There was no resolution this week from Travis County Commissioners about supporting Project Connect, the high-capacity, cross-agency transit plan for the Austin metropolitan area. The court mainly heard from supporters of Project Connect Tuesday. “I have been in this community just over three years now,” said Linda Watson, President and CEO of Capital […]
Transportation
Posted inTransportation
City plans ‘tight enforcement’ of violations in new bus transit lanes
Austin Transportation Department Director Rob Spillar told Austin City Council members Tuesday that city prohibitions on parking and driving in the dedicated downtown transit lanes would be “patrolled very tightly” until parking in those lanes “starts to switch over.” “The violations, I anticipate, will be from a new driver that doesn’t fully understand what […]
Posted inLocal Politics, Transportation
Council to consider upping fine for blocking new priority bus lanes
Austin City Council members will consider whether to implement significantly increased fines for vehicles parked illegally in designated transit priority lanes Thursday. The measure would allow traffic officials to impose up to a $500 fine on vehicles left in lanes set aside for Capital Metro’s soon-to-be-unveiled MetroRapid Transit system. The move is aimed squarely at […]
Posted inElections, Transportation
Group files to campaign for Guadalupe-North Lamar rail corridor
A group calling itself Our Rail filed papers Monday with City Clerk Janette Goodall that will allow its members to campaign for ballot measures that would establish the Lamar-Guadalupe corridor as part of the initial design of the city’s Urban Rail project. According to the documents, the group intends to fight for a charter amendment […]
Posted inDevelopment, Elections, Local Politics, Resources, Transportation
Looking back at 2013
No doubt one of the most significant events over the past year was the drawing of Austin’s first geographically-based single-member City Council districts. In November 2012, Austin voters approved a charter amendment to create 10 single-member districts in the city. Those Council members will be elected this upcoming November and, as of last November, we […]
Posted inLocal Politics, Transportation
Council endorses Lone Star Rail but hangs on to the money
Lone Star Rail will move forward with the backing of the Austin City Council, though not with any of the city’s money just yet. In a 6-1 vote, the City Council authorized the city’s participation in the Lone Star Rail District. But it set its funding for the project temporarily at zero. The plan […]
Posted inLocal Politics, Transportation, Uncategorized
Council endorses Highland Mall-East Riverside Urban Rail route
Austin City Council members Thursday night endorsed a plan by transportation officials to pursue an urban rail line that extends south from the Highland Mall region, through the city center, and east out East Riverside Drive. The move begins a process that could end in a multi-million dollar bond election over rail for the city […]
Posted inLocal Government, Transportation
Current long-term plans do nothing to improve Austin’s I-35 headaches
Current long-term plans – such as the 2035 CAMPO Transportation Plan – will do little more than maintain the current level of traffic bottlenecks on Interstate 35 and won’t take enough vehicles off the road to significantly cut commute times, according to a report on traffic congestion on the I-35 corridor through Austin. The […]
Posted inTransportation
Spelman: plan for Lamar rail after Highland-Riverside is done
Project Connect’s Central Corridor Advisory Group voted Friday to endorse the Highland-East Riverside sub-corridor as the first route for Austin’s proposed Urban Rail line. The City Council is poised to vote on the matter this Thursday. But the Highland route, which basically runs from Highland Mall along Airport Boulevard and Red River Street through […]
Posted inTransportation
Project Connect defends decision to bypass Lamar corridor for transit
Almost two weeks after Project Connect recommended the Highland and East Riverside areas to move forward to the next phase of transit expansion in Austin, it opened itself to feedback on the plan last Tuesday. And what most people in the room, on the phone, online or watching TV wanted to know was, “Why […]
Posted inResources, Transportation
Electric cars see jump-start in Austin
With a predicted 300 percent jump in the number of plug-in electric cars taking to the road over the past year, Austin continues to be one of the nation’s leaders in this clean-running form of transportation. While the numbers are still comparatively small, city energy officials say they expect to see continued steady growth […]
Posted inLocal Government, Transportation
CAMPO puts $28 million in transportation funding up for grabs
The City of Austin will have to battle six counties and the cities within them for a chance at a chunk of more than $28 million up for grabs for transportation projects in the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s service area. Local governments in the region have been scrambling for cash to fund projects […]