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Memorial Park At 6501 Memorial Dr.


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Yeah the ride between the end of buffalo bayou park and memorial park is not great.  4' sidewalks, uneven pavement.  I wonder if a bike path down memorial (or elsewhere) would make sense, or extend how far the buffalo bayou park stretches to meet up with memorial park

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Yeah that is what i call the "danger zone"! from starbucks on Memorial to the shepherd bridge/or path heading down under the bridge...it is near impossible to maneuver that sidewalk on a bike with other bikes or people in your path...

yikes! 

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Yep...everyone now has a bike or just wants to get outdoors since there wasn't (or isn't) much else to do! i think that is awesome...but not on that stretch of sidewalk haha!!! 

🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️🏃‍♂️🚴‍♂️🏃‍♀️🤸‍♀️👯‍♂️💃🚴‍♂️

😵

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17 minutes ago, cspwal said:

I don't know traffic volumes on memorial - would a protected bike line be feasible, or is there way too much traffic to cut out a lane each way?

It can get pretty backed up during afternoon eastbound rush hour (pre-COVID) between the 2 parks, particularly with Westcott dumping traffic coming from i10 right into this stretch of road. From my experience though, any other time it's not bad. I'm guessing they won't be giving up a lane to bikes any time soon since they just finished a repaving project a couple of weeks ago... cutting out sections of the road and replacing with proper concrete from Westcott all the way to Sabine.

 

Is there enough space to widen the sidewalk into a proper hike/bike path?

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Between Shepherd and Detering, there looks like there might be enough room, but after that not really, if you want to have any sort of buffer. 

It looks like right now on that section, it's 3 11 ft lanes each side; if you made it 3 10 foot lanes, it would keep the traffic volume, and get 3 feet for a bike lane.  That's pretty small for a bike lane - it wouldn't be protected, just painted lanes

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21 hours ago, cspwal said:

Between Shepherd and Detering, there looks like there might be enough room, but after that not really, if you want to have any sort of buffer. 

It looks like right now on that section, it's 3 11 ft lanes each side; if you made it 3 10 foot lanes, it would keep the traffic volume, and get 3 feet for a bike lane.  That's pretty small for a bike lane - it wouldn't be protected, just painted lanes

 

Here's my dream for dealing with access to Memorial Park.  It's probably just a dream, but it's a lot more feasible than trying to continue bayou trails along other parts of Buffalo Bayou outside the loop:

 

Widen the existing sidewalk to 8-10 feet or so from Shepherd to just east of the Bayou on the Bend apartments.

 

Acquire bayou-front right-of-way from the owners of the Bayou on the Bend apartments, Left Bank River Oaks apartments, the undeveloped plot just west of there, the one homeowner on Asbury Pl, and from Brenner's on the Bayou to continue the bayou trail along their property.

 

Cross over the bayou to Bayou Bend with a new pedestrian bridge (they have a narrow one at present just for Bayou Bend visitors) and get ROW from both Bayou Bend and the River Oaks Country Club to continue the trail west on the south bank to Crestwood Drive, where Memorial Park starts.

 

Cross back over the bayou to Memorial Park just west of Crestwood.

 

I count only 7 entities that that would require property from, and all but one are institutional and would likely see the benefit of the trail.  Seems at least slightly feasible, if funding can be obtained.  It's probably a lot cheaper than building an elevated bicycle superhighway over Memorial, and a lot safer than trying to upgrade the sidewalk with all the driveways, but it would serve the same goal of providing access between Downtown and Memorial Park.

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looking at satellite view in google maps, between Westcott and Detering the median is large enough that the EB traffic lanes could be shifted to create more room for a wider path on the south side of the street and still have a huge median for safety.

 

but then it would probably be cheaper to just acquire the land on the SB side to create wider paths.

Edited by samagon
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  • 3 weeks later...

i didn't see this posted yet and has some good info:

https://www.houstoniamag.com/travel-and-outdoors/2020/08/memorial-park-land-bridge-construction-2020

 

this was good to know especially:

Four new volleyball courts will be open in September in the new Sports Complex, located on the north side of the Seymour Lieberman Trail along West Memorial Loop Drive (across from the Tennis Center). The Sports Complex also includes a new multi-use sports field for rugby, lacrosse, soccer, and other field sports; two new ballfields; and new restrooms.

 
 
 
 

 

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they make it sound here like the improvements are done...even though they talk in general terms

https://www.click2houston.com/sports/2020/08/16/astros-memorial-park-ready-to-host-houston-open/

“It’s a big golf course, so it’s great for a PGA tour event,” explained Giles Kibbe, president of the Astros Golf Foundation. “We have the space, we have all the bones here, but we needed to really make some improvements to the golf course.”

And make improvements they did..."

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They have removed all of the trees from the median of Memorial Drive between the two traffic lights at each end of Picnic Lane.  And there is fencing up on the north side of the street along parts of the jogging trail.  I couldn't tell for sure, but it may be part of re-routing the jogging trail during construction as early reports said that the trail would remain usable. 

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3 hours ago, gene said:

and now get ready for 120 goats to mow the arboretum 🐐 

seriously! (Oct 3-10th)

https://www.houstoniamag.com/travel-and-outdoors/2020/09/houston-arboretum-goats-fall-2020

 

 

Glad I read the linked story, since my initial reaction was to envision massive goat carnage on Memorial Drive.  :ph34r:  Guess I'm just too accustomed to things being poorly thought out (if thought out at all).

 

And Rent-A-Ruminant is a great name.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dont forget the goats are currently at the arboretum! they are seriously so darn fun to watch haha! Everyday when i ride my bike from galleria to downtown and back i stop each way just to say hi to them 🐐

they are only there until Saturday! 

 

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@CaptainJilliams that video is freaking amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

thank you so much for finding and posting that!

it makes me so proud of houston and Memorial Park! how lucky are we to have that in our incredible city?!

i already love riding my bike there but once this project is done...wowsa...🚲

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7 hours ago, nate4l1f3 said:

Will I still be able to see 👀 the trail joggers 🍭when driving down memorial? Looks like the trail will be pushed back. 

 

Hopefully it is. It's terrifying being right up on memorial drive with nothing separating you from cars going 50+ but a small curb. I always worry that someone is going to be texting, try to change lanes and pop a car over the curb and turn me into hamburger meat. 

Edited by jmitch94
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I used to skip the Memorial Drive section for that very reason. Back when I ran a lot, I'd run semi-circles from light to light multiple times. Besides my fear of cars jumping, during jogging rush hour, I was always afraid I'd watch someone fall/get bumped into the street on the "hill" section by the ditch. 

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