About Congress For All
Congress Avenue Is Broken. It Needs Fixing.
Fast traffic, unsafe bike lanes, too few businesses, and too many large single-use office buildings. No wonder why so many people avoid Congress.
It’s time to breathe life back into Austin’s struggling main street.
The City of Austin Has Plans For Congress Avenue.
But They Aren’t Bold Enough.
It’s encouraging that the City of Austin wants to improve Congress. But the current vision still treats the Main Street of Texas like a highway.
Compared to the City’s plans, Congress For All would create 30% more sidewalk space for walking, bicycling, local businesses, and street vendors.
Congress For All Would Take The City’s Plans To The Next Level.
Here’s How.
Enliven the street with 300+ new destinations
1.
Multi-use sidewalk kiosks
Get people there with the best bike lanes in Texas
2.
Wide, raised bicycle lanes
Rebalance Congress from a thoroughfare to a destination
3.
Wider sidewalks & bat plaza
Try out Congress as a car-free pedestrian mall
4.
Pop up plaza (between 7-11th St)
Let’s Explore The Congress For All Plan In More Detail
1. Enliven the street with 300+ new destinations.
Install multi-use kiosks along the outer side of the sidewalk.
These kiosks could house anything: Shops, food vendors, meeting spaces, restrooms and more. This could create over 300 new reasons to visit Congress, leading to a more vibrant street.
Sidewalk Kiosks in Other Cities
Shops
Detroit
Dining spaces
Boston
Meeting/office spaces
Boston
2. Get people there with the best bike lanes in Texas.
Install wide, raised bicycle lanes.
This will make bicycling and other micro mobility options safe and comfortable and protected from double-parking.
The City of Austin’s proposed 6.5 foot-wide bike lanes are too narrow for social riding. We should demand at least 10 feet.
Raised Bike Lanes in Other Cities
Missoula, MT
Cambridge, MA
Denver, CO
3. Rebalance Congress from a thoroughfare to a destination.
Widen the sidewalks for more street life.
Sidewalk kiosks and wide bike lanes will only be possible on Congress with wider sidewalks. The City of Austin’s plan wouldn’t provide enough room. Congress For All would provide 30% more space for sidewalks.
We need wider sidewalks on the Ann Richards Bridge too.
The Ann Richards Bridge (aka the Congress Avenue Bridge) is a world famous destination for bat-watching. Both today’s bridge and the City’s plan provide too little space for this crucial attraction. Let’s create enough space for a truly world class bat-watching mecca.
Wide Sidewalks in Other Cities
Berlin, Germany
New York City, NY
Chicago, IL
4. Try out Congress as a car-free pedestrian mall.
Redesign Congress between 7th and 11th Streets as a flexible “pop up plaza.”
This part of Congress would be designed with gates and other features to easily transform the street into a car-free event space at any time. Starting with shorter events and leading up to longer ones, if the experiment works, eventually the street could stay in its plaza set up and Austin would have a car-free stretch of Congress forever.
Pop Up Plazas in Other Cities
Kalamazoo, MI
Portland, OR
Asheville, NC
This is a once in a generation chance for Austin.
Let’s say goodbye to the old Congress Avenue.
Let’s go big.
THIS is What Congress Could Look Like!
Are you in?