Missing Connections & Detours

You shouldn't have to have secret knowledge to ride a bike safely in Houston.

The Houston Bike Guide helps people find safer routes, but it’s a bandaid.

Gaps in our bike network force riders onto unsafe streets or long detours — the terrible truth is that more people than ever are dying because of Houston's disconnected street network.

This page highlights the missing connections that need to be built — and the best current alternatives for getting around them.

Major Missing Connections

These are the most urgent gaps in the bike network — and the detours riders are using to avoid them.

❌ No direct safe access to Memorial Park from the surrounding neighborhoods.

🟢 Workaround: Enter via Blossom Street at E Memorial Loop

🟢 Workaround: Connect from the heights via I-10 pedestrian bridge on Cohn Street.

❌ Waugh Drive bike lane ends abruptly several blocks before connecting to Buffalo Bayou Trail

🟢 Workaround: Use Buffalo Park Drive under Shepherd to access the bayou

❌ No protected north-south link between Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou Trails west of Downtown

🟢 Workaround: Use Patterson Street

🟢 Workaround: Memorial Heights Dr, Center, Harvard

🟢 Workaround: Silver Street to MKT Trail

❌ No access between West U/Southside Place and Bellaire

🟢 Workaround: Use Braes Bayou to the south.

❌ Few and soon to be fewer safe access points from the East End to Downtown

🟢 Polk Street Bike Lane is useable for now, but will be closed soon.

🟢 Commerce Street is low enough traffic, but it's a large road so it's not ideal.

🟢 (Now closed thanks to the I-45 expansion) Runnels is fairly direct, but it can be high traffic and it has an extremely dangerous crossing of the Freeway on ramp.

🟢 Buffalo Bayou Trail under I-69 is off street, so it's safe from cars - but it can be narrow, dark, has blind curves, and is out of view from the public.