Houston is built around rings and spokes. The I-610 Loop circles the urban core, Beltway 8 and the Sam Houston Tollway make a wider ring, and the Grand Parkway is slowly closing a third loop through the far suburbs. Radiating out from downtown are the Katy Freeway and East Freeway (I-10), the Gulf Freeway and North Freeway (I-45), the Southwest Freeway and Eastex Freeway (I-69 and US 59), the Northwest Freeway (US 290) and SH 288 south toward Pearland. Most freeways are flanked by frontage roads, the feeder lanes that Texans use as arterials, and they carry almost as much local traffic as the main lanes.
Those feeders matter for mobile repair. A car that dies on a main lane can often limp to a frontage road, a parking lot or a side street, and that's where a mechanic can safely work. The worst spots are well known: the I-10 and I-610 interchange near the Galleria area, the Katy Freeway through the Energy Corridor, the Southwest Freeway at Beltway 8 and I-45 north of downtown. Off the freeways, a mechanic can reach a bungalow in the Heights, a tower garage in Uptown or a townhouse in EaDo without fighting the worst of it.
George Bush Intercontinental Airport sits far to the north and Hobby Airport to the southeast, and both have long-term lots where cars sit for days. METRO runs buses across the city and light rail along Main Street from downtown through Midtown and the Museum District to the Texas Medical Center. The Port of Houston and the Ship Channel refineries to the east add heavy truck traffic on I-10, SH 225 and the Beltway.
