Neighborhood News

3 more Austin neighborhoods transform busy streets into walkable boulevards

Austin healthy streets man in wheelchair

Austin now has six Healthy Streets.

Photo courtesy of City of Austin

Three new Austin neighborhoods are transforming busy boulevards into walkable, bikable streets. On July 27, the City of Austin officially announced the second phase of its Healthy Streets program is expanding into Hyde Park, Windsor Park, and South Austin.

Healthy Streets temporarily opens roadways to pedestrians, cyclists, wheelchair users, runners, and others engaging in physical activities "that promote physical and mental health" during this time of social distancing.

To close off the streets, Austin Transportation uses traffic cones and other physical barriers to create a sort of zigzag down the length of the road to slow vehicular traffic. For the time being (the program is billed as temporary, but doesn't have an end date), access to the roadways is limited to residents, deliveries, and emergency vehicles.

Austin's newest members of the Health Streets program are:

Avenue G from 38th Street to 56th Street in Hyde Park
Belfast Drive from Broadmoor Drive to Cameron Road in Windsor Park
Street segments comprising Marsh Drive, Leo Street, Seminary Ridge Drive, and Whispering Oaks Drive from West Slaughter Lane to West William Cannon Drive, in South Austin

Walk Austin, a coalition of 30 local, mainly grassroots organizations, lobbied city council for the program — then called Slow Streets — in April as COVID-19 closed gyms, trails, parks, and other recreation spaces. On May 7, Austin City Council then passed a resolution directing the transportation department to create the Healthy Streets program.

These newest selections were the result of a public survey that gathered more than 500 suggestions for new Healthy Streets. They join three other roads that were transformed in late May:

Bouldin Avenue/South Third Street/Garden Villa Lane between Bannister Lane and Barton Springs Road
Comal Street from Manor Road to Lady Bird Lake
Country Club Creek Trail extension (around Wickersham Lane, Ventura Drive, and Madera Drive) from Mabel Davis Park to Lakeshore Drive

As we continue to adapt to this new coronavirus-induced reality, the city is still taking nominations for new Healthy Streets, which can be made here.

“Communities know their streets best so we’re inviting the public to help roll this out quickly and successfully," said Joanna Wolaver, board president of Austin Outside, in a release.

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Take A Bike

City of Austin gears up to make permanent changes to Congress Avenue

Photo courtesy of AustinTexas.gov

Congress Avenue's undergoing a transformation.

Driving down Congress Avenue has looked a lot different this summer. Not only are the throngs of traffic gone and buildings empty of workers, but a series of temporary bike lanes have been installed along the corridor.

In May, more than a 1,000 residents signed a petition asking to install the bike lanes along "the Main Street of Texas." The following month, the Austin City Council passed the measure and announced the creation of temporary bike lanes along Congress, between Riverside Drive and 11th Street.

With Austin battling COVID-19, the bike lanes were a way "to improve safety and to address COVID-19 risk-based guidelines to ensure enough physical distance for all people using [Congress] Avenue and the Ann Richards Bridge," the city said at the time.

Earlier this week, the City of Austin announced the bike lanes will become permanent. The traffic cones and plastic markers installed to designate the lanes will be replaced with flexible delineator posts and parking stops to create a physical barrier between cyclists and vehicles. Driveways and on-street parking will remain accessible to cars, notes a news release.

Congress Avenue's new bike lanes promote access to alternative modes of transportation while easing traffic on downtown sidewalks. With cyclists and scooter riders using dedicate lanes, pedestrians and nearby businesses are better able to take advantage of the sidewalk and maintain social distancing guidelines, the city notes in its announcement.

Along with the bike lanes, the city also announced the creation of dedicated left and right turn signals at high-traffic intersections, a move that will hopefully stop the soul-crushing feeling of cruising down Congress only to get stopped behind someone attempting to make a left-hand turn across three lanes of traffic. In addition, improved pedestrian crossings and signage will also be installed.

These improvements are part of the Congress Avenue Urban Design Initiative, a project funded in 2012 and launched in 2017 with the goal of improving the downtown corridor.

Construction on the permanent bike lanes is already underway, and the city has projected a four-to-six week timeline for completion.

downtown transportation