Name: Houston testing whether signs make East End streets friendlier to cyclists, pedestrians
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Houston testing whether signs make East End streets friendlier to cyclists, pedestrians

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateTaking a page from some other cities, Houston officials are slowing traffic along about a mile of East End streets in a test to see if they can curtail zip-through drivers and offer a safe route for bicyclists and pedestrians.Houston Public Works crews on Wednesday installed six temporary signs along McKinney and Dumble, near Eastwood Park, alerting drivers that the street is for local traffic only. The plan is to keep the signs in the street until Labor Day, said David Fields, chief transportation planner for the city.It is the first time the city has experimented with temporarily slowing a segment of street to alter its use.“We’re doing this with resources we already have to see how it works,” Fields said. “It is not costing anybody anything. If it works well, and the community is in favor of it, we would figure out what this would look like long-term.”Fields said officials want to see if the signs can solve two problems at once. McKinney and Dumble suffer from a lot of through-traffic according to residents, as people try to find a shortcut to busier nearby streets, such as Harrisburg, Polk and Lockwood. If the city can steer most of that thru-traffic back to the major thoroughfares then, McKinney and Dumble return to the residential streets they were intended to be.PIERCE ELIMINATED:That return to local use could make the street more appealing and safer for bicyclists, people walking with strollers and pedestrians passing through where areas with uneven or dilapidated sidewalks.Demand on streets as places where people exercise or travel short distances by bike has increased during the COVID-19 shutdown, leading some to clamor for the city to provide room on certain roadways for non-automobile use.Back in March, city officials resisted calls for closing off streets, saying that ran counter to calls for people to keep their distance from each other during the pandemic.As traffic continued to remain low, and as some workplaces reopened, Fields said planners “took a step back and said ‘what is going on in the city that we should be noticing?’” That early analysis centered on finding places where traffic could be slowed and assessed.Working with District I Councilman Robert Gallegos’ office and neighborhood groups, Public Works and city planners narrowed their gaze to the current pilot along McKinney from Milby to Dumble and along Dumble from Polk to Harrisburg.Shortly after crews set up the signs urging drivers to take their foot off the gas, however, some residents were second-guessing the choice. Steve Troy, 68, who lives a block off McKinney, said most pedestrians would prefer sidewalks to sharing a slower street. He said while he does not find traffic troublesome on McKinney, officials could focus on Park Drive, one block south, which has a wide median and used more by local cyclists.“If you slowed it over there, people would use it more,” Troy said. “People out walking, they are all using the sidewalks, so why put them in the street?”TOP TRANSPO PLANNER:Other residents applauded the decision, saying McKinney, in particular, can use some calming. Raquel Hanson, 46, who lives near Lockwood along McKinney, said her family often hears “screeching near misses” as drivers dash along both streets.Recently, she said, she heard the inevitable noise of a crash at the intersection.“We knew it’d happen eventually,” she said.Hanson said the signs are a good first step, but returning the street permanently to a calm residential road will take permanent fixes, such as speed bumps.Houston officials have used different techniques to slow traffic or make spots more appealing for cyclists and pedestrians, such as , adding street parking or dedicated space for bicycle lanes, such as the new bike lane along Gray in Midtown and .Even more modest repair would be required to make it bike-friendly, Hanson said.“Just the street condition makes it hard,” Hanson said, both for cyclists and people pushing strollers.Fields said Houston is moving cautiously on the idea, noting the pilot is intended to see where efforts can do the most good and how those fit into road maintenance and construction plans. As of now, he said, officials do not know where signs could be placed to test other streets for slow-streets projects, or even when pilots could develop into permanent changes.“We don’t have a good gauge yet, so we wanted to start small and reasonable,” Fields said.dug.begley@chron.com

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateTaking a page from some other cities, Houston officials are slowing traffic along about a mile of East End streets in a test to see if they can curtail zip-through drivers and offer a safe route for bicyclists and pedestrians.Houston Public Works crews on Wednesday installed six temporary signs along McKinney and Dumble, near Eastwood Park, alerting drivers that the street is for local traffic only. The plan is to keep the signs in the street until Labor Day, said David Fields, chief transportation planner for the city.It is the...

Houston testing whether signs make East End streets friendlier to cyclists, pedestrians

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