Route 2, Take 2

City of Austin to invest $5M in bus route that skips I-35 traffic

Bus Route 2 will help riders avoid the traffic caused by I-35 construction.

Photo courtesy of KVUE

In preparation for more construction along Interstate 35 in Downtown Austin, the city is making a major investment to a bus route that can help people get around traffic.

Among those people is Elliott Henderson of East Austin, who rides the CapMetro bus faithfully.

"I've been riding it for over 20 years," Henderson said.

He has spent most of that time on Bus Route 2.

"This one's running very more frequently than the other ones. It comes and comes," Henderson said. "One passes the next sec, the next minute. So in minutes, there's another one coming."

And now, more buses will be coming, after the Austin City Council approved a $5 million grant for improvements on Route 2. It will cover things like overtime for bus drivers and closing a long-standing gap in service on Springdale Road in East Austin. The route currently operates in a "C" shape, with one end terminated around Oak Springs Drive and the other near Cesar Chavez Street.

"It really emerged as a preferred option for us, being that it's already in existence," said Jacob Barrett, the Transportation Demand Programs Manager. "We can really provide additional funding to make it better."

Barrett said the location was key in the decision to invest money into Route 2.

"It really operates as that kind of east-west connector that we're looking to really solve for, especially with I-35 construction [and] other construction projects," Barrett said.

Read the full story at our news partner KVUE.com.

bus i-35 traffic construction

try it for yourself

Austin blooms among top-10 best cities for urban gardening in the U.S.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Let's get gardening, Austin.

Folks in the Texas capital have plenty of reasons to develop a green thumb: Austin was just dubbed the 10th best city in America for urban gardening in 2026.

The ranking was harvested in Lawnstarter's new report that compared 500 U.S. cities based on their respective public access to community gardens, climate, the prevalence of nurseries and gardening supply stores, and the number of regional gardening clubs and online groups.

Atlanta topped the list as the No. 1 best U.S. city for urban gardening in 2026, followed by Miami (No. 2); Houston (No. 3); St. Louis (No. 4); and Jacksonville, Florida (No. 5).

Austin's ranking has only slipped two spots since 2023, when it last ranked No. 8 nationally.

For the uninitiated, urban gardening is the practice of growing plants or food in densely populated areas, which could be your own backyard, apartment balconies, or vacant lots. Popular local examples include Este Garden, which produces seasonal produce for Suerte and Este, and the rooftop garden at the Austin Central Library.

Overall, Austin ranked No. 2 nationally for its "support and interest" of urban gardening, meaning many of the city's residents are searching terms like "community gardens," "vertical gardening," and others. Austin also earned a respectable 11th place ranking for a high prevalence of nurseries, gardening stores, and landscaping supply stores.

Here's how the city fared in the remaining three categories:

No. 38 – Public access
No. 191 – Private access (based on average yard size for starting an at-home garden)
No. 330 – Climate

Cathy Walker, president of the American Community Gardening Association, offered some tips for first-time gardeners to help get their hands in the soil: choose only a few easy-growing plants to start; learn which growing zone you're in to determine the plants that will thrive in your area; watch how much sunlight your garden space gets daily; and prioritize keeping healthy soil with compost and mulch.

Ecoregions are also helpful for understanding what plants will thrive. Whereas zones are about temperature, ecoregions are much more detailed groups. Planters can learn about their ecoregion and get personalized growing tips from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation in its new native planting app, Wild Thumb.

Starting your own garden can also have a financial benefit, the report suggested. However, up-front costs can get high in gardening, so gardeners might have to stick to it for a few seasons to see savings.

"With grocery prices projected to rise by 3.1 percent in 2026, there’s never been a better time to grow your own food," the report's author wrote. "Estimates show that growing a 600-square-foot plot for fruits and vegetables can save you around $600 in a single season."

Austinites who are nervous about trying to garden on their own can join one of the many community gardens around town, or they can volunteer at Festival Beach Food Forest. Austin is one of only 44 total U.S. cities that have registered food forests, according to online forum Community Food Forests.

The top 10 best cities for urban gardening in 2026 are:

No. 1 – Atlanta
No. 2 – Miami
No. 3 – Houston
No. 4 – St. Louis
No. 5 – Jacksonville, Florida
No. 6 – Orlando
No. 7 – Cincinnati
No. 8 – Fort Meyers, Florida
No. 9 – Tampa
No. 10 – Austin