Third in an occasional series

Christopher Williams, on his way to work, just wanted a doughnut. A simple right turn off the frontage road, and he would be in the Shipley parking lot. In the Houston area, it's the type of turn that's common — and often chaotic.

He slowed, pulling in at Uvalde and Interstate 10 on the city's far east side.

The next thing Williams knew, he was in the parking lot of the Conn's appliance store next door, his 2005 Chevy Malibu smoking from the hood, back windshield shattered and a fire hydrant pressed to his front bumper.

Christopher Williams was involved in a hit-and-run accident while driving to work June 19, 2017, on Interstate 10 westbound near Uvalde Road. Williams said he was pulling into a parking lot when he was struck from behind at high speed. (Godofredo A. Vasquez | Houston Chronicle)

Police wrote up the June 2017 crash as a hit-and-run. Critics of the region's highway and street design write it off as yet another example of poor choices over the past half-century that still trouble area drivers — sometimes with disastrous results.

The tight curves of older freeway intersections such as Loop 610 and Interstate 69 northeast of downtown, for example, force motorists to lean on the brakes to avoid a barrier or railing. In the merge lanes along frontage roads parallel to Interstate 10, veteran drivers know that a speeding car could suddenly appear from any direction. Spots along Westheimer and FM 1960 have morphed into a string of shopping center entrances, crossed by streets pocked by potholes and sloppy asphalt patches that mimic motocross ramps.

Many of those design decisions, made decades ago, were aimed at reducing crashes, but some are adding to the severity of wrecks that still occur. Some think the design calculations need to get back to basics.

"I will trade a dented fender and wheel for a dented body," said Gary Schatz, former deputy director of Austin's transportation department, who's now in private practice redesigning roads to improve safety.

The nine-county region is the most deadly major metro area in the country for drivers, passengers and people in their path, a Houston Chronicle analysis shows. Speed and impaired driving lead the list of reasons, but data shows that more than one-quarter of fatal wrecks occur at intersections, such as the one where Williams was injured.

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Most everyone in the Houston area has that spot they abhor.

Sometimes the trouble spots are plagued by age-old problems: dangerous curves or blind turns on roads handling far more traffic than intended. That's what Dane Manuel contends with along Grant Road east of Cypress, where he estimates drivers travel 20-30 mph over the speed limit, only to slam on their brakes at a tight turn.

Sometimes it's the chaotic weave on and off the region's interstates, a design state highway officials created with frontage roads. Local leaders make things worse by supporting entrances and exits to all sorts of shops and dining spots. It's the condition that almost cost Williams his life and causes white-knuckled driving across the region.

Sometimes it's the failure to keep a road in decent condition, such as the utility repair on Richmond, west of Post Oak near the Galleria, that forces drivers in the center lane of traffic to choose between hitting the brakes or launching the front end of their vehicle off the ground.

"We remain dangerous because we are not fixing it," said Jay Crossley, former executive director of Houston Tomorrow, which advocates for pedestrian and transit improvements. "Most Texans have not driven on a safe street, a truly safe street that considers everyone's needs."

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Slowing drivers down

Drivers cause the majority of crashes, but there's increasing awareness that design can help them make better decisions.

Engineers can design curves to remove tight turns and still slow drivers down. Where practical, they can give drivers and others, such as cyclists and those using wheelchairs, a little more space. Using data, they can start to solve the worst problems first.

From 2012 through 2016, 37 percent of crashes in the nine-county region occurred at intersections, and more than a quarter of fatalities. State and local officials acknowledge they need to seriously consider how roads embolden drivers' bad habits — and how to do it without dropping traffic speeds to a crawl.

"At intersections, we can do some things to calm people down, and we continually try to do those things," said Jeff Weatherford, deputy director of Houston Public Works. "The biggest thing is, and it is something I don't have an answer for, is how are we going to get people to slow down."

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On local streets, such as many in the Heights, city officials can install speed bumps and slow everyone safely. That cannot happen, however, on major streets such as Alabama. Instead, planners have proposed narrowing the street and adding bike lanes, which has been cheered by some residents and opposed by others.

Outside Loop 610, where major roads are even wider, a bike lane or two won't do much, and adding obstructions such as curves or grassy medians potentially does more harm than good. Usually, engineers in Texas try to get things out of drivers' way.

"We design to reduce risk, giving that driver a chance to be forgiven," said Mark Marek, former director of engineering and safety operations for the Texas Department of Transportation.

Officials, however, concede some people take that extra room as permission to put their foot on the gas.

"We know the unfortunate decisions that people make," said TxDOT Executive Director James Bass. "We need to design for how people drive."

Plans for the $7 billion rebuild of Interstate 45 take much of that thinking into consideration. The project removes many of the downtown freeway system's tightest turns and mergers, which TxDOT and consultants have said lead to crashes and traffic.

But making it easier to maneuver through a curve has a downside if people abuse it on freeways and major streets, transportation officials said.

"If you have a road you want to be 40 mph, and design all your curves at 50 mph, then you've designed a road to go 50 mph," said Bill Stockton, a senior researcher with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute who leads the agency's coordination efforts with TxDOT.

Growing pains

If Houston's freeway history has one constant, it is perpetual construction. Longtime locals often joke that construction on Interstate 45 between Houston and Galveston never really ended since the first segment opened in 1952. By the time it is widened to Galveston, it's time to add a few lanes in Houston.

Still, highway segments can last for years, and they are based on designs that are outdated and overwhelmed by the region's growth. The ramps at Loop 610 and Interstate 69, for example, are sharper than current standards would allow. Built in 1979, the interchange was rehabilitated in 1999, but the tight curves remain.

City streets often stay the same for years, too. Those rebuilt in the past decade, however, have been remade with new thinking. Wider sidewalks were added along Shepherd as part of a massive rebuild. When it rebuilt Scott and Harrisburg for its light rail lines, Metropolitan Transit Authority and the city took pedestrian and bike use into consideration.

But Houston alone has 16,000 miles of streets, and not all of them can be redesigned in a generation.

A lot of those roadways carry more traffic than ever imagined, with the only solution often adding lanes but not fundamentally changing the street. Gessner, long a major street in northwest Houston, has been widened or repaired numerous times, including widening in the past decade north of Interstate 10.

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It also has developed a reputation as a dangerous place to drive. From 2014 to 2018, two people were killed and 10 were injured seriously there.

Yet in 2015, residents revolted when Houston officials proposed to widen Gessner from Richmond to Buffalo Bayou to at least three lanes in each direction — similar to the design north of the freeway — and to add medians in many places to limit turns.

The residents said intersections where drivers dart out without a traffic light were necessary so they could conveniently get in and out of residential areas south of Memorial City Mall near Briar Forest. Others balked at the widening altogether, saying officials should route traffic somewhere else.

Often, any change is met with resistance.

In 2005, to stem rising crashes at intersections along Texas 6 at Westheimer and Bellaire, TxDOT suggested separating the roads with an overpass. Businesses balked and took their concerns to state lawmakers. The project was cut back to better medians and turn lanes, which records show may have slowed the growth in crashes.

Still, critics note Houston's status quo isn't good enough. Other cities that have aggressively tackled problem spots have seen better results.

"The point is, a lot more people are going to die before it changes," Crossley said.

'It's rough out there'

Many Texans know how to two-step, but it's not the only dance with the state's stamp. Accessing most any freeway in the Houston region requires the frontage road weave.

A line of cars waits to turn from Memorial City Mall to the eastbound I-10 frontage road on a Thursday evening. Traffic is heavy, but not jammed. One by one, the drivers make their move, racing left to make the ramp.

Other drivers are darting from the freeway, some not slowing down much. Many are pushing their way right in anticipation of the next interchange or entrance to the gas station.

When the process works properly, drivers experience a smooth transition to the left and right, state transportation officials say. But the constant conflict of traffic as people jockey for position puts many in a mindset more akin to racing than commuting.

That chaotic convergence is producing a growing casualty count. In 2010, there were 41 fatal crashes along frontage roads in the Houston region. By 2014, the number had increased to 53. Last year, there were a record 62. Nine percent of fatal crashes in the region occur on these major arteries.

Christopher Williams, along I-10 at Uvalde, probably was going 25 as he turned. The driver of the white SUV that smashed his vehicle never stopped. He likely was going 50 or 60 in a 45-mph zone, according to the police report and people who pulled Williams from his car.

"I'm just lucky that the worst thing that happened to me was a sore back and a headache," Williams said. He noted that his 18-month-old son could have been in the back seat.

It's unlikely that anyone will ever track down the hit-and-run driver, who was driving a new white Ford Explorer that was able to keep going after plowing Williams out of its way. His best hope, without collision insurance, is to sell the rest of his mangled car for parts and buy another, he said.

"I've been thinking about going back to an SUV," Williams said, adding that whatever he buys, he'll install dash cams in hopes of identifying any driver who hits him and leaves the scene.

Lessons from the crash have crept into his driving habits.

"I'm definitely more cautious now," he said. "I'm looking in my rearview mirror constantly."

Sometimes, slowing to turn makes him anxious. Even speaking of it, he draws a deep breath.

"It's just rough out there."

TELL US YOUR STORY: Want to weigh in on the design of Houston's roads?

Frontage roads are mostly a Texas design, setting Houston and Dallas apart from their major metro peers. TxDOT built them around the state to solve the problem of putting freeways through cities and suburban areas in a way that controlled access.

The way to any freeway entrance is easy to figure out, because it's just down the frontage road. The roads also are designed to slow drivers as they exit the interstate and re-enter local streets.

Texas is likely to stick with such designs. But Bass — who oversees TxDOT — said there is certainly room for state and local officials to decide where they should and should not be used.

"That's also a matter of public involvement," he said. "If some community was to say 'We don't want them,' we would certainly take that into account."

That's rarely happening, however, as frontage roads become a part of the fabric of suburban life in growing Houston.

Along I-45, TxDOT has spent six years, and is poised to spend at least six more, widening the freeway and creating three-lane frontage roads most of the way from the Sam Houston Tollway to Texas City. In Sugar Land, where Interstate 69 was widened, the city's major exit to the Town Center includes overhead message signs along the frontage road — which balloons to seven lanes southbound — simply to help drivers move into the correct lane, much like a freeway intersection.

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Many communities have embraced the roads and lined them with entrances and exits, adding more places where automobiles can turn in and out — and adding to the places where a crash could occur.

Marek, who led TxDOT's statewide safety efforts, concedes that "every time we reduce a conflict point it reduces risk."

But Texas cities do not support building frontage roads and then telling property owners they cannot add entrances to gas stations, restaurants and shopping centers.

"They see it as an economic development tool," Marek said.

Too much, too fast

Many fatal wrecks are clustered on once-sleepy farm-to-market roads that have transformed into major thoroughfares, a change driven by suburban growth. That leaves drivers going the posted speed limit of 60 mph behind people hitting the brakes to turn into residential developments or businesses.

FM 1960, which runs 47 miles from U.S. 290 to Dayton in the northeast part of the region, logged 95 deaths from 2010 through 2017. Other major FM roads, such as FM 2920, FM 521 and FM 1093 — also known as Westheimer Road in Houston — had fewer than half as many fatal crashes.

FM 1960, in many respects, is quintessential Houston: nearly bursting at the seams with businesses, traffic growing too quickly to be offset by redesigning the street or corralling commercial development. The road then meanders into the marshy woods of East Texas.

It handles more than 60,000 vehicles a day around its crossings with other major highways and roads in the metro area. Multiple restaurant and shopping center entrances have vehicles coming from all directions, jockeying for the correct lanes at the 73 stoplights between U.S. 290 and Atascocita northeast of Houston.

Thousands of drivers make their way along a road that grew too fast and became a road where people go too fast. Speed limits fluctuate from 35 mph to 55 mph.

Michael White has lived for 18 months in an apartment off FM 1960 near Willowbrook Mall.

"I don't ever use the fast lane; you'll get pushed out of it for doing the speed limit," he said over coffee, eager to talk of his close calls.

There was the time a jacked-up pickup turned into a fried chicken place not from the slow lane, but the lane next to it. There was the guy who raced past White, got in front of him and slammed on his brakes. Or the Sunday that motorcyclists weaved back and forth, slowing traffic to a crawl so their friends could do trick riding ahead.

"I thought someone would get shot," White said.

Instead, people are getting killed and injured in crashes. On a map of FM 1960, the locations of the 95 fatal wrecks gather in tight little clusters in some spots and then spread out in others.

In 2016 and 2017, there were 31 fatal crashes, a new two-year high. Seven wrecks claimed lives east of Interstate 69, along with seven more from I-69 to Hardy Toll Road. Five fatal crashes dot the map between the Hardy and I-45. Five more came west of I-45 to Texas 249.

Last December, near Greenbrook, just west of the Hardy Toll Road, Parcal Dixon, 45, veered his SUV into oncoming traffic and slammed almost head-on into Sylvanus Ugo's sligtly smaller SUV. Dixon was killed and Ugo, 59, seriously injured, according to police reports.

De-facto Freeways

Along other major streets, people have similar stories of tragedy or close calls in spots where multiple lanes make maneuvering on the street an obstacle. Westheimer Road, which starts as a four-lane road in the clogged Midtown area, opens wider farther west. The distance between traffic lights gets longer and curves less frequent.

At intersections near Voss and Sage, in one of the most crowded three-mile stretches of the road, Westheimer spreads to 10 lanes, some dedicated to left and right turns. Those many movements come in spots surrounded by countless stores and strip centers with multiple entrances and exits from the street.

In some places, the street carries around 74,000 vehicles a day, according to Houston Public Works. That's more cars and trucks than Interstate 10 east of Baytown.

Bumpy road to safety

Many Houston streets are in lousy shape. That can cause drivers to stop, or to swerve to avoid a deep pothole. It can also slow drivers down. Many Houston streets are in lousy shape. That can cause drivers to stop, or to swerve to avoid a deep pothole. It can also slow drivers down. A sampling of conditions that can cause trouble:

■ Tire-swallowing potholes that send many bouncing into another lane.

■ Faded lane lines that some drivers misinterpret as ownership of two lanes.

■ Debris or overgrown grass that blocks a driver's view.

■ Merge lanes where the plastic poles meant to keep people in their lanes were knocked down long ago.

■ Poor drainage that turns a road into a creek in a steady rain.

■ Drivers say poorly maintained streets make for dangerous ones. Steven Slater, 27, is certain that conditions in his Fourth Ward neighborhood north of Gray Street contribute to crashes.

"I cannot tell you how many times someone will stop or just drive into oncoming traffic because of the road," said Slater, a 10-year Houston resident.

Narrow roads such as Westheimer near downtown — where many refuse to even drive in the slow lane because of its condition — force large vehicles such as buses to use both lanes. Metropolitan Transit Authority, in fact, instructs its drivers along Westheimer to straddle for safety.

But Westheimer, for all the traffic it carries along its entire route, has more accidents and more severe accidents outside Loop 610, where it is newer and wider.

Jay Crossley, former executive director of Houston Tomorrow, says bad conditions can have a positive effect.

"(Lower) Westheimer is a very safe street right now," Crossley said, "because of the potholes."



Westheimer averages nearly four fatal crashes annually between Loop 610 and Texas 6, where the road's volumes are heaviest.

It is an artery that carries Houston's lifeblood: Residents live out west, work near downtown, or vice versa, commuting through a maze of traffic lights, lane changes and hectic traffic, all the while straining against a 40-mph speed limit.

Though thought of as local street, outside Loop 610 Westheimer is really FM 1093, where TxDOT shares some oversight with the city. It's the 42nd-most congested highway in Texas, according to TxDOT.

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"The intent isn't for Westheimer to be a freeway," Weatherford said. "It has de facto become that way. The question becomes: Is six lanes that (are that) wide, where people can go that kind of speed, too big?"

Along Westheimer outside Loop 610, the constant center lane and left turns posed a major problem not only for traffic but for safety. So TxDOT, with some controversy, added long medians to separate eastbound and westbound traffic to limit sudden turns in 2005.

Now traffic certainly flows better — but also faster. Vehicles race from intersection to intersection knowing they have straight shots.

The jury is still out on the medians. Some fear that as officials press for better pedestrian and bicycling options and the number of vehicles increase, the median-lined streets create huge conflicts at intersections, where turn lanes can send cars from any direction across walkers and cyclists with the right of way. The medians also embolden people to press the accelerator, confident nothing is turning in their way.

Marek says the median didn't remove the biggest design challenge along Westheimer: Nothing engineers can do will allow the road to handle the current volume of traffic safely when drivers continue to speed.

"We can control the turning movement, but you're still going to have the idiot who isn't going to slow down," he said.

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Dug Begley is the transportation writer for the Houston Chronicle. Contact him at dug.begley@chron.com. Follow him on Twitter @DugBegley.

Multimedia by Mark Mulligan, Godofredo Vasquez and Annie Mulligan

Graphics by Rachael Gleason and Charles Apple

Design by Rachael Gleason

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