“Not all of the California solutions are going to work in Texas, or Florida, or New Mexico or Minnesota. What we have to work on is how those localities fine tune the programs for them.” – Kyle Shelton

Houston, Texas is a definitive city for the Ten Across initiative. It is now the fourth largest city in the United States, considered one of the most diverse cities in the U.S., and is often called the energy capital of the world. Houston is also known for its vast highway infrastructure—a system that both fractures and connects its communities and continues to cause controversy today.

Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks with history and transportation expert Kyle Shelton about how Houston was shaped by highways in the post-war era and what lessons it holds for the future of the country.

Guest Speaker

Kyle Shelton is the director of the University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies. He has a PhD in American urban history from the University of Texas at Austin. He is also the author of Power Moves: Transportation, Politics, and Development in Houston (2017). His own research interests orbit around the intersections of the human, built, and natural environments. Prior to his current role, Kyle was the Deputy Director at Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.