City of Houston Bicycle Advisory Committee met Oct. 25

City of Houston Bicycle Advisory Committee met Oct. 25.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Call to Order. Chair Tom Compson called the meeting to order at 2:37pm.

Roll Call:

Tom Compson, Chair (P)

Alejandro Perez, Vice Chair (P)

Tracy Alexander (P)

Leah Chambers (P)

Adam J. Williams (P)

Carl B. Salazar (P)

Joe Cutrufo (P)

Lisa Graiff (A)

Trevor Reichman (P)

Jessica Wiggins (P)

Yuhayna Mahmud (A)

Nick Hellyar (A)

Ben Drews (P)

Amar Mohite (P)

Mike VanDusen (P)

Ana Ramirez Huerta (P)

Nikki Knight (P)

Robin Holzer (P)

Veon McReynolds (P)

Ex-Officio Members:

David Fields (P)

Ian Hlavacek (P)

Juvenal Robles (A)

1) Director’s Report. David Fields gave the Director’s Report.

• Brian Smith II has returned to from military leave. Thank you to the staff who assisted while he was gone.

• Welcome Deputy Assistant Director Monique Johnson

• Vision Zero Action Plan action item by the request of the BAC is to find out where there are opportunities for different city programs to work together for economies of scale. We've been working with Houston Public Works specifically with the crews that you repaving to find out where there are low comfort bikeways on either high speed or high volume streets that are going to be coming up to a repaving season sometime soon and use that opportunity if possible to replace just the paint with some kind of buffer.

• City Wide Truck Plan, is a city wide network of truck routes that will eventually overlay with the bike plan to ensure safety for all modes of transportation.

2) Chair’s Report. Chair Tom Compson gave the Chair’s Report:

• It’s election season and there are various candidates. Do your homework because it’s important to find the people with your interest and values.

3) Approval of July Minutes.

Motion: VanDusen Second: McReynolds Vote: Unanimous

4) Public Comment:

a) Ed Pettit – Thank you to the East Downtown Management District for the work that they did on their section of the Columbia Tap Trail. They put up new crossing lights, benches, trash bins and stop signs for vehicle traffic (Walker to Ennis Street). We have been advocating for this for years, but the problem is that it made the injustice even worse because you now have a clear ROW for pedestrians and bicyclists, but you get to McKinney and then the cars don’t have to stop for you anymore. The rest of the trail (4 miles) does not have stop signs.

b) Kristina – Vision Zero dashboard. There was a meeting with the social riders where they heard from them. Feedback is that they would like to see near misses placed somewhere on the dashboard.

c) Simon – Houston Bike Plan network map, the published date at the top which is static doesn't seem to reflect updates being made to the map layers. So, I recommend that that static title be removed or made dynamic to reflect when the data is updated. In January the proposed bikeways on Montrose Blvd was removed from the GIS layers; also there are data issues, they’re either inaccurate or old. Would like the BAC to put in a line on the type of bike lane they would like to see on Montrose Blvd plan.

d) Robert - Safety netting being put up at bike paths without any sort of reflectors or lights. Specifically on the south end of the Columbia tap trail.

5) Brief hold for an updated BAC photo

6) Pat Walsh Memorial Bikeway Presentation: Lindsey Aldrich, and Kevin Strickland

Approval to Recommend the Consideration of the Pat Walsh Bike Trail to the Mayor’s Office.

Motion: Holzer Second: Perez Vote: Unanimous

Approval to Submit a Letter of Support to the Mayor’s Office on the Pat Walsh

Motion: Chambers Second: Wiggins Vote: Unanimous

7) Bikeway Fatalities and Serious Injuries: End of the Year Report and Year to Date Report. Brandon Mosley presented for Commander Kristine Anthony Miller who has retired.

1. 2023 Fatality Report (as of Mon, 10/16/23):

o 12 bicycle fatalities, and 1 e-bike fatalities: 3 daytime, 9 nighttime

o Of the three, 3 vehicles were failure to stop and render aid, including the e-bike fatalities. Of those 1, one driver has been arrested and charged. 

2. As of 10/16/23:

o 357 YTD total crashes involving bicyclists.

o Areas such as Downtown, Central, North, Northeast, South, Central, Clear Lake, Southwest have the highest number of crashes over 20, as well as having at least one fatal crash.

o One intersection has had more than one crash. There were two crashes at Antoine and Victory, one minor/no injury, and one major/injury. They didn't seem to have any design or infrastructure issues and there were conflicting statements on who was at fault.

o The fatalities list. The last time we reported this, in July, we didn't have a number for the cyclists that passed away on June 15th, but that's he has been identified as Jose Pineda, Gregory Maduzia and Cruz Mata.

8) Quarterly Updates. Misty Staunton presented.

Ongoing bikeway projects and initiatives updates.

• Bikeways (notable updates)

o City of Houston

a. Commerce Street (St. Charles to Velasco) – Currently 90% in the design phase; HPW is designing as part of an asphalt mill and overlay project. The rail tracks will be removed.

b. North Main (Cottage to Airline) Currently 90% in the design phase; City Council approved funding on Oct 11 of last year, most recently held a public meeting on Aug 2 and the design is expected to be completed in the Fall and construction to begin

c. Polk Street (Cullen to S Lockwood Dr) – Currently in construction and expected to be finish in 2023 – Public Works is installing a facility with a mountain able curb barrier – to maintain heavy trash pickup as part of an asphalt mill and overlay project.

o Precinct 1

a. Blodgett/Tierwester (TSU Phase II) – It’s 95% complete on Blodgett.

b. W. Mount Houston (W. Montgomery to TC Jester) – Substantial completion for construction has been made.

c. Trail to Keegans Bayou and Deussen Parkway is complete.

o Precinct 2

a. Kowis St. (Aldine) – Substantially complete on construction, envision certification upcoming ribbon cutting on Jan 2024

b. Fairmont Pkwy Trail Phase I (Pasadena) – Design is complete, and construction is in progress. Contractor NTP Sept 2023

c. Lauder Basin Trail (Aldine) – consisting in 1.3 miles is in design progress.

d. Greens To Halls Trail (Aldine) consisting in 1 mile is in design progress.

e. Battleground Trail in partnership with the City of Deer Park and consisting of 1.6 miles is in design progress.

f. Bay Area Bike-Ped Plan - which is a partnership with the HGAC is in design progress.

g. South Belt Basin Trail is currently in partnership with Clear Brook City MUD and consists of 1 mile.

o Houston Parks Board

a. No updates submitted for October reporting.

o TxDOT

a. Highway 3 (Richey St. to FM 518): 14 miles; is complete.

o METRO

a. McGowen Bikeway NTP issued, and construction started in

o TIRZ 5

a. W Dallas (Tirrell to Dunlavy) – Bike lanes from Tirrell to Dunlavy are in, and there will be an improvement to add separation after the development which will take approx. 2 years. They are not installing separation at this time because it will be damaged during construction.

o TIRZ 15

a. Walker (Emancipation to St Emanuel) completed this design and is currently in progress on construction.

9) No Parking in the Bike Lane Updates Brian Smith presented (as of 10/03/2023)

o 213 citations issued (+6)

o $15,650 collected (+$3,130)

o 27 completed trainings (+5)

o 3 new locations added since July 2023’s reporting

o Top 3 locations: 9100 Galveston Rd (38); 2300 Polk (32); 900 Bagby St. (24)

o There were three new locations: 6400 Lawndale (2); 1000 Gray St (1); 5200Lawndale (1)

10) Procedures and Ethic Training: Kim Mickelson, Legal Department 

11) Bikeways Biennial Report (No presentation; copy distributed to the BAC)

12) Open Forum

• Space City Sweeper has been in the shop a lot and there are issues on the maintenance. There is a need to get better sweepers and we need to look at what are next steps are.

• Shoutout to HPW for the manual maintenance a week ago on Waugh Drive • Report to 311 on any clogged bike lanes. Would like updates at BAC on which streets have been swept.

• We are now at 13 bicycle fatalities and have 2+ months left to the year. This doesn’t county Matthew Levina who was killed on White Oak Bayou Trail by netting It's really 14, maybe 15 and more perhaps, from those that haven't yet been reported. World Day of Remembrance is coming up and I'm glad to see the city is sponsoring that, but we must do more than just remember these victims.

13) Announcements

o Bay Area Bike Ped Safety Plan:

a. Wants your feedback; you can visit the website to give ideas via the community survey and interactive map

o Texas Stateside Active Transportation Plan:

a. Public meeting: Nov 7 at the GRB from 4:30-6:30

o Biketober:

a. One week left; you can still sign up and earn points to win prizes.

o Vision Zero:

a. Crash dashboard is updated with Q3 crash data

o Next BAC meetings:

a. Infrastructure Subcommittee: November 15, 2:30-4:30pm; John B. Raia Conference Room/Microsoft Teams

b. Education Subcommittee: December 20, 2:30-4:30pm; John B. Raia Conference Room/Microsoft Teams

c. Bicycle Advisory Committee: January 24, 2:30-4:30pm: Council Chambers/Microsoft Teams

Meeting Adjourned at 4:44pm.

https://houstonbikeplan.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/BAC-Minutes_Oct-25-2023.pdf