University Area Partners comes out against changes along the Drag

The president of the University Area Partners is urging her members to get in touch with City Council members over elements of the draft Corridor Construction Program that she suggested could take away car lanes and create bottlenecks around the stretch of Guadalupe Street known as the Drag. In an email obtained by the Austin Monitor, Cathy Norman said the UAP is opposing the notion of converting Nueces Street north of 24th Street to a two-way and adding a bike lane because it would remove on-street parking. She also suggested that a road diet on 24th Street between Guadalupe and North Lamar Boulevard would “cause a clog-up.” Similarly, the proposal to reroute northbound buses from Lavaca Street to 18th Street and then up a short bus-only lane on Guadalupe across Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard would “probably bottle-neck all south bound traffic into one lane.” Norman also noted that the original plans to paint transit-only lanes on Guadalupe had been deep-sixed. However, she stated, “the group ‘AURA’ has been lobbying to have the transit lanes added back in, and I believe the Urban Transportation Commission has supported having the transit lanes added back in.” Norman told her members, “It’s unclear whether these requests include removing the parking, but current city ordinances prohibit a transit-only lane adjacent to a parallel parking lane. So, we should all also tell Council about our feelings about this as well as any points on the official proposal.” Council is scheduled to discuss the draft construction program at a work session today before taking a final vote this Thursday.