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High-priority intersections see significant crash reductions after safety improvements
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Clockwise, from top left: Completed safety improvements at Cameron Road and US-183 Service Road; Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and I-35 Frontage Road; Lamar Boulevard and Rundberg Lane; and Lamar Boulevard and Parmer Lane.
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Early data show a significant decrease in crashes at four intersections that received safety improvements in 2016 and 2017. The Austin Transportation Department delivered these projects in coordination with the Texas Department of Transportation.
- I-35 and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard – 61 percent crash reduction
- Completed October 2016. Added a southbound through lane, a right-turn island, raised and continental crosswalks and a right-turn channelized island/pedestrian refuge island.
- US 183 and Cameron Road – 57 percent crash reduction
- Completed November 2016. Added a right-turn channelized island/pedestrian refuge island, high-visibility continental crosswalks and an advanced warning flasher on the eastbound frontage road.
- Lamar Boulevard, between Rutland Drive and Rundberg Lane – 22 percent crash reduction
- Completed June 2017. Added a raised median along Lamar Boulevard, high-visibility crosswalks, reconstructed pedestrian ramps, and a pedestrian hybrid beacon.
- Lamar Boulevard and Parmer Lane – 43 percent crash reduction
- Completed July 2017. Added a right-turn island, high-visibility crosswalks, a new traffic signal and a pedestrian hybrid beacon.
These statistics have been annualized based on data available to date. City staff will continue to monitor crash data on a yearly basis to analyze the effectiveness of these safety improvements.
The Austin City Council allocated one-time funding to address needed safety improvements at five dangerous intersections as part of the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget process. In addition to the four intersections already completed (above), improvements at Slaughter Lane at Manchaca Road are currently under construction, in partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation.
The 2016 Mobility Bond, approved the following year, provides $15 million in new funding toward safety improvements at high-crash locations throughout Austin. ATD anticipates funding improvements at 15 to 18 of these intersections with 2016 Mobility Bond funding.
All of these projects are being carried out as part of ATD’s Transportation Safety Improvement Program. For pictures of each completed intersection and a fact sheet with the crash reduction data, click here.
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Preliminary release of Local Mobility Annual Plan outlines upcoming sidewalks, safe routes and more
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The preliminary draft of the City of Austin's Local Mobility Annual Plan is now available online for public review. It outlines anticipated sidewalk, Safe Routes to School, bicycle, urban trail, safety/Vision Zero, and substandard street/capital renewal projects to be taken up with funding from the 2016 Mobility Bond in 2018 and beyond.
You can read and download the Local Mobility Annual Plan, view an interactive project map, and provide feedback through January 14, 2018.
The 2016 Mobility Bond invests $137 million in local mobility improvements. The Local Mobility Program comprises six distinct categories: Bikeways, Safety/Vision Zero, Sidewalks, Safe Routes to School, Urban Trails and Substandard Streets/Capital Renewal.
To enhance transparency with the community and leverage coordination opportunities within the Local Mobility Program, we developed an annual planning process called the Local Mobility Annual Plan. This preliminary draft lists projects to be taken up in 2018 and beyond. In many cases, implementation remains contingent upon successful feasibility analysis, coordination and/or additional public processes.
Final publication of the 2018 Local Mobility Annual Plan is scheduled for February 2018. This annual Local Mobility Annual Plan process will be repeated each year in order to capture any changes or new opportunities that coordination among our local mobility partners may present.
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Check it out: "Artificial intelligence and supercomputers to help alleviate urban traffic problems"
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The new technology analyzes City of Austin traffic camera footage in real time. Photo courtesy of Texas Advanced Computing Center/Center for Transportation Research.
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Researchers from the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), the University of Texas Center for Transportation Research and the City of Austin are working to develop tools that allow "sophisticated, searchable traffic analyses using deep learning and data mining," according to a recent UT press release.
The work involves "a new deep learning tool that uses raw traffic camera footage from City of Austin cameras to recognize objects – people, cars, buses, trucks, bicycles, motorcycles and traffic lights – and characterize how those objects move and interact," notes the press release. "This information can then be analyzed and queried by traffic engineers and officials to determine, for instance, how many cars drive the wrong way down a one-way street."
This technology can help the City of Austin reach its goals of improved mobility and safety for all road users. In the release, ATD's own Jen Duthie expands on the latter. "'The City of Austin is committed to ending traffic fatalities, and video analytics will be a powerful tool to help us pinpoint potentially dangerous locations,' said Jen Duthie, a consulting engineer for the City of Austin and a collaborator on the project. 'We can direct our resources toward fixing problem locations before an injury or fatality occurs.'”
Read the full article.
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ATD publishes report on adaptive traffic signal technology pilot
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The pilot corridors (left to right): Lamar Boulevard, Burnet Road and Loop 360.
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ATD is always exploring innovative solutions for reducing traffic congestion, such as technology that could make existing roads more efficient. To this end, in the past year, staff tested out an adaptive traffic signal control system along a few major Austin corridors.
This technology is designed to optimize (“adapt”) timing parameters as volumes change, more so than our existing time-of-day plans. The biggest benefit results from better use of signal green time when traffic patterns fluctuate, for example, almost every day as the peak period traffic conditions begin to build.
Recently completed adaptive pilots on Lamar Boulevard, Burnet Road and Loop 360 produced a 5 percent reduction in peak period travel times, and a 15 percent average reduction in evening peak period travel times. Because of the better use of green time, the side streets benefited too, by an average of 25 percent during weekday peak periods. Read the report.
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Walkin' on sunshine: ATD installs Creative Crosswalk on Guadalupe Street designed by recent UT graduate
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On Wednesday, Dec. 13, ATD installed a new Creative Crosswalk in the University of Texas area on Guadalupe Street. Joel Weber, who designed the crosswalk, is a local designer who recently graduated from the University of Texas College of Fine Arts. During his last semester at UT, he received a grant for an art crosswalk installation to enhance beautification in the UT area.
Weber and UT worked with ATD to have the art crosswalk installed near the University Co-Op, in between 22nd and 23rd streets. With its color gradient specifically chosen to evoke the captivating sunsets that can be seen from UT, the new crosswalk is meant to beautify the area and make the pedestrian crossing more noticeable.
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Tomorrow: Bicycle Advisory Council to discuss newly released draft Local Mobility Annual Plan as well as bike share strategy
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The preliminary draft of the Local Mobility Annual Plan, bike share strategy and other topics will be discussed at the Bicycle Advisory Council meeting tomorrow at 6 p.m.
Note the updated meeting location is at the Austin Central Library (701 W. Cesar Chavez Street) in the 4th Floor Conference Room. Learn more about the Bicycle Advisory Council and tomorrow's meeting agenda.
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Correction on previous media advisory
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ATD’s Dec. 5 media advisory on the publication of the preliminary engineering report for the Guadalupe Corridor Improvement Program, misidentified the proposed bikeway improvements on 24th Street, between Guadalupe Street and Lamar Boulevard. The proposed recommendations are for a dedicated eastbound bike lane and a shared westbound lane, not for a “two-way protected bicycle path” as previously noted.
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