The people who would be most affected by a proposed street closure are trying to quantify the effect of said closure.
Armed with clipboards, pencils and determination, a group of volunteers gathered early Wednesday morning at intersections around the George R. Brown Convention Center — not to protest, but to count.
They’re concerned that the city and Houston First are moving forward with plans to close several streets near the convention center — most notably Polk Street, which volunteers describe as a vital link between the East End and downtown — without releasing timely traffic studies that show how many people actually rely on those routes.
The group believes the public deserves access to that data before any closures move ahead. Instead of waiting for local officials to act, the group is conducting its own study, tallying traffic one mark at a time.
“We are going to stand here and count cars on the different intersections for one hour, and then we’ll take that information and do daily, weekly and yearly estimates,” said People for Polk organizer Amy Erickson.
The public comment period for the Polk Street abandonment closed Thursday. Houston First, TxDOT and other city officials held a public meeting with East End residents in March, a meeting that became contentious as residents voiced frustration over being excluded from the planning process. Many argued that the closures would further complicate mobility, especially for bus riders, cyclists and local businesses already impacted by other major projects.
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Volunteers on Wednesday stood at the intersections of Leeland and Bell, Leeland and Chenevert, Bell and Chenevert, and Polk and Chartres streets. According to Houston First’s design plans, these locations will all be impacted by the convention center’s expansion.
Gabby Gilmore stood at the intersection of Polk and Chartres with a handheld clicker, counting how many cars turned left onto Polk from the highway. She set a timer to count for exactly one hour, from 8 to 9 a.m.
Gilmore, an East End resident, said she frequently uses Polk Street to get home from work and to access downtown — and only recently learned that Polk Street was set to be abandoned.
“I want to get this data and truly understand how this is going to impact not just this community, but everybody that comes into downtown for work,” Gilmore said.
East Downtown resident Robert Grobe stood at the corner of Bell and Chenevert with a clipboard and pencil, tallying cars by hand. Grobe said it’s frustrating that a traffic study won’t be released before the public comment period ends.
“Polk has been a very important part of my daily commute, and I feel like the city has not been forthcoming with all of the information regarding how this will impact us,” Grobe said. “It’s frustrating that they haven’t done this in the last two or three months. They’ve heard residents raise these issues, so it’s something they could have done if they wanted to do it.”
See here and here for some background. I am once again going to refer you to a CityCast Houston episode, in which Chron reporter Ryan Nickerson and People for Polk organizer Amy Erickson describe the situation in a lot more detail than I’ve got the capacity for. I wasn’t as sympathetic to the PfP argument as I might have been before now, but they’ve convinced me. The city needs to find another way. Given how obsessed with the free movement of vehicular traffic our Mayor is you’d think he’d be more hesitant about all this, but not so. Read the story, listen to that podcast, and see if you agree.
When I worked downtown and was coming in via SH-288, Polk Street was the easiest way to get into downtown. For anyone who works on the east side of downtown and comes from the south, I’m not sure how they’ll do it if Polk Street is closed.