In Phase 1 of its mass transit plan, METRO replaced Main Street’s bus lanes with light rail transit (LRT) in the middle. Central Houston enhanced the project with fountains, flowers and brick sidewalks downtown. Unfortunately the sidewalks in Midtown were constructed too narrow.

METRO recently conducted public open house meetings unveiling aerial maps, artist sketches and cross sections for 5 new corridors in Phase 2; 1) North, East End, 3) Southeast, 4) University Line and 5) Uptown. One of METRO’s criteria is to maintain the current number of traffic lanes. With limited ROW, METRO will need to acquire ROW or reduce the width of sidewalks and eliminate bike lanes where they exist.

When METRO builds guideway rapid transit (GRT) or LRT in a street, I believe that they should reduce the number of lanes and reconstruct the street with wider sidewalks and a wider curb lane to safely accommodate pedestrians and cyclists. The number of pedestrians will increase and cyclists will want to ride within view of the vehicle to get to the next station if they are boarding with their bikes. Let the cars move over a block and build an appropriate place that will encourage walking and cycling so that new businesses will open along the sidewalks and existing businesses can benefit from more customers.

The requirement for a pedestrian and bicycle friendly street can be addressed in the City's consent agreement with METRO. The City will essentially deed over the roadway to METRO for transit use with the agreement. Once passed by City Council, METRO will pick a turnkey contractor to design, construct, operate and maintain the transit system. This may be as early as December 2006 when METRO is 30% complete with engineering. The agreement is for all five corridors to be handled by a single joint venture of companies at one time. We have to get it right the first time or the contractor will not include our concerns without coming back to the City or METRO for additional compensation.

The City is interested in obtaining the community’s vision of the five urban corridors and will host a public workshop Saturday August 19 at the Reliant Center. The Planning and Development Department will be sending out notices and BikeHouston will keep you up to date on meeting times and locations. Let's make sure that the word gets out so that we create rather than lose pedestrian, bicycle and transit friendly neighborhoods.