HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The number of cyclist fatalities are on track to double in Houston compared to what we saw last year. Pedestrian deaths are also on the rise compared to 2022.
Vision Zero, the city’s task force working to get traffic deaths down to zero, tells ABC13 the city is building and expanding bike and walk paths as fast as they can. As more infrastructure is built, more people are excited about alternative transportation, but that also means more people are utilizing older and more dangerous routes.
In heart felt testimony at Houston City Council, Robert Grobe shared the story of the day he found a cyclist dead outside his home.
"I didn’t know Rodney, I never even looked the man in the face, but he changed my life. But when you find someone lying down in a pool of their own blood, their wife screaming at the top of their lungs, it tends to do something to you," Grobe said.
A man Grobe identifies as Rodney Adkins died in January. Since then, 11 other people on bikes have died putting us on track to double the number of cyclist deaths from 2022.
"We design our city streets, we can design them to be safe," David Fields of Houston’s Vision Zero Task Force said.
Vision Zero reports that in 2021 we had 12 cyclist deaths, then in 2022, 11 deaths. With 12 cyclist deaths in the first eight months of this year, the numbers aren’t looking good."There are a lot of factors that […]
Continue reading the original article at: abc13.com