Columbia Tap Rail-Trail

Went biking with a friend down Bray’s bayou trail and noticed this side trail so we hit it up. This was a pretty cool and unexpected to find as it takes you through the TSU campus (a really nice scenery) and sends you through 3^rd Ward and connects to EaDo. It cuts through a lot of streets but they are low traffic streets but the stopping can get annoying. It was cool that we were able to get off on Holman St. and pass the Project Row houses on our stop to Doshi House for a smoothie. Definitely will keep this trail on our biking rotation.

Colombia Tap is one of my favorite trails in the city and I love the proximity to my home. I can literally walk to it. I ride and run this trail weekly. Previous reviews have documented the path well.
I have not experienced any suspicious activity. Use caution if you feel unsafe passing though Third Ward. However, I take a different approach and speak to those I see in passing.
At least once a week I see law enforcement on the trail. Some in patrol cars and others on bikes. Their presence is comforting, particularly in the evening.

So I am always looking for new riding trails, and especially anything that Edgar V writes that is a 4 star or better is auto bookmark. However, this is probably one of the times I was let down =(
I was expecting it to be a hidden away trail that goes through the hood. That part I was OK with. But this trail has constant cross streets that intersect the path. The whole point of these trails is to get away from the cars. This path even though many of the cross streets do not have much traffic, as a safe bike rider you should slow down to check both directions before crossing. It never really gives you enough time to get any good rhythm. As far as the path, it does put you through some shady areas, but it does take you through a nice part of TSU and through a weird hidden garden right towards the end of the southern route.
Overall, if this was used for jogging it would be better, but for cycling I’ll go somewhere else. The total path one way was about 5 miles, 10 mile round trip.

I like this trail for bike commuting in the mornings (6:30am) when there is not a ton of traffic because you do have to cross quite a few streets, and because of all of the shrubbery on the sides of the trail you can not tell if cars are coming until you get right up to the street, so I would not want to use this trail during rush hour.
Not my favorite for riding in nature, but certainly preferable to riding narrow streets on the way to the Medical Center and wondering if the ignorant drivers who are honking and yelling at me to (illegally) get on the sidewalk are going to just run me over in their road rage.
***SAFETY Note: I did read on another site (
) that one biker had two young men who were sitting on a bench push him off of his bike, start beating him and tried to steal his phone in July 2013 near where the Columbia Rap connects to Brays Bayou. He reported that cops said there had been several similar reports. I’m sure this is not the norm, but just be aware.

As an urban explorer*, I like to check out areas outside of my comfort zone. Since I’m usually haunting the Hermann Park Trail and the Braes Bayou Hike and Bike Trail, I decided that I needed to head a bit east to check out the Columbia Tap Rail-​Trail on foot for a change.
The trail runs from near the BBVA Stadium downtown through the warehouse district, Third Ward, Texas Southern University (TSU), and joins up with the Braes Bayou trail near MacGregor Way. As others have noted, this offers what can be politely called a «rich tapestry of urban vignettes».
I decided to try out a segment of the Columbia Tap Rail-​Trail from Southmore Boulevard, through TSU, and north to McGowen then back. Quite an interesting mix of urban scenery: churches, older well-​kept homes, Section 8 public housing, a burnt-​out house, various (shady) characters, a duo loading a home safe picked up from the side of the road (Was it their safe? Why was it on the street? I don’t know — and didn’t ask), and free-​ranging dogs near McGowen Street, which prompted my turning back. If I were on a bike, I’d have kept going.
When crossing Alabama, there is a convenience store by the path. It has a dumpster between the store and the path. As I was crossing, I saw a patron come out of the store and duck behind the dumpster. As I passed the dumpster, he was having a «personal excretory moment» while reading a conveniently available bit of newsprint. If you need a visual, flash back to the character Tyrone Biggums, played by Dave Chappelle.
A lady was coming up the path from the opposite direction — she and I exchanged raised eyebrows. From the same direction, an HPD officer on bicycle followed shortly. I watched while walking backwards (yes, I can do both) to see if he would holler at the man — he did and the moment was quickly terminated. Needless to say, this was quite the added slice of life in the urban core. (Tell that story to your grandchildren.)
After all that excitement, I stopped to use the bathroom (inside, mind you) at one of the TSU buildings along the path — they have some really nice buildings. Better than much of what UH has and I was pleasantly surprised by this.
Overall, the trail could be a great resource for bicyclists since it is well-​maintained, level, and paved. Though, certain segments would be more suited to walkers in pairs. And, like most of life in the Big City, daytime offers more security but a vigilant eye is always required.
* Just because I’m an urban explorer does not mean that I wear an Urban Sombrero out of the J. Peterman catalog from «Seinfeld». Now, that would be ridiculous.

The Columbia Tap Rail Trail is a fairly new rail trail running on part of the old long disused railway line between Houston and Columbia. The trail head is on Walker by the Dynamo stadium and the trail currently ends at Braes Bayou, where it links up with the Braes Bayou trail, but it is currently being extended southwards over SH 288 to Dixie Dr.
I use part of the trail for my daily bike commute and often bike the full length of the trail with the kids on Sundays.
The trail showcases Houston’s industrial past and present in East Downtown running past converted warehouses, warehouses still in use, rail freight yard, new light rail lines, dairy distribution center, and other interesting buildings. My son is especially fond of the freight trains at the rail yard, but he also likes the milk tanker trucks at the diary distribution center.
The trail passes under the Gulf Freeway into the Third Ward residential neighborhood. There is a strong north-​south socioeconomic gradient in the Third Ward with small and dilapidated houses in the northern end and larger houses and mansions close to the Braes Bayou. The northern part of the Third Ward is great place to see some of Houston’s original shotgun shacks which have all but disappeared from the Heights and the Fifth Ward west of Downtown. The Third Ward looks depressing in places but people are friendly and say hello when we meet them on the trail on the weekends.
As the trail is on a former railway bed it is very level and wide. This is nice when biking with kids in tow in the bike trailer. The Braes Bayou trail is too narrow in place to safely bike with a bike trailer, which is not a problem on the Columbia-​Tap trail. There are quite a few road crossings so it is difficult to build up speed on the Columbia-​Tap trail, but as is mainly runs through residential areas the traffic on the crossing streets are usually not too bad and often one can slow down, check for traffic and cross without having to stop and wait.
The Columbia-​Tap trail offers an easy and safe way to bike from the Braes Bayou trail and Hermann Park area into Downtown, the trail head for the MKT rail trail to the heights is just a few blocks away from the downtown trail head of the Columbia-​Tap trail which now make it possible to see a lot of Houston from a bike.
Unfortunately the only part of the trail that has street lights is the short segment through the Texas Southern University campus. I don’t use the trail after dark, unfortunately the greenery between the old railroad bed and the neighboring houses that is very nice during the day also make the trail somewhat isolated at night. The crime statistics appear not to be significantly worse for the Columbia-​Tap trail compared to the MKT-​Heights or Braes Bayou trails, a quick look at the City’s crime map indicates that almost all violent crime in the area happens at night.

The Columbia Tap Rail-​Trail has been complete for a few months now, and is a safe and fast off-​road link between Dynamos Stadium (where the trail essentially starts at the end of Walker) and Braes Bayou at MacGregor Way.
Unlike the more popular MKT Rails to Trails route through the Heights, the Columbia Tap route is still being discovered. One advantage of this right now is that those of us on bicyles can really get a head of steam up, although one does have to be careful at the numerous street crossings. However, most of the big streets are divided, so it’s easy to get halfway across, wait if necessaey, and then scoot across the other lanes. I rarely have to wait on traffic, although the buses in this area are really motoring.
The early (downtown) section of the Columbia Tap rolls through the warehouse district near the new rail line construction, until it turns south and heads under I-​45. The section between I-​45 and TSU is a bit run-​down (the neighbourhood, not the concrete path), but I’ve found that saying hello to folks along the way has gotten me more smiles than scowls. Often there are some great characters hanging out on the benches along the path, and this morning a large group of youth (church group? Boy Scouts?) was picking up trash from a few of the empty lots. Looks like progress is being made, so perhaps stop by the corner store on your ride through and buy a soda to start having an an impact and showing that the pathway is a real local benefit. (I’ve been eyeing a few of the buildings to dream about a brand new café /​bike repair shop…).
The quick ride through the TSU campus is nice, and before you know it you have popped out at the southern end of the rail trail at the Braes Bayou trail system. Still under construction in this area, by using the path on the southern bank of the Bayou you can traverse all the way to Herman Park without any on-​road biking until the park boundary. The northern side heading towards Herman Park is still in bits and pieces.
Heading the other way to MacGregor park you can use either the north or south bank, giving you a nice loop before you head back up the Columbia Tap or making your ride to Herman a bit longer.
There is no signing (yet?) that tells bikers how to connect between the MKT and Columbia Tap, but they are separated by only 6 – 8 blocks. Only downside is having to traverse under US59, but with downtown streets being primarily one-​way and not very busy on weekends, relatively easy to string together the two rail trails with only a small amount of on-​road connection.
The growing list of new trails is great (check out the new bridge they are building near Herman on Braes Bayou, seems very progressive for a city like Houston). Get out and use them, and explore some new parts of the city on two wheels!