Tow and Go helps traffic flow

Sept. 30, 2025

By Bailey Doucet

HOUSTON — Imagine your car breaks down on one of Houston’s fastest and busiest highways. You’re nervous, panicked, and don’t know what to do. This is where Gulf Coast Regional Tow and Go Program comes in to help.

The Tow and Go is a program overseen by the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) and provides free towing on Houston’s major highways and roads. Removing stalled vehicles from the road not only helps the people involved, but it keeps traffic flowing and reduces secondary crashes.

Francis Rodriguez oversees the Regional Incident Management Program of Tow and Go. Rodriquez started working for the program in 2019 and has seen it grow tremendously. For example, last year in 2024, they completed more than 39,000 free tows.

Now let's get to the grand scheme of things, including the who, what, when, where and how’s of the program. Starting off with why: of course it's safety. Safety is a big component simply because if vehicles are stranded, there is a real risk of secondary crashes. If cars are moved off the road quickly, Tow and Go can prevent crashes and keep the roads clear.

Moving onto the “when.” Clearance time for a vehicle to get safely taken off the road is 17 minutes. This helps ensure quick, efficient help for drivers.

Next for the “what.” The program is to help get stranded drivers towed and off the road to a nearby safe location. This could be a nearby gas station or commercial center – somewhere safely off a main busy highway. Even in some instances, drivers who have flat tires can also have their tires changed for free.

"Every motorist we can quickly move out of harm’s way, we mark as a metric of success,” Rodriguez said.

As far as where this program operates, it covers most of Houston’s area highways. Rodriguez and her team at Tow and Go hope to expand into other regions to help even more people.

Lasty, the “how” which is teamwork. For the operation to run smoothly, consistent communication needs to happen between everyone involved in the program. Things like regular meetings and consistent communication keeps the program running as efficient as possible, despite the many moving parts.

“We want motorists to know the program is here to help,” Rodriguez said. “The Tow and Go program is proving itself not just as a local service for Harris County, but as a model for highway safety and pure efficiency across the state of Texas.”