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 voted 6-0 to recommend that Council include in the final Corridor Construction Program “dedicated right-of-way […]
Transportation
Posted inTransit
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 before the group expanded its scope – published a blog post reiterating its standing call […]
Posted inTransit
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 bunching, which has been reported on social media, had made it onto the radar of […]
Posted inRoads
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 of directors unanimously voted to enter into negotiations with the county on an interlocal agreement […]
Posted inTransit
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 innovative mobility, presented to the board the proposal that would extend Capital Metro’s agreement with […]
Posted inTransportation
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 network companies such as Uber and Lyft are existential threats to the conventional taxi […]
Posted inTransit
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 light rail, bus rapid transit, regional commuter rail, and possibly even a downtown streetcar, was […]
Posted inRoads
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 to have them removed. “We hate to put them out there, but the other side […]
Posted inTransportation
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 Corridor Construction Program – the laundry list of $450 million in projects aimed for nine […]
Posted inBonds & Propositions
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 program voters approved in the record $720 million mobility bond in November 2016 that set […]
Posted inBicycles
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 Council took based on recommendations made by Austin Transportation Director Rob Spillar that also included […]
Posted inBicycles
Dockless bikes are (maybe) coming to Austin. But first, let’s talk it out.
Nobody wants to be the withholding stepparent. That’s why, when dockless bike companies Ofo and Spin rolled out during South by Southwest last year, they put the city in a tough spot. Austin, which markets itself as an innovative, tech-savvy city, had to stifle two seemingly forward-thinking tech startups during a festival that’s been a […]