Washington Avenue Corridor Study (WACS)

Do you live, visit, or work near the Washington Avenue Corridor? Sign up for project updates.

Additionally, a Stakeholder Committee is being formed this fall for local residents and community leaders to give input as the process continues. If you are interested in participating, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/cTQMWWGz3deB8Nro7

Let's create a better Washington Avenue for all! The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) has established a partnership with The City of Houston to develop a corridor mobility plan for Washington Avenue.

Project Overview

The Washington Avenue Corridor Study (WACS) guides short and long-range transportation reinvestments. It will encourage development of multimodal transportation options, increase safety, improve traffic flow, reduce congestion, and improve air quality. WACS will maintain the historic character of the corridor and foster a thriving, sustainable, and livable neighborhood.

A critical component of this study is safety analysis. The majority of the corridor is considered a component of the City of Houston’s “High Injury Network”. There are limited locations for safe pedestrian crossings along the corridor. The study will conclude with a prioritized list of recommended improvements and implementation strategy. Recommendations will offer equal emphasis on all modes of transportation and offer alternatives prior to final recommendations.

We heard from you!

First Round of Public Engagement:

What are the main issues facing the Washington Corridor today?

The corridor feels unsafe regardless of how people travel.

Providing a safe corridor for everyone was the most important issue. People rolling, moving on foot, biking, riding transit, and driving are unsatisfied with the safety of the corridor, citing unsafe crossings, intersections, sidewalks, and road design as their main concerns for the corridor.

Important connections to ped/bike trails, transit, and major destinations are missing.

Two Bayou trails run parallel to Washington, but don’t connect to the corridor, even where connections would be easy to make. Transfers between bus routes are unclear and lead to missed connections, and major destinations are hard to get to by car due to turning conflicts, at grade railroad crossings, and lack of signalization.

Most buildings lack a strong relationship to the street and places to sit and eat outside.

The lack of interest and the space between sidewalks and buildings makes the corridor less interesting and more exposed to walk along and doesn’t encourage people to interact with each other or shop.

What people imagine for the future of the corridor:

People want to see a thriving, sustainable, livable Washington Corridor.

When asked what people want the corridor to feel like in 2045, they overwhelmingly described a lively, active corridor that feels like a main street or european city, with buildings built closer to the street and wide shaded sidewalks filled with people, places to sit and eat or drink coffee. They also included safety improvements and public transportation.

People want to feel safe.

People moving along and across the Washington Avenue Corridor do not feel comfortable regardless of mode. Most people want to see bike lanes, wider sidewalks, improved crossings, and narrower car lanes. Pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users say comfort is very important, and if every mode of transportation felt equally comfortable, 75% of their driving trips may switch to a different mode. Over 90% of walking trips might switch to biking or taking transit, and almost 80% of bike trips would switch to walking.

People want transportation options.

Many people’s visions for the corridor involve an east-west light rail line or dedicated bus lanes, bike lanes that connect to other bike facilities, bike parking, and reduced car lanes. In the spatial trade-offs activity every participant reduced driving lanes to have better pedestrian, bike, and transit facilities.

People imagine pleasant outdoor common areas.

Shade, buffering from car lanes, seating and outdoor dining become a desired image for the overall avenue. People want to be able to walk the avenue in pleasant public spaces.

Thank you for your comments! In our next round of outreach we will present design alternatives for the Washington Corridor.

For more information on the Washington Avenue existing conditions or to see the presentation from the Public Meeting, click here.

Sign up for project updates! The next public meeting will be in early 2025.