The Urban Transportation Commission wants to see narrower Austin roads, and they have research to back the idea up.
Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution recommending that the city adopt a 1- to 2-foot narrower standard for traffic lanes in many of the city’s larger streets and roads during the body’s regular meeting on July 1.
The current standard for traffic lanes in Austin, derived from the city code’s Transportation Criteria Manual, calls for between 11 and 12.5 feet of width for so-called Level 3 and Level 4 roads, a pair of categories that include thoroughfares like Lamar Boulevard or South Congress.
The resolution, proposed by Commissioner Spencer Schumacher, would bring those numbers down to 10 feet for standard and 9 feet for “constrained” lanes, with a higher limit of 11 feet for lanes used extensively by trucks, buses or other larger vehicles.
That would bring Austin more in line with the recommendations of the National Association of City Transportation Officials, a coalition of local transportation departments that work together to create standards and conduct research (Austin is one of four member cities in Texas.) It could also, Schumacher argued, make Austin’s streets safer.
He cited a 2023 Johns Hopkins study, produced as part of the school’s Bloomberg American Health Initiative, which found that lanes that were around 12 feet wide were associated with higher rates of crashes, while narrower lanes between 9 and 10 feet were not.
“What (the researchers) attributed that to is that 12 feet is wide enough that you start having very high speeds, but it’s not quite wide enough to have what we would call ‘forgiving infrastructure,’” Schumacher said. “So, they actually found that 12-foot lanes are the most dangerous option, especially when we’re talking about these arterial streets.”
It’s worth noting that recommendations by the Urban Transportation Commission are not binding on the city government, and any code changes that might come about as a result of the resolution would likely still take years to effect any transformation of Austin’s streets through the gradual process of road diets, scheduled re-pavings and re-paintings and small infrastructure projects. But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.
For now, Austinites who love or hate wide open lanes will just have to wait and see if the city picks up the idea.
The Austin Monitor’s work is made possible by donations from the community. Though our reporting covers donors from time to time, we are careful to keep business and editorial efforts separate while maintaining transparency. A complete list of donors is available here, and our code of ethics is explained here.