TEXAS OBSERVED
I once heard someone say that if aliens were to ever visit Houston, they would surmise that we had one law above all else—the cars must be happy.
HIS SPRING, IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE COVID-19 LOCKDOWN, MY family joined thousands of other Houstonians in taking advantage of the car-free streets to go for long bike rides. It was surreal. Streets in Houston are for cars, not people, and yet there they. Families, like mine, luxuriated with toddlers on once-dangerous streets. Bike rentals skyrocketed.¶ In cities across Texas, people were unable to gather in their usual spots—offices, malls, movie theaters—without risking disease and death. Large swaths of the state began to suffer from a collective case of cabin fever. In response, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio closed streets to cars so that people could walk, bike, and safely social distance outdoors.
