Now that the Austin Transportation Department has decided to take extra time to consider feedback on three of its dockless mobility policy proposals, City Council will only be considering the department’s proposed changes to Chapter 12-2 of the city code, regarding appropriate use of bicycles, at its March 28 meeting. In a presentation to the […]
City of Austin Urban Transportation Commission
The UTC is the body charged with advising the City of Austin’s Mayor and Council on transportation-related issues.
Posted inTransportation
Austin’s Strategic Mobility Plan supports Cap Metro’s Project Connect
Austin’s Capital Metro recently released its revamped Project Connect plan, which it hopes to put before voters in 2020, and this time it has integrated its plans with the city’s overall strategy. The last time Austin laid out a transportation plan was in 1995, and at that time, it was not intimately woven into the public […]
Posted inAustin
Urban Transportation Commission ponders fettering booting companies
In Central Austin, traffic is plentiful, but parking spaces are not. That’s where booting companies come in – they enforce parking rules at private businesses by immobilizing would-be offenders. Their fines are often cheaper than the charges levied by towing companies, too. But some Austinites feel their practices are predatory. They say the booting companies […]
Posted inTransportation
Transportation Department revises sweeping taxi recommendations
The Austin Transportation Department staff has scaled back a set of draft recommendations aimed at saving the city’s flagging taxi franchises. On Tuesday evening, Acting Mobility Services Division Manager Jacob Culberson revealed to the Urban Transportation Commission a revised version of the proposals he initially debuted during the UTC’s Feb. 13 meeting. “Some of our […]
Posted inTransit
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 voted 6-0 to recommend that Council include in the final Corridor Construction Program “dedicated right-of-way […]
Posted inTransit
Transit priority is a top priority for Project Connect
Project Connect is doomed unless the city hands over dedicated right of way. That was the message relayed by Javier Arguello, long range planning director for the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to the city’s Urban Transportation Commission on Tuesday night. Arguello told the body that the high-capacity transit investments Project Connect is ultimately trying to […]
Posted inTransit
Urban Transportation Commission reacts to Capital Metro route changes
In September, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority informed the Austin public that there would be a major restructuring of citywide bus lines to kick-start the Connections 2025 transit plan. To elaborate on the exact changes, on Oct. 10, Caitlin D’Alton, a senior planner at the agency, offered the members of the Urban Transportation Commission a […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Best-laid plans
No two ways about it… yet… Like many, many other projects around town, the conversion of downtown’s Colorado Street to a two-way avenue will be delayed, albeit slightly. Crews have been reconstructing the street from the Governor’s Mansion on West 10th Street all the way down to Cesar Chavez Street in 2015. According to the […]
Posted inDevelopment
UTC endorses second convention center skybridge
Plans for another new skybridge in downtown Austin have cleared the second of three challenges set forth last month by a skeptical Planning Commission. On May 9, the proposal scored the support of the Urban Transportation Commission after that body heard how the bridge is aimed at reducing “congestion” in a unique corner of downtown. […]
Posted inTransportation
Effort to move buses faster stalls at Urban Transportation Commission
Top local transportation planners on Tuesday tapped the brakes on an activist-crafted effort aimed at increasing transit use. At the monthly Urban Transportation Commission meeting, Transportation Director Rob Spillar, Corridor Program Implementation Office Director Mike Trimble and Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Long Range Planning Director Javier Arguello each indicated that any talk of planning for new […]
Posted inDevelopment
Real Estate Council seeks commissioner’s apology
Nick Moulinet, board chair of the Real Estate Council of Austin, was extremely concerned when he heard about some anti-growth comments made by Urban Transportation Commissioner Kelly Davis during a January discussion of a small change to the city’s transportation plan approval process. As a result, Moulinet took the unusual step of asking City Council […]
Posted inTransportation
Highways and interstates a top priority for pedestrian safety plan
Austin appears to have had some early success in recovering from an all-time high in road fatalities in 2015, with 76 in 2016 compared to 102 the year prior. But reaching zero fatalities and serious injuries by 2025 remains the city’s goal, which local planners say will require analyzing huge amounts of data and implementing […]