As part of Houston-Galveston Area Council’s Special Districts Program, Greenway Plaza was identified as an area of Houston where there are significant opportunities to replace vehicle trips with pedestrian and bicycle travel. Steer was appointed to analyse needs and barriers to pedestrian and bicycle mobility and identify prioritised, costed infrastructure improvements.
Our design team carried out site analysis and stakeholder engagement events to understand existing issues, and identify opportunities to create walkable and bikeable neighbourhoods around Greenway Plaza. Working with stakeholders to ‘re-imagine’ and ‘re-invent’ existing public and private spaces a series of interrelated concepts were developed, which will ultimately help improve accessibility and the quality of the urban realm for all.
Ten locations for interventions were identified. These included a new protected bicycle corridor on Buffalo Speedway, a Complete Streets redesign for Timmons Lane, an off-street multi-use green trail, an integrated wayfinding system for the area, a bicycle hub, and the conversion of parking spaces in local strip malls to parklets and pocket spaces. The interventions were focused on improving safety and facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. The study included prioritisation of projects, potential implementing entities, and funding sources.