What's Your Mobility Fix?

“My Top Mobility Fixes” are being shared around town all week, at six city Mobility Forums. This morning at the Mexican-American Cultural Center, Transportation Director Robert Spillar said he’ll present the results plus an Austin Urban Rail update to council on Feb. 25. Catch a forum (and council member Laura Morrison) tonight at Bowie High School.

The projects prioritized in the emerging Austin Strategic Mobility Plan (Phase I) are those most likely to make it into a November transportation bond referendum package. In that light, the forums also serve as helpful voter education.

This morning, staff from Meals on Wheels reported that traffic congestion is now so bad, it’s affecting volunteers’ ability to deliver hot lunches to homebound seniors. Forum participants voted (with those ubiquitous colored dots) on the most important big issues to solve now. Choices included Sustainable Growth, Economic Development, Efficiency, and Environmental Stewardship. City Transportation Department staff emphasized a multi-modal approach, as summarized in a handout on the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan.

"Toolbox: Improving Transportation for Liveability" catalogs an impressive, paradigm-shifting array of available tools under five headings: Planning (e.g. transit-oriented development), Demand-Side (e.g. congestion pricing), Roadway (e.g. signal timing), Transit (e.g. light rail/streetcar), and Bike+Pedestrian (e.g. sidewalks.) "We need it all," asserted Spillar.

Having gathered over 1200 suggestions for specific needed improvements at earlier forums, the department now is honing a short list of "bang for the buck" projects to tackle and fund first.

Upcoming Austin Mobility Forums:

Bowie High School Tues., Feb. 9, 6-8pm 4103 West Slaughter Lane, 512/414-5247

One Texas Center Wed., Feb. 10, 6-8pm 505 Barton Springs, 512/476-2315

Murchison Middle School Wed., Feb. 10, 6-8pm 3700 North Hills, 512/414-3254

Widen Elementary School Thurs., Feb. 11, 6-8pm 5605 Nuckols Crossing, 512/414-2556