Midtown Houston's Circulator?

Midtown Houston is seeking feedback regarding a possible bus circulator system in Houston's Midtown District. (You could win a $25 Amazon gift card!) With Midtown's exploration of a circulator system, it joins many of Houston's other districts considering similar systems, as reported back in July of this year by the Houston Chronicle's Dug Begley.

Help plan better transportation services for Midtown. Please take our survey, we would greatly appreciate it. http://t.co/zaIZ0lC2sA

— Midtown Houston (@Midtown_Houston) September 8, 2015

Given the expansion and ridership of Houston's Greenlink Downtown Circulator, Midtown must feel that the time is right to introduce a similar service in their district. The discussion of a circulator bus system at this point in time is interesting, given the transit changes in transportation options as a result of Metro's New Bus Network. I'd image the discussion about a circulator in Midtown is nothing new, and is likely not driven by changes in Midtown's bus service.

Greenlink is made available by a partnership between Houston's Downtown District, BG Group and Houston First Corporation, and is available during the work week from 6:30 AM to 6:30 PM, with buses arriving every 7 to 10 minutes. In Downtown Houston there is enough of a daytime population and density of attractions to demand a circulator service.

I question whether this type demand and operating schedule could be the same for Midtown, at least at this point in time. Midtown has seen a great increase in multifamily development, especially along the district's north and west boundaries, and along the Metro Red Line light rail corridor, and features a high density of townhouse development along its southern and eastern boundary.

Midtown Houston's transit lines

This service seems like it would be much more attractive to residents of Midtown, as opposed to the daytime users of Downtown Houston's Greenlink. Midtown is one district in Houston where not owning a car is probably most feasible, given the proximity to Downtown Houston, Montrose and the Museum District, and the accessibility to frequent bus routes (one of which is located along Westheimer, serving the Montrose and Uptown districts). It will be interesting to see if there are any destinations that patrons would use the circulator service to get to that are not already served by transit. I would imagine though, that this service would be most useful outside the hours of the normal work day. 

If a circulator did operate in Midtown, I suspect it would operate differently than Greenlink or other proposed circulators around town. Midtown is known as an art, culinary and leisure destination, not a concentration of employment, which is what seems to be warranting the other circulator routes discussed in Houston. The most useful time for a circulator in Midtown might be at night while patrons to local bars and restaurants may desire to park once, then use the service to get from place to place, or to a particular parking lot, especially on busy weekend nights. This idea would be akin to existing jitney services.

If you're a business owner in Midtown, your thoughts are needed. Would you benefit from a circulator service? If you use transit to get to and from Midtown, your thoughts are needed. And, if you did want to use this form of transit, where would you want it to serve, and how much would you be willing to pay to use it?

It's not a question of whether the circulator would help achieve better access and promotion of local businesses, but whether the demand and population density currently exists to warrant a circulator.

Biking in Houston; Connecting the Dots with Houston's Bike Plan - June 30th, Last Formal Evening Meeting

It has been over 20 years since the City of Houston has made any changes to the city's bicycle master plan. For many, the question will be asked "this city has a bike plan?!" For many years alternative infrastructure planning has not been on the radar of many leaders. While Houston's roadways continued to receive a great deal of attention, alternative modes of transportation were generally left behind.

Representative of biking infrastructure in Houston

As Houston continues to grow and densify, and as Houston continues to attract a population of residents that prefer alternative modes of transportation and recreation (especially as new residents come from other cities that have more established urban bike facilities), biking cannot be ignored any longer.

The City of Houston's Planning and Development Department is leading the charge in developing the city's updated bicycle plan. Working in tandem with other local organizations, including Bike Houston, and the Houston Galveston Area Council, the city has been promoting the plan's process for the past few weeks. Well, things are in a higher gear now, and your assistance is needed.

Tomorrow is the last formal evening meeting scheduled, but residents can be assured of continued opportunities for feedback on the city's bike plan. For continues updates on opportunities to provide your input, head over to the Houston Bikeways website.

HCC Memorial City Performing Arts Center / Theater II, Room 411
Tuesday, June 30th 6pm – 8pm
1060 W. Sam Houston Pkwy N., Houston, TX 77043 (MAP)
RSVP on the Facebook Event Page

Why A Bike Plan?

In a recent Houston Chronicle editorial we are reminded that biking in Houston is still very dangerous. Personally, I believe there is a culture of automobile-exceptionalism that must continue to be eroded before biking becomes safer. Our streets and infrastructure does not solely exist to facilitate the movement of automobiles. Tragically, there have been too many bicycling causalities in Houston. The editorial makes mention of over 200 hit and run accidents reported by Houston bicyclists since the passage of Houston's Safe Passing Ordinance, as well as the failures of recent projects. Certainly, recent projects such as Houston's Lamar Street cycletrack and the completion of Buffalo Bayou Park help to add to the city's overall biking infrastructure.  It should be noted though, that for the causal cyclist, these projects may seem a bit isolated.

What Houston needs is a continued connection of existing facilities. We're a connect-the-dots city in many respects, a city that is in need of connections between a variety of existing facilities. This fact is a great reason to endeavor to establish a citywide bike plan.

19th Street

Get Out and Ride

For those biking skeptics out there, dust off your ride and get out into your neighborhood. Put yourself on the seat of a cyclist. This may raise some awareness of the difficulty of biking (or walking for that matter) in many of Houston's neighborhoods. On a recent Friday I tried to make all of my chore-based trips by bike. In a neighborhood like the Houston Heights, it's not too difficult. Even in Houston's most-easily-biked neighborhoods there may still be certain frustrations cyclists have, many of which might be able to be addressed in a bike plan.

On my trip, I found myself riding down 19th Street, Heights Boulevard and down the Heights Hike and Bike Trail, all relatively safe and well-trafficked biking routes to many riders. It's once you leave these routes that Houston's biking adventure begins. If you're wanting to ride your bike from the Heights to the Kroger on Studemont, what are your connections? A little wayfinding from the Heights Bike Trail through what I call the "Kroger Connector" would go a long way. These types of small improvements could be repeated all over the city.

I-10 feeder road at the Heights Hike and Bike Trail

It should be noted that not every road in Houston should have biking facilities. Our roads still need to carry all those other cars, trucks, and things that go. But we can do a great deal to improve the ability for those without a car to navigate our city, or for those who simply want to ditch their car for every trip they need to make.

Heights Hike and Bike Trail at Heights Boulevard and Yale; Alexan Heights at left

It's likely that dedicated cyclists, like those who belong to the city's Bike Houston non-profit, are already aware of and engaged in the bicycle planning process. If you haven't heard much about it, hop on your

As a bicyclist, your input is greatly needed. You know this city's roads. You know where connections are needed. You know what streets are best for cycling, even if they are not dedicated bike routes.

As a motorist, your input is needed. You certainly know our roads as well. You know where cyclists tend to ride. There is much that can be done to provide drivers with more awareness of cyclists, and to bring more attention to cyclists. 

As a pedestrian, your input is needed. You know what infrastructure needs to be improved to make an even greater number of places accessible. 

Houston could be a great biking city. The city's relatively flat geography and grid-based roadway system make for great cycling opportunities. (It'd probably be appropriate to insert a snarky pothole comment here too.) The main obstacle to more biking in Houston seems to be our hot and humid summers. But, there is a great deal of opportunity before us. Please take some time to provide your comments on what might make biking more enjoyable, safe and convenient in our city.

Reaching Pierce Elevated's Full Potential

Houston's Pierce Elevated still hasn't reached its full potential. I'll explain why in just a second. It moves thousands of cars per day through Houston, but it's got more to give... It was just a few weeks ago that TxDOT announced a radical (in the minds of most Texans) and sensible plan to re-route Interstate 45 to the east through Downtown Houston.

The Pierce Elevated portion of Interstate 45 that we see today in Downtown Houston is a throwback to the Robert Moses School of Planning. The thought was, "Let's push these freeways as close as we can to our downtowns, while wiping out any seemingly undesirable neighborhood (usually a minority neighborhood) that stands in the way."

A few weeks ago on the Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research blog, The Urban Edge, Kyle Shelton wrote that "Pierce Elevated may go back to the future." Shelton examines the details surrounding the development of the Pierce Elevated (Interstate 45) that came to divide what is now Downtown Houston and Midtown Houston. Shelton briefly highlights the evolving role of roads, especially in urban areas, and follows up with a historical look at how our highways and roads were imagined in the past. (For a comprehensive look at Houston's freeways, see here.) Some had the foresight to see what we see today regarding our freeways and how they affect our cities, but many did not.

Those without that foresight included the Houston Arts Commission, noting in a study that the space was "'ideal for “playgrounds, plazas, and parking' and included a number of illustrations depicting children playing basketball and office workers enjoying a break beneath six lanes of traffic." Well, as Shelton notes, those kids never ended up playing basketball under the Pierce Elevated. Under-the-freeway basketball courts have appeared in other cities, but no one has had the foresight (or better yet, fortitude) to make that happen in Houston as once imagined. This is all reflected in the first goal of the beautification study on freeways: "To provide pleasant changing experiences to the motorist driving on the urban freeway system of Houston." The concern of drivers drove their study.

Proposals have been made to turn nearly the entire downtown stretch of highway into something like New York City's High Line. I agree with Shelton that such proposals seem a bit limiting for an area that could benefit from a repaired urban grid. There's probably a happy medium that can be achieved that might allow some of the Pierce Elevated to be preserved as a High-Line-esque amenity, while the remainder is turned over to traditional development, joining together Downtown Houston and Midtown. Dallas planner Patrick Kennedy says that "...if I were to offer some context it would be to remind Houstonians that you’re Houston. Not NYC."

As major cities continue to question whether freeways belong in their downtowns, Houston's residents will have their say. TxDOT held a series of public meetings in April, and has now extended the public comment period until May 31st, 2015. If TxDOT wants to have an additional public forum to discuss the benefits of removing freeways from downtown districts, what better way than through a sports summit? The Houston Rockets have their #Pursuit of an NBA championship, and we have our pursuit of a downtown without a concrete scar of a freeway. (I really should have suggested this a few weeks ago before the Rockets were on the brink of elimination in the NBA Playoffs.)

When Jacobus Rentmeester captured Michael Jordan's first iconic Jumpman pose, he opted for an outdoor court as a setting. It probably had greater appeal than an empty gym at the time, and the setting allowed the photographer to create "a sharp and compelling silhouette of Mr. Jordan against a contrasting clear sky." Well, there's nothing of greater contrast to our cities than elevated lanes of concrete freeway, playing home to speeding masses of metal.

While most planning and engineering is now done behind a computer screen, there's no better way to see the contrast of our built environment than by getting out and experiencing cities firsthand.  I'm down for a game of 5 on 5 below Pierce Elevated. We can see how our freeways affect our neighborhoods. And, as Dallas debates the future of the Trinity Parkway, maybe we can invite down some of Dallas' most dedicated urbanists as well.

So, before we tear it down, let's let the Pierce Elevated reach its full potential. There's no better way to do this than some pick up basketball. Trust me, this idea is a slam dunk.

(Re)Naming Houston's Highways

Cars in Depth: The Streets of Detroit

Growing up near Detroit, when people talked about highways or interstates, they reference their names. No, not just their numerical assignment in the Interstate Highway System or respective state highway system. That'd just be boring. Listen to any traffic report in somewhere like Chicago or Detroit, and even New York. You'll hear some familiar historic names. The names of former mayors, presidents, military figures or major contributors to the economy are used as tributes in highways naming.

In August the Chicago Tribute graphics team published an infographic explaining the "notable names behind Chicagoland's expressways." There they have the Kennedy (I-90 / I-94) the Dan Ryan (I-94 / I-90), the Eisenhower, or Ike (I-83) and the Stevenson (I-55), among others.

Lowering Houston's Speed Limit; Pedestrian Safety in Houston

Does anyone really know the speed limit in Downtown Houston? Probably not. I don't believe there are any posted speed limit signs. But there is a speed limit. And no, it's not "however fast you can drive between lights." With any non-scientific observation, one can see that speeds in Downtown Houston normally range anywhere from gridlock to Gran Prix.

Speed limits in Downtown Houston are not posted, so, as found in Section 45-91 of the City of Houston Code of Ordinances, the speed limit is actually 30 miles per hour, just like any other local street in our city. 30 miles per hour had also been the local speed limit in New York City until a few weeks ago. On November 7th, New York City's speed limits became 25 miles per hour, unless posted otherwise. This was part of the city's Vision Zero initiative, aimed at reducing pedestrian deaths and injuries. Of course, there were skeptics.

As included in a recent Vox article, researchers have shown that reducing the speed of a car involved in an accident reduces the risk of death in an accident. Researchers found that:

For drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists, casualties (a category that includes both deaths and injuries) dropped by 41.9 percent in the new speed zones compared to other areas, with all the new zones leading to 203 fewer annually in total. Deaths declined by 35.1 percent, with 27 fewer annually.

Caring About the Transit User Experience in Houston

I ride the local bus to and from work nearly every day, and I have to admit, I love it. When I tell people this, they usually give a second look. For me, it’s relative freedom from the grips of the morning gridlock. I can sit back, read and take in the cityscape. Stepping into a packed local bus gives a glimpse into Houston’s diverse population. Is there a better place to see the full spectrum of human nature on display than a confined space with 30 other strangers as you zip through the city?

No matter our age, profession or economic status, we need to get from one place to another. All of us want that experience to be as pleasant and safe as possible. Like urbanist blogger Daniel Kay Hertz said a few weeks ago, “Buses: They don’t have to suck.” Hertz focuses his recommendations on bus technology in Chicago such as all-door-boarding, bus pre-payment, or dedicated roadway lanes for public transit. In Houston, we might be best served to look at our ridership experience more holistically and focus on conditions in the pedestrian realm. The same applies here in Houston. Riding and waiting for the bus doesn't have to suck.

In transit, the most important issue for riders is likely the frequency and path of service.  If a service doesn't run frequently enough or is not direct enough, it's likely someone would simply drive a car. METRO will roll out their reimagined bus system next year, hopefully allowing more opportunities for ridership. We may allow more people to have access to our system, but will people use it? Will they feel comfortable using the system? What will the user experience tell someone about METRO or Houston? Will new riders give transit a try, and will long-time riders continue to support our system?

What's in a Transit System's Name or Acronym?; Alternative Names for Houston's METRO

What's in a name? that which we call a transit authority
By any other name would our ride be so sweet;

                        -not William Shakespeare, not Romeo and Juliet

Here in Houston we have METRO, or if you call it by it's full legal name, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County. But no one calls it that; it's too much of a mouthful. And no one ended up calling the Authority "M-TAHC" (pronounced M-tack?), even though that sounds much zippier than METRO.

METRO has little descriptive element. It seems a bit impersonal, without connection or context. Any regional transit authority that serves cities can make a case to name their service "METRO". Of course it can, because it's in a metropolitan area. And, as I'll list, many agencies chose to use "Metro" in their names.

Don't misunderstand me. This isn't about METRO's service or ridership experience. I ride the bus every day and I love it. There's certainly always strides to be made in service and ridership experience. METRO is going a great job with the resources they have available, building ridership and making drastic route changes with their Transit System Reimagining, hoping it will lead to even more bus ridership in the future. They're also looking at strengthening their rider code of conduct.