Houston has many miles of flood control levees. There are work crews constantly maintaining the levees who needed a narrow access road along the top of the levee for their equipment. The Federal government pays many millions of dollars for that levee work, and paid for the access road. Then, a smart local leader got the idea of calling the access road a "bike trail". So, more millions of dollars of federal transportation money to maintain a bike trail.

This "trail" is a six inch thick strip of asphalt about ten feet wide. Somehow, Harris County convinces the federal government that building and maintaining this "trail" costs millions of dollars per mile.

But, the good news for cyclists is that it enables them to ride for miles at a time without encountering a motor vehicle. Except for the trucks and bulldozers used by the levee maintainnce crews. Which they always park right in the center of the "bike trail".