Can car-free housing work in Austin? If a proposed project in East Austin is any indication, the answer is yes. Those willing to ditch their cars have lined up to buy a unit in the Ivory, a mostly income-restricted project at 1309 Chicon St. Though construction is not yet underway, all but five of the […]
Austin City Council Mobility Committee
A City Council committee that reviews matters related to all modes of transportation.
Posted inTransportation
Commissioners discuss CAMPO’s forecasts for the future
At a recent Urban Transportation Commission meeting, the executive director of the nonprofit Farm & City urged the commission to keep Farm & City’s concerns in mind when it comes to transportation planning around the region. Jay Blazek Crossley raised two main issues with the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s regional planning process. The first, he said, is that […]
Posted inTransit
Austin continues to explore bus access on the future Lady Bird Bridge
Austin’s Urban Transportation Commission, which advises city departments on transportation-related matters, met last week and continued discussions around the possibility of expanding the modes of transportation accessible on the future Lady Bird Bridge. The topic was also discussed at an Austin Transit Partnership public design workshop, and the city will continue the discussions into the […]
Posted inTransit
Project Connect update shows early work on schedule for construction
With City Council having recently approved the joint powers agreement that affirms the roles of the city, Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Austin Transit Partnership in Project Connect’s completion, last week’s Mobility Committee meeting was focused mostly on updates on the many facets of the $7.1 billion project. Sam Sargent, director of strategy for […]
Posted inAustin
Airport continues to enhance accessibility for all travelers
There’s a lot more to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport than wheelchair access. Last Thursday, City Council’s Mobility Committee was briefed on how travel to and from Austin is – or sometimes isn’t – accessible to all. The city’s Department of Aviation is committed to ADA compliance, ABIA […]
Posted inTransportation
Vision Zero initiative beginning to reduce some types of car crashes
A representative from Austin’s Transportation Department appeared before City Council’s Mobility Committee Tuesday to give an update on Vision Zero, the city’s goal to eliminate traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries. While traffic fatalities have been on the rise over the past few years, serious injuries have been trending downward. Nevertheless, early evidence shows that Vision […]
Posted inDevelopment
New street impact fee will make development more predictable, ATD says
The Austin Transportation Department updated members of the City Council Mobility Committee last week on the city’s new street impact fee, which developers will pay to offset impacts from increased car trips to and from new buildings. Council adopted the fee last December, but it doesn’t go into effect until next June because of an […]
Posted inRoads
TxDOT and critics at loggerheads over plan to widen I-35
At Friday’s special meeting of the City Council Mobility Committee, residents aired their concerns to a quorum of City Council members about a controversial TxDOT plan to significantly widen the portion of Interstate 35 that runs through Austin. The complaints come as a wave of advocates across the state call on the transportation department to […]
Posted inTransit
Mobility Committee hears displacement concerns
At the Mobility Committee meeting on Friday, City Council members fielded discussion about both Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Project Connect and the Texas Department of Transportation’s involvement in the Interstate 35 expansion plan. Meanwhile, community members calling in to the committee expressed their concerns about the two plans’ potential to displace low-income residents living adjacent […]
Posted inBicycles
E-bikes, pandemic boost MetroBike ridership
MetroBike, the city’s rebranded bike share service, saw two consecutive months of record ridership this year, driven by a pandemic-era bike boom and a new fleet of e-bikes. “This year, we hit record numbers for the past few years,” Chad Ballentine with the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority said, “so the future of bike share is […]
Posted inPlanning
As temporary Healthy Streets close, permanent version prepares to open
As Austin’s Healthy Streets program winds down, with less than four miles of the temporary slow streets remaining, the city is preparing a new pilot program for 10 permanent Healthy Streets. The pilot will “test the application of our Healthy Streets principles – calming traffic, opening up street spaces to people walking, biking, driving, parking, and […]
Posted inTransit
Cap Metro details early TOD planning for areas near Project Connect stations
At last Thursday’s Mobility Committee meeting, Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials previewed a key part of Project Connect – creating land-use plans for areas near stations. By guiding the development of affordable and market-rate housing, the plans aim to ensure robust ridership on the new mass transit lines while also allowing people of all means […]