Allen Parkway called safe, yet prone to speeding

40-mph road where lawyer was killed in a crash is treated more like a freeway, some say

By CAROLYN FEIBEL and PEGGY O'HARE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Oct. 31, 2009, 7:31AM


The crash that killed famed litigator John O'Quinn and his assistant Thursday has refocused attention on Allen Parkway, the swooping tree-lined street that has become a crucial link between central Houston neighborhoods and downtown.
City officials and traffic experts insist that the winding road is safe — as long as drivers resist the urge to treat the wide-open parkway as a freeway instead of obeying the 40-mph speed limit. Safety upgrades, undertaken after six fatal crashes in 2004, added grooves to the pavement to aid traction at one sharp curve, and more warning signs and traffic lights were installed.
O'Quinn, witnesses told police, was driving close to 60 mph on the rain-slicked road when he crashed into a tree, killing himself and passenger Johnny Lee Cutliff, 56.

Both men died from blunt force injuries. They were the first to die on Allen Parkway since 2006, records show.
Police are checking to see if O'Quinn, 68, was using his cellular phone at the time of his crash. There are no indications that alcohol or drugs played any role in the accident, but toxicology reports are still pending.
City officials said they will wait for the outcome of the crash investigation to determine whether more safety features should be added to the 2.3-mile road.

“Its design is just a winding kind of road that goes along the contour of the bayou,” said Alvin Wright, a Houston public works spokesman. “If driven at the speed limit or even 5 miles per hour over, it's a very safe roadway.”
Between 2003 and 2008, the parkway had 541 crashes, seven of them fatal, according to Texas Department of Transportation data. The parallel stretch of Memorial Parkway — a much straighter path between downtown and Shepherd — had 159 crashes, one of them fatal.

But traffic experts cautioned against comparing the two roads. Memorial Parkway is flatter, with fewer on and off ramps. Consequently, engineers have given it a higher speed limit, of 50 mph.
Traffic engineers have many methods at their disposal to make roads safer. Medians can be inserted, curves can be straightened, dips and hills can be flattened. Rougher pavement adds traction, and lighting can improve visibility.
But each road is particular, and no solution applies to all, said Tim Lomax, a research engineer at A&M's Texas Transportation Institute.

Widening lanes gives vehicles more maneuvering room, but it also acts as a visual cue for drivers to speed up. In heavy pedestrian areas, like Rice Village, narrower lanes encourage drivers to slow down, Lomax said.

“There may be some design ‘fixes,' but we should remember there are behaviors that we each engage in that contribute to collisions and injuries,” Lomax said.
Lowering the speed limit on Allen Parkway to 35 mph might give drivers more time to react and brake if they encounter surprises along the road's many curves, such as another motorist suddenly pulling into the street in front of them or stopping to make a turn, said David Pearson, a Harris County sheriff's deputy and accident reconstruction expert who has investigated the causes of more than 600 car crashes.


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