurses and doctors. Colleges also offer an opportunity for growth.

“We’ve done some really cool pop-ups with the University of Houston, where we brought the rest experience on campus,” Guillory says. “That means we bring a portable, full-size, organic mattress with disposable sheets, as well as our virtual reality experience.”

Nap Bar will also serve companies, office buildings, and even sports venues, according to Guillory.

“We can literally go any and everywhere,” she says. “Our collected data suggests that we’ve just got to go where sleepy people are so that they can get restorative sleep.”

From a pricing standpoint, Nap Bar’s model is a dollar a minute. Depending on where the client is, the pop-up experience is based on a day rate or a half-day rate, starting at $4,000.

Add-ons include a full-size organic mattress or hosting a masseuse or massage therapist onsite.

With the Grammys already under her belt, Guillory would like to see Nap Bar utilized at the 2028 Olympics and build partnerships with other virtual reality companies to bring its licensed MetaSnooze software to the masses.

She also sees opportunities in athletic treatment, sleep apnea, and insomnia.

“We have done several studies with proven results that MetaSnooze has reduced mental stressors and anxiety,” Guillory says. “I'm excited about what the future holds for MetaSnooze. It definitely is a game-changer … We will continue to innovate sleep or provide sleep resources and tools in a very innovative way.”

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