Biking In Houston
 
It would be difficult to find someone in Houston who thought our city was “bike-friendly.” In
Houston you would hear about how people who ride bikes are being killed and many
hit-and-runs happening. Lots of Houston drivers would say than it’s the bikers fault for not
looking out and they should be more “careful” of where they are going. Or they would say
“It’s the bikers' fault for not following the law!” Some people appear to hate the cyclists so
much that they even started a petition to end “Illegal” social bike riding. Some people even
asked bike riders if they could think of any good safe places to ride bikes and most people
replied with “none.” One person in the crowd even said that “ The word ‘safe’ and ‘riding
bikes on the street’ really shouldn’t be used in the same sentence.” Others in the bike riding
community say to stick to the trails if you’re looking for a safe place to go bike riding. The
truth is Houston has actually poured more than $100 million dollars on funding for more
trails along bayous or parks. But one of the biggest problems of the trails and the bike
lanes is that most of the rails and bike lanes don’t connect to each other or really connect to
anything. The newly announced Houston Bike Plan is supposed to fix most of these
problems, and proposing to add many more miles of many bike lanes and many more key
connections among all the bikeways. And also cost as much as $500 million dollars to fulfill
this plan (meaning that voters would have to approve of the future bond) and could take
more than a decade to complete. I asked one of my very good cousin about her opinion on
this situation of the bike precautions. Valerie Servandos comment on the situation was very
clear and honest. She says that the bikers aren’t the ones that should be more careful she
believe that the drivers should “watch where they are going if they know that people go
walking and biking all over Houston so it’s common sense that they should be the cautions
ones not the fellow bikers.” She said she would also vote for the Houston Bike Plan to go
because she would enjoy riding her bike down the new trails or even if she never “lived” to
see that day she said it would be great for community to grow and “bond”. Although she is
not one to go riding bikes she would also go to just take a stroll thru the parks and it would
be great for others to take their children out to bike and not worry about the safety
precautions that follow. She says that she also witnessed a hit and run where the bike lane
was in downtown Houston. She says a man was crossing on a bike and a man who was
driving too fast and did not see the red light and hit the man on the bike. As the man tried to
get back on his feet and take a picture of the guy's license plates, before he could capture
the picture the man drove off hitting the man again with his car as he drove off on a rush to
get away from a ticket. So she also agrees that the bike lanes and cross ways are not safe
for people and if they have children it is even worse so what the community should focus on
is getting downtown fixed up and catch all the reckless drivers for the cities protection.