mountaindave 

Planning a trip this June and contemplating taking a bike as my transportation. There was a thread a decade ago about riding from the airport, but that guy headed northeast. Does anyone know what it’s like to ride a bike from the airport south to Houston? Technically southeast to the Spring Branch area. Can a guy get a shuttle to one of the distant parking lots to at least get away from the crazy traffic of the terminal? I don’t see a lot of pedestrian access along those roads…

Thanks for any ideas
David

texbiker

There is no bike route from the airport to Spring Branch. I would recommend taking the Metro bus from there to downtown and then to Spring Branch. Once you are in Spring Branch bike routes are available. Check BikeHouston.org for more information. This link shows details
https://houstonbikeplan.org/houston-bike-plan-map/

flangehead

I live west of Spring Branch and all of my trips to IAH on bike are to the surrounding parking lots to drop off or pick up a motor vehicle. I agree with Rick's recommendation to use the Metro Route 102 https://www.ridemetro.org/riding-met...sh-iah-express. The only public access to the terminals are 50 mph-posted, curbed, no shoulder busy arterials.

I haven't used this bus route, but I know the "Local/Express" that I use has "Greyhound" style buses with a large baggage compartment underneath. I haven't ridden since COVID started, but back then there was one luggage bay with a two-bike rack. They may have been removed since they were slow to load. I'm not sure, but 102 probably uses that style of bus most of the time. Bottom line, your best bet will probably be to keep the bike in luggage form for the bus trip.

If I were going to Spring Branch, I'd get off 102 at the first opportunity in downtown Houston which will probably be Franklin or Congress. Market Square Park is a quiet place you could assemble the bike. From there, you can access the White Oak Bayou Greenway which is on the bayou about 4 blocks to the northeast. At West 11th, there is a bike route (on the map Rick sent you, but you do have to select the existing low comfort layer) that goes west to I-610. Unfortunately, that COH bike plan map is misleading on some connections .. it doesn't show that you can get to N. Post Oak and Westview directly, but you can.

From there, Westview is a bike route with a narrow painted lane to get to the south side of Spring Branch. There is a section of Westview that is not marked as bike route because it is not in Houston but in the municipality of Spring Valley. Jurisdictions...

Can you help me? To make a long story short, I've so far failed in getting the City of Houston to establish a bike route to the Spring Branch Trail, which runs west to Blalock and will eventually reach to Addicks Reservoir. I'm attaching the route and if it isn't legible, let me know and I'll mail it to you. If you use it, I'd appreciate a testimonial from you I can use to show COH that routes like this have value. When I've talked to them in the past I don't get the impression they understand the value bike routes like this can have for visitors.

If you don't want to go all the way downtown, you could use streets but the tough segment is getting south the stop on JFK at Beltway 8 down to West Little York. Mail me if you really want to do that and we can discuss.

Metro 102 to downtown, White Oak Bayou Greenway to W. 12th, then the map below would get you from IAH to the heart of Spring Branch with no drama.



Red lines are unmarked bike route to the Spring Branch Trail.

mountaindave 

I greatly appreciate the input. I realized that I would also have a case with me, and even a soft case would be awkward to try and put in a rack. So I’ll likely have to use the bus in, as suggested, to get near wherever I’ll be staying.

Thanks again for all the advice!