11th Street Safety Improvements
Announcements
October 2023 Update
Construction is complete. Thank you for your patience as the City and our partners finished construction on the 11th St improvements. Traffic counts were collected in October and the post-project traffic, speed, and crash analysis will be completed in November.
Project Overview
The 11th Street Safety Improvements project proposes to address traffic safety concerns along a 1.5-mile segment from Shepherd to Michaux in the Heights neighborhood. It also includes a neighborhood bikeway along Michaux, connecting from 11th to Stude Park. The project addresses speeding, traffic crashes, and difficulty crossing for people walking and biking along the corridor. It is aligned with the City's Vision Zero commitment to end traffic deaths and serious injuries and improve street safety for everyone. The project is currently in the design phase.
In addition to being identified in the Houston Bike Plan, the 11th Street proposal aims to improve safety for all road users. This includes a protected bikeway for people biking, pedestrian refuge islands to make it safer to cross 11th street, intersection enhancements to increase visibility of crosswalks and bike lanes, and traffic signal adjustments to safely accommodate all modes of travel.
Questions or comments about the project? Please use the general questions/comments tool below.
Announcements
October 2023 Update
Construction is complete. Thank you for your patience as the City and our partners finished construction on the 11th St improvements. Traffic counts were collected in October and the post-project traffic, speed, and crash analysis will be completed in November.
Project Overview
The 11th Street Safety Improvements project proposes to address traffic safety concerns along a 1.5-mile segment from Shepherd to Michaux in the Heights neighborhood. It also includes a neighborhood bikeway along Michaux, connecting from 11th to Stude Park. The project addresses speeding, traffic crashes, and difficulty crossing for people walking and biking along the corridor. It is aligned with the City's Vision Zero commitment to end traffic deaths and serious injuries and improve street safety for everyone. The project is currently in the design phase.
In addition to being identified in the Houston Bike Plan, the 11th Street proposal aims to improve safety for all road users. This includes a protected bikeway for people biking, pedestrian refuge islands to make it safer to cross 11th street, intersection enhancements to increase visibility of crosswalks and bike lanes, and traffic signal adjustments to safely accommodate all modes of travel.
Questions or comments about the project? Please use the general questions/comments tool below.
Questions or comments?
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How can we contact the mayor's office to provide feedback on this project? It has been announced that a review is in progress. As a resident of the Heights, I have greatly appreciated being able to cross 11th safely with my child while walking out biking due to the reduced lanes of traffic and car speed. It would be enormously disappointing if this progress is undone.
rmurphy asked 11 days agoThank you for your comment. To contact the Mayor's Office please visit www.houstontx.gov/mayor, email mayor@houstontx.gov, or call 311.
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What steps have been taken to make sure that overflow traffic (4 lanes down to 2) does not cause issues on neighborhood streets, which are narrower, and have lower speed limits?
Bruce Duncan asked 22 days agoThank you for your question. The speed limit on 11th St and all the surrounding local streets is 30mph and one of the goals of the project was to encourage speeds travelled at or below the speed limit through roadway design. Houston Public Works (HPW) is actively reviewing traffic volume, speed, and crash data from before and after the 11th St project was installed on 11th St itself as well as on the surrounding streets. This analysis will help determine if there has been a increase of traffic or speed on the streets nearby, a sign of cut-through traffic. If a significant increase is noted, HPW will determine what traffic speed and traffic volume mitigation measures can be implemented, or what modifications to the existing 11th St improvements are necessary. HPW will continue to monitor this concern following the report publication.
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The 11th street bike lanes that reduced traffic lanes 50% has been horrible. It has increased traffic and delays. It doesn’t make sense given the very few people I see using it vs the immensely greater number of people affected by reduced traffic lanes. Additionally, there are ALREADY so many bike options parallel and close by to this (I.e bike trail..)…Why did the city waste money on this?
Alexh296 asked 6 months agoThank you for your question. 11th Street had 10% more crashes than similar streets across Texas and vehicles speeding at nearly 40 mph (instead of the signed 30 mph). Based on a Road Safety Audit conducted by the City, TxDOT, Federal Highway Administration, and others, reallocation of one lane in each direction was identified as a way to make 11th Street safer for all road users, which is considered a valuable use of city funds.
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Are there any plans to conitnue the path from Durham to TC Jester? It seems like a missed opportunity not to do it as it would perfectly connect with the bike trail that goes along TC Jester.
OscarV asked 7 months agoThanks for reaching out. The Houston Bike Plan includes the segment of 11th Street to TC Jester. With a plan for 1,800 miles total, we're working to provide safe access citywide as fast as we can.
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Are there plans to clean these bike lanes? Riding a bike on gravel and glass is going to result in flat tires. Most of the bike lanes in Houston are covered with debris, which makes unusable.
BT asked 8 months agoThank you for your question.
The City is now cleaning protected bike lanes with the new Space City Sweeper (https://twitter.com/HouPublicWorks/status/1593684390890115075?lang=en). If you see a bike facility requiring additional sweeping, please let us know at https://www.houstontx.gov/311/.
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As evidenced by the recent damage to the northbound floating bus stop, the signage for these is inadequate. I’d urge you to a) install metal protective crash barriers b) add additional reflective signs, including one with a diagonal left arrow c) consider installing white poles between the ahead and right turn lanes to make it clearer going ahead from the right lane is not an option.
djenks16 asked about 1 year agoThank you for your feedback. We are working with METRO to ensure the Floating Bus Stops at 11th and Heights are more visibile and that all directions have advanced indication of the infrastructure. We appreciate your patience as this project is still actively under construction.
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My partner and I visited several businesses along 11th St for the first time this weekend. We wouldn't have ever visited this area without the new bike lanes giving us a safe and convenient connection. Thank you!
asked about 1 year agoThank you for your feedback! We appreciate your support and we're happy to hear you're accessing businesses along the corridor because of the new infrastructure.
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I visit 11th street by bus and bike and have always found the speed of traffic very discouraging. The new design is much more inviting to all of a road's users. I'd love to see this safe streets/complete streets program used across the entire city.
ahspike asked about 1 year agoThank you for your feedback and supporting safer streets! We are actively implementing safe streets projects across the entire city. The 11th Street redesign was started before the City committed to Vision Zero, which focuses on safe streets improvements for more vulnerable road users and in more vulnerable communities. To equitably distribute resources, the City is focusing on neighborhoods in Complete Communities and in areas with a high Social Vulnerability Index as defined by the CDC/ATSDR.
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Very glad that this will slow down speeders on 11th and increase bike and pedestrian safety in our neighborhood.
Abby asked about 1 year agoThanks for sharing your feedback. We're hopeful that this will be the result of the project and that safety for all road users will be improved.
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I live on a parallel street to 11th (E 10th) with three small children who now are not able to play on the sidewalk during evening hours as we are hosting SIGNIFICANT numbers of cars cutting down to avoid backups along 11th. While I understand the goal of the project, there was not enough planning of impact to nearby residential streets. Cars are now flying down my street (annoyed at traffic) instead of the commercial road that has larger setbacks and less children on the sidewalk. What phase of planning will address this material safety concern that was created by this project? I welcome anyone to come sit on my porch between 7:30-9am and 4-6pm and witness the impact. I can also provide camera footage of weeks before and after implementation for data’s sake if any stakeholder in pedestrian and child safety is interested.
Amy Barton asked about 1 year agoThank you for sharing your observations. Please see this FAQ: 'How will you monitor traffic after the project is constructed?' We also encourage you to email SafeStreets@houstontx.gov to provide any additional information so that we can be sure to collect data on your street. Traffic volume and speed data will help to determine if safety measures need to be implemented, and what type.
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FAQs
- Where do I put my trash/recycle bins now that the bike lane is there?
- How will you monitor traffic after the project is constructed?
- Why are you proposing street safety improvements on 11th?
- Why are crossing lights not being considered at 11th and Nicholson?
- What does Street Rehabilitation mean?
- Besides 11th and Nicholson, are there plans for pedestrian refuge islands at other intersections along 11th?
- How will this impact emergency vehicle responses?
- Will this be a physically protected bikeway?
- Will this project include cleaning/maintenance plans and budgets to ensure that the bike lanes stay in tip-top shape?
- How will this impact METRO bus route 30 that runs along 11th? Have bus stop locations been coordinated?
- How will decreasing the number of lanes impact traffic flow?
- I understand that this is not in your scope, but where can we get an update on the Shepard/Durham project?
Lifecycle
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30% Design
11th Street Safety Improvements has finished this stage -
60% Design
11th Street Safety Improvements has finished this stage -
90% Design
11th Street Safety Improvements has finished this stage -
100% Design
11th Street Safety Improvements has finished this stage -
Street Rehabilitation
11th Street Safety Improvements has finished this stage -
Project Construction
11th Street Safety Improvements is currently at this stage
Who's Listening
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Houston Public Works
Phone 832-395-3277 Email safestreets@houstontx.gov