Memorial Park improvements prompt look for safe access routes for runners, cyclists

On Wednesday it was Foster, out on a run close to his condominium, fastidiously trying each methods earlier than venturing onto Westcott towards Memorial Park.

“That is the one entrance that’s considerably protected, however yeah, it might be higher,” he mentioned.

A $200 million-plus plan to enhance the park is geared toward making it a signature vacation spot for all Houstonians. With that success, although, will come the identical challenges something in style in Houston faces: How will individuals get there, the place will they park and what may be performed to offer them an possibility apart from driving?

A wide range of initiatives are deliberate or proposed to supply safer or extra choices, together with new bike paths, wider sidewalks, even a doable Metropolitan Transit Authority hub to fast buses. The entire concepts, nevertheless, are years away, and nonetheless face some public scrutiny that might alter the plans.

Efforts to create or develop trails observe what has been the biggest park funding in a era — a $70 million land bridge that creates a hillside by which Memorial Drive passes, connecting the park’s north and south sides.

PIERCE ELIMINATED: Massive I-45 Houston project heads back to public comment phase during pause

About 6,300 autos a day use Memorial by the park, based on 2019 site visitors counts by Houston Public Works.

As Memorial Park’s recognition swelled in the course of the pandemic — notably to the brand new Japanese Glades space the place working and strolling trails abound for socially-distanced train — competitors for parking areas has soared. After just a few circles, unfortunate people corresponding to Phillip Williams, 41, might discover a spot alongside the road within the close by neighborhood.

“I’d hate to see them put in additional parking,” Williams mentioned. “It’s a park, however that is Houston … individuals are going to drive to the park.”

Remedying that is dependent upon the event of choices apart from driving for these considering working or biking, which suggests confronting the truth that many components of the encompassing neighborhoods are arduous to traverse on bike or on foot.

“We’re going to spend all this cash — and I’m supportive, the park is nice — however on the subject of getting a protected crossing, I hold listening to we can’t afford it or there haven’t been sufficient accidents but,” mentioned state Sen. John Whitmire, who lives close to the park and has sought enhancements at Blossom and Westcott. “That’s simply not acceptable.”

Getting away from vehicles

One of many greatest challenges to bettering entry to Memorial is the large roads that border it: Loop 610 and Interstate 10. Working alongside the west and north edges of the park, the freeways are a barrier the place the freeways intersections with Washington Avenue to the northeast and Memorial and Woodway to the west may be chaotic for cyclists and pedestrians.

“What we would like is a protected, straightforward, biking answer,” mentioned Bob Ethington, director of analysis and financial growth for the Uptown Houston District.

Ethington mentioned alongside Loop 610, officers are contemplating how greatest to get runners and cyclists as distant from vehicles as sensible. These plans embody a connection from the south, parallel to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks as far south as San Felipe.

The path skirts a rail line south of the park, within the River Oaks space dotted with a few of the most costly properties inside Loop 610. Different initiatives might observe, taking the path so far as Brays Bayou and creating what might turn into a freeway of types for bicyclists between two in style bayou routes.

GOING IN CIRCLES: New Gulfton bus service could become model for other Houston neighborhoods

The important thing connection to the guts of Uptown, on the opposite facet of Loop 610, is a deliberate path working close to the highest of Uptown Park Boulevard, the place it curves into the southbound frontage street, that can observe Buffalo Bayou beneath the clatter of 16 lanes of site visitors above.

That connection, which might embody a brand new bridge strictly for the path throughout the bayou, would get rid of a stress-inducing avenue crossing for cyclists and runners at Woodway.

“The nook is horrible and the (Loop 610) underpass shouldn’t be nice,” mentioned Randy Odinet, vice-president of capital initiatives and services for the Memorial Park Conservancy.

The Uptown work, which follows Briar Hole within the neighborhood south of Buffalo Bayou, lately acquired a lift, when $4 million of the $5.3 million price ticket was included within the Home model of a federal infrastructure invoice on the request of Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, who represents the world.

For vacationers headed to the park from the east, two deliberate initiatives might assist. Building is ready to begin in about 20 months on a brand new bike lane spliced by a slim piece of public land on the south facet of Interstate 10. The Texas Division of Transportation undertaking would get rid of a damaged hyperlink between the Heights and Shepherd corridors and Memorial Park, brought on by I-10.

Now, cyclists can use the Heights Hike and Bike Path and White Oak Path to entry the Cottage Grove neighborhood north of I-10, then a pedestrian bridge atop I-10 at Cohn. A couple of half-mile from the park on the finish of the Cohn crossing, nevertheless, is the place the simple entry stops. The Union Pacific Railroad tracks and close by streets power runners again to T C Jester, which many keep away from due to the heavy site visitors and truck volumes and excessive speeds.

Design of the TxDOT undertaking shouldn’t be finalized, however the work seemingly will embody a path alongside the south facet of I-10 from Cohn to Washington, by a slice of state-owned proper of manner and beneath the UP tracks. At Washington, it’s anticipated to cross on the intersection and into the park.

The undertaking additionally will substitute the Cohn bridge with a wider span and diverse street-level enhancements north of I-10 alongside the frontage street.

BRT on the park

Most Houston residents and vacationers, nevertheless, can’t merely hop on a motorbike and get to the park. Present transit choices are restricted to a few bus routes, two of which come each half-hour. The third, the Route 85 Antoine/Washington that skirts the jap fringe of the park, is the one frequent route, coming each quarter-hour. Greater than a dozen bus routes pull into the Northwest Transit Middle lower than 2,500 toes away from the park, however these 2,500 toes are impassable due to the I-10 interchange with Loop 610.

A planned bus rapid transit route along I-10, however, might radically enhance entry if Metro have been to incorporate a cease on the park. Metro officers, whereas not committing, mentioned they’re contemplating a doable cease at Washington on the park’s boundary.