Source: Upper Kirby District Street Talk
One fact very familiar to each of us living in Southeast Texas is that Houston is bisected by a vast network of slow-moving bayous. Thus the nickname: “The Bayou City”. For much of its modern history, these waterways have been primarily used as drainage ditches, with little thought given to either their aesthetics or their recreational potential. The Bayou Greenways 2020 project looks to change that perspective.
| One fact very familiar to each of us living in Southeast Texas is that Houston is bisected by a vast network of slow-moving bayous. Thus the nickname: “The Bayou City”. For much of its modern history, these waterways have been primarily used as drainage ditches, with little thought given to either their aesthetics or their recreational potential. The Bayou Greenways 2020 project looks to change that perspective.
By its scheduled completion date, Bayou Greenways 2020 will transform more than 3,000 acres of land along the bayous into greenways – publicly accessible greenspaces connecting parks, communities, and people like never before. That’s roughly 3.5x the size of New York’s Central Park, with large swaths passing directly through downtown Houston itself.
Winding throughout these linear parks will be an additional 80 miles of bike-friendly trails, more than doubling the current distance. By the turn of the decade, city cyclists will have access to an unprecedented 150 miles of car-free waterside riding. Back in 2012, voters took to the ballot box en masse to pass a bond measure that accounts for $100 million of the projected $220 million it will cost to complete the Bayou Greenways initiative. Private fundraising and other efforts undertaken by the Houston Parks Board have nearly made up the difference, making this project one of the largest private-public partnerships in the city’s history.
Another element in the city’s transformation into a bike-friendly place is the Houston Bikeways Program. This is a City-sponsored collaborative effort to improve safety, accessibility, ridership, and maintenance of bike facilities in Houston. The program initially began as an internal partnership between the City of Houston’s Planning & Development, Public Works, and Parks & Recreation departments during the Houston Bike Plan process. It has now evolved to include many other internal city departments and several external organizations. The vision of this group is that by 2027, the City of Houston will be a safer, more accessible, gold-level bike-friendly city.
The plan identifies key supporting policies and programs that help build a more bicycle-friendly culture covering issues like bicycle safety, expansion of bike parking, bike share options, and increased integration with transit.
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