HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Cycling is becoming increasingly deadly in Texas, according to new data from the Texas Department of Transportation, which shows 79 cyclists died in crashes in 2024 and 90 died in 2025.<\/p>\n
Despite Houston’s reputation as a not-so-bike-friendly city, cyclist Owen Dunn commutes to and from work, about a four-mile round trip, every day.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, this corner here, I encounter most of my road rage here, not just necessarily at me but other people,” Dunn said.<\/p>\n
In his quick two-mile commute, Dunn said he can pedal across multiple hazards.<\/p>\n
“Aggressive drivers, there’s some road rage out here that I see all the time; there are objects in the sidewalk,” Dunn said. “People running red lights is one of the biggest problems.”<\/p>\n
Cycling is a risk Dunn has the privilege to take but said that’s not the case for everyone.<\/p>\n
“There are a lot of people in Houston that can’t afford a car, and they don’t have another way to get to work,” Dunn said.<\/p>\n
Part of Dunn’s commute, a busy stretch of Westheimer, was recently recognized in the Washington Post as one of the deadliest roads for pedestrians in the country.<\/p>\n
But the danger, Dunn said, is outweighed by the benefits biking has brought into his life.<\/p>\n
“You know what, since January I’ve lost 20 pounds, I feel a lot better when I ride to work,” Dunn said.<\/p>\n
Dunn said recent infrastructure improvements like protected bike lanes and wider sidewalks have made him feel safer. It’s an improvement he believes could benefit other parts of Houston and could bring cycling deaths down.<\/p>\n
“You should be able to take a short trip to get something to eat or run an errand or go to work and not have to worry about your life being at risk,” Dunn said.<\/p>\n
While Texas has seen cycling deaths grow across the state, pedestrian deaths have shrunk. TxDOT data shows that in 2024, 760 fatal crashes involved a pedestrian. That number fell to 698 in 2025.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Cycling is becoming increasingly deadly in Texas, according to new data from the Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[138640,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-394047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-138640","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}