Leadership Austin

Regional dialogue about traffic and mobility ramps up

The Project Connect Vision is a plan for a Central Texas where all of us are well-connected to the places we live, work, learn and play, via high-capacity transit.

Photo courtesy of Cap Metro

Editor's note: CultureMap Austin partners with Leadership Austin — the region's premier provider of civic and community leadership development — in this ongoing series of editorial columns meant to inform Austinites about issues facing our city. The opinions of Leadership Austin alumni and faculty members are their own and do not represent an official position of CultureMap or Leadership Austin.

Nearly every week, I see a new report or news article that adds to the community dialogue surrounding transportation and transportation infrastructure in our region.

Culture Map recently reported new Census Bureau stats that paint the picture of Central Texas’ rapid growth and the ramifications for our mobility. Austin is now the 11^th largest U.S. city, and we experienced the fourth largest jump in population from 2011 to 2012.

What was most demonstrative to me of our mobility challenges was the growth occurring outside Austin proper. San Marcos was the fastest growing city in the nation for its size. Cedar Park and Georgetown also made the top ten.

A regional problem

Those stats really underscore the fact that our traffic problems are regional in nature. Nearly 30 percent of all jobs in the region are located within four central Austin zip codes, so while many people are moving into the communities north, south and east of Austin, they still have to travel to Austin for work. You only need to drive on IH 35 during commute hours to see the scope of the transportation challenges we face.

In fact, an Austin economist has predicted that we only have about five or six more years to do something about our traffic problems before companies start to pull out of our area and relocate elsewhere. In other words, if we don’t address the mobility challenges, traffic woes could eventually derail our economic prosperity.

Regional momentum for solutions

With that great sense of urgency, the good news is that now, more than ever before, transportation agencies are pulling together to develop regional mobility solutions. And, after nearly three years of hard work improving nearly every aspect of our business, Capital Metro has never been in a better position to lead the effort.

Increasingly, the public is ready to embrace transit, too. Ridership on Capital Metro outpaced the national trend in 2012, and we saw an additional one million boardings over 2011. MetroRail ridership has tripled since service began and is standing room only every day during rush hour.

Capital Metro, the City of Austin, CAMPO and Lone Star Rail, with guidance from Mayor Lee Leffingwell and members of the Transit Working Group, have collaborated to develop a transportation vision for the region. The collaboration, called Project Connect, focuses on high-capacity transit options for the region that will move more people for less cost and with less impact on the environment.

The vision includes Express lanes on Mopac (coming 2015), MetroRapid service (early 2014), expanded MetroRail service, Lone Star rail service from San Antonio to Georgetown, and urban rail within central Austin.

Capital Metro and the City of Austin have hired urban rail expert Kyle Keahey to lead the effort to develop an urban rail plan and bring it to a public vote next year.

A separate Project Connect study is evaluating traffic solutions within the North Corridor, encompassing downtown Austin and the communities of Hutto, Pflugerville, Round Rock and Georgetown.

Public involvement is key

Public feedback and involvement is paramount to the design and development of all of these solutions as outlined in the vision. The Project Connect partners have committed to a process that incorporates meaningful and robust dialogue with the community. Look for upcoming opportunities to discuss Project Connect, urban rail and the North Corridor this summer and fall.

Transportation is the topic of the next Leadership Austin Engage breakfast, on June 4. Get involved and help shape the solutions that will keep our region livable, healthy and moving.

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Since 2010, Linda Watson has been president/CEO of Capital Metro, where she has led the organization in a complete turnaround that has resulted in financial stability and transparency, greater accountability and increased transit ridership. https://www.capmetro.org

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San Antonio leads Texas on ending horse-drawn carriage rides by 2030

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Horses will no longer pull carriages on the streets of downtown San Antonio.

San Antonio has pulled off something that the rest of Texas has yet to do, but it didn't come without some contentious conversations. City Council has unanimously voted (with one abstention) to phase out the use of horse-drawn carriages over the next five years. That means by January 1, 2030, there will be none on the streets at all; instead, there will be electric carriages.

These plans have been in the making since 2022 — if not always at the same level of intensity — when District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and District 3 Councilmember Phyllis Viagran wrote up some concerns about the horses' wellbeing. A special session at the end of October 2024 hinted to San Antonians that the end for this practice was neigh — sorry, nigh — and the final vote was made on December 12. In addition to accepting the plan, it extended its timeframe by two years.

The initial proposal included worries about the horses' exposure to traffic and pollution, as well how their presence might exacerbate those issues for the environment at large by slowing traffic. It also raised concerns about the effects of standing or walking on hard surfaces for too long, or spending time in extreme weather.

At the December 12 meeting, San Antonians gave impassioned speeches about animal welfare — both to call attention to the need for better conditions and to defend the reputations and jobs of current horse drivers — but it wasn't the first time the council heard from the public about the issue.

In a prior city survey, 50,476 respondents weighed in. Of those respondents, 51.98 percent said they liked the idea to "Transition horse-drawn carriages to electric carriages and pedicabs and ban horse drawn carriages completely." There were alternative solutions listed, but respondents were less drawn to them.

A cultural divide emerged in the data and continued in the December meeting: some people avoided the carriages because they worried about the treatment of the horses, while others enjoyed them because of their historical echoes and living legacy. Many speakers in favor of the plan used this to form their argument, raising questions about history versus progress.

More tangible objections to the plan hinged on the businesses — specifically five companies — and jobs that would be lost, which was the main factor behind extending the adjustment period.

Discussions about the particulars of the electric vehicles are still to come, as confirmed in the discussion near the end of the meeting. Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez addressed concerns about what would happen to the horses, mentioning the Brady Hunter Foundation as a future partner in finding them rescue homes.

Some council members also brought up rhetorical questions about animal exploitation by groups like Sea World, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, military and police forces, and even various groups in the Fiesta parade, although these did not come with a formal motion to pick the issues up.

This decision could have a ripple effect on other Texas cities. Dallas has recently considered a similar ban, but it appears to have stalled; Austin's attempts at a ban have been unsuccessful, but according to the Austin-American Statesman, only one operator is permitted to bring horses downtown. She declines to do so because the long hours are unfair to her and the horses. Houston does have horse-drawn carriages, and there seems to be little conversation about banning them.

Cities like Chicago and Salt Lake City have led the charge in the United States with some of the most prominent successful bans. Other cities around the world with bans include Brussels and Guadalajara, which both switched to electric models. Bans that have been around for years, like Guadalajara's and Prague's, still aren't out of the woods — people are still pushing back on the decision, so it sounds like San Antonio still has much work cut out for it.

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San Antonio leads Texas on ending horse-drawn carriage rides by 2030