The soon-to-be start of the very-long-awaited construction of the first on-street segments was portended today (June 23, 1999) when the City of Houston announced it had passed a council resolution approving construction funding for the letting of the projects.

The projects just approved for letting include $7,481,300 for 106.84 miles of on-street improvements (bike lanes and signed bike routes) in the Central Business District (CBD) and the Texas Medical Center (TMC)/Greenway Plaza/Galleria Area, and $1,620,568 for the 2.7 mile Harrisburg and Sunset Rails-to-Trails 10-foot-wide multi-use trail on the east side of downtown Houston. These are in addition to the White Oak Bayou and Herman Brown Park trails which saw construction start earlier this spring. These projects are part of the Houston Bikeway Program which has been awarded CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality) and transportation enhancement (TE) funding totaling more than $43 million and including roughly 165 miles of signed bike routes, 125 miles of striped bike lanes and 70 miles of multi-use trails in an interconnecting grid connecting most of Houston. The advertising for the contracts could occur as early as July 6.

The Houston Comprehensive Bikeway Plan calling for the ultimate construction of more than 1000 miles of bike facilities was unanimously approved byHouston City Council in 1993. CMAQ/TE funding was approved in 1994 ($37 million) and 1996 ($9 million) for the first 360 miles. Wrangling between governmental agencies and departments stalled the start of construction for years. Even the recent vote by the City was not without its detractors. The vote had already been delayed a week by Councilmember Yarbrough, and then Councilmember Bruce Tatro introduced a motion to delay the final funding approval yet again. Fortunately, Tatro's motion was narrowly defeated by the supporters of Mayor Lee Brown and Councilmembers Boney and Castillo who spoke out strongly against further delays.

ISTEA funding will supply federal transportation funds to pay for 80% of the construction costs and the City of Houston and the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County will pick up the 20% local match funding. In a bizarre turn of events that characterizes the interagency squabbling, Metro will pay most of the local match for the bike facilities that are NOT on their bus routes. Rather than fund improvements along the bus routes to make the cyclists riding there safer, or even just simply training its bus operators how to drive safely around bicycloists, Metro apparently wants to discourage bike riding along Metro bus routes by making it as dangerous for the cyclist as possible. (In previously published articles, the Houston Area Bicyclist Alliance has noted that the average speed of a cyclist and a bus making stops are about the same, and that other jurisdictions like Chicago even have shared bike and bus lanes.) Since it is virtually impossible to get anywhere in Houston on a bike without using a bus route, it is fortunate indeed that the City of Houston has agreed to provide the full local match for the sorely needed facilities along Metro bus routes.

In a similar vein, TXDOT Austin threatened to refuse design exceptions to their strict interpretation of the AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycling Facilities requested by the City of Houston for some of the routes. The AASHTO Guide calls for travel lanes "wider than 12 feet" and an optimum width of 14 feet. TXDOT Austin interpreted this to mean that a street had to be at least 28 feet wide for a bike facility. The City wanted to use some quiet neighborhood streets that are only 24-27 feet wide, and was supported by the local TXDOT office, the Houston Area Bicyclist Alliance and the Houston Bicycle Advisory Committee, as well as other bicycle pedestrian coordinators in other Texas cities who were concerned about the ramifications that their own bike route signing programs were somehow substandard. Cycling advocates pointed out that cyclists already have a right to use any street in Texas (except signed controlled access freeways), and already used the proposed routes anyway; and the width of the street would only affect where the cyclist would ride, staying to the right on wide streets and 'taking the lane' on narrow streets under the appropriate circumstances. It made more sense to make these natural neighborhood cycling routes safer by signing them than to not improve them at all. Ultimately, TXDOT Austin agreed to let the City use the neighborhood streets.

The really big push to get going on the bike projects now comes as the result of including the bikeway projects in the Houston-Galveston Area Council's State Air Quality Implementation Plan as Transportation Control Measures. Under EPA guidelines, the region risks losing ALL federal transportation funding, not just the bikeway funding, if at least 70% of the bikeway project miles are not let for bidding by November 1999.

The July lettings are for the North and East Segments of the TMC/Greenway Plaza/Galleria facilities comprising the areas bounded by Chimney Rock/Wirt Road/North Post Oak/Westview/Memorial Drive and Yorktown/Calhoun/IH 610 South Loop/Buffalo Bayou, respectively; and the North and South Segments of the CBD facilties comprising the areas bounded by North Post Oak/Homestead Road/IH 610 North Loop/IH 10 and Westcott/Evergreen/IH 10/Brays Bayou, respectively. The Harrisburg-Sunset Trail will run from Drennan to Marsden Streets and from Avenue H to Hidalgo Park, and includes on-street segments from Commerce/McKee to Commerce/Drennan and from Garrow/Marsden to Avenue H/West Hendrick.

For additional information contact Dan Lundeen, President, Houston Area Bicyclist Alliance, 713.840.8008 website www.bikehouston.org; Regina Garcia, Chair, Houston Bicycle Advisory Committee, 713.522.9312 (c/o El Meson Restaurant); Mignette Dorsey, City of Houston Bicycle-Pedestrian Coordinator, 713.837.0003; Don Payne, Office of the Mayor, City of Houston, 713.247.2079. This release is solely the responsibility of the Houston Area Bicyclist Alliance and is not sponsored by or affiliated with the City of Houston, the Houston Bicycle Advisory Committee, TXDOT, HGAC or Metro.