Three Houston traffic ‘hot spots’ affect kids’ safety, Baker Institute report says

HOUSTON – (March 8, 2024) – Mapping Houston transportation injuries that have affected children shows several “hot spots” that could use public safety interventions, according to a new report from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

This topic will also be the focus of a Baker Institute event today, “Kids on the Move: Enhancing Active Transportation Safety for Children.” The livestream of the expert panel discussions will be available afterward.

The report investigates hot spots of transportation injuries that affected children between 2018 and 2023 and identifies places where interventions can improve pedestrian safety. The team focused on three broad hot spots that were particularly dangerous for children.

“While we focused on the most dangerous areas for our data in this study, the big picture is that the areas of Houston where children were injured by motor vehicles over the last five years are as diverse as the city itself,” said Zoabe Hafeez, nonresident fellow at the Baker Institute and lead author of the report. Hafeez is also an associate professor of pediatrics at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and practices pediatric hospital medicine at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center.

Two broad areas were in Southwest Houston along the I-59 and Westpark Tollway corridors and one was in the Sunnyside neighborhood. Within these broad areas, the particularly dangerous spots were in Alief on Beechnut Street near Wilcrest Drive, in Gulfton on Glenmont Drive from Renwick Drive to Royalton Street as well as Hillcroft Avenue and in Sunnyside within the Sunnyside Square Mile.

The author uses Hillcroft Avenue as a case study to outline improvements in these areas that could enhance safety, which was identified by Houston’s “Mayor Safe Street Initiative” and redesigned in 2021 with safety of all users in mind. This included wider sidewalks, shared-use bikeways, improved intersections for pedestrian access, improved bus stop access and the reduction of motor vehicle lanes from eight to six.

As a result, motor vehicle speeds were reduced by 5–10 mph in two major intersections where drivers encounter active transportation users frequently. Additionally, pedestrians and bicyclists were less likely to encounter motor vehicles in an unsignalized intersection and were able to travel at higher speeds, enhancing overall safety and efficiency of movement in these areas.

“Having good data is key,” Hafeez said. “If we know where the worst areas for kids to walk and bike are, we can improve sidewalks, shared-use paths and crosswalks to create a better environment for all road users.”

The authors also suggest that identifying hot spots can provide valuable information for law enforcement to identify high-risk driving behaviors and for schools to provide education for safe pedestrian and bicyclist behaviors. For instance, community based programming such as a “walking school bus” has already been successful in parts of Houston, Hafeez said.

Written by Avery Ruxer Franklin for Rice News.