The Texas Triangle: A rising megaregion unlike all others (2021)

As someone who recently moved to the Texas triangle, I’m baffled by the lack of good transportation options between the three cities. It’s a 3-4 hour drive and while there is a train, freight gets priority. So the train takes anywhere from 3-7 hours. You can fly but with security any sort of delay and it would faster to drive.

Question for the HNers in the &quot;Texas Triangle&quot;: does it &quot;feel&quot; like a megaregion? I&#x27;ve spent very little time in Texas (only a handful of trips), but my impression was that there&#x27;s a very stark drop from moderate density urban cores, to sprawling suburbs, to virtually uninhabited interstitials around highways. In other words: it wouldn&#x27;t occur to me (as a non-Texan) to even think of Austin and Dallas as belonging to the same &quot;megaregion.&quot;<p>This is in contrast with e.g. the &quot;Northeast Corridor,&quot; where dense towns (sometimes denser than Texas&#x27;s urban cores) line the roads and rail links between the major cities.

(2021). Maybe the book mentions it, but the article doesn’t cover the massive benefit of the Triangle’s proximity to Mexico. Mexico has a strong demographic profile and is a ready source of workers for manufacturing.

I never thought about it before - but seeing that chart of &quot;Megaregions&quot;, almost none of my work travel within the US from the last 15 years has been outside of those regions.

Megaregions as a concept seems to make sense. Even as a resident of the aforementioned triangle, I&#x27;m not sure that we have much evidence for Texas exceptionalism here.

How can they write an article about a triangle, list <i>four</i> relevant locations in it, while also <i>not</i> including a &amp;^%€*#@ map that shows the thing they are talking about? Gaaah.

Not sure if this is relevant or not, but the SpaceX &quot;Starbase&quot; is in deep south Texas, and so is the cross border region. I suspect that a comprehensive analysis would probably include the interface between the &quot;Triangle&quot; and the border region.

&quot;Pragmatic politics&quot; is a complete joke when discussed in the context of Texas. Also, Austin is one of the most segregated metropolitan cities in the U.S. in all categories: politically, racially, and economically. It is also, no surprise, one of the grossest examples of gerrymandering.

Caveat emptor.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.texastribune.org&#x2F;2024&#x2F;04&#x2F;02&#x2F;university-texas-austin-firings-dei-ban&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.texastribune.org&#x2F;2024&#x2F;04&#x2F;02&#x2F;university-texas-aus...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.texastribune.org&#x2F;2021&#x2F;03&#x2F;09&#x2F;texas-legislature-abortion-criminalize-death-penalty&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.texastribune.org&#x2F;2021&#x2F;03&#x2F;09&#x2F;texas-legislature-ab...</a><p>Said it for years, thinking you&#x27;re safe because you live in a comparatively liberal community or subculture within a state dominated by right wing zealots is foolish in the extreme.<p>They &quot;came&quot; for &quot;immigrants,&quot; trans kids, gay marriage, women&#x27;s rights, etc., and they&#x27;re going for more.<p>I would never move there, I won&#x27;t travel there, and my daughters sure as f--k won&#x27;t apply to colleges there or take jobs there.<p>Not until Abbot and Paxton and Cruz and their ilk are gone forever.

Seems like a pretty vacuous article if “megaregions” are so poorly defined. Anyone who has ever driven between Spokane and Portland or Seattle knows it could hardly be considered “mega”.

this reads more like content marketing for a private college based in Texas than a substantive academic commentary.<p>The author has several associations, but his official title on LinkedIn is: Director for Economic Growth at George W. Bush Institute <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.linkedin.com&#x2F;in&#x2F;cullum-clark-09549159&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.linkedin.com&#x2F;in&#x2F;cullum-clark-09549159&#x2F;</a>

Megaregions is nothing new but lately seem to be a testing the waters for an independent Texas state.<p>I feel like articles like this is mentally preparing the American public for a potential secession states forming post-election.