Last month, the Houston Chronicle posted some shocking numbers: At least 23 bike riders have been killed on city streets in the past five years.
Those deaths directly conflict with a pro-biking culture that the city is trying to promote. Initiatives such as Houston Bike Share and various trail expansions have encouraged residents to explore and commute on their two wheelers. And the city is only going to get more bike-friendly in the future — the Bayou Greenways 2020 projects aims to creating a continuous city system of 150 miles of parks and trails along Houston’s bayous, the Complete Streets approach will incorporate all types of transportation onto city streets, and Sunday Streets HTx already shuts off certain streets to vehicles for safe pedestrian and biker enjoyment.
Mayor Annise D. Parker hopes to keep those current and future bikers safe by eliminating cycling fatalities. Her effort —the “Goal Zero” program for bike safety — was announced on March 25, following the example of New York City and San Francisco.
According to a press release from the Mayor’s office, education and laws are key to the plan. “Mayor Annise Parker today announced the City and BikeHouston are joining forces to launch a major bike safety campaign to enforce and educate motorists and cyclists about the existing Safe Passing Ordinance, as well as create a Bicycle Master Plan for the City,” the statement read.
The first step will be tighter traffic law enforcement. As most drivers know, cyclists are expected to follow the same stop sign and traffic light laws as cars. Parker stated in the press release that the Houston Police Department will keep both sides in check by ticketing drivers who violate the new Safe Passing Ordinance (which requires a space of three feet between bike and car) and cyclists that disregard traffic laws.
“Whether on a bike or behind the wheel, we have to abide by the rules of the road and learn how to share the road safely,” Parker said. “Unfortunately, a spate of recent bicycle fatalities on Houston streets indicates there is much work to be done in this area. As a first step, I am dedicating $50,000 toward the cost of a Bicycle Master Plan that will guide our future decisions regarding placement of dedicated on-street bike lanes and infrastructure.”
In February, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio introduced a Vision Zero plan geared toward eliminating all traffic deaths, while San Francisco’s WalkFirst plan, introduced earlier this month, aims to safeguard the city’s most dangerous intersections for pedestrians. Though their effects still have yet to be seen, greater awareness and care among drivers, bikers, and walkers, can only promote safety. With biking becoming an increasingly popular mode of transportation in cities around the country, these measures will likely continue to see copycats like Houston.
Tag: Houston
The State That’s Actually Hiring Teachers and Paying Them More
Following the 2008 recession, landing a stable career in the teaching profession didn’t look as promising as it once did, due to cuts in educational spending and layoffs. But now, with the country’s economy rebounding, hiring is on the rise. And it appears that search for teaching talent is no more evident than in the state of Texas.
As the Associated Press reports, after restoring $3.9 billion of the $5.4 billion it had cut from education funding in 2011, the Lone Star State is looking to stock up on teaching staff. And here’s the best part: Some districts (particularly in Houston) are offering starting salaries for entry-level teachers at $50,000 or above.
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According to the AP, Texas is focusing on attracting teachers who are certified to teach bilingual classes, special education, and high school science and math. In fact, at the Aldine Independent School District in Harris County where the majority of students are Hispanic, the starting salary for a bilingual teacher is $54,500. Statewide, the minimum teaching salary is $27,320 while the average salary is about $49,300 — that includes salaries for educators who have been teaching for years or have advanced degrees.
It’s a sad fact that many of our country’s teachers — the men and women whom we trust to provide our children with an education — make less than a personal trainer does. Currently, the average teacher in the United States makes about $49,000 a year, with many making much less. The New York Times reported in 2011 that to make ends meet, 62 percent of teachers have to have jobs outside of the classroom.
If the country wants to get serious about educating the next generation, it can start by retaining and attracting the best teachers. And if it means giving them more money for their hard work, it’s a price this country should be willing to pay.
These Engineering Students Turned a Simple Assignment Into Two Years of Hard Work, Innovation and Kindness
In their first year as engineering students at Rice University, Nimish Mittal, Matthew Najoomi and Sergio Gonzales were assigned to build a device that solved a local person’s problem. They soon learned about Dee Faught, a 17-year-old suffering from osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease. And after meeting him at Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Houston, they began designing a mobile robotic arm he could use to do simple things that were impossible for his own hands, such as turning on a light or picking up an object. The project turned out to be a major challenge. “We hit a ton of roadblocks,” Gonzales told Joe Palca of NPR, but when the class ended, the team knew they couldn’t give up. Two years later, after working on the project in their free time, the students gave the robotic arm to Faught, who immediately began using it to perform simple tasks. After this success, the engineers plan to continue using their skills to help others. “This has definitely refined the engineering I want to do,” Gonzalez told Palca. “Because it’s an engineering focused on helping people.”
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What Started as Homework Turned Into a Life-Saving Medical Device
A young, eager mind is a powerful thing. A room full of them together, even more so. In Rice University professor Maria Oden’s undergraduate course, they’re striving to solve global health problems. Students in the Rice 360 program, founded by Oden and fellow bioengineer Rebecca Richards-Kortum, first learn about problems in rural hospitals and then design simple solutions that can help. One of the class’s biggest successes is a student design for an affordable “bubble CPAP” (continuous positive airway pressure), a device that pushes air into the lungs of premature infants to help them breathe. The prototype was made from a plastic shoe box and two aquarium pumps. “One of the wonderful things about working with 18-year-olds is that they’re so creative,” Oden told Joe Palca of NPR. “They don’t have fixed ideas about what might not work.” After fine-tuning, the invention was tested at small hospitals in Malawi and is now ready to deploy throughout that country. Students even got to meet a baby whose life was saved by their device. “It sent chills all the way down my entire spine, because I realized that while we’re teaching students, and we want them to leave here believing they can make a difference, this was the picture of a true difference being made,” Richards-Kortum told NPR.