On a recent weekday afternoon, Houston Council Member Abbie Kamin and I watched as several students from Lamar High School traversed Westheimer Road.

Roughly one week earlier, a 15-year-old student was struck in the crosswalk at the intersection by an SUV. The incident was captured in a shocking video. Thankfully, the student survived, but the collision was yet another harrowing data point for Houston, where streets are increasingly deadly for pedestrians.

Lamar High School students cross Westheimer Road on Thursday August 28, 2025. A Lamar High School student was hit and injured by an SUV while crossing Westheimer Road on August 20, 2025

Curt Medill, 71, of Houston crosses Houston Avenue near Washington Ave. on Thursday April 4, 2024. In February, Mayor John Whitmire removed concrete medians, which were just installed in December along Houston Avenue to improve safety.

At the intersection of Westheimer and Eastside Street, where the students were attempting to cross, there is no traffic light to assist pedestrians. There is only a school zone beacon alerting cars to reduce their speed to 20 mph, and a neon yellow pedestrian crossing sign warning drivers that people may be crossing the road. In addition to the high school — with an enrollment of more than 3,000 students — this intersection abuts a shopping center, residential neighborhood as well as Bethany Christian Church and preschool.

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If any rational urban planner was designing this section of Westheimer from scratch, it would never look like this. Ideally, there would be a traffic light for students to cross safely, perhaps even with a raised crosswalk to slow down vehicles and increase the visibility of those crossing. Narrower lanes would help drivers intuitively follow the speed limit.

Every time Houston rebuilds a street, we could make these types of changes at little extra cost.

Instead, we’re left with reactive, often expensive band-aid solutions. After........

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