In just a 30-day period, three people have been killed on their bikes in the city of Houston.

On Sept. 9, a man on his bicycle was killed crossing the Southwest Freeway between Hillcroft and Bellaire. On Sept. 21, Troy Stogner was struck and killed by a vehicle traveling on the feeder road of I-10. On Oct. 7, Taisheonna Kennedy was hit from behind by an SUV traveling northbound on the feeder of the East Sam Houston Parkway.

Three dead in 30 days — a bitter reminder of the work that remains for the city to protect bicyclists from speeds and road conditions designed exclusively for cars and trucks.

GRAY MATTERS: Houston is hell on cyclists and pedestrians. We can change that.

In March, City Council adopted the Houston Bike Plan. For many bicyclists, it was the first time since the early 1990s, when the first bike plan was passed, that we felt heard. The plan, which includes many of the city's major thoroughfares, is a testament to the different ways people ride their bikes. Many of us ride for recreation, but we also use our bikes as a vehicle for transportation.

Though the bayou greenways are natural gems and make up much of the off-road network for Houstonians, our needs as bicyclists go beyond these trails and onto the streets of the city. There is no bayou greenway that runs north from Montrose into the Heights. Or south from downtown to the Medical Center. Houston's bicyclists need Houston's streets to be safer.

The Gulfton neighborhood is a perfect example of a community who uses its bikes for utility more than leisure. Gulfton residents use their bikes to get to work, to access health care and to get to school.

POP-UP BIKE LANE What: Pop-up bike lane at Sunday Streets in Gulfton Where: Bellaire Blvd. near Atwell Dr. When: Sunday, Nov. 5, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Click here for more information about Sunday Streets; click here if you'd like to volunteer to help build the bike lane

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When the City announced that a Cigna Sunday Streets event would be held in Gulfton, we recognized the opportunity to make a statement about safe streets. We're going to build a pop-up bike lane to raise awareness of the need for better bike infrastructure and to demonstrate design possibilities.

GRAY MATTERS: How to make Houston streets safer: Enough talk. More infrastructure.

This bike lane will be a poignant reminder of the three recent fatalities, since it will be located just a mile from where the bicyclist, whose name has not been released, was killed on Sept. 9.

This temporary installation will give a community that relies on its bikes for practical transportation a chance to experience the kind of bicycle infrastructure that Houston needs but is sorely lacking. And it is also a call to action to our elected officials to implement and fund the bike plan in order to make streets safer for the most vulnerable road users.

Across the country, this type of demonstration is known as tactical urbanism. Activists in Texas cities like San Antonio, Austin and Dallas have taken it upon themselves to implement, and therefore suggest, improvements to the built environment that urge a shift away, ever so slightly, from car-only design.

In Austin, community members transformed a street for the day with wooden risers, cones and chalk to slow traffic in a dense residential neighborhood where children often play.

In San Antonio, activists calling themselves the San Antonio Department of Transformation used toilet plungers and paint to improve safety at a notoriously dangerous intersection.

Though meant to be temporary, these demonstrations ask: What if they were permanent? What if we always built our streets this way? What if we weren't satisfied with the way we currently are forced to get around our cities?

As Houston recovers from Harvey, it's time to rethink the way we build. We can't continue with business as usual as our community members lose their lives.

Jessica Wiggins is the advocacy director for BikeHouston.

Bookmark Gray Matters. It uses toilet plungers and paint.