Stephanie Riceman with the Heights Kids Group, a 900-strong (at least) group of families in and around the greater Houston Heights, has put together an interesting online petition that says as much about how many new families there are in the Heights as it does about the need to make streets safer for bike riders and pedestrians.

The petition, entitled Safe Walking and Biking in The Heights, is aimed at Houston Mayor Annise Parker and District C Houston City Council Member Ellen Cohen and hopes to gather momentum to have intersections more safely managed throughout the neighborhood. Here’s the very well-crafted preamble to the petition:

The Heights neighborhood is known for its small-town feel close to the heart of Houston. This community has cherished its tree-lined streets and preservation of walking and biking trails. These amenities sustain relationships among neighbors, make it easy to walk, jog, and bike to local businesses, or simply exercise. Urban density is rising and a recent investment in roadway repaving has resulted in a greater volume of commuter traffic traversing our neighborhood at alarming speeds. In 2011, a young mother and wife was killed on our neighborhood’s walking trail while out for a jog because the signalized intersection at 11th Street and Heights Boulevard had not been properly managed for active pedestrian use. Safety and mobility are a priority for our historic neighborhood. Heights residents want safe crossings for all pedestrians: fitness enthusiasts, dog walkers, parents with infants in strollers, children on bikes, senior citizens and others with mobility challenges that require greater consideration. It is time for the City of Houston to invest in traffic management measures that provide for pedestrian, not just vehicular, movement and put the safety of our residents first.

And here’s the text to which organizers are asking people to affix their names:

We, the undersigned, call on the Mayor and Council for the City of Houston to perform these traffic calming measures: 1. Installation of Pedestrian-Operated Signalized Crossings {Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon (PHB), HAWK System or equivalent} where the Bike Trail intersects with 11th, Yale and White Oak Streets. 2. Implementation of a Barnes Dance (Pedestrian Scramble) intersection management plan at 11th Street and Heights Boulevard to ensure that no cars enter and idle in the four-lane boulevard and allow for the safe passage of pedestrians. 3. Installation of a Pedestrian-Operated Signalized Crossing at Studewood and Bayland Streets. We furthermore ask the City of Houston to make these pedestrian safety installations a priority to ensure the protection of our children and all pedestrians.

As someone who frequently crosses with his kids on bikes at the Nicholson/SP Bike Trail, I am proud to say that I have signed this petition and hope you all consider to so at well. Crossing West 11th as an adult pedestrian at any point can be scary enough, but doing it with my kids, who are 12 and 15 and thus somewhat older, is downright terrifying. If I imagine that my kids are younger and on bikes, I start to get extremely nervous at the mere thought.

I would only add that the petition does not go far enough. I would also like to put my $0.02 in to have a signalized intersection put in when the Nicholson/SP trail crosses West 19th. The conversion of the Katy/MKT and SP lines to bike trails as well as the implementation of bike lanes on Heights Boulevard have been the single greatest change to traffic patterns in and around the neighborhood in my 25 years of living here. There are now more families out and about than at any time I can remember. But changes to traffic flow have been slow to materialize to reflect this new reality. There have been many times, especially during vacation times when the kids are home, where my family and I have actively avoided the bike paths in the mornings and evenings at high traffic times simply because crossing West 19th and West 11th are just such dangerous propositions.

Also, adding to the fact that unlike in the past, the Heights is now home to many establishments that sell alcohol, especially on White Oak. I personally believe this is a positive development overall. However, having more alcohol-selling establishments means that at just about any time of the day or night, there will be many, many more drivers who might have had a drink or two (maybe more), and thus who may not be all that alert when driving across a bike trail crossing. The petition mentions a 2011 fatality. Well, it doesn’t take a great deal of imagination, morbid or otherwise, to see that this is going to happen again unless some action is taken.

What the petition calls for is a set of simple and easy-to-implement ideas, putting into place a small ounce pf prevention now in order so there will not a massive tragedy later.

Link to the petition is at http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/safe-walking-and-biking-in-the-heights.html

I urge you not only to sign this, but to get as many people to as well. The life that is eventually saved could be your own.

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