This week, the Austin City Council will focus its meeting energies on a day-long budget work session on Tuesday. According to Mayor Steve Adler’s remarks Thursday, it will be at this meeting that Council will winnow down the 119 items on its “budget concept menu” in preparation for passing a budget next week.
The Austin Monitor is prepared for a long meeting, given the length of Thursday’s more abstract discussion of the concept menu.
Other than that, Council has only one committee meeting this week.
Council Mobility Committee
Wednesday, Sept. 2
Agenda here.
5. Staff briefing and discussion on ground transportation providers, including transportation network companies.
Monitor’s Take: More talk about transportation companies like Uber and Lyft. At the last Mobility Committee meeting, committee members asked for more accountability from the committee and scheduled today’s public hearing.
6. Transportation fatalities and safety initiative briefing by the City staff and Vision Zero Task Force chair.
Monitor’s Take: This year has seen a sharp increase in road fatalities. Vision Zero is a multinational road safety project that hopes to reduce fatalities and serious injuries to zero. Given Austin’s current situation, it should be an interesting conversation.
8. Google briefing and discussion on status of Google self-driving car project in Austin.
Monitor’s Take: Over the weekend, Google announced that it will be expanding its self-driving car program in Austin. The project has received lots of press, but as we reported back in July when the project was launched, there are still some policy details to be worked out.