Houston's Vision Zero plans for safer pedestrian, cyclist paths in 2023

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The number of cyclist fatalities are on track to double in Houston compared to what we saw last year. Pedestrian deaths are also on the rise compared to 2022.

Vision Zero, the city's task force working to get traffic deaths down to zero, tells ABC13 the city is building and expanding bike and walk paths as fast as they can. As more infrastructure is built, more people are excited about alternative transportation, but that also means more people are utilizing older and more dangerous routes.

In heart felt testimony at Houston City Council, Robert Grobe shared the story of the day he found a cyclist dead outside his home.

"I didn't know Rodney, I never even looked the man in the face, but he changed my life. But when you find someone lying down in a pool of their own blood, their wife screaming at the top of their lungs, it tends to do something to you," Grobe said.

A man Grobe identifies as Rodney Adkins died in January. Since then, 11 other people on bikes have died putting us on track to double the number of cyclist deaths from 2022.

"We design our city streets, we can design them to be safe," David Fields of Houston's Vision Zero Task Force said.

Vision Zero reports that in 2021 we had 12 cyclist deaths, then in 2022, 11 deaths. With 12 cyclist deaths in the first eight months of this year, the numbers aren't looking good.

"There are a lot of factors that we are seeing playing into it. It's never just one thing, it's never a silver bullet. It's a combination of factors," Fields said.

Fields said as the city is building more protected bike and walking infrastructure, protected lanes have barriers or are built a significant distance from the road.

As more infrastructure is built we're seeing more people want to bike, but that also means more people are using old, unsafe infrastructure or biking where there is no infrastructure.

"Since we released the Houston bike plan in 2017, unfortunately, there have been 75 or so fatalities but absolutely none of them have been in a protected bike lane. So we know where we build, we build safe," Fields said.

Fields reminds drivers, cyclists have a right to be on the road no matter the infrastructure.

"Bikers have a legal right to be on that street with you so be cognizant of that and act safely," Fields said.

To better protect cyclists, he says drivers need to slow down.

According to AAA, a person struck by a car going 42 miles per hour has a 50% chance of dying. Those odds increase to a 75% chance of dying when the car is traveling at 50 miles per hour and a 90% chance of dying if hit by a car going 58 miles per hour.

"You're driving something that is big and heavy and going at a pretty high speed and those are the biggest factors that change a crash into a fatality," Fields said.

And cyclists need to go out with extreme awareness as these are speeds seen all over our city. These little changes can help Vision Zero get one step closer to achieving the goal of zero traffic deaths.

For more news updates, follow Lileana Pearson on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.