Bike Lanes
The City of Houston’s Department of Public Works and Engineering converted a parking and vehicular lane to a dedicated bike lane as you see here. The lane is “isolated” from the vehicular lane by the long stripped dome shapes that we Texans–not surprisingly–call armadillos.
Note the special signage as well as the special traffic signals for bike riders. Look closely at the red lens as it shows a red bike rider.
I also noticed at one intersection it appeared the bike signal turned green ahead of the vehicular green signal by several seconds. My traffic engineering buddies would call that preemption to allow the bike rider to get into the cross street before the cars start.
You can see the lane on Dallas St. in downtown Houston.
Click here to see a one-page paper about the lane, how it fits in the street and a location map.
How well they work will be interesting to watch.