Disability committee wants improved transportation to Austin’s major music venues

Improving transportation for the disabled to the Circuit of the Americas and the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park are two of the early goals for members of the city’s committee for the disabled who may opt to serve on an ongoing task force dedicated to improving accessibility at local music venues.

Last week the Mayor’s Committee for People With Disabilities heard a presentation about the task force, which was formed by Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in 2022 following highly publicized problems with crowd management and access for the disabled during a November 2021 concert by the Rolling Stones. The committee did not select a representative to the task force but is expected to do so at its June meeting after conducting more research on the steps taken by COTA over the past 18 months to improve access.

While accessible transportation to the high-capacity motorsports races at the track has been quadrupled over the past year, Committee Chair Jonathan Franks noted that concerts at COTA’s Germania Insurance Amphitheater facility are difficult to get to without driving a car, and the venue isn’t serviced by the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

“I would personally love for MetroAccess (buses) to come to the table, because as a rider myself I know they do not have a way to get there. My wife and I love to frequent concerts in that area and we have to spend $50 to $60 just to take a ride-share,” said Franks, who is blind. “Cedar Park Center, or whatever it is called now, is another venue that is not accessible to MetroAccess either, and there’s a lot of music events held there that present limitations to people with disabilities.”

The presentation from Music Commissioner Oren Rosenthal and Bruce Elfant, Travis County’s tax assessor-collector and voter registrar, focused on the improvements made at COTA since Elfant went public talking about the challenges he faced trying to attend a large concert there while on crutches.

In February, the task force formed in response disclosed the changes that had been made. They included creating better pathways throughout the 1,600 acres of property, taking steps before major events to identify hazards and potential disability concerns, rebuilding the website to be more accessible for those with impairments and offer more information about accessibility resources, pushing ticket vendors to notify staff of events with large numbers of accessible seats sold, identifying areas in grass lots that are most friendly for disabled parking and shuttle pickups, and expanding the disabled platform and other accessible areas for “super show” concerts that take place during large racing events.

Rosenthal said the commitment shown by COTA staff suggested they’ll continue to make improvements related to access, including working with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to find ways to address ingress and egress of crowds during crowded events, and studying the Morgan’s Wonderland accessible theme park in San Antonio to make a forthcoming theme park as friendly as possible for the disabled.

Music commissioners have said the task force can serve as a model that can be used to examine and suggest steps to improve accessibility at many of the music venues throughout Austin.

“We would like to raise the awareness that Austin is a world-class destination for everybody,” Rosenthal said. “My big ask is for someone on this committee to be willing to partner with me on the Music Commission representing the city of Austin. We can strategize with other people to bring other world-class venues into this.”

Committee Member Pete Salazar said he looks forward to participating in addressing accessibility concerns at entertainment venues of all kinds.

“When you take this to other venues we need to establish what the best practices are and what this looks like,” he said. “This is a good lock-in point to jump off of and see what it looks like for surrounding venues, not only in Austin but the area as whole … to find out who we would need to talk to and get that ball rolling.”

Photo by Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

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