6 person fatality involving red light runner in Midtown

In light of the 6 person fatality overnight, I did something I never do. Write the Chiefs of Police an email about my concerns over midtown drivers. Here's what I wrote:

Dear Chiefs Finner, Rosen, and Aaron of HPD, HCCO1, and HCCO7:

I’m writing to you as a midtown resident and native Houstonian to express my concern about the dangerous driving around midtown. I’ve lived and visited all around Houston and I can confidently say I’ve never observed drivers as aggressive, reckless, and downright flippant towards traffic laws as I have in midtown. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve observed drivers run red lights, drive at excessive speeds, nearly plow down pedestrians making a swift turn without stopping, disregarding cyclist’s right of way on Gray and nearly running them over, nearly plowing down pedestrians in crosswalks, nearly side-swiping cyclists, etc. I’ve seen collisions that you wouldn’t imagine any prudent driver even capable of making, like slamming into the back of a car at 45 mph making a turn on Bagby or running a light at Caroline and Webster and taking out the traffic light post in a 30 mph zone.

I believe the reason why midtown attracts such awful driving is that for most it’s simply a zone of transition. For people getting to work downtown, going to the bars at night, getting onto and off I-45, etc. The 6 person fatality we just observed overnight at Fannin and Pierce is no surprise to me but I hope it activates greater traffic enforcement in the area.

A few months ago following a shooting near Main and Gray, HPD stepped up and cleaned the area of vagrants in miraculous fashion. Every single day I saw HPD officers diligently patrol that area. I ask that HPD, HCCO1, and HCCO7 please step up enforcement on traffic. Traffic is such low hanging fruit, if patrol officers watch people break traffic laws and do nothing, people begin to lose respect for the law. I’m sure you have your own internal reports you’ll reference for hotspots, but I can suggest the following streets in greatest need of enforcement:

· All along Gray street

· All along Bagby street

· All along Webster

· All along the five lane dragstrips (Louisiana, Travis, Smith, Fannin, etc.)

I see a ton of law enforcement presence in this area. But I rarely see them pulling cars over. So much is invested in the walkable and bikeable infrastructure of midtown but all that goes to waste when drivers place everyone else in danger. I urge you guys to please step-up enforcement on traffic crimes. This area is in desperate need of it.

Not sure how much input they get from citizens on traffic, but I'm really hoping we see more traffic enforcement in light of the tragedy overnight.

UPDATE: I’ve forwarded this email to ABC13, KHOU, and Click2Houston. I’ll update this thread if I receive a response from LE or the news.