Hard Stop

City of Austin pulls the plug on dockless scooter applications

The city is putting on the brakes on new permits for scooters.

Courtesy photo

KVUE — The Austin Transportation Department announced Thursday it has hit the brakes on issuing new licenses to dockless mobility companies. Austin Transportation said their staff will investigate the level of demand for currently licensed scooters, bikes, and vehicles.

Austin Transportation said the goal of this pause is to monitor the average number of daily trips per unit through monthly reports that companies submit. Once all the data is collected and analyzed, the staff will determine whether to resume issuing licenses.

Austin Transportation determines appropriate fleet sizes by gauging factors, which include:

How many vehicles can be effectively managed by operators and their staff,
Daily usage and geographical distribution of individual devices, and
Safety and accessibility of the right of way.

Dockless mobility companies are currently only allowed to have 500 units in the Downtown Austin Project Coordination Zone. Some companies who practice safety, usage and management are are granted exceptions.

---

Read the full story at KVUE.

transportation

Drop the Debt

UT announces free tuition for families with income under $100,000

Photo by dszc Getty Images

undefined

Beginning next fall, some students accepted into schools within the University of Texas system will receive free tuition and have all fees waived, the board of regents announced on Wednesday.

In order to qualify, families of undergraduates must make less than $100,000 a year.

The board gave preliminary approval to the plan on Wednesday. After the full board’s consideration and vote on Thursday, the plan will include a new, immediate infusion of $35 million directly to campuses to offer the financial aid benefit. The plan also directs additional investment in endowments supporting financial aid to ensure a commitment for tuition relief.

In 2019, the regents established a $167 million endowment at UT Austin to completely cover tuition and mandatory fees for in-state undergraduate students from families with an income of up to $65,000. In 2022, the regents approved a second endowment of almost $300 million called “Promise Plus” to extend the program to all UT academic institutions.

“To be in a position to make sure our students can attend a UT institution without accruing more debt is very important to all of us [...]” Kevin P. Eltife, chairman of the board of regents, said.

Read the full story and watch the video at KVUE.com.

universities university of texas