Walnut Bend in Westchase to receive wider sidewalks and bike lanes by Summer 2021

[wilcal]

 

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/transportation/2019/09/17/346078/west-houston-street-project-includes-new-amenities-for-pedestrians-and-cyclists/

 

 

[wilcal]

1 hour ago, Toopicky said:

I get the bike lanes, but why in heck do they need wider sidewalks? I just don't get it

 

Looks like they're only 4' wide, which is below current design standards. 

[wilcal]

Just now, Toopicky said:

 

Yes, but so are most sidewaks in Houston. My point is that pedestrian traffic on Walnut Bend is almost nil .... why throw a ball if there is no dog to chase it?

 

If they are being rebuilt, then they're supposed to be built to modern standards.

 

Also, almost the entire stretch of road are apartments and condos and there is a strip center on the north end of where the trail/reconstructed sidewalks are going to be. 

 

There are also a bunch of sections that have no sidewalk on one side of the street at all.

 

I went on Google Street view and there's a pedestrian passing through one of those sections here: 

 

 

 

[wilcal]

3 minutes ago, Toopicky said:

 

By all means, put in a sidewalk if one doesn't exist, but he hardly needs one more than a 4' wide, and the expense of what is shown above along the whole street isn't justifiable. The city cannot afford to waste taxpayer money on things like this when we are so deep in debt.

 

(BTW, I have a missing section across the street from my house in the Museum District that gets a lot more foot traffic .... why not call your buddies at CoH and tell them to get that put in too (with all the expensive touches)?

 

5' width sidewalks are the minimum. 6' if they are on the curb face. The restrictions generally aren't for able-bodied people like the gentleman pictured, but those with disabilities. It's generally not possible to walk side-by-side with someone on 4' width so one person tends to walk in the street when walking in pairs. PS: Sidewalks aren't that expensive. HPW does them for about $40/sq. ft.  

 

The Westchase District effectively operates like a TIRZ where local businesses are the ones paying for these projects. The funds aren't coming from the CoH budget. 

 

Sidewalks are generally the responsibility of the landowners, so by all means ask your neighbors to put them in. 

 

You're in the Midtown TIRZ, so you could ask them to pay for it. If it has as much foot traffic as the street with hundreds of apartments and several active bus stops, it probably should be completed as well. 

 

[august948]

The bike lanes on Walnut Bend are part of the Houston Bike Plan.  Redoing the street to "whole street" standards is icing on the cake.  The Westchase District has been stepping up in recent years to get bike trails and other improvements done in this part of town.

[wilcal]

24 minutes ago, august948 said:

The bike lanes on Walnut Bend are part of the Houston Bike Plan.  Redoing the street to "whole street" standards is icing on the cake.  The Westchase District has been stepping up in recent years to get bike trails and other improvements done in this part of town.

 

It said on the Westchase District website that all infrastructure improvement had to be approved by the CoH, so that would make sense if it was on the bike plan. Segment is kind of a no-brainer imho especially if they can get it to connect to the other trails in the area. 

 

There was another pic on the Westchase District website which shows a much different bike lane implementation, too: 

 

[samagon]

On 9/18/2019 at 4:14 PM, Toopicky said:

 

By all means, put in a sidewalk if one doesn't exist, but he hardly needs one more than a 4' wide, and the expense of what is shown above along the whole street isn't justifiable. The city cannot afford to waste taxpayer money on things like this when we are so deep in debt.

 

(BTW, I have a sidewalk missing section across the street from my house in the Museum District that gets a lot more foot traffic with people going to the nearby museums, churches and art/cultural centers .... why not call your buddies at CoH and tell them to get that put in too, with all the expensive touches of course, along with repairing the crumbling curbs? It looks one hell of a lot worse than what you have shown.)

 

just looking at the cross section of that photo, there are more pedestrians using the street than cars driving. I count 3 peds, and 2 moving vehicles. 

 

on top of that, cars parked on the street are a huge waste of space, plus they are easy targets for vandalism and theft.

 

move the parked cars where they belong (inside a gate and in a parking space) and you cut down on theft, and can use the parking area in a more useful manner, ie: bike lanes and 5' wide sidewalks.

[Texasota]

Why are you being so stingey about this? It's not a substantial difference in cost, so why are you so bent out of shape about an extra foot or two of sidewalk?

 

Besides, even if it's true that not many people walk on Walnut Bend, did it occur to you that part of the reason might be because ...the sidewalks aren't very good?

[samagon]

1 hour ago, Toopicky said:

 

And the poster essential said it was cherry-picked  .... get real

 

does the road need to be 4 lanes wide (2 lanes for traffic and 2 lanes for parking?)?

 

I don't live in the area, I don't drive on that road regularly, obviously you do and can provide some insight for the rest of us so we understand the needs of the area?

[ZKB9]

I live on Walnut Bend and cycle on that road almost daily, there's always people walking or riding their bikes. 

[j_cuevas713]

On 9/18/2019 at 3:37 PM, Toopicky said:

 

Yes, but so are most sidewaks in Houston. My point is that pedestrian traffic on Walnut Bend is almost nil .... why throw a ball if there is no dog to chase it?

Then you encourage it by providing walkability. You don't just avoid it because it doesn't have high traffic. We can't continue to build like a mid sized city anymore. Eventually more and more areas will be encouraged to upgrade their sidewalks to promote foot traffic. This section can pioneer that growth. 

[Ross]

On 9/20/2019 at 8:21 AM, samagon said:

 

just looking at the cross section of that photo, there are more pedestrians using the street than cars driving. I count 3 peds, and 2 moving vehicles. 

 

on top of that, cars parked on the street are a huge waste of space, plus they are easy targets for vandalism and theft.

 

move the parked cars where they belong (inside a gate and in a parking space) and you cut down on theft, and can use the parking area in a more useful manner, ie: bike lanes and 5' wide sidewalks.

That wouldn't work well for us, with three cars and a single car wide driveway. No way to get the cars in order for the morning without putting one on the street for a while. Where do you put cars when you have a party?

[august948]

I don't think there are any single family homes on this stretch of road.  It's all apartments.