Description

I’d like your help with the traffic signals on Lamar Street between Discovery Green and Sam Houston Park. The dedicated bike lanes are amazing. And the traffic signals for the bike lanes are extremely beneficial. However, I’d like a change made to make it safer. On Lamar, the bike lanes (East & West bound) are on the South side, i.e. they are on the far left of the car lanes when traveling West, which is the 1-way direction of the auto traffic. Currently when riding W. bound in the same direction as Lamar auto traffic, each traffic signal intersection has a bike signal that alternates between green and red. After a solid red light, the bike signal turns green while the auto traffic signals remain red. Then after a period of time (maybe 10 to 30 seconds) the auto signals turn green. This happens without warning to the bike lane and when a bike rider is at or in an intersection crossing a street whose one way direction is South bound, autos immediately start to turn left without warning. Some give way to bikes whose signal is also green but many do not as they are not looking backwards and bikes travel much faster than pedestrians. A better and safer solution would be to add an auto left turn signal that remains red while the bike signal is green and then turns green after the bike signal turns red. Also, the traffic signal for autos going straight can turn green at the same time as the bike signal turns green. This solution should also be duplicated in the opposite bike lane direction, i.e. East bound on Lamar so that bikes traveling straight and autos turning left do not conflict. It should also be duplicated where the bike lanes are on the right side of a street when traveling in the same direction as the autos…such as North bound on Austin through Midtown and the CBD (where bike lanes and bike signals are installed but the signals are not yet functioning). I know that many other cities have adopted this solution, Chicago for instance.