Relax zoning so you can have more jobs near housing. Then you won't have hundreds of acres of homogenous tract housing that requires such a long commute.

Houston has no single major business district. It does have a serious lack of solid transit. But if you want to live close to work, that doesn't necessarily mean in the "downtown" area like in many cities. There are huge concentrations of offices and stores in the Energy Corridor, the Galleria, Upper Kirby, the Bush airport area and several suburbs/exurbs.