City of Austin

Mayor considering urban rail bond package

by STEVE ALBERTS / KVUE News

Posted on February 10, 2010 at 5:15 PM

Updated Wednesday, Feb 10 at 6:25 PM

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The City of Austin is proposing an urban rail line in downtown.

“We have to do something,” said Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell. “What we have to do is everything. We need better roads, bike and trail facilities and better mass transit; and I personally think rail is the best option for mass transit.”

The bond package that the mayor’s office is considering proposing to the city council and the community would be in the range of $400 million. Roughly half of the bond package would be devoted to urban rail, and the other half would be devoted to roads and other transportation infrastructure. The cost of this bond proposal to the average Austin household would be just over $3 per month, or about $40 per year.

Read more…

[via KVUE]

Austin Strategic Mobility Plan

AUSTIN, Texas - The City of Austin today launched a new online survey
asking citizens about their transportation priorities to help guide how
future transportation dollars will be spent. The survey mirrors the
workshop exercises conducted at the six Austin Mobility Forums across
the city this week. 

The new survey can be found at
http://www.austinstrategicmobility.com/get-involved/survey/. Results
from the survey will be shared with the City Council as it considers
future mobility projects.

“We were fortunate to have hundreds of citizens participate in the
mobility forums. We would like to expand the opportunity for citizens to
comment with this new online survey,” said Rob Spillar, director of the
Austin Transportation Department. 

The Austin Strategic Mobility Plan will guide Austin’s near- and
long-term transportation investments for roads, bicycle and pedestrian
needs, transit and potential urban rail. The survey is designed to
capture citizens’ values to help shape that plan and identify the
transportation tools that should be part of Austin’s future mobility
system.

Austin’s traffic congestion challenges will only get worse with the
region’s rapid growth, said Spillar. More than 1,200 needed
transportation projects have been identified by citizens, technical
experts, city staff and other government agencies since last fall. The
City’s Strategic Mobility Plan is working to address traffic congestion
in the short-term and meet mobility needs over the long-term.

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Karla Taylor Villalon

Public Information Manager

Austin Transportation Department

512.974.7246

TXDOT

Friday, December 4, 2009

State looks at mileage tax to fund roads

Austin Business Journal - by Jacob Dirr ABJ Staff

Nick Simonite

Texas lawmakers could decide to tax people by miles driven instead of amount of gas purchased.

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The Texas Department of Transportation is starting to explore a driver mileage tax as an alternative to the state gasoline tax, in the face of dwindling highway funds that will become depleted in 2012.

In late November, the Texas Transportation Commission laid groundwork for a Highway User Fee Exploratory Committee that would begin meeting in March and draft a report by August, a few months before state lawmakers convene.

Read more…

[via the Austin Business Journal]

Rush-hour traffic at Sixth and Lamar, looking eastward Courtesy of the Austin Transportation Department

Both Roads and Transit

Counting on traffic fixes