Austin Mobility News For September 13

Press release from the City of Austin:

September 13, 2021

The All Ages and Abilities (AAA) Bicycle Network, an interconnected web of neighborhood bikeways, street crossings, urban trails and protected bicycle lanes throughout Austin, is now more than halfway complete. The AAA network aims to provide access for people of all ages and abilities ensuring everyone can easily get around the city—whether 8 years old or 80.

Since 2014, Austin has been making progress toward its goal of building the 400+ mile bicycle network that would give residents a choice in how they get around. The AAA Bicycle Network surpassed the halfway milestone at the 207-mile mark on June 19th, upon completion of the protected bicycle lane on Guadalupe Street from Koenig Lane to Airport Boulevard. With 215 miles built as of September, Austin is one of the few North American cities to have reached such a milestone.

The network buildout follows through on an ambitious vision set by Austin City Council in 2014 with the passage of the Austin Bicycle Plan. The plan called for 80% completion in 2025, and the city is on track to complete the current AAA Bicycle Network ahead of schedule by 2025. Today in Austin, more than 600,000 people, or approximately 64% of the city’s 950,000 residents, live within a half-mile of an All Ages and Abilities Bikeway.

Find more information on the AAA Bicycle Network here, including an interactive map of recently completed and upcoming projects. A video highlighting the milestone is also available here.

A $4.9 billion project to remake I-35 through Central Austin will define the future of mobility for Central Texas in an opportunity that comes along once in a generation.

The Texas Department of Transportation's (TxDOT) Capital Express Central Project, the first major reconstruction of the highway since 1973, is a work in progress. As a partner in the project, the City of Austin is working with TxDOT to meet a set of goals approved by Austin City Council in March 2021, which include increasing safety for people by designing frontage roads to urban arterials and speeds.

Austin Transportation Department Director Rob Spillar, P.E., gave a presentation to Austin City Council Aug. 31 explaining how ATD staff is working with TxDOT on many design aspects of the highway, including new frontage roads. One proposal from city staff, Spillar said, involves a technique called cantilevering, or supporting the frontage roads by a beam over the main lanes of the freeway, to reduce the footprint of the entire project.

“We need to figure out how to skinny up this alternative, either by design elements, or by taking a look at how we can optimize the lane elements, or the operational characteristics, of this corridor,” Spillar said.

TxDOT’s current plans would lower the frontage road design speed, or the target speed engineers envision when they design a project, in order to make I-35 safer. In 2018, the most recent year available, there were more than 1,000 crashes in the 8-mile area of the project between US 290 East and SH 71/Ben White Boulevard. Proposed design speeds would be 35 mph from Airport Boulevard to Oltorf Street. Currently, speed limits on the frontage roads vary from 40-50 mph.

TxDOT is also proposing bypass lanes to help increase safety and allow drivers to avoid multiple signalized intersections, leaving the frontage roads in this area to operate similarly to Austin’s arterial roads such as Guadalupe and Lavaca streets.

Making the frontage roads safer for all users and improving east-west crossings is a critical goal for the city. TxDOT’s designs show 10-foot shared use paths on both sides of the roadway for the majority of the corridor limits and physical barriers between the frontage roads and the paths, as well as more than a dozen connections to the city’s urban trail and bicycle networks.

The city is committed to working with TxDOT to achieve the best possible outcomes for Austin and limit disruptions to local businesses and residents. The community has a chance to make its voice heard and provide ideas to shape the project through Sept. 24. TxDOT anticipates project construction will start in late 2025.

The North Central Austin intersection at North Lamar Boulevard and West St. Johns Avenue is now safer for all users after recently finished improvements in the area.

The Austin Transportation Department project eliminated dangerous left turns in and out of driveways by adding new raised medians on both approaches of North Lamar that include a connection to the existing median at the intersection of North Lamar and Airport Boulevard.

In addition, the project is now better for pedestrians and bicyclists after restriping crosswalks, adding new Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible curb ramps, building a new shared use path on the east side of St Johns and adding a bicycle lane northbound on North Lamar.

Other improvements included modified traffic signals, driveway modifications to increase safety, increased space for cars waiting to turn left on North Lamar and relocated Capital Metro bus stops for easier access.

The $1.15 million project was funded by the 2016 Mobility Bond, which dedicated $15 million towards intersection safety and Vision Zero projects to build improvements at Austin’s intersections where the most crashes occur. Construction started in late 2020 and finished in late August 2021. This is the tenth intersection safety improvement project funded by the 2016 Mobility Bond. You can find photos of the completed intersection here.

On October 19, 2017, Lisa Torry Smith was walking her son to school in Missouri City, Texas.
While they crossed an intersection, they were struck by a vehicle. Lisa Torry Smith died and her son suffered serious injuries. The driver responsible for the crash was not criminally charged because the law did not allow it at the time.

This press release was produced by the City of Austin. The views expressed here are the author’s own.