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Downtown Bike Lane


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I rode this into work today.  The green paint isn't slippery at all, as some may have feared; it has nice texture to it.  The one or two second advanced green light for cyclists is nice, but cars still seem to have priority turning left in front of cyclists if the line of cars is there first.

 

The one unexpected surprise is that there is a 2 block detour due to the lane not being completed on the block where the Hilcorp tower is being built thanks to the construction taking up the lane.  Presumably that will open soon, once construction progresses on the tower.

 

Access to the lane is not ideal from Sam Houston Park (which is the natural route from Buffalo Bayou Park), unfortunately.  As you are going east on the bike path from the park, when you hit the new bike lane at Bagby, it's on the wrong side of the street.  Had they been able to put it on the north side of the street instead of the south side this would have been much more convenient for access to and from the park, but presumably they had other reasons for not doing that (maybe the grates in the middle of that lane?).

 

Still, I'm glad they did this.  Hopefully it will see more usage!

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not surprisingly, i saw my first auto/bike wreck this morning on the corner of Lamar and Louisiana.  The rider was stopped at the light going east, and the car was turning left on Lamar from Louisiana and was making his turn just as his light was turning red.  the bike's front wheel was bent badly, but the biker didn't even get knocked over, so no one injured.  in my opinion, both were at fault.  the car shouldn't have tried to beat the light, but the biker saw the guy turning left but didn't want to wait 1 second to go (it almost looked like he wanted to hit the car, as some bikers seem to want to do to prove a point).  

 

in any event, glad no one was hurt, but I'm sure this won't be the last accident.  just a reminder to be aware of your surroundings.  I wait a second to go at each light after they turn green in my car so i don't get in an accident with all the red light runners.  the other day, I saw someone call this "The Houston Hesitation", which I've adopted.  

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not surprisingly, i saw my first auto/bike wreck this morning on the corner of Lamar and Louisiana.  The rider was stopped at the light going east, and the car was turning left on Lamar from Louisiana and was making his turn just as his light was turning red.  the bike's front wheel was bent badly, but the biker didn't even get knocked over, so no one injured.  in my opinion, both were at fault.  the car shouldn't have tried to beat the light, but the biker saw the guy turning left but didn't want to wait 1 second to go (it almost looked like he wanted to hit the car, as some bikers seem to want to do to prove a point).  

 

in any event, glad no one was hurt, but I'm sure this won't be the last accident.  just a reminder to be aware of your surroundings.  I wait a second to go at each light after they turn green in my car so i don't get in an accident with all the red light runners.  the other day, I saw someone call this "The Houston Hesitation", which I've adopted.  

 

Just like with the light rail it's going to take a while for cars to remember that they aren't the only ones on the road anymore. I think this bike lane will be a good case study for the city before introducing more dedicated lanes like this else where. Lots of field study needs to be done here to improve future iterations just like they did for the light rail.

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not surprisingly, i saw my first auto/bike wreck this morning on the corner of Lamar and Louisiana. The rider was stopped at the light going east, and the car was turning left on Lamar from Louisiana and was making his turn just as his light was turning red. the bike's front wheel was bent badly, but the biker didn't even get knocked over, so no one injured. in my opinion, both were at fault. the car shouldn't have tried to beat the light, but the biker saw the guy turning left but didn't want to wait 1 second to go (it almost looked like he wanted to hit the car, as some bikers seem to want to do to prove a point).

in any event, glad no one was hurt, but I'm sure this won't be the last accident. just a reminder to be aware of your surroundings. I wait a second to go at each light after they turn green in my car so i don't get in an accident with all the red light runners. the other day, I saw someone call this "The Houston Hesitation", which I've adopted.

I know a LOT of bicyclists. I don't know one who wants to "prove a point" by having an accident with a car. Every cyclist I know understands that they will lose this fight.

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I know a LOT of bicyclists. I don't know one who wants to "prove a point" by having an accident with a car. Every cyclist I know understands that they will lose this fight.

well sir, since you know a "LOT" of bicyclists, I will defer to you. but i've seen plenty of bicyclists and pedestrians (myself included) reach out and hit cars when they believe the cars aren't watching out for them.  

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As there's tragically hilarious video footage of cars hitting the light rail in 2003 and 2004 by making illegal left turns and other shenanigans, I've seen many bicyclists, even "real" ones (as opposed to students) believe that the rules of the road don't apply to them (blowing through stops, etc.).

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Found these on reddit this morning lol. Hilarious how stupid people can be.

 

The city needs to both get the word out about these changes or get the press to do some coverage to inform people on how these lanes work.

 

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Are they parked?  I interpreted the photos as the cars were using the bike lane to drive in (which would be worse)

 

 

If the cop car was driving, his brake lights would be on.

 

HPD and METRO cops both have a really nasty habit of parking in the crosswalks downtown, particularly on the Main Street crossings - which would get the rest of us towed tout suite.  :huh:

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The bike lane is already well used. Good stuff!

 

really? That's awesome. I would like to see some pics. I think the next bike lane they should tackle is one exactly like this connecting downtown to the Med Center.

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really? That's awesome. I would like to see some pics. I think the next bike lane they should tackle is one exactly like this connecting downtown to the Med Center.

 

Main seems ideal for this purpose, considering that it is only one public vehicle lane each way from the bayou all the way down to Wheeler, complete with some interruptions, and then not all that busy from Wheeler down to the top end of Hermann Park.  Not that many people drive on it anyway, now that half of it got eaten by the train tracks.

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I hope they put in a North-South route soon.

Yep! I've been saying put one down La Branch from they Heights bike trail at Buffalo Bayou, all the way through downtown, midtown, and the museum district, before hitting the north end of Hermann Park. It would hit this bike path right at Discovery Green.

Fortunately I should have an opportunity to network with some Houston First people, along with other important downtown planners on Thursday so I'll try to pitch that idea to them then. Heh

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  • 2 weeks later...

This bike lane is very, very lightly used on weekday mornings, at least on the western side of downtown.  I've probably seen just a handful of people ~8 a.m. the last few weeks.  A surprising number of those have been people on those shared bikes

 

 

I've actually seen some mounted police using the lanes and spotted some...errr...droppings in the lane this morning.  Wanted to snap a pic but traffic was moving

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