Barry Reese, a noted Houston cyclist and advocate for safe streets, has filed a Federal lawsuit against the Texas
Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) over the recent removal of bike lanes on West Dallas
Street near downtown Houston. Some two miles of bike lanes were unceremoniously removed from West Dallas by the Texas Department of Transportation after motorists complained about poor traffic management in connection with TxDOT's ongoing construction on the I-45 freeway near downtown Houston.

The bike lanes, extending from downtown to Shepherd, were installed as part of the City of Houston's commitment to clean up its air quality under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) transportation funding program of the USDOT. Houston has more ozone exceedance days than any other city in the country, and is overrun with cars.

According to Barry Reese, the lawsuit was filed out of a concern for safety, clean air and government waste: “The bike lanes are needed to improve conditions for the safety of bicyclists and encourage bicycling as a healthy, clean alternative to the car. I'm particularly concerned that tax dollars intended to clean up Houston's air and make streets safer for everyone may have been used instead to remove bike lanes and signs and compromise the safety of West Dallas. Is it any wonder we're the “Smog capital” and the “Fat capital” here in Houston?”

Under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) , Congress included several provisions protecting bicyclist access to safe transportation facilities. “It's illegal to use federal-aid highway monies to sever a major bicycling route without providing an alternate route like a detour, or to fail to consider the safety needs and routes of bicyclists in roadway projects. Removal of the West Dallas bike lanes did just that,” said Dan Lundeen, Mr. Reese's attorney.

Initial complaints from cyclists resulted in the USDOT taking the position that the Buffalo Bayou Trail was a suitable alternate route for cyclists.

But the Buffalo Bayou Trails have also been closed from the I-45 construction, and USDOT has changed their tune. “Now they are saying 'it's only temporary' and that the bike lanes will be replaced when the I-45 construction is completed. But if it's so temporary, why did they remove all of the bike route signs instead of just covering them up?” said Reese.

“Even if they are just temporarily removed, the provisions of TEA-21 do not make any distinction between the severance of bike routes that are temporary and those that are permanent. If TxDOT could arbitrarily take out bike lanes without any consideration for the interim safety needs of bicyclists, there would never ever be a contiguous bike route system in Houston. There is always road work going on in Houston, it's a symptom of constantly having to fix a car-based transportation system that doesn't work very well,” said Lundeen. “I would recommend that any cyclists, pedestrians or even motorists, who have been injured on streets deliberately made unsafe like West Dallas should seek legal advice. And West Dallas goes right through the Fourth Ward and Allen Parkway Village. Low income or minority residents who live near West Dallas, many of whom cannot afford to drive cars, should be consulting with a civil rights attorney,” said Lundeen. “It's just not right that the safety and quality of life of one group of citizens should be sacrificed for the mere convenience of the affluent using Federal tax dollars intended to clean up the air.”