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 […]
Transportation Department
This city department is responsible for municipal transportation planning including roadways and bikeways.
Posted inCity Council
Council reopens path to chauffeur’s permit for many criminal offenders
City Council took action on Thursday that could help put some disqualified taxi and transportation network company drivers back on Austin roads. The amendment to the city code tweaked an existing ordinance that Council passed in June that restricted many current and potential drivers with criminal records from qualifying for a chauffeur’s permit. Under the […]
Posted inTransportation
Corridor plans could yield new traffic law, but buses might not benefit as promised
Mayor Steve Adler’s sales pitch for his successful $720 million transportation bond promised the creation of new bus pullouts along major city corridors so that, in his words, “cars can keep on going when the bus pulls over.” Transit advocates and the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority countered that notion with concerns that endless platoons of […]
Posted inRoads
Speed limits going down on parts of Lamar and Parmer
The Texas Department of Transportation is moving to reduce speed limits on sections of two busy roadways in Austin. At least one City Council member, however, is hoping the city can go further than what the state agency put forward in an effort to reduce driving speeds and traffic accidents. The state agency is recommending […]
Posted inTransportation
Beneath the bond debate, planners begin exhaustive assessment of Austin’s transportation future
As Austin voters wrangle with a mobility bond on the November ballot, city planners are gearing up to draft a new transportation policy road map to guide decisions for decades to come. Work on the Strategic Mobility Plan soft-launched earlier this year and will make its formal debut sometime in early 2017. The plan will […]
Posted inRoads
Proposal to kick cars off downtown street yields a surprise
A proposal to move cars off of two downtown blocks would have a surprising benefit to late-night congestion, according to the Austin Transportation Department. Transportation Department staff told the City Council Mobility Committee on Wednesday that accommodating the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Downtown Station expansion by shuffling operations on East Fourth and East Fifth streets […]
Posted inCity Hall
Grove memos defend city process
A lengthy series of memos defending the city’s review of the Grove at Shoal Creek planned unit development emerged yesterday, and it could set the stage for the case returning to City Council later this month. Attorney Jeff Howard, who is representing developers ARG Bull Creek Ltd., said he was “glad the reality of the […]
Posted inAustin
Austin loses Smart City bid to Columbus
It appears that United States Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx has decided that Austin is not a Smart City. On Tuesday, Ohio’s two members of the U.S. Senate announced that their state capital, Columbus, won the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge and the $50 million purse that comes with the title. A spokesperson […]
Posted inCity Council
Council OKs contract for impact fee study
With City Council Member Don Zimmerman opposed, Council voted 7-1 Thursday to award a $1.18 million contract for a transportation impact fee study to Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. in anticipation of adopting developer impact fees to pay for street improvements as the city grows. Council members Delia Garza and Ann Kitchen along with Mayor Steve […]
Posted inCity Hall
CodeNEXT leader: City adding costs to code rewrite
The chair of the citizens group advising the city of Austin on the rewrite of the city’s land-use regulations has voiced concerns that the contract for the project, known as CodeNEXT, is being used as a “mothership on which to attach riders for other studies or plans.” Jim Duncan, former director of planning for the […]
Posted inTransportation
Some confusion at Austin’s first ride-hailing driver fair
Former full-time Uber and Lyft driver Kurt Wagenman showed up to Austin’s first transportation network company (TNC) driver fair on Tuesday with a misleading email in his inbox. “As the city has mentioned, (fingerprinting) will be free for now,” read Wagenman aloud from an email signed by ride-hailing company Get Me’s Austin city manager, Patricio […]
Posted inTransportation
Austin’s Vision Zero plan begins final march to Council
The city of Austin’s Vision Zero plan continued its final parade through boards and commissions Monday with a visit to the Public Safety Commission. And while some commissioners were dissatisfied with the 94-page document, others had little to say. “About the only thing I can say is the pictures are pretty,” said Commissioner Mike Levy […]