NEW METRO TRAINS GETTING BIKE RACKS 
Metro is showing off the first of 19 new California-made Siemens H2 S70 trains it’ll be adding to its light-rail fleet. The first new cars in 9 years are updated versions of the line’s original 18-member fleet, with one notable difference: Metro will be outfitting them with 2 bicycle racks each, at the front and rear doorways. Photo: Metro
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Tag: Bicycles
Harris County Housing Authority interim CEO Tom McCasland takes a visitor from Portland along the path of the bike trail he hopes will soon connect Downtown Houston seamlessly to the city’s northwestern suburbs. From Georgia’s Market downtown they head out the MKT Trail into the Heights, which dead ends near the Shepherd-Durham overpasses. “The lot turned into a truck path, which ended at a decrepit railroad bridge. We took a sharp right down a singletrack path along the edge of the bayou far below us,” writes Elly Blue, who’s been touring U.S. cities to assess their bikeability. McCasland, an advocate for expanding Houston bikeways, tells the Houston Press‘s John Nova Lomax that “part of the city’s latest grand biking plan is to dynamite [that burned-out bridge] and rebuild it as a bike/pedestrian thoroughfare. The trail will then continue along White Oak Bayou’s banks and connect with the existing trail that begins at West 11th and TC Jester and heads north through Timbergrove, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest and all the way up to Acres Homes.”
MOON TOWER INN’S BICYCLE PARKING SCORE 
Whenever it gets around to reopening as a brewery, Second Ward hotdog HQ Moon Tower Inn will still have only a single off-street parking spot — thanks to an accommodation agreed to by the planning commission. Owner Evan Shannon agreed to provide rack space for 40 bicycles instead of the 5 additional car spaces that would have otherwise been required at 3004 Canal St. Helpful in securing the exception from the city: a few bike-riding employees — and plenty of on-street parking in the food stand’s mostly industrial neighborhood. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Marty E.
BIKE RACKS FOR INNER LOOP EATERIES 
Buried in Anvil owner Bobby Heugel’s long complaint about Houston Press coverage of possible neighborhood opposition to an application for an on-street valet parking zone for the Hay Merchant and Underbelly in the former Chances Bar space on Westheimer at Waugh: News of a new initiative sponsored by OKRA, the restaurant advocacy group he helped found. “We’re going to start providing complimentary bike racks to small restaurants and bars inside the loop, at our cost, to encourage alternative transportation in Houston. This is for OTHER restaurants and bars, not our own, which already have bike parking.” [Eating Our Words] Photo of Underbelly, 1100 Westheimer: Vinson
WHITE OAK BAYOU BIKE BYPASS IMPASSE What’s preventing the Houston Parks Board from connecting the end of the MKT Bike Trail in Timbergrove Manor with the White Oak Bayou Trail to create a continuous 14-mile route, and giving Oak Forest residents a path to stroll or roll all the way Downtown? Well, there are these 5 tracts of land in “a key section” in the 3/4-mile gap between Lawrence Park and T.C. Jester Park, project manager Trent Rondo tells Greg Densmore: “. . . of the five property owners tied to those tracts, four were working with the Parks Board while the fifth ‘was being a little feisty’ and was not yet ready to negotiate.” [The Leader, via Swamplot commenter KS; previously on Swamplot]
THE MISSING LINK IN THE BIKE TRAIL FROM OAK FOREST TO DOWNTOWN 
After surveying a stretch of land mostly along White Oak Bayou from 11th St. to Lawrence Park, Chronicle blogger Martin Hajovsky says he doesn’t see any traffic problems that would stand in the way of a connection between the Katy/MKT hike-and-bike trail and the White Oak Bayou trail. A bayou-side hookup, which would create a continuous off-road path from Downtown to Oak Forest, is just one segment of grander bayou bikepath plans contained in the Bayou Greenway Initiative, which the Houston Parks Board is working on piece by piece. Adding the longer chunk planned along White Oak Bayou north of the current trail would extend the Downtown route all the way to Jersey Village. [Home in the Heights, via Off the Kuff; previously on Swamplot] Proposed Bayou Greenway map: Houston Parks Board
Houston sustainability director Laura Spanjian says B-cycle (shown above at Discovery Green earlier today) is just one of the systems the city is considering for its planned bike-sharing project. The city has funding from an EPA “climate showcase” program to install a bike-share kiosk or 2 in yet-to-be-identified locations Downtown — possibly along Buffalo Bayou or near Discovery Green. That first installation would just serve as a demo, says Spanjian. Once it’s in place, the city will look for funding for a more extensive bike-share system. Riders would use a credit card to check out the bikes; rides of half an hour or less would be free.
- BikeShare Technology Demonstration [Houston Green Scene]
- Houston Scores Federal Grant to Reduce Transportation-Related Emissions [KUHF]
- The magic bike is here [B-cycle]
Photo: Laura Spanjian
Sometime after this photo was taken at the start of the month, the missing rail on the rebuilt trestle bridge over White Oak Bayou was installed. But the rest of the rails are gone! A 5-mile segment of the MKT Trail through the Heights, named after the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad tracks that used to run along it, opened over the weekend. The trail starts at 26th St., runs down Nicholson to 7th St., east along 7th for a bit, down and across the bayou. It ends at Spring St. and I-45. When will it connect to Downtown, or new trails to the north?
Four other bike paths opened in 2009, making 15 new miles in all:
- Clip: Houston à Vélo [Vimeo]
Video: Aubin Malassagne; music: Le Comte de Fourques
Sent in by a reader: Another view of construction along the new MKT/SP Hike and Bike trail meant to connect the Heights to Downtown bikeways. The photo, taken from around here, shows the scene along Spring St. in the First Ward, a couple blocks west of Houston Ave.
- MKT Rails to Trails [Houston Bikeway Program]
- MKT/SP Rails to Trails Map [City of Houston]
- Heights Hike and Bike Trail: Actual Construction Spotted [Swamplot]
Martin Hajovsky notes progress on the long-promised hike-and-bike trail along Nicholson in the Heights. The path: South from W. 27th to W. 7th, then east to Downtown along the former Katy/MKT railway.
- More bike path construction [Home in the Heights]
- Houston Bikeway Program [City of Houston]
Photo of construction on Nicholson St. between 21st and 22nd Sts.: Martin Hajovsky
We all know riding bikes on trafficked Houston thoroughfares is dangerous. Finally, though, someone’s doing something about it.
No, not putting in bike lanes—that would be absurd. A notice on the Metro website reads:
METRO will soon equip its local fleet with bike racks to help you navigate congested streets on your way to bike trails, work, school or other destinations.
Join us as we kick off this new chapter in METRO transit history. [emphasis added]
Let’s hope this attempt to take bikes off the streets is effective.
- Shifting Gears with Bikes on Buses [Metro, via blogHOUSTON]
Photo: Flickr user richardmasoner
