Harris County beliefs about pedestrians and bicyclists must change

Dear Judge Hidalgo:

In the early 2000s, I inquired into why there are basically no sidewalks out here in Unincorporated Harris County, where I have lived for more than 26 years. I talked to different people in the infrastructure department, as well as Pct. 3 and Pct. 4, and discovered that a core belief of Harris County has been that the County's role is to design suburban boulevards as inexpensively as possible, and that means skimping on "amenities" (yes, they used that word) like sidewalks and bike lanes, which in other jurisdictions are considered standard features. This belief is codified into the engineering cross-sections for suburban boulevards, and in the funding. There are no sidewalk funds, but the County apparently can provide a match to MUD districts and real estate developers, or so I have been told.

I was also told after pursuing this topic by a top bicycle / pedestrian expert in City of Houston public works who is no longer with the City, to "not bother trying to change anything while Art Storey was in charge, because Harris County doesn't do bikes".

After a while, I just gave up engaging with people in the County about this topic. I mean, you can only bang your head against a brick wall so many times.

But Art Storey has retired, and Harris County government turned over in November 2018. I have decided to write to you, not so much for me because I don't ride my bike much any longer, but on behalf of the cyclists and pedestrians for whom safety is a daily concern... for schoolkids and people who don't have any access to automobiles. We're talking about increased safety for working class often immigrant people who must bike or walk, not only for privileged upper-middle-class recreational bike riders, although their interests do intersect. Also I am writing for future potential transit users, because the lack of walkable / bikeable roads in the Unincorporated County means the development of METRO transit routes is suppressed... basically forever, if there is no right-of-way left over for paths. People will not use transit if they can't walk to it; no one drives to use local transit; once you start a journey in a car, you'll just stay in your car and complete the journey without making the transfer. Mostly I am writing for walkers and bikers who have lost their lives on Harris County roads, and there must be hundreds upon hundreds of victims. H-GAC tells us that each crash fatality has a $2 million impact on the Region... what number do you get when you multiple $2 million times hundred and hundreds of times? Ah, but we're used to it... so we don't perceive it as a danger. But if ISIS or Al Qaeda killed as many people in Harris County as who die as bicycle and pedestrian (vulnerable) road users, there would be a hue and cry to bomb and invade wherever they came from. Where is the outrage over vulnerable road user deaths? Where is the funding prioritization?

We've heard for years that Houston-Galveston MPO is the most dangerous region in the Nation for vulnerable road users. As the Chief Executive of the County, I am asking that you demand answers from your infrastructure staff, and put the question to the Commissioners as well. Ask them why we build boulevards the way we build them, and challenge them to get a better result for vulnerable road users. The County has been configured so wrongly for so long, and the beliefs have literally been "set in stone" (concrete), I don't think the outcome can be truly fixed within my lifetime. It's up to you young people to fix the messes we older people have made. Thank you and Good Luck.