ATD has released its draft Pedestrian Safety Action Plan for public review and comment. As a comprehensive strategy for improving citywide pedestrian safety, the draft PSAP builds on crash data analysis, sociodemographic information and national studies on pedestrian safety to offer 21 recommendations in engineering, education, enforcement, evaluation, policy/land use and partners/funding.

Provide comments on the draft PSAP online or via email by midnight on August 31, 2017.
 
After incorporating public comment, ATD staff will bring the PSAP to City Council for a briefing in late 2017. The PSAP will be adopted under the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan, which is under development and is expected to be brought before City Council in 2018.

Vision Zero pledge: Do your job behind the wheel

Take the Vision Zero pledge to never take someone's life by driving recklessly. A family shouldn't lose a loved one because you are rushing, angry or distracted behind the wheel.

All traffic crashes, injuries and deaths are preventable. Help Austin reach the Vision Zero goal of zero traffic deaths or serious injuries by 2025. In Austin, about 80 percent of crashes that kill or seriously injure people in our community are caused by distracted driving, speeding, driving under the influence, improper movements and failing to stop or yield. 

Join thousands across the country in taking the Vision Zero pledge to be a safer driver.

Hiring: Smart Trips outreach ambassadors for South Central Austin

ATD and Capital Metro are teaming up for another round of Smart Trips: Austin, an education and outreach program aimed at getting people out of their cars and onto sidewalks, bikes and buses. The next phase of this program will run from October 2017 to January 2018 and focus on residents in the Zilker, Bouldin and Travis Heights neighborhoods. The program will help residents explore healthy and sustainable transportation options through fun events like walking, biking and transit tours; personalized messaging and communications; and tools and resources.
 
The goals of the program are to:

• Decrease single-occupancy vehicle trips by 5‐10 percent among participants in the priority community, and
• Increase trips made by walking, bicycling, riding transit and carpooling by 5‐10 percent in the priority community.

In an effort to reach those goals, Smart Trips: Austin is hiring three full-time, temporary outreach ambassadors to conduct community outreach and administrative tasks for the program. The outreach ambassadors will be hired and managed by Bike Austin. If interested, please send both a resume and cover letter by Wednesday, August 14, to carson@bikeaustin.org. Please include the words “Smart Trips: Austin Ambassador” in the subject line. Electronic submissions only; no mailed or faxed submissions will be considered. Please feel free to share this information with anyone who may be interested in these positions.

Check it out: Congress Avenue experiences displayed in colorful map

In March and April 2017, the Downtown Austin Alliance commissioned the public art project XYZ Atlas: Congress Avenue between Lady Bird Lake and the Texas State Capitol. During this time, 373 people took an eight-question survey to answer where they had significant experiences on Congress Avenue. In a collaboration with Sean Christopher, artist Jennifer Chenoweth developed these responses into a colorful map made in ArcScene, a geographic information system platform.

The project’s results will inform a larger place-making initiative that involves the Urban Design Initiative of the City of Austin. The goal of this effort is to develop an urban design and implementation strategy that results in a human-centric, multi-functional complete street with a clear and attractive identity.

  
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