City champions electric bike-share as mode shift trailblazer

Four years into Austin’s commitment to have half its population choose alternatives to driving by 2039, the Transportation and Public Works Department is still hopeful its growing pains will eventually pay dividends.

Division Manager Kirk Scanlon visited City Council’s Mobility Committee last week for an update on the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan, a framework of transportation policy and infrastructure programs meant to navigate the growing city’s next two decades. Scanlon says a growing interest in electric bikes has led the charge on transportation trends thus far, propelling services like MetroBike to the forefront of its mode shift priorities.

In 2019, a report from the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that nearly three-fourths of Austin’s residents commute alone in their cars, with a mere 8 percent using public transit, 11 percent carpooling, 8 percent teleworking, and only 2 percent and 1 percent walking and biking, respectively. But the years since have seen abrupt shifts, as pandemic closures and stay-at-home measures took an unprecedented toll on travel patterns. Preliminary data shows that while solo car trips have made a full-fledged comeback, transit ridership has rebounded more slowly, at just 77 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

While the transportation department hopes Project Connect’s bus route and rail expansions will help to swing the transit pendulum, the team’s short-term focus is on bike-share. Scanlon says Austinites are increasingly embracing electric bikes as a viable car alternative, with Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s MetroBike ridership increasing by 20,000 in the past three years and Austin Energy’s e-bike rebate enrollment doubling from 464 to 870 between 2022 and 2023.

In the coming year, the department hopes to secure $15 million in grant money to fund a threefold increase in the city’s MetroBike fleet and stations. The grant, offered through the Texas Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside grant program, is slated for consideration this October. The team is also working to streamline the currently separate Capital Metro and MetroBike applications, allowing riders to seamlessly manage their transit and bike-share passes in one shared place.

“We want to incorporate these new stations into current and future Capital Metro stops,” said Scanlon. “The idea of a first- and last-mile solution – the bike-share is kind of filling that role.”

In addition to getting Austinites out of their cars, Scanlon says an investment in MetroBike could help to navigate the coming decade of construction projects and road closures wrought by Project Connect’s transit expansion and TxDOT’s widening of Interstate 35.

“Because the bike-share system is essentially modular and mobile, we can move stations around,” explained Scanlon. “We can use that component of the system to keep getting people around with all of that construction happening.”

The transportation department also continues to chip away at infrastructure, recently passing the halfway mark in its All Ages and Abilities bike network project, which presently sits at 232 miles of protected bike lanes, urban trails, and managed crossings across the city. Particularly in these record temperatures, the team is also working on its heat management strategies, with shade and shower facilities both top priorities.

The U.S. Census Bureau will publish another high-level report on transportation patterns this December, providing a clearer picture of the ASMP’s impact on mode shift thus far. Until then, readers can get acquainted with emerging e-bike opportunities at the Capital Metro and Austin Energy websites.

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