Vision for transforming city core draws scrutiny ahead of likely Council vote

With Downtown Austin poised for overlapping mega-projects over roughly the next decade, City Council’s Mobility Committee took a closer look last week at the draft Austin Core Transportation Plan, which aims to tie all of the projects together. Committee members broadly supported the plan’s vision, but raised concerns about implementation details, including how to balance safety for vulnerable road users with curbside access needs and delivery demands.

At last Thursday’s meeting, city staffers outlined the next steps for the plan’s likely adoption by City Council, its implementation strategy and integration with major infrastructure projects slated to transform the city core.

The plan identifies four east-west “priority corridors” in downtown – Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth streets – where the city aims to reallocate road space to better serve pedestrians, bicyclists and transit riders. These improvements are intended to complete Austin’s transit-priority network by connecting new east-west lanes with existing north-south routes.

On Fifth Street, the plan calls for a transit-only lane from Bowie to Guadalupe, along with an eastbound protected bike lane and widened sidewalks as part of a broader vision to establish it as a Mexican American Heritage Corridor. Sixth Street, meanwhile, would receive westbound bike infrastructure and enhanced pedestrian crossings, with future designs coordinated alongside safety initiatives and delivery access for the entertainment district. Seventh and Eighth streets would also be reconfigured to improve safety and provide continuous east-west bike and transit connectivity.

Beyond those corridors, the plan recommends supporting improvements to Red River, Brazos and streets from Ninth to 12th to complete the downtown multimodal network. Systemwide strategies include converting some one-way streets to two-way operation, expanding micromobility infrastructure, creating mobility hubs and implementing dynamic curb management for loading and ride-hailing. The proposed changes are designed to reduce car dependence, increase safety and prepare downtown for major overlapping projects like Project Connect and the Interstate 35 rebuild.

Cole Kitten, manager of the Transportation Systems Development Division, explained that many downtown streets carry more lanes than they effectively need between intersections.

“What we found is that those constraints occur at our gateways into and out of downtown,” he said.

“What that allowed us to do is understand that downstream of those bottlenecks there’s an inefficient use of space, because if you go into downtown on Sixth Street it’s two lanes, and it opens up to four lanes. Those outside lanes are considered excess capacity, so what that allowed us to do is reallocate that space to more efficient modes.”

The plan also identifies supporting projects, system improvements and policy strategies such as dynamic curb management, neighborhood bikeways and mobility hubs that can help tie the network together.

While the ACT Plan is a long-term vision, officials said they’re already exploring potential funding sources, including federal grants and the city’s anticipated 2026 bond election. Estimated project costs in the plan total more than $1 billion and account for inflation and future-year expenditures, and staff emphasized that implementation will require coordination with other large-scale efforts – particularly to ensure proper phasing with Project Connect and I-35 construction.

Council Member Zo Qadri, who represents much of downtown, praised the plan’s multimodal emphasis, but raised concerns about mid-block conflicts – such as curbside loading or parking intruding into planned bike lanes.

“(The plan) mentions that consideration will be required to allow curb inserts for parking into the bike facility, so I’m trying to understand why we are planning to ensure conflict zones, mid-block and bike lanes,” he said.

“How can we ensure in this plan that we’re in fact prioritizing vulnerable road users in implementation as we move forward, but we’re not compromising bike and scooter safety?”

Kitten acknowledged the challenge and said those trade-offs would be handled during detailed project development.

The committee took no action to recommend or support the plan which is scheduled to go before a handful of boards and commissions for further feedback. City Council is likely to consider and take action on the plan in April.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license. 

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Posted In: Transportation, District 9