And people say Houston’s bike lanes don’t get any use! The next time someone gives you that line, there’s no need to bicker. Instead, just invite them out for a beer at Saint Arnold’s new-ish brewing cathedral off I-10. On the way there, you’ll spot the new bike lanes running adjacent to the brewery on both sides of Lyons Ave. And if the conditions in the one on the eastbound side of the street are anything like those shown in the photo above, then congratulations: It should be clear who’s right.
If, however, parked car traffic appears sparse on the day you stop by, there’s only one possible reason why: New signs must have been installed, prohibiting parking in the bike lane. As long as no ordinance exists to ban bike lane parking outright, such signage is the city’s only recourse to outlaw it.
Further east along Lyons, work to add new 6-ft. bike lanes to both sides of the street is underway and — at Jensen Dr. — has already been completed:
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Next on the agenda, filling in the half-mile gap between Jensen and the brewery so that it too looks like what’s shown in the photo above.
- There’s actually a bike lane on both sides of Lyons here [Christof Spieler]
Photos: Christof Spieler (Saint Arnold); James Llamas (Lyons Ave. at Jensen Dr.)
The bike lanes running next to Saint Arnold are not new; they’ve been there for years. You can even tell from how old the paint looks in the photo. But yes, the cars parked on them have frustrated me for years when trying to bike on them. Hopefully there will finally be some enforcement now.
Also, the new bike lanes at Jensen Dr are clearly 6 feet wide, not 6 inches wide.
Project implementationon Lyons is not yet complete. Next steps include “no parking” signage to support enforcement (though an ordinance would be better), bike lane symbols, additional wayfinding signage and green paint in conflict zones. Future projects will improve connections from Lyons south to Downtown via Hardy/McKee, north to IH 61O via Hardy/Elysian, and east across US 59 to Fifth Ward. These are expected to begin construction soon.
So far, so good. However, bike lanes need protection from inattentive drivers using curbs or rumble strips similar to those ‘protecting’ the emergency stop lanes on freeways.