W. Alabama

Another safety improvement project gets Whitmire’d.

The revised plan presented by the Montrose TIRZ on June 23, 2025 removes traffic calming included in the original plan from 2022. The Mayor’s special aide, Marlene Gafrick, who has no credentials as a planner, has taken her red pen to another project to make it worse.

And it’s going to cost $81,000 more but you never hear the city mention this.

Gafrick has removed the bike lane in order to put 12 foot car lanes through our neighborhood. Freeways have 12 foot car lanes, not inner city streets.

As a former planning director, Gafrick knows but choses to ignore the prevailing standard across the U.S. for car lanes within cities. Houston is a member of the North American Cities and Transit Agencies (NATCO):

Lanes greater than 11 feet should not be used as they may cause unintended speeding and assume valuable right-of -way at the expense of other modes.

Restrictive policies that favor the use of wider travel lanes have no place in constrained urban settings, where every foot counts. Research has shown that narrower lane widths can effectively manage speeds without decreasing safety and that wider lanes do not correlate to safer streets. Moreover, wider travel lanes also increase exposure and crossing distance for pedestrians at inter-sections and midblock crossings.

As a former planning director, Gafrick knows there are many streets and sidewalks where it’s not safe to walk and roll. W. Alabama is on the High Injury Network. The bad faith from the city is gross:

“Bicyclists have the option to ride in the general mobility lanes or on the sidewalks," she added.

Contact the Montrose TIRZ at info@montrosehtx.org to let them know the community does not support this plan.

A infographic showing the history of crashes on W Alabama from 2018 to 2024, with 491 crashes involving various vehicles, at a rate of one crash every 4.5 days. The highest crash density areas are near St. Thomas, HEB, and Trader Joe's. The infographic includes a map with crash density heat spots along West Alabama, from Trader Joe's to the east near the 69 highway, indicating areas with lower to higher crash density.