(Another post for discussion as the Austin City Council races gear up. We will regularly mix in candidate posts on the front page if they engage our community like we've seen this last week. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
My vision of the future of Austin is one where there is more traffic on the sidewalks and less traffic on the streets. And on the streets, the traffic will comprise more bicycles and motorbikes and fewer cars and trucks. All of this will be tied together by rail and bus transit. In short, we will shape a transportation system based on shoeleather, bicycles, motorbikes, and public transit.
If the city is an organism, then it's transportation system is both the circulatory system and the skeleton.
Today we have an inefficient, costly, and unhealthy transit system. At many hours of the day, in many places, it grinds to a standstill as too many cars and trucks jam the streets and highways. Frustrated drivers sit idle, engines running, clocks ticking, with thoughts of jobs or families waiting for them. Around them a toxic cloud of exhaust forms, rolling across the surrounding cityscape and rising into the hazy sky. We can do better.
Focus transit on the human being
We can have an efficient, thrifty, and even pleasant transit system. The first step is to put the human being at the focus of transit. Walking is our natural and independent way to travel. And it's healthy.
People will walk if it's convenient, safe, and enjoyable. We must change our development patterns so that people can live, work, shop, and play all within a short walk. Where that is not possible, there must be convenient transit within a short walk. We must make walking safe and enjoyable by providing wide clear sidewalks (get the utility poles out!) and shade trees and a comfortable buffer against car traffic. Naturally, all this will be accessible to the disabled.
Bicycling is our most efficient form of wheeled travel. It's non-polluting and carbon-free. And it's good exercise. We can make Austin a genuine bicycle town by completing our network of bike lanes, building connecting bridges, and expanding bicycle parking facilities and requirements. In addition, we should speed up the maintenance of our streets to make them safer for bicyclists.
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| There should be no part of town where a person cannot walk or bike safely. Moreover, a grand system of metropolitan trails along our river and creeks can make the city a walking and biking delight. And in areas where dead-end streets and long blocks make travel by car roundabout, we should cut through paths for bicycles and pedestrians. We should create a bicycle and pedestrian commission to oversee all these initiatives.
Public transit is focused on the person. It might be considered the pedestrian's transit. A person walks to the transit stop, rides the bus or train, and then walks away. The experience is similar for bicyclists. Both pedestrians and bicyclists can also use public transit.
Rail transit is long overdue in our city, and our bus service needs improvement. We've been talking about rail for more than 20 years. The commuter line to Cedar Park is our first effort, but we must move faster. We know where the ridership is: it's along the South Congress/North Lamar route, and that's where we should lay our first new rail line. We can make a cost-effective transition from bus service to rail with a rapid bus line. Looking forward to a full system, we should designate the Seaholm building, with its grand interior space, as our metropolitan transit station. And immediately we should insist that Capital Metro serve its customers with more frequent service and better route and schedule information.
Motor vehicles
Motorbikes and scooters fill the niche between bicycles and automobiles. They're powered, but small and light and fuel-efficient. Some are just powerful enough to keep up with traffic on a downtown street, and some are strong and fast enough to navigate highways with ease. Like bicycles they would benefit from better-maintained streets. And we should start now to create more dedicated motorbike parking. In addition, we should establish a task force to begin writing a plan for expanding the role of motorbikes in our transportation makeup.
Of course, we're still going to have cars, but drivers will be less frustrated because we're going to get some of the competition out of their way. We'll also improve street connections so that folks in one neighborhood don't have to get on the highway to drive to the next neighborhood. And they'll like the streets we made smooth for the bicycles and motorbikes. We'll expand parking at transit stations, so that cars can be just the link between home and the transit stop.
Clean air and easy living
In this vision, we are no longer trapped in a car on a smog-blanketed road. Instead, we are spending our time walking, or biking, or scooting, or reading on the metro. Many of us are spending so little time commuting that we have more time for family, or work, or shopping, or play. And we can stop paving over vast new acres for highway interchanges. And our air is pure enough for a baby to breathe.
On Thursday, March 20 Robin Cravey will join supporters and fellow Austin cyclists for a bike ride around town. The ride will begin at the Bicycle Sport Shop (517 S. Lamar) at 5:30PM and will end around 6:30PM at Uncle Billy's Brew and Que (1530 Barton Spgs Rd) for a happy hour. Beer and BBQ will be provided courtesy of Uncle Billy's. The event is hosted by Robin Stallings, executive director of the Texas Bicycle Coalition, Hill Abell, owner of the Bicycle Sport Shop, and Rick Engel, owner of Uncle Billy's and Austin Java. The eight mile ride around central Austin will hit key bike, transit, and growth spots along the way to discuss Cravey's plan for making Austin a more bikeable and walkable city.
(cross posted at www.robincravey.com) |
