City hopes to ease traffic congestion with options

City hopes to ease traffic congestion with options

By Tiffany Young Friday, 27 March 2009

Austin ranks highest in traffic congestion of all the medium-sized population groups, or cities with fewer than one million people, according to the Texas Transportation Institute’s biannual Urban Mobility Report. And the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce’s 2007 Take on Traffic campaign reports 70 cars are being added to Central Texas’ roadways each day.

“Austin grows a lot faster than most cities our size. Our population has doubled every 20 years, so if we continue to grow without building more capacity, congestion will only get worse,” said Sheryl Cole, Austin city councilwoman and Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board member.

Expected to open after further testing, Capital Metro’s 32-mile Red Line will add a new means of transportation that is expected to relieve some traffic along its route between Leander and downtown Austin.

“Just like our bus system, many cars will be taken off the road by people choosing to ride MetroRail,” Capital Metro President/CEO Fred Gilliam said. “Mass transit is not considered a solution to traffic; however, it does give people more options which can alleviate congestion.”

The City of Austin is also reevaluating its bike plan and just approved a Sidewalk Master Plan, which will offer residents ways to get to and from the rail stations and other destinations without needing a car.

And, though few Austinites are using alternative transportation now, many say they are planning on using the MetroRail. In a poll on www.impactnews.com, more than 40 percent of 180 voters said they planned on using the MetroRail daily, with only 14 percent saying they never plan to use it.

“We expect the opening day, month and year to be a success for Capital Metro and our community. We are excited to be able to offer Central Texans a new transportation option,” Gilliam said. “Once MetroRail is up and running, I know the community will see the benefits of rail transit and support more opportunities to expand mass transportation in our region.”

MetroRail

The Red Line will begin transporting riders from Leander through northwest Austin to downtown during peak commuter hours between 5:40 and 9:40 a.m. and 3:45 and 7:45 p.m. Trains will stop at Lakeline, Howard, Kramer, Crestview and Highland stations, into east Austin and end downtown at the Austin Convention Center, taking about an hour from one end to the other.

Park & Rides will only be at three of the nine stations: Howard, Lakeline and Leander stations will have 200, 500 and 600 parking spaces, respectively. Bus routes will run to all stations, and bicycles will be allowed on the trains. Only three bikes will fit per bike rack, which is shared with the mobility-impaired/senior seating area, but cyclists will be allowed to stand with their bikes in the aisles.

Bus travel

Capital MetroRapid could receive up to $37 million in funding, after achieving the first two critical milestones toward a federal grant through the Federal Transit Administration’s Very Small Starts Program. Capital MetroRapid, a part of the All Systems Go Long-Range Transit Plan, is a type of limited-stop bus service that will use high-tech vehicles to keep traffic signals green as the buses approach major intersections.

Initial service will include two routes: North Lamar/South Congress and Burnet/South Lamar. The project would connect MetroRapid to MetroBus and MetroRail services in each corridor and reduce travel times up to 20 percent.

“As the Central Texas population continues to grow, we must find ways to meet the demand for effective transportation in our area. The addition of MetroRapid will provide more options for our community and help build upon an already growing multimodal system,” Gilliam said.

2020 Bicycle Plan

As part of its overall transportation plan, the City of Austin will be updating its bicycle plan. In May, the 2020 Bicycle Plan will be introduced to the Austin City Council in hopes of significantly increasing bicycle use and safety over the next decade.

While Austin was recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Community at the Silver level by the League of American Bicyclists in 2007, less than 1 percent of commuters bike to and from work each day. This might be because only 4 percent of Austin’s roadway network has bicycle lanes. The proposed network of bicycle lanes in the 2020 Bicycle Plan would put Austin at 21 percent. In order to do that, it will need $3 million per year in funding. Austin officials hope to increase the number of citywide workers cycling to work to 5 percent by 2020 through improving existing infrastructure, adding accessibility and educating residents.

Annick Beaudet, project manager for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Program, said the city is targeting the promotion of cycling to work and school for many reasons, including decreasing traffic congestion and making residents healthier.

Even where there are bike lanes, cyclists are vying for space with parked cars. There are 55 miles of bike lanes in Austin where parking is allowed on the street. Mesa Drive is one area in which both bike lanes and parking for cars is shared, but the new plan hopes to address this problem.

Some commuters in northwest Austin find biking to work difficult. Adam Turner, president of the Wooten Neighborhood Association, said he has commuted by bike to work a few times, but avoids it because he feels the route from his neighborhood just south of US 183 to his work at the Riata Corporate Park is unsafe. Getting to work by car takes him between six and eight minutes and by bike, about an hour. When the rail opens, Turner plans on biking about a mile to catch the train and then ride another 1 to 2 miles the rest of the way to work. Turner said major obstacles for his cycling commuter route is the US 183 frontage road, which is blocked by MoPac.

Sidewalk Master Plan

The Sidewalk Master Plan prioritizes the need for absent sidewalks and recommends a funding schedule for sidewalk improvements. The plan included a matrix that assigned each street void of sidewalks a rank in priority. Scores were given a Pedestrian Attractor Score and a Pedestrian Safety Score. For PAS scores, the highest weight was given to areas within close proximity to pedestrian attractions, such as schools, government offices and transit stations. PSS scores were given according to traffic and speed limits, health needs of the area and number of automobile and pedestrian incidents reported. A majority of sidewalks in the northwest area were marked as very low- to low-priority, with just a portion of Jollyville Road and streets off Kramer Lane near the Kramer rail station scoring in the high- to very high-priority range.

The highest priority sidewalk gaps were given to the downtown and east Austin areas where the highest foot traffic is.

“I believe a healthy, active city needs multimodal transportation solutions to diminish the need for cars and parking. In my mind, all of these plans work together to create more mobility for residents,” Cole said. “Given the uncertainty of the economy right now, I cannot say when we will be able to get to these projects. In the future, I hope the city will have a strategic mobility plan that takes everything from I-35 to the sidewalks in northwest Austin into account, and we can work on comprehensive funding to close all of these gaps.”