Houston's pedestrian and bicycle crash hotspots

Houston recorded 98 pedestrian deaths in 2023, the third-highest total of any U.S. city that year, behind only Los Angeles (145) and Phoenix (109), and ahead of New York City (85), according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.¹ Nationally, 7,314 pedestrians died and another 68,244 were injured that year.¹ Statewide, Texas recorded 768 pedestrian deaths and 78 pedalcyclist deaths in 2024, declines of about 5% and 26% from the year before, according to TxDOT's own crash records.² Harris County didn't share in that improvement: 2,806 people walking or biking were struck by vehicles here in 2024, an average of more than 54 crashes a week, or roughly one person hit every three hours.³ Nearly a quarter of those crashes, 662 of them, involved a death or a suspected serious injury.³

None of this is spread evenly across the city. Houston's Vision Zero program has mapped what it calls the High Injury Network: just 6% of city streets where 60% of all crashes resulting in serious injury or death happen.⁴ More than half of those streets run through low-income and otherwise vulnerable neighborhoods, where walking or biking is often the only affordable way to reach work, school, or a bus stop.⁵

Westheimer Road: the corridor federal data flagged as the country's worst

One road keeps surfacing in every dataset: Westheimer. A Washington Post investigation published in November 2025, built on NHTSA crash records from 2021 through 2023, ranked a 3.5-mile stretch of Westheimer Road first in the entire country for pedestrian deaths in that span, with 19 people killed.⁶ LINK Houston's own count found more than 1,100 people involved in crashes on just a single mile of that corridor over seven years.⁵ The danger isn't abstract. On the morning of November 21, 2025, a 73-year-old woman was struck and killed near the 9500 block of Westheimer after stepping into the road; a second driver reportedly ran over her and left without stopping.⁷

TxDOT has a fix planned. Its Houston District intends to install updated crosswalk striping designed to visually narrow the travel lanes, plus new midblock crossings, along FM 1093/Westheimer from I-610 to SH 6, though the project isn't scheduled to be let for construction until 2027.¹

Westheimer isn't the only Houston corridor on the Post's list. A 6.3-mile stretch of FM 1960 ranked fourth nationally for the same 2021-2023 window, with 11 pedestrian deaths.⁶ Both roads share a pattern common across the High Injury Network: wide, high-speed arterials where signalized crosswalks sit up to a mile apart, which pushes people into midblock crossings against fast-moving traffic.⁶

The intersections that keep showing up

LINK Houston's review of TxDOT crash data flagged a specific set of intersections as priorities for pedestrian and bicycle fixes:^{5 8}

• West Street at Airline Drive
• Fannin Street at Pierce Street
• Washington Avenue at Patterson Street
• 11th Street at Nicholson Street
• Bellaire Boulevard at Ranchester Drive, and at Gessner Road
• Long Point Road at Gessner Road
• Taylor Street at Spring Street and the MKT Trail
• Shepherd Drive at Allen Parkway, and at Memorial Parkway
• Hawthorne Street at Spur 527 and at Holman Street
• Fondren Road at West Bellfort Avenue
• Bissonnet Street at Wilcrest Drive

By council district, LINK Houston's analysis found District H, covering the Near Northside and Independence Heights, had the most pedestrian and cyclist deaths, followed by Districts B and D on the city's north and southeast sides.⁵

What's working, and what just got undone

Where Houston has rebuilt streets under Vision Zero, the numbers move. A 2021 redesign of Bagby Street between Clay and Franklin cut injury crashes 75% and total crashes 45%.⁹ Gray Street from Bagby to Hamilton dropped injury crashes 34% after a 2019 rebuild, and Hillcroft Avenue between High Star and Westward cut injury crashes 27% after a 2021 project.⁹ Across every corridor the city has redesigned under Vision Zero, injury crashes are down 26% and total crashes down 19% on average, and the city reports zero fatalities to date on its protected bike lanes.⁹

That progress hasn't bent the citywide trend. Houston logged 301 traffic deaths in 2024, its deadliest year on record and 29 more than 2023, breaking the previous high of 295 set in 2021, even though the city's stated goal is zero traffic deaths by 2030.^{10 4}

One of the city's own success stories got reversed in the meantime. The protected, two-way bike lane on Austin Street in Midtown, running from Buffalo Bayou Park toward Houston Community College, was built around 2020 with roughly $2 million from Harris County Precinct One.¹¹ In late March 2025, Mayor John Whitmire's administration removed the concrete barriers separating cyclists from traffic, citing a need for firefighter training space at Fire Station No. 7, a justification the previous mayor publicly disputed.¹¹ Advocates pointed to riders like Douglas Gallardo Jr., struck by a truck while riding in an unprotected lane on nearby Lamar Street in 2024, as the kind of crash protected barriers are meant to prevent.¹¹ After public pushback, the city promised to restore a dedicated northbound lane, but as of April 2026 the rebuilt corridor was still unfinished and running over its original budget.¹²

If you're hit while walking or biking in Houston

Texas law gives injured pedestrians and cyclists two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit, under the general limitations period for injury claims, Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003(a).¹³ Get medical care right away even if you feel fine; some injuries, especially head and soft-tissue injuries, don't show symptoms for days. Ask the responding Houston Police Department or Harris County Sheriff's Office officer for the crash report number, and request a copy of the Texas Peace Officer's Crash Report, form CR-3, once TxDOT processes it, which typically takes 7 to 14 days and costs $6 for a standard copy or $8 for a certified one.¹⁴ Photograph the scene itself: crosswalk markings, signal timing, sightlines, and any missing infrastructure, since road design is often central to these cases given how many of Houston's worst crash sites trace back to the same handful of arterials. If you're not sure where to start, the legal directory can help you find an attorney who handles pedestrian and bicycle injury cases in the Houston area.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. KPRC Click2Houston, "Houston records third-highest pedestrian deaths in the nation, federal data shows," Nov. 28, 2025: https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2025/11/28/houston-records-third-highest-pedestrian-deaths-in-the-nation-federal-data-shows/

2. TxDOT, "Pedestrian and Pedalcyclist Injuries and Crashes 2024": https://www.txdot.gov/content/dam/docs/division/trf/crash-records/2024/07.pdf

3. A Tale of Two Bridges, "2,806 People Struck While Walking or Biking in Harris County Last Year": https://atotb.org/blog/2806-people-struck-while-walking-or-biking-in-harris-county-last-year-more-than-54-crashes-every-week-one-victim-every-3-hours/

4. City of Houston, Vision Zero: https://www.houstontx.gov/visionzero/

5. Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University, "It's Time to Fix Houston's Dangerous Pedestrian and Bicycle Infrastructure": https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/its-time-fix-houstons-dangerous-pedestrian-and-bicycle-infrastructure

6. KPRC Click2Houston, "This Houston road ranks highest in pedestrian deaths in America between 2021 and 2023," Nov. 20, 2025: https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2025/11/20/this-houston-road-ranks-highest-in-pedestrian-deaths-in-america-between-2021-and-2023/

7. KPRC Click2Houston, "73-year-old woman killed on Westheimer Road days after being named in 'Deadliest Roads in America'," Nov. 21, 2025: https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2025/11/21/73-year-old-woman-killed-on-westheimer-road-days-after-being-named-in-deadliest-roads-in-america/

8. ABC13 Houston, "Houston's Vision Zero project reveals Houston's most dangerous streets," Feb. 12, 2021: https://abc13.com/houston-dangerous-roads-intersections-most-in-top-10/10329688/

9. City of Houston Planning and Development Department, Vision Zero press release, Dec. 11, 2023: https://www.houstontx.gov/planning/pressrelease-20231211.html

10. Houston Public Media, "Houston traffic fatalities rose to record numbers in 2024 as city lags on previous Vision Zero goals," Feb. 3, 2025: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/transportation/2025/02/03/512816/houston-traffic-fatalities-rose-to-record-numbers-in-2024-as-city-lags-on-pervious-vision-zero-goals/

11. ABC13 Houston, "City of Houston paying to remove bike lanes in Midtown, which Harris County paid for": https://abc13.com/post/city-houston-paying-remove-bike-lanes-midtown-harris-county-paid/16116864/

12. Axios Houston, "Austin Street project cost more than expected, and it's behind schedule," April 7, 2026: https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2026/04/07/houston-austin-street-redesign-delay

13. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003, Two-Year Limitations Period: https://law.justia.com/codes/texas/civil-practice-and-remedies-code/title-2/subtitle-b/chapter-16/subchapter-a/section-16-003/

14. TxDOT, Crash Reports and Records, forms for law enforcement (CR-91/CR-3): https://www.txdot.gov/data-maps/crash-reports-records/forms-law-enforcement.html