Project Connect’s path to an estimated $8 billion worth of high-capacity transit investments could be washed out if City Council and Austin voters don’t greenlight a $15 million installment this year, according to the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s director of long range planning. Javier Arguello told the Urban Transportation Commission on Monday night that the […]
Transportation
Posted inTransportation
Council revisits draft Corridor Construction Program during work session
Tuesday’s City Council work session featured a swap of information between city staff and Council members regarding the draft Corridor Construction Program. Council delayed a vote on the draft program at its March 22 meeting. That vote set the stage for this week’s discussion, which featured Corridor Program Office Director Mike Trimble answering several outstanding […]
Posted inTransportation
CAMPO discusses travel demand management
Funding for programs that focus on freeing up existing roadway capacity may yet make the cut in a draft program of regional mobility projects under consideration by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. CAMPO staff’s initial recommendation for the organization’s latest Transportation Improvement Program excluded money for specific programs submitted under the travel demand management category. […]
Posted inTransportation
Dockless scooter company takes flight in Austin
For the third time in four years, a brand-new technology-enabled transportation company has set up shop on Austin’s streets without seeking the city’s official blessing. On Thursday morning, the California-based company known as Bird released what one company official described as “a relatively small number” of its dockless electric scooters in parts of South and […]
Posted inBicycles
Dockless bike-sharing issues surface at city forum
After more than a yearlong absence, dockless bike-sharing returned to downtown Austin on Wednesday, if only for a few hours. Representatives from nine different firms that dabble in dockless technology brought their wares and their pitches to the new Central Library for a community forum hosted by the Austin Transportation Department. The event served as […]
Posted inTransit
Green Line creeps forward at Commissioners Court
The Travis County Commissioners Court voted in a split decision on Tuesday to initiate a study of potential financing options for the proposed commuter rail line between Austin and Manor known as the Green Line. The move marks a small victory for the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority whose Project Connect initiative includes the Green Line […]
Posted inTransportation
CAMPO offers the region a TIP
The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization is taking a draft proposal for more than $400 million worth of transportation projects out for public feedback. CAMPO assembled this latest iteration of the four-year Transportation Improvement Program, or TIP, from a list of projects submitted by governments and agencies across its six-county jurisdiction. Just over half of […]
Posted inBicycles
B-cycle’s UT expansion a towering success
When Austin B-cycle expanded its reach into the University of Texas campus area last month, its executive director predicted it would be a big success. It turns out his expectations were too low. “Forty days into this, and we’re where we thought we’d be in six to eight months,” Elliott McFadden told the Austin Monitor […]
Posted inTransit
Project Connect’s new system map remains mode agnostic
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Monday officially debuted Project Connect’s latest draft system map, a plan that charts a regional network of potential high-capacity transit investments. A series of multicolored lines trace major corridors, both established and developing, that converge on downtown from a variety of locations on the outskirts of the city. “This […]
Posted inBicycles
Dockless bike-share pilot development rolls forward
More than a year after an aborted attempt to move into Austin without permission, several dockless bike-sharing companies have switched gears and are now patiently working with the Transportation Department as it develops a pilot program that could put the smartphone-activated two-wheelers on city streets by this summer. On Wednesday night, Active Transportation Program Manager […]
Posted inTransportation
Council positioned to delay corridor program decision
City Council appears all but certain to postpone a scheduled vote on Thursday on the draft Corridor Construction Program, the highly ambitious blueprint for spending an unprecedented amount of bond money in a particularly condensed time frame. During Tuesday’s work session, several members expressed their desire to hold off on the decision, a sentiment that […]
Posted inTransportation
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 the city, was laid by a contractor doing work on behalf of Cirrus Logic, which […]