The city’s newly published Guadalupe Corridor Plan unsurprisingly turned heads when the Austin Transportation Department published it on Tuesday. Any plan that recommends the elimination of on-street parking and conversion of general purpose lanes into transit-priority lanes can be reliably counted upon to draw swift reaction from car-friendly quarters, including no less a person than […]
Transportation Department
This city department is responsible for municipal transportation planning including roadways and bikeways.
Posted inRoads
Final Guadalupe plan hits the streets
At long last, the city’s shortest corridor has its plan. The Austin Transportation Department today released the much-anticipated Guadalupe Corridor Plan, a 66-page document that calls for a multimodal revolution along the Drag. As expected, the document recommends the conversion of two car lanes into bus-only lanes on Guadalupe Street between 29th Street and Martin […]
Posted inTransportation
Smart Mobility Roadmap draft begins its tour of boards and commissions
Two of the human minds behind Austin’s robot car roadmap rolled into City Council chambers on Wednesday evening to show the fruits of their work to the city’s Joint Sustainability Committee. Karla Taylor, Austin Transportation Department chief of staff, and Karl Popham, Austin Energy’s manager of electric vehicles and emerging technology, showcased the draft document […]
Posted inTransportation
Corridor Program Office still preparing road map for voter-approved roadwork
As the first year of its eight-year timeline draws to a close, Austin’s Corridor Program Office is closing in on major milestones in its mad dash to put together the road map that will guide the voter-approved overhaul of several of the city’s major roadways. Staff have scheduled a pair of open houses at which […]
Posted inDevelopment
Proposal to change traffic rule draws fire
The Austin Transportation Department is proposing changes to the Traffic Impact Analysis for zoning cases that observers in the development business worry could slow down the process and raise the cost of developing small commercial projects. Transportation Department Assistant Director Annick Beaudet told City Council during Tuesday’s work session that the proposed new threshold for […]
Posted inTransportation
Council to take up street impact fees today
In an effort to help fund public infrastructure made necessary by new development, the Austin Transportation Department is proposing new street impact fees throughout the city. These one-time fees for developers constructing new sites are intended to help pay for road improvements to assist in mitigating traffic in the expanding city of Austin. On Oct. […]
Posted inTransportation
City debuts robot car roadmap
The dawn of the robot car future is just around the corner but the full obsolescence of human drivers is still decades away, according to Austin Transportation Director Robert Spillar. More specifically, Spillar told the Mobility Transformation Advisory Council earlier this month that a complete conversion to automated vehicles will likely be 40 years down […]
Posted inAustin
Austin helping cities hit by Hurricane Harvey
City Council unanimously approved mutual aid agreements with the cities of Houston and Victoria at a special called meeting on Tuesday in the wake of devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Mayor Steve Adler and Council members Leslie Pool and Greg Casar were attending to other business. As of Monday night, a city official said there were […]
Posted inTransportation
Vision Zero reports detail progress; crash data mostly unchanged
A pair of documents delivered to city officials last week show that the plan to eliminate all Austin traffic deaths and serious accidents by 2025 is proceeding, and this year’s accident data suggests the effort hasn’t moved the needle in terms of reducing fatal accidents. The two reports – the Vision Zero Report Card and […]
Posted inTransportation
Guadalupe plan still in the works
The long-delayed report that will recommend giving two lanes of Austin’s iconic Drag entirely to buses is near the finish line, according to Austin Transportation Director Rob Spillar. “If these improvements are to be considered for funding, we’ve got to get them out the door,” Spillar said of the Guadalupe Street Corridor Improvement Program’s final […]
Posted inTransportation
Robot car revolution could usurp tens of millions of dollars from city coffers
With no cars to park, whither the parking fees? That question is one of many that the city of Austin will have to answer as it prepares for a possible future where personal car ownership is replaced by shared fleets of fully automated electric vehicles. “This is not a problem tomorrow,” Austin Transportation Director Rob […]
Posted inTransportation
Pedestrian Safety Action Plan open for public comment
Austin’s road to eliminating traffic deaths will involve more planning and at least one new tool in the toolbox according to the draft version of the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan. The document – itself a recommendation of the Vision Zero Action Plan adopted by City Council more than a year ago – provides 21 recommendations […]