new bike paths around town

[004n063]

7 hours ago, cspwal said:

The rebuild on Polk East of Cullen is including protected bike lines with concrete curbs.

That's big news! Where'd you see that?

[j_cuevas713]

1 hour ago, staresatmaps said:

Imagine a pedestrianish city like Venice. Now let's say we built a few sporatic side roads that kind of connect but don't really connect to anything and they are filled with potholes and trash and are semi-unsafe to use. Would you be surprised if you saw only a few people per hour using those roads? I bet if they started connecting the roads, building branches, and building parking lots the amount of drivers would increase exponentially. Sorry a little unrelated, but I'm a little tipsy :/

No I totally get what you're saying. As with anything you need a network. I made the same argument to one of the candidates running against Abbie Kamin. I basically told her, imagine if the city of Houston only had one main road and that's it. How many people would be able to access it and use it? Very few right? Right now people against the bike lanes are using arguments like that to try and convince others that we don't need them and that nobody is using them. But the same was said about the Greenway trails and look at them now. They are used all week for commuting or for recreation. Even kids are using 11th St to get to school. You also have to connect to destinations and people have to feel confident enough to ride in the lanes and know they can get from point A to point B safely and easily. The White Oak Bayou Greenway is a great example. It's become a major connector for those coming from the Heights to Downtown all the way through Midtown and Montrose. Right now we have a patchwork of lanes that at some point will begin to connect and ridership will start to take off. The lanes on Shepherd are going to be a huge connector north and south. My Uber driver recently tried to convince me that nobody rides or walks in Houston and I had to point out that it was only 60 years ago that Houstonians were walking and taking transit at a high rate because it was the norm. Houston was also smaller and denser but the point is that if you build things for people and not cars, it works, no matter where you live. 

[cspwal]

2 hours ago, 004n063 said:

That's big news! Where'd you see that?

I drove on it yesterday.  Thursday I am going to try to get a photo when I bike over there

[BeerNut]

On 10/3/2023 at 12:00 AM, j_cuevas713 said:

There are definitely some growing pains with these well executed bike lanes in this city. Residents in each neighborhood are having a hard time wrapping their heads around the idea that some people prefer not to drive. Even Council member Shabazz continues to bash these lanes on Blodgett saying they cause traffic. She's the moron who said the new highway connection from 610 to 45 was a transit solution for students while data shows that fewer and fewer young people are opting in to getting a license or a car. 

Blodgett complaints mainly coming from current and former TSU students.  

[j_cuevas713]

28 minutes ago, BeerNut said:

Blodgett complaints mainly coming from current and former TSU students.  

Maybe so, and even then we still need to address the issue of car dependence. This is a learned lifestyle. I'm not speaking for all young people, but I know folks in the car insurance business who also tell me that the trend of young car owners is dropping significantly.  

[august948]

2 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

Maybe so, and even then we still need to address the issue of car dependence. This is a learned lifestyle. I'm not speaking for all young people, but I know folks in the car insurance business who also tell me that the trend of young car owners is dropping significantly.  

That's because buying and owning a car has gotten too expensive.  We need to find ways to reduce the cost for young drivers to help them get started.

[j_cuevas713]

6 hours ago, august948 said:

That's because buying and owning a car has gotten too expensive.  We need to find ways to reduce the cost for young drivers to help them get started.

I mean there isn’t one single variable at play here. Young people are moving to cities that they can walk and take transit. That’s also a pattern that’s been increasing even before the pandemic. 

[BeerNut]

On 10/6/2023 at 6:24 PM, august948 said:

That's because buying and owning a car has gotten too expensive.  We need to find ways to reduce the cost for young drivers to help them get started.

What about making easier for people that don't have an interest driving.  Who enjoys getting on the Mad Max roads of Houston?  When I was  in high school everybody couldn't wait to drive to hang out with friends.  I think most high schoolers don't care as much because their are so many options to interact with friends from home and hanging out at the malls isn't a thing anymore.  So people are delaying learning to drive then realize typical commute driving sucks and it's expensive, so what's the point.

[august948]

14 hours ago, BeerNut said:

What about making easier for people that don't have an interest driving.  Who enjoys getting on the Mad Max roads of Houston?  When I was  in high school everybody couldn't wait to drive to hang out with friends.  I think most high schoolers don't care as much because their are so many options to interact with friends from home and hanging out at the malls isn't a thing anymore.  So people are delaying learning to drive then realize typical commute driving sucks and it's expensive, so what's the point.

If that's your thing, walk or ride to a bus stop, get on a bus, go places.  It's already pretty easy and only $1.25.

I have to say I enjoy driving around the city, day and night.  Haven't seen anything remotely like Mad Max out there yet, but I'll let you know if I do.

[mkultra25]

11 hours ago, august948 said:

Haven't seen anything remotely like Mad Max out there yet, but I'll let you know if I do.

I was just telling my wife the other day that the optimum vehicle for Houston freeways is a late 70s/early 80s Toyota Hilux pickup with an M2 mounted in the bed. If it's good enough for Mogadishu, it's good enough for I-45.

  

[samagon]

On 10/3/2023 at 11:01 PM, cspwal said:

I drove on it yesterday.  Thursday I am going to try to get a photo when I bike over there

hopefully you didn't drive on the curbs!

[004n063]

14 hours ago, samagon said:

hopefully you didn't drive on the curbs!

I saw a reddit post whining about them.

I'll check them out tomorrow morning. I may still avoid that section of Polk. Not a vehicular cycling advocate by any means, but in general I'd rather take the lane on a quiet, slow street like Clay than a fast and fairly busy thoroughfare like Polk, unless the lanes are really good.

[cspwal]

The lanes on Polk are nice between emancipation and Cullen - I bike them every week day. The rebuilt part past Cullen looks like an improved version of the rest of Polk. One of the problems before were people parking in the bike lane, which A) blocked the bike lane & B) was not big enough to get them out of traffic. Hopefully concrete curbs solve that where armadillos don’t 

[samagon]

6 minutes ago, cspwal said:

The lanes on Polk are nice between emancipation and Cullen - I bike them every week day. The rebuilt part past Cullen looks like an improved version of the rest of Polk. One of the problems before were people parking in the bike lane, which A) blocked the bike lane & B) was not big enough to get them out of traffic. Hopefully concrete curbs solve that where armadillos don’t 

if they're like the concrete curbs on Lawndale between Telephone and Wayside (where the residential fronts Lawndale), then people will still park in the bike lane.

[JClark54]

They’re similar to those on Lawndale.

I imagine in-lane parking will continue unabated, unless CoH begins citing for the violations. Old habits die hard, and the only change is the material from which the barriers are constructed. 

[hindesky]

"The overwhelming task of getting to Memorial Park from Uptown by bike or on foot is poised to vastly improve, provided a $22 million project for a bridge across Buffalo Bayou and underpass of Loop 610 come to pass.

“The West Loop has always been this wall that makes getting to Memorial Park harder than it ought to be,” said John Breeding, president of Uptown Houston.

Uptown, acting as the area’s county improvement district, was awarded nearly $18.5 million last week for the project aimed at better non-motorized access to Memorial Park. As the park has added amenities and seen reinvestment in trails, running facilities and its eastern portion, use has grown and with it, the demand for safer and easier access to it without a car or truck. Hemmed in by Loop 610 to the west and Interstate 10 to the north, getting to Memorial Park can take some maneuvering, including where it isn’t bounded by a freeway."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/houston-committed-bike-ped-bridge-trail-memorial-18457959.php

[004n063]

6 hours ago, hindesky said:

"The overwhelming task of getting to Memorial Park from Uptown by bike or on foot is poised to vastly improve, provided a $22 million project for a bridge across Buffalo Bayou and underpass of Loop 610 come to pass.

“The West Loop has always been this wall that makes getting to Memorial Park harder than it ought to be,” said John Breeding, president of Uptown Houston.

Uptown, acting as the area’s county improvement district, was awarded nearly $18.5 million last week for the project aimed at better non-motorized access to Memorial Park. As the park has added amenities and seen reinvestment in trails, running facilities and its eastern portion, use has grown and with it, the demand for safer and easier access to it without a car or truck. Hemmed in by Loop 610 to the west and Interstate 10 to the north, getting to Memorial Park can take some maneuvering, including where it isn’t bounded by a freeway."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/houston-committed-bike-ped-bridge-trail-memorial-18457959.php

In conjunction with the Buffalo Bayou-Memorial Park connection and the Buffalo Bayou East extensions, this is a pretty big deal. 

[ChannelTwoNews]

Renderings from the article

Edited November 2, 2023 by ChannelTwoNews
LINKED RENDERINGS

[IWantTransit555]

The only good thing that TXDOT has done in Houston for a long as I have known!

[sapo2367]

On 11/2/2023 at 10:50 AM, ChannelTwoNews said:

Renderings from the article

Love their optimism of the rendering of the trail under the highway. I'm pumped for this trail but those underpasses get gross looking real quick

[august948]

9 hours ago, IWantTransit555 said:

The only good thing that TXDOT has done in Houston for a long as I have known!

You must not have been here for the Katy Freeway expansion.

[hindesky]

Join Houston Parks Board along with its project partners and funders to celebrate the completion of construction on Brays Bayou Greenway!

This greenway is the longest built to date by Houston Parks Board, between Arthur Storey Park and Archbishop Fiorenza Park.

The greenway segment being celebrated is part of a larger project that will be completed in the near future between Arthur Storey Park and Braeburn Glen Boulevard.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brays-bayou-greenway-ribbon-cutting-tickets-761140550877?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl&fbclid=IwAR0cE2kBBO6fGRPFFM6K5AC7q9kMKduJaGR3S8pJ-3KXIRxw_iwZS1Par5A

[hindesky]

[august948]

2 hours ago, hindesky said:

Now I know what I'm doing on Sunday afternoon.

[august948]

On 11/2/2023 at 12:36 AM, hindesky said:

"The overwhelming task of getting to Memorial Park from Uptown by bike or on foot is poised to vastly improve, provided a $22 million project for a bridge across Buffalo Bayou and underpass of Loop 610 come to pass.

“The West Loop has always been this wall that makes getting to Memorial Park harder than it ought to be,” said John Breeding, president of Uptown Houston.

Uptown, acting as the area’s county improvement district, was awarded nearly $18.5 million last week for the project aimed at better non-motorized access to Memorial Park. As the park has added amenities and seen reinvestment in trails, running facilities and its eastern portion, use has grown and with it, the demand for safer and easier access to it without a car or truck. Hemmed in by Loop 610 to the west and Interstate 10 to the north, getting to Memorial Park can take some maneuvering, including where it isn’t bounded by a freeway."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/houston-committed-bike-ped-bridge-trail-memorial-18457959.php

It's a good project to do, but "overwhelming" is a bit of a reach.  I've walked it to and from Uptown Park and the Eastern Glades and crossing the access roads on 610 isn't that big of a deal.

[hindesky]

[hbg.50]

This popped up on my feed a couple of weeks ago.  Maybe this guy is one of you!
“The Man making Houston Bikable”

 

[004n063]

32 minutes ago, steve1363 said:

This popped up on my feed a couple of weeks ago.  Maybe this guy is one of you!
“The Man making Houston Bikable”

 

He is a HAIFer. I met him on a Coffee + Bikes ride a while back and we talked about it.

[hindesky]

[j_cuevas713]

On 12/13/2023 at 5:43 PM, 004n063 said:

He is a HAIFer. I met him on a Coffee + Bikes ride a while back and we talked about it.

That's my boy Emmanuel. And my buddy Lucio runs that ride.