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Most Popular Stories
- How Trump’s federal funding freeze is beginning to affect Austin
- APD won’t enforce SB 14 as Paxton and Trump further attack gender-affirming health care
- After shutting off mental health care for Austin musicians, SIMS Foundation restarts services
- Commercial EV station moves forward despite opposition
- Council approves call for better coordination, planning among downtown projects
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Popular Whispers
- Council Member Mike Siegel will speak out against cuts to federal services
- City manager hosts community meetings on next year’s budget
- DAA offers a look at future of Sixth Street entertainment district
- Zero Waste Advisory Commission adds own ‘no’ rec on merge with RMC
- Former church site offers mix of affordable, permanent supportive housing in SE Austin
Transportation
City defends unusual sidewalk design
A short stretch of zigzagging sidewalk in downtown Austin has wound the city’s Public Works Department into a small patch of controversy. The meandering path on West Seventh Street just before West Avenue first appeared last month and, according to…
Transportation • By Caleb Pritchard • Mar 19, 2018
UTC boosts bus lanes on the Drag
The Urban Transportation Commission last Wednesday boosted a grassroots call on City Council to spend part of 2016’s $720 million mobility bond package on dedicated bus lanes along the congested stretch of Guadalupe Street known as the Drag. The UTC…
Transit • By Caleb Pritchard • Mar 13, 2018
AURA to Capital Metro: Seek new shelters
Even as it overhauls its downtown train station, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is sticking with the same design for its MetroRapid shelters, to the chagrin of one advocacy group. Last Thursday, AURA – formerly Austinites for Urban Rail Action…
Transit • By Caleb Pritchard • Mar 6, 2018
Shorter headways create mild headaches for Capital Metro
Ever since the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority began operating its two MetroRapid routes at 10-minute intervals during daytime hours, the agency has seen an uptick in an unwelcome phenomenon of buses of the same line running back to back. The…
Transit • By Caleb Pritchard • Mar 5, 2018
Travis County looks to tap CTRMA to fast-track bond projects
Travis County and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority have both signed on to negotiations that could leverage the CTRMA’s prodigious road-building capabilities to boost priority safety improvements in the southeastern quadrant of the county. On Wednesday, the CTRMA board…
Roads • By Caleb Pritchard • Mar 1, 2018
Capital Metro board hits pause on MetroAccess contract proposal
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors on Monday sent back to its committees a staff proposal to readjust a paratransit provider’s contract to the tune of $25.7 million. Chad Ballentine, the agency’s vice president of demand response and…
Transit • By Caleb Pritchard • Feb 27, 2018
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In bid to save taxicabs, city proposes remaking them in rivals' image
The Austin Transportation Department has gone public with a set of proposals aimed at saving the local taxicab industry by radically transforming it. Acting Mobility Services Division Manager Jacob Culberson told the Urban Transportation Commission on Tuesday evening that ride-hailing…
Transportation • By Caleb Pritchard • Feb 15, 2018
Project Connect draft plan makes premature debut
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube after a draft version of its proposed Project Connect system plan found its way online Monday evening. The plan, which features an ambitious combination of…
Transit • By Caleb Pritchard • Feb 14, 2018
Transportation Department defends 'speed cushions'
Transportation Director Robert Spillar showed up at a meeting of the Public Safety Commission on Monday to defend “speed cushions,” the traffic-calming devices that have infuriated motorists across the city, most notably in a Northwest Austin neighborhood that successfully campaigned…
Roads • By Jack Craver • Feb 13, 2018
Contra-flow lane eyed as solution to up-up, down-down lurching of traffic at MLK
While plans to dedicate two lanes on the Drag to transit have been shelved for the moment, city planners hope to tweak another bus bottleneck on the Guadalupe Street corridor using 2016 mobility bond money. Tucked away in the proposed…
Transportation • By Caleb Pritchard • Feb 12, 2018
City unveils proposed Corridor Construction Program
The long-awaited proposed Corridor Construction Program, the road map to Mayor Steve Adler’s Smart Corridor Plan that he’s now touting as potentially “genius,” is finally out of the stable. The city’s Corridor Program Office has been working to develop the…
Bonds & Propositions • By Caleb Pritchard • Feb 8, 2018
Council approves dockless bike-share pilot and expansion of Austin B-cycle
City Council on Thursday approved the creation of a pilot program that will allow private companies to put their on-demand rental bikes on city-owned right of way throughout the city. The vote on the pilot was one of three actions…
