Austin’s Arterial Roadways are Ready for an Upgrade
Let’s Do It Like This…
Introducing CityLeap
A bold proposal to upgrade Austin’s arterial roadways for a better future.
The Plan: Convert one or more vehicle lanes on every City of Austin-owned arterial within five years to either:
Bus lanes (with bicycle-pedestrian pathways on the sidewalk); or
Protected bike lanes
What’s an arterial? Any roadway with two or more vehicle lanes in each direction. That includes roadways like Menchaca, S 1st St, Oltorf, Burnet Road, and Anderson Lane.
For
130 miles
Of arterial roadway conversions
Blue lines: Bus lanes & bicycle-pedestrian paths
Green lines: Protected bicycle lanes
Austin Will Win
A lightning fast bus network
A project that could pay for itself within months
Miles of protected bike lanes & bike-ped paths
Shorter overall travel times
Faster emergency response times
A historic response to the climate crisis
Will CityLeap Improve Overall Travel Times? Almost certainly.
Improved travel times for transit, walking, & biking.
Transit, walking, and bicycling are the most space-efficient forms of transportation. Roads with dedicated lanes for those travel modes move the most people per hour.
Near-identical travel times for cars.
Recent data from the lane conversion project on Barton Springs Road show that travel times for cars are almost exactly what they were before. This will likely be the case for the rest of Austin’s arterials.