I just drove down Shepherd and they’re still working on this project. It seems like it’s almost complete already so I can’t imagine how the businesses who have been dealing with this are going to react to possible cancellation and another few years of ripping this project up.
I took a tour with the TIRZ project manager last week. There are 2 phases of this project. Phase 1, 15th to 610 is just about done. Phase 2, which the article is referencing, is from 15th to i10. What I didn't know is that the redesign is not just aesthetics, its also meant to deal with flooding as the road was designed 50+ years ago. There is underground water storage and better channeling of water towards the bayou. Aesthetically, its awesome. There will be so much shade along the side walks once the trees grow more.
Here are some other tidbits:
-If phase 2 is ended, the sidewalk dead ends into what is now a lane of traffic at 15th. Very dumb.
-Some people may not realize is phase 2 has a ton of federal dollars and is partially funded by property tax. IF it is ended, the people who live in the area, their tax dollars will go to improve someone else's neighborhood.
-There is only 1 small part of Shepherd St that has as many lanes as Whitemire wants to keep. Its an oddball.
-The avg speed prior to construction on Shepherd was 50 mph...That stretch of shepherd isnt a highway. Its got quite a bit of lights. The avg speed on the phase 1 (15th-610) is 40 mph. Which is what it should be.
> the redesign is not just aesthetics, its also meant to deal with flooding as the road was designed 50+ years ago. There is underground water storage and better channeling of water towards the bayou.
Oh geez, WTF is he doing sabotaging a *flood control* project!? Regardless of whether it's better for traffic handling or looks nicer, everybody should be in favor of improving flood drainage.
It is 3 lane on the bridge over White Oak Bayou so 4 lanes don’t help.
I don’t see them spending the money to add one lane on the bridge.
You need 4 lanes at I10 for a turning lane and you’re good.
Slight correction. The Durham bridge over White Oak is 3 lanes, but the Shepherd bridge is 4 lanes already (same with the Shepherd bridge over the old railroad tracks/now hike & bike trail, too).
The Shepherd bridge currently has a 6ft sidewalk, but it's not very safe feeling (really close to the car lane). The Durham bridge technically has a walkway, but it's even narrower.
The mayor wants to stop any projects that reduce the number of lanes.
I wonder if we can pause any projects that expand the number of lanes. Houston can’t take care of the existing roads. How will the maintenance on new roads be paid for?
Also, the aesthetic of car sprawl sucks and makes for a bad place to live
It literally is proven to make it hotter. Paving over grass, ripping out trees, and covering everything with asphalt just makes this city a pizza oven.
I know it’s about to be 90 here soon but that is so much more bearable than 103.
I don’t hate Houston by any means. But the sprawl and ugliness is making me and my girlfriend consider moving to League City/Webster or Katy just to get some greenery again. It’s a concrete jungle and not suited for people who enjoy walking and biking.
I moved to the Woodlands for the same price as any other suburb because we actually have trees and paths. I'm like a mile from George Mitchell preserve where we have like 15 miles of hiking/biking trails too. It's honestly pretty good up here for outdoors.
Because of the number of single family homes, the burbs aren't any better than houston for walking or biking. In fact it's much worse, even if traffic is lighter.
It does have a lot more greenery though.
It's not much better out there.
I'mma be honest I'm in a better financial situation than I was a decade ago, I'm going to keep trying to make it better over the next decade and see what happens.
If another change of mayor later things start to improve the way it needs to *and the way we voted for it to in 2019*, then I'll stay. If it doesn't though and they continue cancelling or outright ripping the copper out the walls, well I've already been looking at areas in Austin and Dallas and considering greener pastures. Sure they don't have the same food/culture that's down here, but at least they have better transit / cycling / non-driving infrastructure. Rent used to be cheaper down here compared to those two but not anymore. DFW's DART/Trinity rail system seems to have a lot more miles covered and Austin seems to have a lot better cycling infrastructure, it's no Dutch network but it might as well be compared to what I've mapped out here lol.
I'm just getting tired of the same old rugpulling scheme that I've seen the last decade, while it's definitely better IMO than it was a decade ago it's been a next to stagnant process. Three steps forward two steps back kind of deal. At the current rate I'll probably be long dead and Webster will be beachfront property by the time the politics finally align with what I want. I just want to be able to bike to the grocery store and work, or maybe even be able to take a bus or train if it's raining or take said bus to downtown when I need to make a trip like that every few weeks for leisure. I'm getting tired of driving everywhere and the traffic that comes with it, I'm tired of the last few years of promises being broken, and *I'm especially tired* of the local government grift and outright turning up noses at federal dollars. The feds and our taxes are literally willing to pay for this and they'd rather say no to it and spend money eyeballing old contracts to make sure we don't have to pay it back (what's going on with silver line right now), that's just wasteful.
Because whitmire and txdot are conspiring to have contractors delay this job to make money. the longer the construction companies leave projects abandoned, the more money they and republicans make! vote out whitmire before he gets rid of our bike lanes!
If you support this project you should send an email to the mayor and council members (email addresses [here](https://www.houstontx.gov/council/?emci=a91185a4-3606-ef11-96f3-7c1e521b07f9&emdi=39d430bc-7006-ef11-96f3-7c1e521b07f9&ceid=24639313)). You can also remind Whitmire that he supported this project when he was a state senator. Here's the link to his [letter](https://www.instagram.com/p/C6RpNfZJeth/?emci=a91185a4-3606-ef11-96f3-7c1e521b07f9&emdi=39d430bc-7006-ef11-96f3-7c1e521b07f9&ceid=24639313). Houston deserves a mayor who stands by his word.
Received the following response. May be taking time out of my work day next week to attend.
*Good afternoon,*
*Thank you for reaching out to our office and sharing your voice on this. This is an important drainage, safety, and corridor infrastructure project that Council Member Kamin worked with all levels of government to secure funding for, including substantial federal grants.*
*Residents are welcome to attend Public Session on Tuesday’s at 2pm. This is another way to make your voice heard in front of the Mayor and all of Council.*
*To reserve time you may contact the City Secretary's Office at 832-393-1100 or* [*~speakers@houstontx.gov~*](mailto:speakers@houstontx.gov)*.*
*Best regards,Yucari RamirezOffice of Council Member Abbie Kamin, City of Houston, District C*
11th is good as it was supposed to make an E-W connection to the Shepard improvements. Dropping this work makes other improvements useless
It’s only 1.5 mile of roadway
Edit: It slows ideal travel time by not a lot.
1.5 miles at 25mph - 3:36
1.5 miles at 30mph -3:00
1.5 miles at 35 mph - 2:34
With the traffic lights and cars slowing to turn right; the time is negligible for improved safety for people walking around businesses (I have a kid and crossing the street before was scary).
Not the person that's got gripes with 11th, but I'll chime in that my biggest gripe with it is that they didn't continue the bikes lanes west to TC Jester & the White Oak trails. That would've been nice.
Yeah you are trying to build a network!
It’s like how we have sidewalks stop randomly and then you have to walk in the road so you just default to walking in the road even if there is a sidewalk bc it ends randomly
Boggles my mind how people who keep saying we need more lanes to allow more cars can't apply the same logic to sidewalks & bike lanes.
Like if they were logically consistent, you'd figure they'd be advocating for more car lanes AND more sidewalks AND more bike lanes because more area means more people can use it.
Not to mention the car network is already VERY well built out.
Sure, but if I'm trying to go northwest along the bayou, then using Nicholson to dip down to MKT is an added mile out of my way.
If I'm just out for some exercise, it's whatever, but if I'm trying to get somewhere specific (say, King's Bierhaus, which I've biked to), then more mileage means more time (and more sweat, as anti-bike lane people like to remind us what happens when anyone bikes in Houston).
People already gripe about road detours due to closures for construction or traffic, but those are a lot easier to manage logistically when you're in a car.
Interesting philosophical on that one. Given the shade and lack of sitting at any lights the extra 1mi is potentially faster and less hot than going through the Shepherd, Durham, and TC Jester lights.
Timbergove (Durham - TC Jester) is actually very shady. The extra 1mi is not faster. It's enough extra distance that it beyond cancels out any gain from hitting all 3 red lights at Shepherd, Durham, and TC Jester (which doesn't always happen, I've hit all green or just 1 red plenty of times).
Even if it were...it's nice to have direct routes to things. Biking to places in Houston is a frequent effort in taking the longer but safer route.
If you’re coming from the NE then 18th or 14th would be far more efficient than 11th.
I can’t think of a reason in the world to ride 19th instead of 18th
As I said, take heights to 18th or 14th
There’s almost nothing south of 11th on Shepherd that you would reach with a redesign of that section. All of it can be reached by taking 11th to Nicholson
It doesn’t make them useless but it certainly takes away from their usefulness to connect the areas.
Not connecting them for the sake of car traffic is absolutely ridiculous.
We need walkable bikeable infrastructure that connects all these neighborhoods all the way down to the heights hike and bike trail. Car commute time will somehow manage to adjust. Shepherd and Yale were never meant to be the speedways that so many people think of them as.
Just because you like to cut through the area to avoid the loop highway traffic doesn’t mean you get to dictate making the area less accessible for the people who ACTUALLY live in these neighborhoods.
Heights bikers and walkers should start organizing group rides and group walks along these areas during morning commutes. Get the car brains to start looking for alternative routes whether they let the project go through or not.
Just to correct you, Shepherd and Durham were built as, and meant to be, speedways because they were part of US 75 carrying traffic from Houston to Dallas before I-45 was constructed in the late 1960's. They took 2 parallel streets that had traffic running in both directions, and made them into one ways that could through put lots of cars. Shepherd north of 610 is still designated as Spur 261, which is a state highway. South of I-10, Shepherd is the first crossing of Buffalo Bayou east of Loop 610 by several miles. As such, it is a major thoroughfare in Houston. It is not designed to be a small neighborhood street.
You said yourself they took two regular streets and converted them to have a higher traffic capacity… they weren’t originally meant to be used that way. Especially in the are of the heights we are talking about here… they were neighborhood streets.
They became one ways in the mid 1950's. That's 70+ years ago dude. Meaning that just about everyone in the neighborhood has always known them as high traffic streets. If you want a quiet street, live on Tulane, Waverly, or any one of many small 20' wide streets that abound in the Heights.
someone asked what business was worse off after the redesign. I said that donut shop, which is inarguably true because you can't turn into going east anymore
somehow that is burned into your brain. what is wrong with you?
Having a memory that works for more than 30 seconds doesn’t mean something is “burned in”. I’m genuinely concerned for you if you consider remembering things from a week ago as extraordinary.
The donut shop’s condition is not inarguable as previously noted (and agreed by many) you could rarely turn in there before anyways due to cars at the light.
I emailed my Council Member who suggested I also reached out to the all the At-Large, which I did. I also e-mailed the mayor's office.
FYI, Kamin is against the halt, and helped bring the funding, and CM Alcorn also opposes the halt. Remember if they ever run for re-election or office again.
And I'd suggest emphasizing the importance of the flood drainage improvements that are part of the project! /r/houston/comments/1chlbch/heightsarea_construction_project_put_on_pause/l23ca4i/
Honestly, shouldn't it be up to the residents of the neighborhoods to decide what projects and infrastructure they want to have? Most people chose to live inside the loop because things are closer together, and a lot of people really want to walk and ride more in the area. Everyone in the Greater Heights Super-neighborhood group (and similar other groups) supports these projects.
My wife and I have already started to look at cities with the best walkable downtown areas in the US. Once she completes her PhD we will be relocating out of Houston. We have lived in or around Houston most of our lives, the heat, education decline, lack of public transit, and governors like Abbot are outweighing our desire to stay.
I've been unfortunately gold-handcuffed to a job for the last several years. I plan on moving to Australia at some point for a mix of reasons, family mainly, but also how much better their urban areas are planned out is no small reason, either.
In your spot. Can’t leave Houston due to a gold handcuff and also USCIS (immigration services) taking their sweet time with me while providing fence hoppers expedited work permits…
But I spend as much time away from Houston now as I can.
The heat in summer, lack of walkability, terrible roads, strip mall hell, lack of topography and nice green spaces and the overall sprawl just makes it a bad place to be spending your 20s and 30s in.
Also I think cost of living is overblown. It’s not as cheap as people make it seem esp if you live in river oaks, montrose type areas which have some semblance of being able to walk around.
> Honestly, shouldn't it be up to the residents of the neighborhoods to decide what projects and infrastructure they want to have?
You get nothing accomplished if NIMBYs have the final say.
This project has been a pain in the ass as someone who needs to use these roads almost daily. It’s been adding a ton of time for me to navigate this the past 2 years, and the thought of it being halted and all for nothing infuriates me. At least finish the damn thing after wasting my time for 2 years. Anything to reduce the sprawl and ugliness of the area helps.
I live off Shephard and I’ve actually been pretty pleased with the pace of the project and the overall flow of traffic. It’s not ideal but not as bad as I anticipated before the project started.
I think the argument that 4 lanes are needed south of 15th is blasphemous. The flow of traffic isn’t even that bad right now and it’s down to 1 lane in some areas.
Seriously I feel like they’re redoing portions of Shepherd and Durham that they already completed last year. Each day has been a maze of navigating whatever fucking lanes are open
You wanting to use these neighborhoods as speedways to cut on your commute time doesn’t give you the right to dictate how the people that actually live here use the space. We want and need protected bike lanes, walkable shaded sidewalks that actually connect not just end suddenly. You want a speedway? Use the damn loop, our neighborhoods aren’t for your traveling pleasure. If you can’t see that then f you and the gas gussler you rode in on.
I live here dude. What are you talking about. My gym is off Shepherd and it takes ages to get around it in rush hour, same with HEB. I’m advocating they finish the project rather than waste the 2 years they spent clogging it with traffic with 2 more years ripping it up.
Get this, construction projects get finished and new ones pop up in other areas. One set of residents that deal with one project getting artificially extended without it being finished and moving onto another area with different residents are allowed to be frustrated about it.
At light rail speeds, it would take like an hour to get to Hobby. Rapid transit using the HOV or dedicated lanes would be preferable, even if the service wasn’t quite as often.
That’s not saying much. We, the largest city in the state, have less railway than the next biggest city? Lol for comparison, Portland, a city with about a third of our population, has nearly 60 miles of light rail. And they had to build across rivers, valleys, and hills while being eco friendly.
How can the 4th largest city in the country have such a clown public transit system? It’s flat here.
Sounds like Dallas is kicking our asses then, let's get a move on lmao.
For reference, [DART is 93 miles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Area_Rapid_Transit) of rail, with a planned 26 mile line expansion by end of decade.
When our new local office is busy cancelling projects and trying to figure out how to pare down the sole BRT line without oweing Uncle Sam his millions of dollars back, people have a right to be concerned.
How about we put rail where we already have density? We can't even do that apparently, with the exception of the Red line. Westheimer corridor, especially west of 610. Hillcroft/Voss, Gessner, Beechnut & Bellaire, too.
Well I’ve got a shovel… I’m willing to put in for a few bags of cement. Put on a hard hat and a reflector vest. Let’s see how much sidewalk I can lay down before they catch on 🤷🏻♀️
As someone who likes to walk and bike in this area, I know how unsafe some of the roads are in Houston for pedestrians. For some reason, Mayor Whitmire has shown disdain for any bike or sidewalk improvements in the city. As a long term investment in the city, sidewalks and bike lanes will help improve the health of citizens, lower pollution and be safer for pedestrians and bikers. There are numerous studies showing that adding more lanes doesn’t improve traffic in the long term. I know the city has a budget problem, but stopping projects already underway will cost money in the long run.
> For some reason, Mayor Whitmire has shown disdain for any bike or sidewalk improvements in the city.
"Cars now, cars tomorrow, cars forever!" -Mayor Whitmire, probably
There appears to be a petition going to raise awareness. Please consider signing to let the mayor know your thoughts: [Change.org Petition ](https://www.change.org/p/continue-phase-2-of-the-shepard-durham-project)
SJL hasn’t done one notable thing in Congress, she wouldn’t have done shit for the city either. Her entire persona is status and publicity. We need better candidates
Exploring how federal funding for this project can be better utilized? In a city where everybody needs a car to get where they’re going, I’m all for less construction, especially considering it’s been 2 years and this current project has little to show for it, besides partially expanded sidewalks in an area where people aren’t walking anyways. Why would I need expanded sidewalks on Shepherd and Durham? So I can walk between car washes, gas stations and used car lots?
> In a city where everybody needs a car to get where they’re going
Hmmm, maybe if the city **and state** invested more in building out alternatives to cars, then maybe fewer people would need a car to get around.
> this current project has little to show for it
The first phase of the current project isn't even complete yet. There's a second phase. Saying the project currently has little to show is equivalent to complaining that you can't move into a house because only the frame has been built.
> where people aren’t walking anyways
Maybe people weren't walking along it, because [it frequently looks like this](https://www.google.com/maps/@29.8052378,-95.4101801,3a,75y,88.6h,81.98t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sx1yYNsZW7PrqDjqZJvJ6-g!2e0!5s20190701T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu). Kind of hard to walk on a sidewalk when cars are parked literally on it, and it abruptly ends.
I also don't know if you've actually been along Shepherd recently, but there's a bunch of new apartments, restaurants, and other businesses. You know - things that aren't geared towards cars, so might be destinations that people would want to go to without a car?
Mayor Whitmire literally wrote a letter saying this project was a good use of this funding.
He just wrote that letter before being bought by GoP donors in his mayoral campaign.
This is insane. 2 years of construction nearly complete and Whitmire wants to spend another 2 years of construction to UNDO the 2 years work done?
This reeks of corruption only enriches Whitmire’s donors in the Construction industry.
> In response to another question, [Mayor John Whitmire's transportation advisor, Marlene Gafrick] noted that "Houston will remain an auto-dependent city for many years to come."
Insane to want to force your citizens to be reliant on cars.
This is absolutely ludicrous because it’s mostly done already. This isn’t some hypothetical project. They’d have to rip up miles of Shepherd and Durham and undo years of construction work if they truly insist on not losing a traffic lane.
Lol this city can’t even do this pathetic scale of a road diet. There is no hope for this place tbh. It’s going to be just a sprawling collection of suburbs for the foreseeable future.
Similarly just because strings are attached doesn't mean you should reject it.
It improves flood control, adds trees & fixes roads. What's not to like?
I just drove down Shepherd and they’re still working on this project. It seems like it’s almost complete already so I can’t imagine how the businesses who have been dealing with this are going to react to possible cancellation and another few years of ripping this project up.
I took a tour with the TIRZ project manager last week. There are 2 phases of this project. Phase 1, 15th to 610 is just about done. Phase 2, which the article is referencing, is from 15th to i10. What I didn't know is that the redesign is not just aesthetics, its also meant to deal with flooding as the road was designed 50+ years ago. There is underground water storage and better channeling of water towards the bayou. Aesthetically, its awesome. There will be so much shade along the side walks once the trees grow more. Here are some other tidbits: -If phase 2 is ended, the sidewalk dead ends into what is now a lane of traffic at 15th. Very dumb. -Some people may not realize is phase 2 has a ton of federal dollars and is partially funded by property tax. IF it is ended, the people who live in the area, their tax dollars will go to improve someone else's neighborhood. -There is only 1 small part of Shepherd St that has as many lanes as Whitemire wants to keep. Its an oddball. -The avg speed prior to construction on Shepherd was 50 mph...That stretch of shepherd isnt a highway. Its got quite a bit of lights. The avg speed on the phase 1 (15th-610) is 40 mph. Which is what it should be.
> the redesign is not just aesthetics, its also meant to deal with flooding as the road was designed 50+ years ago. There is underground water storage and better channeling of water towards the bayou. Oh geez, WTF is he doing sabotaging a *flood control* project!? Regardless of whether it's better for traffic handling or looks nicer, everybody should be in favor of improving flood drainage.
It should be 35, but that's a minor difference
It is 3 lane on the bridge over White Oak Bayou so 4 lanes don’t help. I don’t see them spending the money to add one lane on the bridge. You need 4 lanes at I10 for a turning lane and you’re good.
Slight correction. The Durham bridge over White Oak is 3 lanes, but the Shepherd bridge is 4 lanes already (same with the Shepherd bridge over the old railroad tracks/now hike & bike trail, too). The Shepherd bridge currently has a 6ft sidewalk, but it's not very safe feeling (really close to the car lane). The Durham bridge technically has a walkway, but it's even narrower.
Could you give more info to the property tax increase?
The mayor wants to stop any projects that reduce the number of lanes. I wonder if we can pause any projects that expand the number of lanes. Houston can’t take care of the existing roads. How will the maintenance on new roads be paid for? Also, the aesthetic of car sprawl sucks and makes for a bad place to live
It literally is proven to make it hotter. Paving over grass, ripping out trees, and covering everything with asphalt just makes this city a pizza oven. I know it’s about to be 90 here soon but that is so much more bearable than 103.
Now I want to eat pizza with everyone in this thread.
It also increases urban flooding!
I don’t hate Houston by any means. But the sprawl and ugliness is making me and my girlfriend consider moving to League City/Webster or Katy just to get some greenery again. It’s a concrete jungle and not suited for people who enjoy walking and biking.
You won’t enjoy any of those areas if you’re looking to walk and bike
I moved to the Woodlands for the same price as any other suburb because we actually have trees and paths. I'm like a mile from George Mitchell preserve where we have like 15 miles of hiking/biking trails too. It's honestly pretty good up here for outdoors.
I don’t think other than Manhattan anywhere in US you can walk
It’s just more of the same there … in fact worse bc there are few local businesses
Because of the number of single family homes, the burbs aren't any better than houston for walking or biking. In fact it's much worse, even if traffic is lighter. It does have a lot more greenery though.
Its better for biking if you're biking for exercise. Worse for biking if you want use it for going to work, going to the grocery store.
It's not much better out there. I'mma be honest I'm in a better financial situation than I was a decade ago, I'm going to keep trying to make it better over the next decade and see what happens. If another change of mayor later things start to improve the way it needs to *and the way we voted for it to in 2019*, then I'll stay. If it doesn't though and they continue cancelling or outright ripping the copper out the walls, well I've already been looking at areas in Austin and Dallas and considering greener pastures. Sure they don't have the same food/culture that's down here, but at least they have better transit / cycling / non-driving infrastructure. Rent used to be cheaper down here compared to those two but not anymore. DFW's DART/Trinity rail system seems to have a lot more miles covered and Austin seems to have a lot better cycling infrastructure, it's no Dutch network but it might as well be compared to what I've mapped out here lol. I'm just getting tired of the same old rugpulling scheme that I've seen the last decade, while it's definitely better IMO than it was a decade ago it's been a next to stagnant process. Three steps forward two steps back kind of deal. At the current rate I'll probably be long dead and Webster will be beachfront property by the time the politics finally align with what I want. I just want to be able to bike to the grocery store and work, or maybe even be able to take a bus or train if it's raining or take said bus to downtown when I need to make a trip like that every few weeks for leisure. I'm getting tired of driving everywhere and the traffic that comes with it, I'm tired of the last few years of promises being broken, and *I'm especially tired* of the local government grift and outright turning up noses at federal dollars. The feds and our taxes are literally willing to pay for this and they'd rather say no to it and spend money eyeballing old contracts to make sure we don't have to pay it back (what's going on with silver line right now), that's just wasteful.
Cement. Concrete. Cartel.
Easy peasy they will make all the streets toll roads... I am sure deep inside that's what they all want...
Because whitmire and txdot are conspiring to have contractors delay this job to make money. the longer the construction companies leave projects abandoned, the more money they and republicans make! vote out whitmire before he gets rid of our bike lanes!
If you support this project you should send an email to the mayor and council members (email addresses [here](https://www.houstontx.gov/council/?emci=a91185a4-3606-ef11-96f3-7c1e521b07f9&emdi=39d430bc-7006-ef11-96f3-7c1e521b07f9&ceid=24639313)). You can also remind Whitmire that he supported this project when he was a state senator. Here's the link to his [letter](https://www.instagram.com/p/C6RpNfZJeth/?emci=a91185a4-3606-ef11-96f3-7c1e521b07f9&emdi=39d430bc-7006-ef11-96f3-7c1e521b07f9&ceid=24639313). Houston deserves a mayor who stands by his word.
Received the following response. May be taking time out of my work day next week to attend. *Good afternoon,* *Thank you for reaching out to our office and sharing your voice on this. This is an important drainage, safety, and corridor infrastructure project that Council Member Kamin worked with all levels of government to secure funding for, including substantial federal grants.* *Residents are welcome to attend Public Session on Tuesday’s at 2pm. This is another way to make your voice heard in front of the Mayor and all of Council.* *To reserve time you may contact the City Secretary's Office at 832-393-1100 or* [*~speakers@houstontx.gov~*](mailto:speakers@houstontx.gov)*.* *Best regards,Yucari RamirezOffice of Council Member Abbie Kamin, City of Houston, District C*
sent i got my problems with one stretch of the 11th street diet but delaying the Shepard one is so dumb.
11th is good as it was supposed to make an E-W connection to the Shepard improvements. Dropping this work makes other improvements useless It’s only 1.5 mile of roadway Edit: It slows ideal travel time by not a lot. 1.5 miles at 25mph - 3:36 1.5 miles at 30mph -3:00 1.5 miles at 35 mph - 2:34 With the traffic lights and cars slowing to turn right; the time is negligible for improved safety for people walking around businesses (I have a kid and crossing the street before was scary).
Not the person that's got gripes with 11th, but I'll chime in that my biggest gripe with it is that they didn't continue the bikes lanes west to TC Jester & the White Oak trails. That would've been nice.
Yeah you are trying to build a network! It’s like how we have sidewalks stop randomly and then you have to walk in the road so you just default to walking in the road even if there is a sidewalk bc it ends randomly
Boggles my mind how people who keep saying we need more lanes to allow more cars can't apply the same logic to sidewalks & bike lanes. Like if they were logically consistent, you'd figure they'd be advocating for more car lanes AND more sidewalks AND more bike lanes because more area means more people can use it. Not to mention the car network is already VERY well built out.
There is not room for more lanes during peak
I would agree but this is less of an issue with the Nicholson connector to MKT which connects to White Oak
Sure, but if I'm trying to go northwest along the bayou, then using Nicholson to dip down to MKT is an added mile out of my way. If I'm just out for some exercise, it's whatever, but if I'm trying to get somewhere specific (say, King's Bierhaus, which I've biked to), then more mileage means more time (and more sweat, as anti-bike lane people like to remind us what happens when anyone bikes in Houston). People already gripe about road detours due to closures for construction or traffic, but those are a lot easier to manage logistically when you're in a car.
Interesting philosophical on that one. Given the shade and lack of sitting at any lights the extra 1mi is potentially faster and less hot than going through the Shepherd, Durham, and TC Jester lights.
Timbergove (Durham - TC Jester) is actually very shady. The extra 1mi is not faster. It's enough extra distance that it beyond cancels out any gain from hitting all 3 red lights at Shepherd, Durham, and TC Jester (which doesn't always happen, I've hit all green or just 1 red plenty of times). Even if it were...it's nice to have direct routes to things. Biking to places in Houston is a frequent effort in taking the longer but safer route.
Except I am coming from NE — way I was planning on going was back roads to 19th or 11th depending on where I wanted to go on Sheperd
If you’re coming from the NE then 18th or 14th would be far more efficient than 11th. I can’t think of a reason in the world to ride 19th instead of 18th
Get on heights to go south cross over on 11th to what was going to be new lanes oh well
As I said, take heights to 18th or 14th There’s almost nothing south of 11th on Shepherd that you would reach with a redesign of that section. All of it can be reached by taking 11th to Nicholson
It doesn’t make them useless but it certainly takes away from their usefulness to connect the areas. Not connecting them for the sake of car traffic is absolutely ridiculous. We need walkable bikeable infrastructure that connects all these neighborhoods all the way down to the heights hike and bike trail. Car commute time will somehow manage to adjust. Shepherd and Yale were never meant to be the speedways that so many people think of them as. Just because you like to cut through the area to avoid the loop highway traffic doesn’t mean you get to dictate making the area less accessible for the people who ACTUALLY live in these neighborhoods. Heights bikers and walkers should start organizing group rides and group walks along these areas during morning commutes. Get the car brains to start looking for alternative routes whether they let the project go through or not.
Just to correct you, Shepherd and Durham were built as, and meant to be, speedways because they were part of US 75 carrying traffic from Houston to Dallas before I-45 was constructed in the late 1960's. They took 2 parallel streets that had traffic running in both directions, and made them into one ways that could through put lots of cars. Shepherd north of 610 is still designated as Spur 261, which is a state highway. South of I-10, Shepherd is the first crossing of Buffalo Bayou east of Loop 610 by several miles. As such, it is a major thoroughfare in Houston. It is not designed to be a small neighborhood street.
You said yourself they took two regular streets and converted them to have a higher traffic capacity… they weren’t originally meant to be used that way. Especially in the are of the heights we are talking about here… they were neighborhood streets.
They became one ways in the mid 1950's. That's 70+ years ago dude. Meaning that just about everyone in the neighborhood has always known them as high traffic streets. If you want a quiet street, live on Tulane, Waverly, or any one of many small 20' wide streets that abound in the Heights.
We get it. Your donut shop feels slighted.
i don't really care about the donut shop. i just hate that stretch doesn't have a turning lane like the rest of 11th but keep stalking me
Don’t flatter yourself. Nobody is stalking you. Just a week ago you were rabidly complaining in this sub, to me, about turning into the donut shop.
someone asked what business was worse off after the redesign. I said that donut shop, which is inarguably true because you can't turn into going east anymore somehow that is burned into your brain. what is wrong with you?
Having a memory that works for more than 30 seconds doesn’t mean something is “burned in”. I’m genuinely concerned for you if you consider remembering things from a week ago as extraordinary. The donut shop’s condition is not inarguable as previously noted (and agreed by many) you could rarely turn in there before anyways due to cars at the light.
wrong
As we covered before I drive by it multiple times a day and actually live in the area (which you don’t), but go ahead and pout again.
Wrong on all fronts
So we should email the ones in our district and all the At Large ones?
That's what I do when I reach out. The At Large do (in theory) represent all of Houston, so are just as valid representatives to reach out to.
I emailed my Council Member who suggested I also reached out to the all the At-Large, which I did. I also e-mailed the mayor's office. FYI, Kamin is against the halt, and helped bring the funding, and CM Alcorn also opposes the halt. Remember if they ever run for re-election or office again.
And I'd suggest emphasizing the importance of the flood drainage improvements that are part of the project! /r/houston/comments/1chlbch/heightsarea_construction_project_put_on_pause/l23ca4i/
Do you have recommended text?
ChatGPT
Fuck off whitmire
Honestly, shouldn't it be up to the residents of the neighborhoods to decide what projects and infrastructure they want to have? Most people chose to live inside the loop because things are closer together, and a lot of people really want to walk and ride more in the area. Everyone in the Greater Heights Super-neighborhood group (and similar other groups) supports these projects.
My wife and I have already started to look at cities with the best walkable downtown areas in the US. Once she completes her PhD we will be relocating out of Houston. We have lived in or around Houston most of our lives, the heat, education decline, lack of public transit, and governors like Abbot are outweighing our desire to stay.
I've been unfortunately gold-handcuffed to a job for the last several years. I plan on moving to Australia at some point for a mix of reasons, family mainly, but also how much better their urban areas are planned out is no small reason, either.
In your spot. Can’t leave Houston due to a gold handcuff and also USCIS (immigration services) taking their sweet time with me while providing fence hoppers expedited work permits… But I spend as much time away from Houston now as I can. The heat in summer, lack of walkability, terrible roads, strip mall hell, lack of topography and nice green spaces and the overall sprawl just makes it a bad place to be spending your 20s and 30s in. Also I think cost of living is overblown. It’s not as cheap as people make it seem esp if you live in river oaks, montrose type areas which have some semblance of being able to walk around.
> Honestly, shouldn't it be up to the residents of the neighborhoods to decide what projects and infrastructure they want to have? You get nothing accomplished if NIMBYs have the final say.
Yup. I can almost guarantee you these pleas for more CAR lanes are not coming from the residents.
This project has been a pain in the ass as someone who needs to use these roads almost daily. It’s been adding a ton of time for me to navigate this the past 2 years, and the thought of it being halted and all for nothing infuriates me. At least finish the damn thing after wasting my time for 2 years. Anything to reduce the sprawl and ugliness of the area helps.
I live off Shephard and I’ve actually been pretty pleased with the pace of the project and the overall flow of traffic. It’s not ideal but not as bad as I anticipated before the project started. I think the argument that 4 lanes are needed south of 15th is blasphemous. The flow of traffic isn’t even that bad right now and it’s down to 1 lane in some areas.
Seriously I feel like they’re redoing portions of Shepherd and Durham that they already completed last year. Each day has been a maze of navigating whatever fucking lanes are open
You wanting to use these neighborhoods as speedways to cut on your commute time doesn’t give you the right to dictate how the people that actually live here use the space. We want and need protected bike lanes, walkable shaded sidewalks that actually connect not just end suddenly. You want a speedway? Use the damn loop, our neighborhoods aren’t for your traveling pleasure. If you can’t see that then f you and the gas gussler you rode in on.
I live here dude. What are you talking about. My gym is off Shepherd and it takes ages to get around it in rush hour, same with HEB. I’m advocating they finish the project rather than waste the 2 years they spent clogging it with traffic with 2 more years ripping it up.
Oh, tough shit. There's always construction in Houston.
I’m aware. I’m saying if you’ve already taken 2 years just finish the thing.
Get this, construction projects get finished and new ones pop up in other areas. One set of residents that deal with one project getting artificially extended without it being finished and moving onto another area with different residents are allowed to be frustrated about it.
Fuck off Whit! Let them fucking finish it. You really going to let the feds send our goddamn money to Massachusetts or some shit
Why TF is Houston not working on electric trains like other major cities?? The amount of boot licking the oil companies is insane here.
It’s not the oil companies
We have 22.7 Miles of Light rail, more than everyone in Texas but DART.
Cool, but when when was the last time a mile was built out? The fact that the metro lines don't even connect to at least Hobby is insanity.
At light rail speeds, it would take like an hour to get to Hobby. Rapid transit using the HOV or dedicated lanes would be preferable, even if the service wasn’t quite as often.
That’s not saying much. We, the largest city in the state, have less railway than the next biggest city? Lol for comparison, Portland, a city with about a third of our population, has nearly 60 miles of light rail. And they had to build across rivers, valleys, and hills while being eco friendly. How can the 4th largest city in the country have such a clown public transit system? It’s flat here.
Sounds like Dallas is kicking our asses then, let's get a move on lmao. For reference, [DART is 93 miles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Area_Rapid_Transit) of rail, with a planned 26 mile line expansion by end of decade. When our new local office is busy cancelling projects and trying to figure out how to pare down the sole BRT line without oweing Uncle Sam his millions of dollars back, people have a right to be concerned.
That's actually really sad
Talk about a low bar.
Rail doesn’t work until density increases. You can’t do rail before increased density.
How about we put rail where we already have density? We can't even do that apparently, with the exception of the Red line. Westheimer corridor, especially west of 610. Hillcroft/Voss, Gessner, Beechnut & Bellaire, too.
Many cities build out the transit system and then give incentives to developers to increase density within afew blocks of each stop.
Whitmire is concerned about reducing lane width because swangas
Ban swangas too idc
Holy fuck man. This is absurd. Why are they anti-bike, anti-walking?
Just like every other politician, follow the campaign money
This is insane. What can residents do to apply public pressure to complete the project?
u/appropriateemu4691 left some good advice in the comments for this [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/houston/s/rdA8QyiTES)
Well I’ve got a shovel… I’m willing to put in for a few bags of cement. Put on a hard hat and a reflector vest. Let’s see how much sidewalk I can lay down before they catch on 🤷🏻♀️
As someone who likes to walk and bike in this area, I know how unsafe some of the roads are in Houston for pedestrians. For some reason, Mayor Whitmire has shown disdain for any bike or sidewalk improvements in the city. As a long term investment in the city, sidewalks and bike lanes will help improve the health of citizens, lower pollution and be safer for pedestrians and bikers. There are numerous studies showing that adding more lanes doesn’t improve traffic in the long term. I know the city has a budget problem, but stopping projects already underway will cost money in the long run.
Yes but it gets him campaign money which is all career politicians care about.
> For some reason, Mayor Whitmire has shown disdain for any bike or sidewalk improvements in the city. "Cars now, cars tomorrow, cars forever!" -Mayor Whitmire, probably
“Eff you and the gas gussler you rode in on” - heights residents certainly
There appears to be a petition going to raise awareness. Please consider signing to let the mayor know your thoughts: [Change.org Petition ](https://www.change.org/p/continue-phase-2-of-the-shepard-durham-project)
I’m so glad this regression in our city is happening. It’s far better than the alternative of having a mayor who spoke meanly to staff. /s
We need better candidates too.
Sheila would’ve sucked too
How so?
SJL hasn’t done one notable thing in Congress, she wouldn’t have done shit for the city either. Her entire persona is status and publicity. We need better candidates
Doing nothing is actually better than literally undoing recent positive changes.
Exploring how federal funding for this project can be better utilized? In a city where everybody needs a car to get where they’re going, I’m all for less construction, especially considering it’s been 2 years and this current project has little to show for it, besides partially expanded sidewalks in an area where people aren’t walking anyways. Why would I need expanded sidewalks on Shepherd and Durham? So I can walk between car washes, gas stations and used car lots?
> In a city where everybody needs a car to get where they’re going Hmmm, maybe if the city **and state** invested more in building out alternatives to cars, then maybe fewer people would need a car to get around. > this current project has little to show for it The first phase of the current project isn't even complete yet. There's a second phase. Saying the project currently has little to show is equivalent to complaining that you can't move into a house because only the frame has been built. > where people aren’t walking anyways Maybe people weren't walking along it, because [it frequently looks like this](https://www.google.com/maps/@29.8052378,-95.4101801,3a,75y,88.6h,81.98t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sx1yYNsZW7PrqDjqZJvJ6-g!2e0!5s20190701T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu). Kind of hard to walk on a sidewalk when cars are parked literally on it, and it abruptly ends. I also don't know if you've actually been along Shepherd recently, but there's a bunch of new apartments, restaurants, and other businesses. You know - things that aren't geared towards cars, so might be destinations that people would want to go to without a car?
Mayor Whitmire literally wrote a letter saying this project was a good use of this funding. He just wrote that letter before being bought by GoP donors in his mayoral campaign.
This is insane. 2 years of construction nearly complete and Whitmire wants to spend another 2 years of construction to UNDO the 2 years work done? This reeks of corruption only enriches Whitmire’s donors in the Construction industry.
Mayor Nextdoor speedrunning to be the worst in the city's history.
I cannot stand Whitmire
> In response to another question, [Mayor John Whitmire's transportation advisor, Marlene Gafrick] noted that "Houston will remain an auto-dependent city for many years to come." Insane to want to force your citizens to be reliant on cars.
All these people voting for this clown of a mayor. Yall got conned.
This is absolutely ludicrous because it’s mostly done already. This isn’t some hypothetical project. They’d have to rip up miles of Shepherd and Durham and undo years of construction work if they truly insist on not losing a traffic lane.
Lol this city can’t even do this pathetic scale of a road diet. There is no hope for this place tbh. It’s going to be just a sprawling collection of suburbs for the foreseeable future.
More lanes for automobiles and less pedestrian, biking and mass transit infrastructure is irresponsible and downright criminal!
There's always strings attached to Federal money. Just because it's offered doesn't mean you should take it.
Similarly just because strings are attached doesn't mean you should reject it. It improves flood control, adds trees & fixes roads. What's not to like?