AUSTIN, Texas — Part of Austin's Strategic Mobility Plan, which aims to manage the impact of growth over the next 20 years and beyond, calls for the expansion and improvement of dedicated transit lanes.
- Dedicated transit lanes to be separated from general traffic
- Network of lanes planned to crisscross Capital Metro service area
- Blue and Orange Lines currently undergoing environmental review
Similar to the lanes you find on Lavaca, Guadalupe and West Fifth and Sixth Streets, the lanes will be dedicated to Capital Metro vehicles. However, plans call for many of them to separate transit vehicles from regular traffic using curbs or similar infrastructure.
"People want a lot more public transit," said Randy Clarke, who became CEO of Capital Metro about a year ago. "We need dedicated space, so we are not caught around all the other vehicles."
Austin leaders will be the first to admit they'll never solve the region's traffic problems, but they're determined not to let them get any worse.
"We need to push past the roadblocks because it's those kinds of systems that are going to get our city really moving," Austin Mayor Steve Adler said.
Adler supports the part of the plan, also referred to as ASMP, that calls for dedicated transit lanes on Lamar Blvd., Congress Ave., Guadalupe St. and E. Riverside Dr. Those are home to what Capital Metro plans to call the "Orange Line" and "Blue Line." Both are going through an environmental review process with the hope of going before voters in November 2020 as a light rail or bus rapid transit option.
In addition to those two lines, dedicated transit lanes are contemplated for Parmer Ln, Cameron Rd, Burnet Rd, Pleasant Valley Rd, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Manor Rd, and a few others.
Adler said planners will do what they can to preserve travel lanes, but most of the contemplated corridors have room within the rights of way to create dedicated transit lanes. In areas flagged as too constrained to build the lanes within the existing right of way, Adler said tunneling is an option.
"I can imagine a day when rapid transit or cars are actually going underneath Guadalupe and then coming up on one side or the other," Adler said. "It's more of a walkable mall on West Campus."
Clarke said he supports tunnels for the most congested areas, which have been proven in some of Austin's peer cities as a benefit for transit vehicles. Those potential areas include from Republic Square to the Austin Convention Center, as well as under Guadalupe Street through West Campus. Clarke said Capital Metro is also working with leaders across Central Texas to ensure the region's transit needs are taken into account.
"What we do today is not for today; it's for 25 years down the road," said Travis County Commissioner Jeff Travillion, who represents Northeast Travis County's Precinct 1.
The ASMP highlights MetroRail's Green Line eventually serving Manor and Elgin. New bus routes could reach the areas on the outskirts of Pflugerville.
"We have got to make a serious investment in transit that goes beyond the current limits of Cap Metro," Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said.
The investment will require the support of voters, as the first of potentially several propositions will be placed on the ballot in November 2020.