Third Ward Bikeway System Proposal And Implementation

[wilcal]

 

Last night I went to the 3rd Ward bikeway system meeting. This is for one of the sections that the city is focusing on using the $10 million from Rodney Ellis to build high-comfort bike lanes. 

 

There were probably about 20ish citizens there and about 15 city planners/contracted engineers/etc.

 

First, the map! They didn't have an updated whole map that showed the changes that they've made in the last few months, so I whipped up my own. 

 

Green - existing high-comfort bike infrastructure

Blue - proposed and imminent high-comfort bike infrastructure

Purple - "Community Bikeways" aka sharrows . No separation from vehicles. 

Red - Bike infrastructure being handled by those other than the city or projects that are planned but I don't have specific info on (like Polk. A city project but I have no/they haven't presented updated info).

 

 

Timeline: finalizing design work by March. Starting construction in April on all projects. Most blue/purple projects completed by end of the summer. 

 

The new information can be split into changes on four streets.

 

1) Gray would run from Brazos in Midtown to the Columbia Tap Trail. Split into 3 different designs based on road width.

 

Brazos to 288 (converting parking on one side of the street to a bi-directional bike lane)

 

 

288 to Live Oak (converting parking on one side of the street to a bi-directional bike lane)

 

 

Live Oak to Columbia Tap Trail (sharrows)

 

 

2) Hutchins: adding bike lanes and reducing lane sizes. No reduction in parking. 

 

 

 

3) Blodgett: Elimination of parking on both sides of the street and converting to protected bike lanes

 

4) Cleburne: Elimination of parking on both sides of the street and converting to protected bike lanes

 

[wilcal]

Residents were mostly positive about the plans. The one negative comment I heard was about loss of parking for residential on Blodgett. 

 

The city talked about how they did a traffic study and the speeds were way high and that it wasn't safe to put on-street shared here. 1:6 drivers were driving higher than 40 MPH and that number skewed even higher as you went further east. 

 

Two residents said that they were very unhappy with the curb build-outs at Hutchins/Tuam and were happy to have them be removed and bike lanes added in. They said tons of people are braking their cars while driving into them. 

 

I asked and was specifically told that all of the above projects had the budget to be implemented this summer.

 

My concerns are that there really isn't a good east/west option through Midtown (I almost got hit twice on McGowen while riding to this meeting last night). Some option of McGowen may have, but it would be in the future.

 

@Urbannizer I know this isn't a widely used forum, but should we figure out some way to combine some of these threads? Like a Rodney Ellis $10 million megathread? 

[BeerNut]

Thanks for post @wilcal  I live on Hutchins and was disappointed I was going to miss this meeting due to work.  Speeding is an issue on Hutchins so hopefully this will slow traffic down to the posted speeds and the bike lane will be icing on the cake.  I noticed at some point last year they put white lines for a kinda bike lane on Hutchins near Emancipation Park .   I've included a pic of the curb build outs when they were new. 

[wilcal]

3 hours ago, BeerNut said:

Thanks for post @wilcal  I live on Hutchins and was disappointed I was going to miss this meeting due to work.  Speeding is an issue on Hutchins so hopefully this will slow traffic down to the posted speeds and the bike lane will be icing on the cake.  I noticed at some point last year they put white lines for a kinda bike lane on Hutchins near Emancipation Park .   I've included a pic of the curb build outs when they were new. 

 

3

 

Part of the plan that I didn't mention is for median blocks for Hutchins at Alabama and at Elgin actually. 

 

It'll be interesting to see the final configuration and how traffic flows. I think a lot people use Hutchins as an access road for 59. 

[wilcal]

Bicyclists killed in a hit and run at Hutchins/Alabama last  night. 

 

https://abc13.com/bicyclist-dead-after-hit-and-run-involving-pickup-truck/5237354/?fbclid=IwAR0yOtizE_bVFJjCEHO8hgwnLJHbyK_snG-yYD6stQGzDHFZEgj4C4rTckk

[j_cuevas713]

2 hours ago, wilcal said:

Bicyclists killed in a hit and run at Hutchins/Alabama last  night. 

 

https://abc13.com/bicyclist-dead-after-hit-and-run-involving-pickup-truck/5237354/?fbclid=IwAR0yOtizE_bVFJjCEHO8hgwnLJHbyK_snG-yYD6stQGzDHFZEgj4C4rTckk

This is what happens when the city doesn’t just get the damn thing done. The fact this is still in a design phase is ridiculous. We’re approaching the 1 Year mark for all these bike lanes. 

[wilcal]

22 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

This is what happens when the city doesn’t just get the damn thing done. The fact this is still in a design phase is ridiculous. We’re approaching the 1 Year mark for all these bike lanes. 

 

Honestly, the "slowness" is from them being overly cautious in regards to community outreach. People are much more likely to be upset when they aren't heard. They've done stuff from pop up bike lanes, to community meetings, to parking studies, etc and they all take time. 

 

They did tell me that they expect all of these projects to be completed by the end of the summer. It's been a slowly but surely thing so far 😕

[BeerNut]

This was in my mailbox.

[wilcal]

22 hours ago, BeerNut said:

This was in my mailbox.

 

 

Really wish I knew what they were deciding for their design for Hutchins. It's either all or none for street parking. Have to guess that it'll end up as sharrows and no bike lanes

[X.R.]

13 minutes ago, wilcal said:

 

Really wish I knew what they were deciding for their design for Hutchins. It's either all or none for street parking. Have to guess that it'll end up as sharrows and no bike lanes

 

Its weird, I can't find it as an explicit project on the bike plan website, its just lumped together with the third ward bike plans. The hopeful thing is that on houston bike plan its still marked as a blue-retro fit lane same as polk, which has to be a good thing:

 

http://houstonbikeplan.org/implementation/infrastructure/third-ward/

 

And as late as March of 2019, Bike Houston is reporting its a buffered bike lane:

https://bikehouston.org/2019/03/04/28-miles-complete-will-we-meet-the-build-50-challenge/

 

Its a wide street, you'd think they could through some buffer in there and figure out how to preserve parking. Thanks @BeerNut  for finding out they are moving forward with this, any indication what it'll be? 

[BeerNut]

I'm not sure what plan they will go with but several months back they put white markings on Hutchins between Elgin and Tuam near Emancipation Park.  

It kinda resembles the "Proposed" picture below but looks incomplete.  I'll be sure to post a picture when I get a chance.

[Texasota]

Well now that makes no sense at all.

[cspwal]

Why is the buffer between the bikes and the parked cars?  Is their primary concern dooring?

[mollusk]

Wouldn't "high comfort" (and safety) be better served by having the bike lane between the sidewalk and the street parking, separated by curbing (or at least armadillos) like in downtown Austin? 

[Ross]

3 hours ago, mollusk said:

Wouldn't "high comfort" (and safety) be better served by having the bike lane between the sidewalk and the street parking, separated by curbing (or at least armadillos) like in downtown Austin? 

Aren't the armadillos there to provide protected parking for police cars? Every time I go past the 4 Seasons Downtown, it seems like there's a police car parked in the bike lane.

[mollusk]

2 hours ago, Ross said:

Aren't the armadillos there to provide protected parking for police cars? Every time I go past the 4 Seasons Downtown, it seems like there's a police car parked in the bike lane.

 

There is a long standing theory that the reason Houston drivers are aggressive, fast, rude, and tend to run into things is because they're just driving the way the cops do.

[kbates2]

I’ve seen way more cops starting to just park on the sidewalk downtown.  Can’t get a stroller past them so you just have to go out into the street.

[X.R.]

Welllll, I guess Gray is the first one up of the remaining Houston Bike Plan projects..

 

 

http://houstonbikeplan.org/implementation/infrastructure/gray-street/

 

The protected lane looks great, it gives me hope. Imagine Houston has an actual bike network by the end of the year where with lights signals and stuff. BCycle better be ready. 

[wilcal]

On 8/13/2019 at 8:16 PM, Ross said:

Aren't the armadillos there to provide protected parking for police cars? Every time I go past the 4 Seasons Downtown, it seems like there's a police car parked in the bike lane.

 

Armadillos are there so that emergency vehicles can cross them as necessary. In most municipalities, it's just for streets that aren't wide enough for fire trucks to make a turn on them. That of course doesn't apply to the downtown Houston track on Lamar. 

[X.R.]

Per the update on August 26th, 2019, we got a solid timeline and update:

Project Updates

Pavement markings and striping are in progress on Gray Street. Full signal installation expected to be complete by Spring 2020.

 

Seems this will completed before Austin, but a bit later than the initial update indicated. I'm sure its cause they need to get the new lights for the stoplights as @wilcal mentioned. I also get the feeling Polk may be effecting these buildout timeline, in-so-much that I'm sure they are trying to slot Polk's timelines in somewhere and now they have which resulted in the more realistic timeframes. The only thing I can find about Polk is this: https://bikehouston.org/2019/03/04/28-miles-complete-will-we-meet-the-build-50-challenge/ 

[X.R.]

 

 

 

Seems like Gray street is coming along pretty well! 

 

 

[BeerNut]

New bike lanes causing confusion

[X.R.]

39 minutes ago, BeerNut said:

New bike lanes causing confusion

 

When you don't have something, and are stuck in 80s style infrastructure, and get thrown into the future, it can be jarring at first 😂.

 

They just need to throw the signage up on there to educate people. That cyclist sounded pretty happy though, and then was like "nah, cars don't know what to do." haha

[cspwal]

I don't understand the confusion

 

It's a separated lane with pictures of bikes painted on it - pretty sure that translates well to "bike lane"

White diagonal striped buffers are everywhere - just look at a merge, where the triangle has white diagonal stripes in it, until it comes to a point where there's a double white line and then a dashed line.  The diagonal stripes = don't drive here.  I think the confusion is from it being new, and people not paying attention.  The city could finish it and put in the armadillos, but it's pretty clearly marked

[j_cuevas713]

The problem isn't confusion. It's the fact that people have been getting away with the way they drive for forever and now they have to think. 

[samagon]

it is quite confusing. they need to just install planters or something in the area that they don't want vehicles (cars, bikes, or otherwise) traveling.

 

the way they have these lanes designed screams 'temporary' to me. you want to make them permanent, put in some traffic islands to create some separation, rather than paint.

[X.R.]

1 hour ago, samagon said:

it is quite confusing. they need to just install planters or something in the area that they don't want vehicles (cars, bikes, or otherwise) traveling.

 

the way they have these lanes designed screams 'temporary' to me. you want to make them permanent, put in some traffic islands to create some separation, rather than paint.

 

Well, the are temporary. The armadillos are confirmed coming in, along with the green paint that they've already started.

 

The green paint goes a long way. Plus, I think these type of markings, which are becoming more prevalent, is pretty clear: 

 

https://twitter.com/TyronMcDaniel/status/1171206705306226688?s=20

 

 

[wilcal]

3 hours ago, samagon said:

it is quite confusing. they need to just install planters or something in the area that they don't want vehicles (cars, bikes, or otherwise) traveling.

 

the way they have these lanes designed screams 'temporary' to me. you want to make them permanent, put in some traffic islands to create some separation, rather than paint.

 

It is confusing, but it's because they are don't yet. They want to maintain the parking, and there are concrete barriers coming (a la Hardy/Elysian) to show people where to park. Armadillos will help guide people around corners.

 

Concrete dividers on Elysian:

 

 

 

FWIW, they did put out a #*@#-load of barrels to help people out after the negative newscast:

 

 

 

And in reality, they would prefer to do permanent but it's an order of magnitude more expensive. 

[Triton]

Wait I'm probably missing something here... those barrels are temporary right?

 

Yea, the armadillos/dividers on the new section of Houston Ave did miracles. I had people in the bike lane with me a few times (quite scary) until those were installed.

[wilcal]

On 9/10/2019 at 5:03 PM, Triton said:

Wait I'm probably missing something here... those barrels are temporary right?

 

Yea, the armadillos/dividers on the new section of Houston Ave did miracles. I had people in the bike lane with me a few times (quite scary) until those were installed.

 

Yes, barrels are temp until construction is complete. They're currently placed where parking will be available. The concrete dividers will be in the narrow painted strip. 

 

Bike lanes will be identical to the ones on Elysian that I posted.