Brazos street bike lane?

[samagon]

BFS cited this in the Midtown Whole Foods thread:

 

 

 

City of Houston and Midtown Management District are working on a project to accommodate a two-way bicycle track along the east boundary of Brazos. 

 

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/29976-pearl-on-smith-new-whole-foods/?p=526592

 

What's the story on this?

 

I suspect the reasoning is because Brazos doesn't get as much car traffic as other roads, but to what end is this bike path? What are the ends supposed to connect to?

 

The Caroline bike path I've heard so much about makes far more sense (although Austin street would make even MORE sense).

 

But Brazos? The street itself ends before the Lamar bike lane, which would make connectivity difficult on that end, and the on the other end, woof. we gonna put cyclists onto the spur going the opposite direction? Where would it end, and what is the destination?

 

Lamar on street lane makes sense, it connects (sort of) the Columbia Tap trail to BBP.

 

Brazos? What does it do? a path from no where, to no where, with no connectivity to other places? What a waste.

 

This should be on Austin and start as far up as at least Lamar and go all the way down to Hermann park. Even Caroline (albeit having to figure out a way around HCC campus) would be better, going the same distance.

 

What the heck, Midtown authority? I mean, it's a swell concept, but it seems like a project to just pat yourselves on the back "Oooh, look at us, we made a bike path!". So disappointing if this is true.

 

edit: the only way this makes sense is if they put a Bike lane on McGowen and also one on Caroline (or Austin). This would provide a semblance of connectivity to an overall network.

[kylejack]

Brazos is a good connect from Downtown to the east side of Montrose, almost. Looks like a lane is programmed for Tuam as well. 

 

Check out the bike plan here: http://tei-houston.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0d493ce6ec01481b82cec71bf7f67374

Uncheck everything on the left except Programmed Bikeway Projects to see the Brazos lane.

[Texasota]

That, to me, is the only really disappointing thing about the bike plan- no attempt to put in a good north-south bike lane where its needed most-west of main downtown. Brazos is clearly a compromise because putting something on Milam, Travis, Louisiana or Smith would have been seen as too politically difficult (I imagine.) 

[Joke]

Woah, it's like they programmed my bike commute. (Drew at Boston to One Allen Center, via Brazos. I would take the Tuam east-west connector to Brazos up to Andrews-Shaw-Clay-Dallas. Currently I do the same except I stay west of Brazos until the last minute as I work my way north through midtown/4th ward rather than ride on Brazos because Brazos is unfriendly; I cross over to Brazos at Pierce and follow the rest of the track I described).

Its not obvious, but Brazos gives reasonably good connectivity to the Lamar bike lane.

First off, note that the programmed Brazos bike lane extends to Howe (which is what Brazos is renamed to as it jogs due north before dead-ending at Andrews.

Then to get to Lamar from Howe/Andrews:

- Rt on Andrews. Andrews is probably the least-used street in downtown (except for that stretch of surface road that runs north along 45 from Andrews to Dallas). Doesn't actually need a bike lane.

- Left on Shaw. Shaw rivals Andrews for lack of use.

- Left on Clay. Clay isn't too heavily used in this stretch either, as it's off-grid. Slight issue that the light at Shaw/Clay doesn't pick up cyclists (or maybe is just way too long). If I'm posed with a minute of no one behind me on Shaw and zero cars on Clay/Polk from Dallas to Smith, then I just run it.

- Rt on W Dallas, which turns into Bagby. Probably will be riding with traffic a bit on this stretch, but really not so bad. You're going right-right from Clay to Dallas then Dal/Bagby to Lamar, so no crossing over lanes of traffic.

The truly great change that this will bring is the ability to reverse this commute. Currently it can't be done, because Brazos is one-way northbound, so you can't get from Jefferson (where Brazos changes to Howe) south to Pierce to get out of downtown. (Instead, I just take Smith all the way out, which means I lose all my beautiful calm Shaw/Andrews/Howe stretches. Smith works, but mainly because I tend to leave late, after rush hour. )

So if anything, the main issue would be that people may not realize this is a pretty good way to bike from Montrose/west Midtown to Lamar (and back), even though it is.

 

 

[SirJac]

On 3/4/2016 at 11:06 AM, Texasota said:

. Brazos is clearly a compromise because putting something on Milam, Travis, Louisiana or Smith would have been seen as too politically difficult (I imagine.) 

 

Bike lanes being political in motivation is a sad notion to ponder. It would be better if the local politicians biked to work, but that might be asking too much.

[BigFootsSocks]

It's another segment of infrastructure, which is inherently political. Not that I disagree...

[Lara]

Perhaps, they did decide to start in the middle of nowhere and then build the network, probably along the lines you suggested, samagon. My guess is this was a financially motivated decision.