Meet the special election candidates running for Houston City Council at-large seat 4 and how they view cycling

 Excerpted from Houston Public Media, September 12, 2025

In my personal opinion, the candidates below deserve your further consideration. The candidates at the very bottom of this post are either indifferent, uninformed, hostile towards cyclists, or have a "let's compromise with motorist users" (who completely have the upper hand anyway). It's bit like saying "Let's have Ukraine compromise with Russia". How about NO, we have to defend ourselves and our fragile human bodies?

The election is Tuesday November 4, 2025

Brad Batteau - "A cyclist, he said he opposes the direction Whitmire's administration is taking when it comes to mobility infrastructure — especially the removal of concrete protections on the Austin Street bike lane."

Ethan Hale - "When it comes to road projects, Hale argued the city's current approach under Whitmire is 'completely ignoring the data on what is safe.' He pointed specifically to the redesign of Telephone Road, in which the local management district dropped a plan for a three-lane road with a center-turn lane as well as protected bike paths in favor of a four-lane road."

Miguel Herrera - "When it comes to road infrastructure, Herrera said the city needs to do more to fix streets — especially in areas with heavy 18-wheeler traffic — and the administration should stop destroying bike lanes because it makes Houston appear 'bad and careless that they don’t have any space for the people who use the bike lanes.'"

Alejandra Salinas - "Asked about the removal and reversal of traffic safety features and cyclist infrastructure, Salinas said she's a 'strong believer in multimodal transportation.' A resident of the Montrose neighborhood, she said she enjoys the sidewalks and bike path in the area. 'I think we need to turn to the experts,' she said. "I’m a trial lawyer, and I often present experts in court, and it’s important to listen to them. And so the experts are telling us that narrow streets make it safer for drivers on the road, make it safer for all those that are trying to get around the city of Houston. We should try to listen to them and take their advice and try to make transportation as safe as possible."

Kathy L. Tatum - "When it comes to the Whitmire administration's removal of certain cyclist infrastructure, she said "what we have built needs to be better, not taken away." She also called for the expansion of the city's sidewalk network."

Jordan Thomas - "Thomas called for a multimodal approach to the city's transportation infrastructure. He argued the car-centric, 'general mobility' approach of Whitmire's administration — focused on maintaining the number and width of vehicle lanes, often at the expense of cyclist infrastructure — will impede economic development. 'This administration is hostile towards pedestrians, cyclists, anyone who is not in a car, and that’s unfortunate,' he said. 'I’m a Ford F-150 driver, I’m a cyclist, I’m a pedestrian — I try to get around town multiple ways. This city sprawls out too much, and if we continue that pattern of development, we’re going to run into a lot of challenges.'"

Adrian Thomas Rogers - "An avid cyclist, Rogers said he would seek a meeting with Whitmire to address the removal of bike lanes."

Do not consider: Dwight Boykins, Martina Dixon, Al Lloyd, Kristal Mtaza-Lyons, Sonia Rivera, Sheraz M. Siddiqui, Kathy Tatum, Angie Thibodeaux, Cris Wright

These opinions are mine and mine alone. 

I'm relaunching this blog as "Energy Corridor Alternative Transportation"

In June 2025 my wife and I moved into a new David Weekley townhome community just on the western edge of the Energy Corridor. The place is called The Retreat at Oak Park, and it's on the SW corner of Addicks-Howell and Grisby, over by Lupe Tortilla and those other restaurants.

For the first time since moving away from Bellaire, TX in December 1992, our home is within the primary local bus footprint of Harris County METRO, and I couldn't be more pleased. The #162 goes right to the corner of Addicks-Howell and Grisby. It's $1.25 a ride, and it takes 30 min to get to Memorial City and 60 min to get Downtown, and no parking headache and cost once there. When I turn 65 next year, the cost will drop to $0.60. My bike goes into the luggage bay bike rack on the motorcoach-style buses used for the #162. 

I was NOT prepared to use luggage bay racks yesterday. I made a mess of it, but got the bike in eventually, with help from another passenger. I should have reviewed the METRO video beforehand, but METRO had it pretty well hidden. You can find manufacturer information at Sport Works, I would just read the PDF manual and you'll be an expert in five minutes.

I can ride my bike to work at the Kirkwood Tower (11757 Katy Freeway) from The Retreat at Oak Park. They have a bike rack and showers access! I do see one other bike parked in the rack sometimes, otherwise it's just me on my in-office days, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Here is my exact route from home to work:

Link to the public map on Komoot.

I'm on the sidewalk on Memorial and Tully. I'm OK with that. A more scenic alternative is to take the Terry Hershey Trail to Dairy-Ashford, then filter through the neighborhood, cross Memorial, and come up Tully. I don't recommend the I-10 sidewalks... too many driveways. 

I only expect to drive to work if the weather is severe (heavy rain, lightning or thunder or icing conditions). If I get caught at work by bad weather, I can always fold the bike up and take a regular Uber home. It's a seventeen year old Dahon folding bike.

Waiting for Uber in front of Kirkwood Tower

I'm putting only a few miles a week on my 2012 Kia, for which I paid a friend $12,600 cash back in 2015. That's a good thing, because it has excessive oil consumption, and I really don't want to have the engine rebuilt. I'm hoping it throws a knock-sensor check engine light, there is a Kia Theta II engine class action settlement which would entitle me to a free new engine. It's strange to think that since the car has only 130,000 miles on it, this may be the last car I ever purchase, if I baby it, and change the oil every six months regardless of mileage. Does that mean I'm permanently off of this unhappy merry-go-round? 

I certainly hope so, because I have far better and nobler plans for my money in retirement than paying a car note. $750 per month is a lot of money. Many people (large truck owners, I'm looking at you) pay more than $1000 per month. That's as much as my mortgage! This Generation Jones (late Boomer) just can't over get over how much inflation has ravaged incomes and budgets since I was aware of things and how much they cost. 

If you have questions or comments, write to me at:

bikecommute.think915@passmail.com 

blog header photo borrowed from Memorial Drive Bike-Ped Study | Engage HGAC

Harris County beliefs about pedestrians and bicyclists must change

Dear Judge Hidalgo:

In the early 2000s, I inquired into why there are basically no sidewalks out here in Unincorporated Harris County, where I have lived for more than 26 years. I talked to different people in the infrastructure department, as well as Pct. 3 and Pct. 4, and discovered that a core belief of Harris County has been that the County's role is to design suburban boulevards as inexpensively as possible, and that means skimping on "amenities" (yes, they used that word) like sidewalks and bike lanes, which in other jurisdictions are considered standard features. This belief is codified into the engineering cross-sections for suburban boulevards, and in the funding. There are no sidewalk funds, but the County apparently can provide a match to MUD districts and real estate developers, or so I have been told.

I was also told after pursuing this topic by a top bicycle / pedestrian expert in City of Houston public works who is no longer with the City, to "not bother trying to change anything while Art Storey was in charge, because Harris County doesn't do bikes".

After a while, I just gave up engaging with people in the County about this topic. I mean, you can only bang your head against a brick wall so many times.

But Art Storey has retired, and Harris County government turned over in November 2018. I have decided to write to you, not so much for me because I don't ride my bike much any longer, but on behalf of the cyclists and pedestrians for whom safety is a daily concern... for schoolkids and people who don't have any access to automobiles. We're talking about increased safety for working class often immigrant people who must bike or walk, not only for privileged upper-middle-class recreational bike riders, although their interests do intersect. Also I am writing for future potential transit users, because the lack of walkable / bikeable roads in the Unincorporated County means the development of METRO transit routes is suppressed... basically forever, if there is no right-of-way left over for paths. People will not use transit if they can't walk to it; no one drives to use local transit; once you start a journey in a car, you'll just stay in your car and complete the journey without making the transfer. Mostly I am writing for walkers and bikers who have lost their lives on Harris County roads, and there must be hundreds upon hundreds of victims. H-GAC tells us that each crash fatality has a $2 million impact on the Region... what number do you get when you multiple $2 million times hundred and hundreds of times? Ah, but we're used to it... so we don't perceive it as a danger. But if ISIS or Al Qaeda killed as many people in Harris County as who die as bicycle and pedestrian (vulnerable) road users, there would be a hue and cry to bomb and invade wherever they came from. Where is the outrage over vulnerable road user deaths? Where is the funding prioritization?

We've heard for years that Houston-Galveston MPO is the most dangerous region in the Nation for vulnerable road users. As the Chief Executive of the County, I am asking that you demand answers from your infrastructure staff, and put the question to the Commissioners as well. Ask them why we build boulevards the way we build them, and challenge them to get a better result for vulnerable road users. The County has been configured so wrongly for so long, and the beliefs have literally been "set in stone" (concrete), I don't think the outcome can be truly fixed within my lifetime. It's up to you young people to fix the messes we older people have made. Thank you and Good Luck.

Comments on Greater West Houston Sub-Region Mobility Plan, presented at TPC on 8/28/15

Comments on Greater West Houston Sub-Region Mobility Plan, presented at TPC on 8/28/15

The main challenge facing Greater West Houston is one of basic math and geometry; there is no more room for automobiles on the roadways, given the way we have used automobiles in the past, which has been in single occupant mode.

Adding more capacity to support VMT is not a measure of success in the war against congestion, any more than buying a bigger pair of pants is a measure a success in the war against obesity, as Stephen Klineberg points out. 

Harris County, METRO, the Management Districts, and nearby cities like Katy have to collaborate, design, fund, and execute a multi-decade strategy to bring higher-density transportation solutions to West Houston. Transit also demands pedestrian and bicycle friendly infrastructure. We have very little of that.

I have lived in unincorporated Harris County for almost 23 years, and have been paying METRO taxes all that time, and I see nothing in the way of local transit after paying all of that money, which I think is shameful. METRO is to blame for the way it has operated over the decades, and local governments and politicians are also for blocking and bleeding away funding that might have gone to expanding the transit network. There is plenty of blame to go around.

I refuse to believe that “suburban transit” is an oxymoron. I recently rode from Denver to Boulder and back again, on Denver's RTD suburban motorcoach, and the bus was full at 10 pm on a weekday.

Sitting at the Wiehle-Reston East METRO train and bus station near suburban Herndon, Virginia this summer, I watched buses bring in people from the suburbs who then make their way by train to their jobs at Tyson's Corner, or anywhere in and around Washington DC. The train will be built out all the way to Dulles Airport. Where is the train to Bush Airport, or to Hobby?

Denver and Washington DC had plans, conceived decades ago. We have no plan for suburban transit in West Houston. It's high time to get one.

Transit in Houston has degraded into a “divide and conquer” political symbol or device, wielded by both between Democrats and Republicans, who tend to live inside Loop 610, away from us “common folk”. We who live in the suburbs are not interested in politics, we just want solutions. Thank you.

Please oppose HB 1998

Dear Rep. Elkins,

Please oppose House Bill 1889 by State Rep. Will Metcalf, which would make it difficult or maybe impossible to build high-speed passenger rail from Houston to Dallas.

I-45 is chock full from Houston to Dallas, they have no money to expand it, it's dangerous to drive on it, it's a pain to go through the TSA ''groping'' line and very costly to fly, and who wants to take Greyhound bus from Houston to Dallas? Yes, we absolutely need high-speed passenger rail in Texas!

Last year on vacation I had the chance to take the HSR train from Beijing to Shanghai in China. That was that amazing. Fast, clean, smooth, on time, and less costly than flying.

Why China, and why not Texas?

Sincerely,

Peter Wang

[AARP] Dangerously Incomplete Streets

Look at these photos and read about what you see. Then think about the roadways near you. There's a good chance you're encountering similar sights and scenes. Thank you Harris County and TxDOT!

http://bit.ly/1ATLy0n

More carpools, vanpools needed for West Houston sub-region

The news is officially in from the Greater West Houston Subregional Transportation Plan, conducted by H-GAC. Traffic congestion, as measured by throughput at 25 key intersections in the sub-region, is already bad, and it is going to get worse. Under any of the four growth scenarios considered, intersection performance is going to go to “F” (Fail) for almost all of the intersections by 2040. Congestion, pollution, and crashes are going to have a worsening effect on our quality of life and economic growth in this most important job and GDP creating sub-region which includes The Energy Corridor, the Westchase District, and the Memorial City District.

This traffic tsunami is coming at a time, of course, when government transportation agencies at all levels are strapped for cash. Only the most severe needs are being addressed at present, and since the gasoline tax revenues are being eroded away by inflation and fuel efficient vehicles, some of which burn no gasoline, even on-going maintenance of existing facilities is threatened. 

But even if we had a deep pot of transportation money, what would we do with it? The congestion is occurring all over the sub-region, throughout the local road and street grid. The classic Houstonian response would be to widen the streets and add more lanes, grade separate them, and make them faster. But this would have an effect reminiscent of the remarks an American major made in 1968 concerning the Vietnamese village of Bến Tre. “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it”. If you widen streets, taking away sidewalks, parking lots, and structures, and put tall ugly bridges and dig underpasses everywhere, you will harm the very neighborhoods, towns, and cities you are trying to serve. Also, if you turn every road into a fast semi-freeway, the corridors become deserts, devoid of people and vitality. If no one can walk, if no one can bike, then a place will become undesirable over time, and increasing low-rent and slummy; “beautiful freeway” is an oxymoron, after all. So if massively widening streets and roads would be harmful, and it’s a moot point since we don’t have the money anyway, does that mean we should perhaps be using more buses and trains (transit) in the sub-region?

So is transit the answer for the Greater West Houston Sub-region’s congestion? Probably not, at least not in the short-to-medium term. The study clearly shows what everyone knows already, that many of the workers in The Energy Corridor, the Westchase District, and the Memorial City District commute in from suburban homes. There are no plans in existence at METRO at this time to allow people to commute on traditional transit vehicles (bus or train) from Cy-Fair or Sugar Land to work. Also, the western half of the sub-region has no local METRO service, and there are no plans to expand the local transit footprint west of State Highway 6. Also, many communities oppose the establishment of transit routes through their neighborhoods, whether their fears are based in reality or not, perception is reality, so even if METRO had the money and the desire to expand, local communities might very well block expansion. So really, there is no immediate relief to come from METRO to local neighborhoods in the western half of sub-region, nor for suburban commuters coming into the sub-region.

So what then? No money to widen existing roads and grade separate them, and local communities will often oppose this anyway. No help from METRO. Are we just going to stew in our own worsening traffic for the foreseeable future?

I think there is another way out of the mess, which could be implemented relatively quickly and at low cost. That is, for the past 60 years or so, we adult Americans have grown accustomed to riding solo in our cars whenever possible. Many of us drive SUVs, but more of us drive SOVs (single occupant vehicles). Somehow, we have to be convinced that the way to face this traffic emergency in West Houston is to voluntarily ride in with neighbors from our neighborhoods in Cy-Fair, Katy, Fort Bend to our work sites. The vast majority of cars on the road in West Houston today are SOVs. What if we would change that mix, so that 50% of cars would at least two people in them during peak commuting times? That would make a huge difference. Going from very few carpools to 50% carpools would result in a marked reduction in cars on the road, and reduce the need for more engineering.

So how can we get more people to voluntarily carpool, or participate in METRO’s Star vanpool service?

First and foremost, I think elected officials, the public, and corporations need to wake up and realize the severity of the traffic tsunami which is already breaking around us, especially in West Houston. Congestion will have an increasing effect on quality of life, economic growth, and public safety. Elected officials need to set aside the “competent manager” hat and put on the “inspirational leader” hat. Harris County Judge Emmett plays a visible, personal, and compelling role in motivating the public to respond to hurricane risk. A similar PR outreach is needed for congestion and carpooling. It won’t be free, but it will be much faster and less expensive to execute than building infrastructure.

Secondly, we need to upgrade the carpooling technology which government agencies make available to the public. NuRide and METRO’s RidePro carpool and vanpool ride matching services function, but they are now obsolete because they are not mobile applications. Another fundamental problem is that there are two places where people have to search, there should just be one master carpool / vanpool app for the entire H-GAC region.

Imagine an app that does the following things:

1. It only contains background-checked riders and drivers
2. It only contains insured drivers
3. The app knows where drivers are, their end destination, and the route they are taking
4. Riders can hail rides from drivers nearby who are going their way
5. The rides offered would be free, but a small monthly fee would be changed by the technology provider to pay for the background checks, the app, the servers, etc.

I think it’s very important that rides be offered for free. Once you charge someone money to ride in your car, you’ve violated the terms of your personal auto insurance, and you are immediately not insured any longer; you then require commercial auto insurance. If you’re just giving a neighbor a ride for free, that’s allowable.

“Free” parking plays a role in the economics of carpooling. Building a parking structure next to an office tower involves a huge cost. Office workers, however, park for “free”... their employers shield them from the cost of parking. Note that this does not happen in Downtown Houston, however, and Downtown has a high number of transit and carpool commuters. This is not a coincidence; this is commuters responding to the economics of parking, where users have to pay cash. They literally vote with the seat of their pants.

I suggest a cafeteria benefits approach to parking, where an employee could elect one of several options which would have the same cost to the employer:

1. Free parking, as usual, or,
2. Increased pay
3. Increased compensation, but in the form of a larger employer 401(k) contribution 
4. Free lunch in the company cafeteria every day
5. Contribute to the employee’s participation in a METRO Star vanpool

Carpools would also get the preferred parking spots. This would have a large effect on encouraging employees to carpool. Free lunch? Increased compensation? Are you kidding? That would make get everyone’s attention.

The traffic congestion is not coming to West Houston, it is here. It will have increasing effects on quality of life, economic growth, and public safety. There is no quick, low-cost-fix on the horizon either in the building of infrastructure, nor in the establishment of transit networks which reach into the bedroom communities where West Houston workers reside. Carpooling and vanpooling are underutilized modes which could quickly and at relatively low cost reduce or hold steady the numbers of vehicles on our roads and streets.