HOUSTON — On the streets of Houston’s biggest business district, cars are king. But they also belong to hundreds of people riding on two wheels.
They include bicycle commuters who, on a recent Wednesday downtown, said they prefer bikes for the exercise and energy it gives them.
"I just feel refreshed when I get to work in the morning," bicycle commuter Alyssa Charsky said.
Cyclist Laura Lundell added: "It’s been a good way to get around and feel a sense of freedom."
But with that freedom comes risk. Getting around the city can be tough for bicyclists, and sometimes dangerous. A record number of cyclists were killed on Harris County streets last year, a KHOU 11 Investigates analysis of Texas Department of Transportation data found.
Twenty-six people were killed on bicycles last year, the most in at least a decade. Crashes and injuries were also up last year with 670 crashes and 561 injuries. It was the highest since 2016.
Safety is a big concern. Texas State University student Sharla Brown rides her bicycle 6 miles each way to school.
"You think that the cars will give you the three feet that the law states they’re supposed to, but sometimes they don’t," Brown said.
"Pulling on the brakes and kind of being an inch away is definitely something that gets your heart racing," cyclist Jason Mendez said.
Executive Director of BikeHouston Joe Cutrufo has been very vocal about the growing number of incidents involving automobiles and people on bicycles.
"These deaths are predictable and preventable. Every person killed on a bike is a policy failure," Joe Cutrufo said.
BikeHouston is a nonprofit focused on making streets safer. Cutrufo believes it can be achieved through better infrastructure.
"When you look at most of our streets in Houston, they’re built only for cars. Much of the city is designed just around cars with no consideration for anybody else. People on foot and people on bikes are arguing over scraps of space, while the lion’s share of the space on our streets goes towards cars and trucks," Cutrufo said.
The city has made some progress in previous years. Houston has bike trails and designated bike lanes. However, they don’t always connect, which puts cyclists in line with traffic.
"Part of the story is the drivers not paying attention," downtown commuter Charsky said.
TxDOT records show that 56% of cyclist-involved crashes last year were caused by vehicles. One in five or 21% were a result of vehicles failing to yield the right of way to cyclists, followed by driver inattention at 9% and speeding at 8%.
Cyclists said they prefer bike lanes for this reason.
"I would probably not bike downtown without any bike lane. I feel safer and it gives me more confidence to come into a place that is full of vehicles, and I don’t have to worry about looking for cars or cars looking for me since I know that there’s a space just for me," Mendez said.
Cyclists fear recent changes, such as the ones happening at the intersection of Houston and Washington avenues, which includes the removal of bike lanes, are a sign of things to come.
"The (John) Whitmire administration is actively tearing out street safety improvements that were made just a couple of months ago. We can’t backpedal on the progress we’ve made. The genie’s already out of the bottle," Cutrufo said.
Whitmire addressed the revision during a city council meeting on Feb. 28. He said Houston Police Chief Troy Finner brought the intersection to his attention during a drive around the city on New Year’s Day.
"We turned right on Houston Avenue to go right on Washington. He said that’s dangerous. It needs to be corrected. It needs to be undone. He’s the one who said it is a public safety issue. I am a proactive public official. Someone pointed out the problem, and I said we will address it, and that’s what I did," Whitmire said. "The police supply office on the northeast corner of Washington and Houston Avenue could not get their customers in and out. All the cadets traveling across Houston were concerned. The fire department said they could not get up on 45 South with their large apparatus."
Whitmire said the changes are being made with pedestrians in mind.
Bicyclists say their concerns do not revolve around one intersection or incident, but rather what may happen further down the road.
"I care about accessibility. I think the best cities are ones that are made for people who want to get around in all kinds of ways," Brown said.
"When you make a city safer for people on bikes, you make the city safer for everybody, and that’s important for not just public safety, but quality of life," Cutrufo said.
According to TxDOT data, the increases in crashes are happening across Greater Houston.
Almost every county saw an increase in crashes in 2023 after most saw a slight improvement in 2022. Waller County saw the biggest increase by default last year. It had no cyclist crashes in 2022 and then saw five in 2023.