Taking on Austin's car carnage
It's time to take some car lanes.
Back in October, City Council unanimously adopted a resolution instructing transportation staff to study a seemingly radical idea: turning at least one car lane on every city-owned arterial into a protected bike lane or dedicated bus lane.
The idea, dubbed CityLeap by its proponents, is championed by Safe Streets Austin, an advocacy group for pedestrian, bike and transit infrastructure.
What's important to remember is that many of the city's major corridors are the jurisdiction of TxDOT, not the city of Austin. That's why the section of S. Lamar between Riverside & Barton Springs Rd will continue to senselessly have three car lanes in each direction (the rest of Lamar has two) –– because Greg Abbott won't let us have nice stuff.
But below is a map of corridors that are city-controlled. The purple ones are those where Safe Streets has recommended a bus lane along with an off-street bike/pedestrian path. Its recommendation for the yellow ones is to convert a car lane into a protected bike lane.
Passing the resolution is the easy part. It's just a "study" after all. Whether city staff and Council are willing to follow through and implement big changes is another question.
