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City Hall is targeting built and planned street safety infrastructure across Houston.

Contact our District D council member:

Join us in asking the Administration to

Protect 11th Street: The improvements along 11th Street are effectively calming traffic, protecting pedestrians, and creating safer crossings. This community-supported solution is working—let’s keep it in place.

Restore Heights Blvd: Even though crash data demonstrates that the roadway became safer for all users following the installation of the armadillo barriers, on March 20, Houston Public Works removed armadillo barriers, a critical safety separation between cyclists and vehicles.

Resume Multimodal Priorities across the City:

• Austin St bikeway planned to be dismantled
• Montrose Blvd Phase 1 project lost key sidewalks and shared-use paths
• Washington Ave to be repaved before multimodal plans are finalized
• Removing a raised crosswalk along Westheimer & Crocker
• Removed planned shared-use path from Antoine Drive reconstruction
• Canceled HSIP-funded plans along West Gray St
• Abandonment of Polk St years ahead of the planned closure due to NHHIP
• Telephone Rd risks fragmentation despite federal connectivity investments
• Delay of METRO Next, including construction of BRT and Light Rail extensions

Take Action

The 11th Street redesign, implemented after years of public input and planning, added much-needed safety features — including protected bike lanes, safer crosswalks, and traffic-calming measures. These changes didn’t just beautify the street. They saved lives.

Now, there’s a real risk that all this progress will be undone. At a time when cities across the country are investing in safe, walkable, bikeable infrastructure, Houston is being asked to go backward.

Report on 11th Street

The 11th Street project in the Heights has achieved key safety goals:

• fewer and less severe crashes (36% decrease in crashes)
• significantly higher trail crossings at 11th & Nicholson and 11th & Heights Blvd
• the social costs of the crashes plummeted from $1,500,000 in 2019 to $268,000 in 2023

Read more at Axios.

Let’s be clear:
🚧 Removing the bikeways won’t fix traffic.
🚶 It will make our streets more dangerous.
💸 It will waste taxpayer dollars.
👎 And it will silence the community voices that asked for — and won — a safer 11th Street.

Email Template:

Recepients:

mayor@houstontx.gov, chris.newport@houstontx.gov, 
joshua.sanders@houstontx.gov, marlene.gafrick@houstontx.gov, districtc@houstontx.gov, districth@houstontx.gov, districta@houstontx.gov, atlarge1@houstontx.gov, atlarge2@houstontx.gov, atlarge3@houstontx.gov, atlarge4@houstontx.gov, atlarge5@houstontx.gov, info@ilove11th.org, Marlene.Gafrick@houstontx.gov, HOU-PIOWebMail@txdot.gov, info@houstonparksboard.org, publicworks@houstontx.gov, info@bikehouston.org, emily@houstonheights.org, molly.cook@senate.texas.gov, Christina.morales@house.texas.gov, Communications@houstontx.gov, randy.macchi@houstontx.gov, oluwole.mcfoy@houstontx.gov, METROPublicAffairs@RideMETRO.org, judge.hidalgo@harriscountytx.gov, mary.benton@houstontx.gov, Comm_Ellis@cp1.hctx.net

Subject:

Concerns about the loss of multimodal infrastruture and misuse of millions of dollars across the City of Houston

Body of Email

Dear City, County, and Regional Officials:

I am writing to express deep concern about recent actions to remove critical street-safety infrastructure across Houston and to urge an immediate course correction grounded in data, safety, and transparency.

In the past months, city leadership has:

-Removed protective elements on Heights Boulevard, weakening safety for people walking and biking.

-Directed TIRZ 23 to alter the Telephone Rd plan by stripping multimodal components, resulting in a more fragmented and less safe corridor.

-Moved to remove the raised crosswalk at Westheimer & Crocker, despite its proven role in slowing vehicles and improving pedestrian visibility.

-Canceled the shared-use path in the 5-mile Antoine Dr. reconstruction, eliminating a safe option for non-drivers.

-Dismantled protection along the Austin Street bikeway, replacing a county-funded, two-way protected lane with a far less safe configuration. 
Houston Chronicle

This pattern has real consequences. As detailed by the Houston Chronicle on Sept. 5, a 15-year-old Lamar High School student was struck while crossing Westheimer at an unsignalized location near a school, church, preschool and shopping center — an outcome made more likely by street design that prioritizes high-speed traffic over safe crossings. The piece underscores what advocates and crash data make clear: Houston’s unsafe street designs endanger everyone — drivers, walkers, and cyclists — and the economic toll of crashes is substantial. Safe streets save lives and money. 

New reporting on Sept. 4 reveals the mayor’s private text messages steering road projects and bike-lane removals based on complaints and optics rather than professional safety analysis, including early efforts to “strategize” removal of the Austin Street bikeway and plans to cite fire-safety rationales later. This disconnect between public statements and private direction erodes trust and sidelines years of community planning and expert input. 


Requested actions

-Immediate moratorium on removing existing multimodal/safety infrastructure (barriers, protected lanes, raised crosswalks, medians) until independent safety audits are completed and made public, with early and meaningful community input.

-Restore canceled or weakened elements where removal is underway or planned — including the shared-use path on Antoine and to safeguard the proven crash-reducing changes on 11th Street. 

-Recommit to Vision Zero and data-driven design: prioritize signals, raised crosswalks, narrower lanes, and protected facilities, especially near schools and transit where children and families cross daily. 
Houston Chronicle

-Transparency & accountability: publish all guidance, analyses, and correspondence shaping project changes (including TIRZ directives), and align decisions with crash data and cost-benefit findings rather than anecdotal complaints. 
Chron

Houston should not be reactive only after tragedy. Please treat street safety as the public-health crisis it is, steward taxpayer dollars responsibly, and keep our streets safe and accessible for all.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.