The Urban Transportation Commission voted unanimously to recommend that City Council approve a new strategic plan from the Department of Transportation and Public Works for the streets of Austin’s small-yet-mighty downtown, along with a list of their own recommendations regarding the plan, during a meeting on March 4.
The new plan, called the Austin Core Transportation plan or ACT, would function as an “attachment” to the wider Austin Strategic Mobility Plan or ASMP, according to the presentation given at the meeting, replacing an earlier plan dating from the year 2000, when Austin had roughly 300,000 fewer residents.
According to a presentation from TPW, it would seek to recalibrate downtown roadways around a host of goals including walk- and bike-ability, equity, green infrastructure and safety, while also setting priority rankings to certain streets and projects over others based on those criteria.
The recommendations to TPW included in the motion passed by the commission, which was initiated and drafted by Commissioner David Kavelman, work largely along the same lines while urging the department to go further with what Kavelman described as “really a great plan.”
Those recommendations include studying quick-build and low-cost improvements as placeholders until more costly street rebuilds can be completed, and aligning the timeline for ACT projects with the prospective Interstate 35 cap-and-stitch project and the Austin light-rail projects, among others, a few of which were discussed at more length at the meeting.
Commissioner Spencer Schumacher questioned a section of the draft ACT on the long-term future of Red River Street, which is currently slated for improvement in the form of bidirectional protected bike lanes.
Schumacher noted that the current draft calls for curbside access for cars to accommodate loading, unloading and other temporary parking in the Red River Cultural District between Cesar Chavez and 12th streets, which could complicate the bike lane plan.
Cole Kitten, who presented the plan on behalf of TPW, noted in response that the plan identifies Red River as a lower-priority target for the ACT, and said any changes that it would prescribe for the street would factor in the existing plans for better bike access.
Kitten was sanguine about a theoretical proposal by Schumacher to resolve the conflict by placing a two-way bike lane on one side of the street and preserving curb access on the other.
“That being a kind of alternative design would fit,” Kitten said. “A parking space could be converted, or the distance between those curbs could be reallocated, accordingly.”
Schumacher proposed an amendment to the base motion adding a recommendation from the UTC to make sure the project goes forward under the new ACT, which passed unanimously.
Adam Greenfield, representing pedestrian advocacy group Safe Streets Austin, spoke at the meeting in favor of another recommendation by the UTC: converting one-way streets downtown into two-way streets “as is feasible.”
“One-way roads are a 20th-century legacy where moving cars quickly was very much seen as a priority,” Greenfield said. “We increasingly as a city and as a country have moved away from that.”
Doing that, he contended, would offer benefits to pedestrian accessibility, public safety, noise and pollution levels, and the local economy – “pretty much every other metric we would have for downtown.”
In addition, Kavelman emphasized a further “Be it resolved” clause that calls for a comprehensive plan for managing parking downtown to align with the ASMP’s goal of limiting the construction of new parking.
TPW representatives present at the meeting responded by highlighting a forthcoming study on curb usage commissioned by the department, as well as affirming that they’re doing what they can do to further the goals of the existing ASMP.
Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.
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Posted In: Planning, District 9
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