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Guide to future design of Austin streets to be unveiled next week
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Interested in the future of Austin’s streets? Join us next week for the public launch of the Austin Street Design Guide! Whether planning for a new street or the retrofit of an existing street, this guide is a first step in the application of a consistent and predictable approach to street design.
Austin Street Design Guide: Public Launch
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
8:30-10 a.m.
One Texas Center, Room 325
The Austin Street Design Guide is a modern guide for street design that considers street function, land use context, green infrastructure and all transportation modes. The guide contains street cross-sections and serves as a precursor to updates to the City’s Transportation Criteria Manual, the how-to manual for transportation-related requirements in the Land Development Code.
The City will pilot these street designs through capital projects as well as the development process through the end of 2017 in coordination with the development of the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan and CodeNEXT. The Austin Strategic Mobility Plan, CodeNEXT and the Transportation Criteria Manual update are expected to be complete in 2018.
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It's not too late to help shape the future of three South Austin corridors
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The City of Austin is developing Corridor Mobility Plans for Slaughter Lane, William Cannon Drive and Brodie Lane as part of the 2016 Mobility Bond Program, and is asking for your feedback about the existing conditions and improvements you'd like the City to consider in the future.
If you haven't attended a public meeting or provided feedback online, you can still participate in the first round of input by visiting AustinTexas.gov/BSWCorridors through Sunday, June 18. You can also click the buttons below take a survey, comment on an interactive map — or both!
You may also stop by the Pleasant Hill Branch Library, 211 E. William Cannon Drive, on Thursday, June 15 any time between 3 and 7 p.m. for help taking the survey and mapping your comments or to have specific questions about the initiative answered.
Recommendations outlined in the plans for Slaughter Lane and William Cannon Drive will be considered for 2016 Mobility Bond design and construction funding during the development of a Corridor Construction Program. The Austin City Council established a Contract With Voters last year when it called the bond election. The contract directs the City Manager to bring back a proposed Corridor Construction Program, composed of projects on corridors to be designed and constructed with 2016 Mobility Bond funding, for City Council approval. The Preliminary Engineering Report for Brodie Lane will be considered for future construction funding opportunities.
The second round of input, to be held in the fall, will consist of feedback on preliminary recommendations for improvements to the corridors.
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ATD repairs damaged traffic calming project, asks for help from community to identify if damage was intentional
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The photos above show the damage to the safety improvements.
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It has come to the attention of ATD that the recent safety improvements constructed on Far West Boulevard were damaged, possibly intentionally. These safety improvements, which were warranted through a rigorous engineering process following a request initiated by the neighborhood, are intended to slow down vehicles traveling through the residential area.
The design includes two speed cushions, and 4-foot tall reflective delineator posts to channel traffic over the cushions and keep vehicles from traveling into the bike and parking lanes. Several of the delineators at two locations appear to have been cut down, allowing vehicles to swerve around the speed cushions. This poses several potential safety risks as, not only will vehicles be able to once again speed, but the devices are now less visible at night, which could cause vehicles or bicyclists to strike the devices, causing the risk of serious injury.
ATD takes safety very seriously and has already begun work to replace the damaged devices and limit driving around them. If damaged again, ATD will continue to replace materials to ensure effective and safe traffic calming on Far West Boulevard, and will review opportunities to reduce the likelihood of damage in the future.
The Far West Boulevard traffic calming is the result of a neighborhood-initiated request through ATD’s Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) Program. LATM is a request-based program to improve the quality and safety of neighborhood streets by installing speed mitigation devices, such as speed cushions. In this instance, the neighborhood submitted a valid application for traffic calming, including a petition of support from the neighbors along the project area. Data collected by ATD, such as vehicle speed and volume counts, validated the need for traffic calming.
ATD has also contacted the Austin Police Department and is working closely with them concerning the damages. If the poles were intentionally cut down, the individual or individuals committed a crime by vandalizing public property and will be held criminally responsible for their actions and any injuries or damages caused by their actions.
If you have knowledge of this being an intentional act, please help the City keep your streets safe by reporting vandalism so that the individual or individuals may be held responsible. Contact the Austin Police Department with tips about this crime by calling Crime Stoppers at 512-472-TIPS, texting "Tip 103" + your message to CRIMES (274637), or using the new Crime Stoppers App. You can also submit tips by downloading APD’s mobile app, Austin PD, for free on iPhone and Android.
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Transportation Management Center staff spring into action during storms
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In response to the storms that occurred during evening peak hours on Monday, June 5, Transportation Management Center (TMC) staff acted quickly to repair damaged and flashing signals across the city and provide frequent social media updates to the public. ATD engineers and signal technicians worked around the clock, both at the TMC and in the field, as they received a flurry of trouble calls within the short period the storm occurred.
“It’s an incredible thing to see the behind-the-scenes effort of so many people coming together to make quick decisions to make sure that those travelers are safe and don’t lose too much time getting to their destinations at the end of the day,” said Jorge Riveros, ATD Arterial Management Division Managing Engineer. "I want to thank all of these people for all of their hard work to resolve as many issues as fast as possible."
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Big Jump, departmental budget proposals headed to Urban Transportation Commission tomorrow night
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The City of Austin's Urban Transportation Commission will meet tomorrow at 6 p.m. in the City Hall Boards and Commissions Room. Topics to be discussed include the Big Jump – a project with an ambitious goal to double bicycle ridership in three years in Central Austin – and next year's proposed budgets for ATD and the Public Works Department. More information about the Urban Transportation Commission and tomorrow's meeting, including the agenda, can be found here.
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Check it out: Benefits compound when bikeways protected and connected
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A recent case study documenting a massive investment in bicycle facilities in Seville, Spain, has demonstrated that cycling safety and ridership increase with the construction of bike lanes that are not only protected, but connected.
While constructing bikeways improves safety for cyclists, the authors found, “networking the bikeways has a substantial effect on cycling safety by itself and beyond the mere increase in the length of the bikeways.” The study was published last month in the journal Accident Analysis & Prevention.
Streetsblog analyzed the findings, summing up how they relate to ridership: “The amount of biking actually tracks most closely with the number of bikeways, while the safety of biking tracks most closely with the connectedness of bikeways. But if you want lots of people biking safely, you eventually need both.” Read the full Streetsblog post here.
The City of Austin’s Bicycle Master Plan, updated in 2014, follows this best practice by calling for an all-ages-and-abilities bicycle network that offers a comfortable and connected bicycle network designed to invite more people to bicycling, thus deriving the biggest benefit to the city in terms of congestion management, air quality, public health and livability. Find more information on Austin’s Bicycle Master Plan here.
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More than just waving a flag: Employees take part in crucial safety flagging training
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Flagging operations improve employee and citizen safety by controlling traffic through work zones. Last week, more than 100 ATD employees benefited from several flagging safety certification classes where they underwent training on safely guiding drivers and practiced traffic scenarios that would protect themselves from a myriad of dangers facing them on public roads, from weather elements to distracted drivers.
While our employees work to improve driver safety in work zones, this is a reminder to road users to slow down and pay attention when approaching a work site.
This certification training was made possible with grant funding through the University of North Texas.
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