North and South Lamar Blvd.
In a bike advocacy win The Corridor Program Office (CPO) stated on September 9th 2020 that it intends to advance mobility and safety improvements to construction that are funded by the 2016 Mobility Bond as soon as approval is issued by the Texas Department of Transportation. For more information, and to learn about improvements that are funded by the 2016 Mobility Bond, visit AustinTexas.gov/NorthLamar and AustinTexas.gov/SouthLamar.
North Lamar Blvd.
A virtual public hearing occured in May 2020 regarding improvements planned for the northernmost part of Lamar Boulevard: the 6-mile stretch from 183 up to Howard Lane/I-35. This is a high-volume, high-speed road that’s owned and maintained by TxDOT, and it currently has no bike facilities at all. You can review the current plans, and watch a video of the city’s presentation, here. You can also view the North Lamar Public Hearing Summary.
The good news is that the planned, funded improvements include 12 miles of new, shared-use paths, which would create continuous bike facilities along both sides of the corridor. Funding for these improvements comes mainly from the mobility bond Austin voters approved in 2016.
Getting these facilities in place will be awesome, but they could be even better. The city is also considering further improvements, including enhanced and separated bike facilities, more trees, and better streetscapes – but these additional improvements are not yet funded.
The additional improvements we’d like to see immediately include:
Moving the bike lanes further away from car traffic;
A landscape buffer, including street trees, between the bike facility and the car traffic;
Removing sharp turns from the planned bike lanes, so two people can safely ride side-by-side;
More bike-friendly intersections; e.g., so bikes can safely cross the planned slip lanes.
South Lamar Blvd.
A virtual public hearing occured in July 2020 for improvements planned for South Lamar all the way from Riverside Drive down to US 290 (Ben White). The South Lamar Public Hearing resulted in a win! The Corridor Program Office (CPO) intends to advance mobility and safety improvements to construction that are funded by the 2016 Mobility Bond as soon as approval is issued by the Texas Department of Transportation.
The plans for the northernmost segment, from Riverside Drive to Barton Springs Road, look great. They include 7-foot sidewalks where possible and 10-foot, two-way bike lanes on both sides of the road, separated from car traffic by 7-foot-wide landscaped areas. These improvements are fully funded. If they’re approved, construction is expected to begin this coming winter.
The plans for the southern stretch, from Barton Springs Road to 290, also look good. The funded improvements include 8-foot-wide shared-use paths on both sides of the road, separated from car traffic by 2-to-4-foot-wide landscape buffer zones. The number of car lanes wouldn’t change: there would still be two lanes in each direction, plus a median/left turn lane with landscaping or streetscape in the median islands.
As South Lamar becomes more walkable and bikeable, there are bound to be conflicts between pedestrians and people on bikes sharing an 8-foot-wide path. The currently unfunded plans call for building separate sidewalks and converting the shared-use paths to dedicated bike lanes. Trees, lighting, and other improvements would also be added.
