On Sept. 4, the front page of the Houston Chronicle displayed a public scandal: Mayor John Whitmire’s personal texts, uncovered by a Freedom of Information request, showed he had been covertly planning to remove protected bike lanes on Austin Street.
Austin Street, a major inner-city street near downtown, has been embroiled in a dispute over its bike lanes for years. Ever since 2020, when Harris County Precinct 1 spent $2 million to construct a bikeway, nearby residents and business owners have been campaigning for its removal, claiming that the bike lanes increased accidents and traffic congestion. However, they encountered resistance from Bike Houston and other pedestrian safety nonprofits.
In his texts and public statements, the mayor seemed prepared to side with the residents, referring to Bike Houston and the Precinct as “bullies” who don’t care about the bike lanes’ negative impacts on the community.
In my opinion, the decision on Austin Street isn’t about the community: it’s another example of the mayor’s underhanded campaign to undermine bike lanes in Houston, a crusade that continues to deny recreational and commuting cyclists safe and easy movement around the city.
Like many high school students without a drivers’ license, I use my bike constantly. My second and fourth-grade brothers use theirs every day to commute to school. It’s not uncommon for them to come home with a story about nearly crashing on bad roads and having to change their routes because of dangerous streets — things that no kid living in a major city should need to do.
“Helping the community” is an incredibly short-sighted solution. In other major cities, such as Los Angeles, Washington, New York City and Chicago, hiking trails, cycling paths and other forms of transit can be found everywhere.
Yet unfortunately, one of the main characteristics of Houston is that our city is incredibly dangerous and difficult for all travelers without a 2-ton hunk of aluminum. Protected bike lanes like the one on Austin Street are a godsend to commuters, recreational riders and schoolchildren who do not want to end up as human pancakes.
Removing bike lanes worsens a larger problem that plagues American society. As more people choose to stay inside on their phones, social isolation builds, causing people to lose touch with reality. Going outside and experiencing a city, whether on a bike path or a sidewalk, is proven to make people happier and healthier, and it should be the government’s job to facilitate that. Placing a larger emphasis on genuine connection with our surroundings should be encouraged, not written off as a traffic hazard.
I believe cyclists, whether commuters, athletes or both, are important. They represent the dwindling population of those who do not wish to experience life purely through a screen and a tinted window. Protecting and encouraging this population in a bustling city like Houston is essential for keeping our society healthy, our roads safe and our cities greener, and governments everywhere should realize that value.
