A fraction of highway expansion $$ in exchange for a dedicated multimodal transit network. Yes please.
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there is a similar “hub and spoke” system in london. would be great to have bike options that are all ages. currently the bike infrastructure in austin in either a walking trail that allows bikes or a confusing system of signage and stripes that deters most people. it is also not helpful when there are 4 or 5 lanes of traffic next to you going 40mph. the best thing the city could do for bike/peds would be to lower the speed limit to 20-25 in the “urban core.”
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Yup I feel the same for rail as I do for bikes - must be dedicated to really work.
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With micro mobility and electric bikes now, there is no excuse for not having this. The lanes forsure need to be separated.
I have for a long time have advocated and hoped the Mopac rail line would find another way around Austin and that space could be re-used as a dedicated Bike/Pedestrian path.
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I’ve always wanted that rail line to be light rail. But I’d definitely settle for a dedicated bike/ped path. Love it! If only…
Agreed, I am beginning to lose hope. But maybe it could be all of the above.
Agreed 100%. My lone issue in London is its continued refusal to permit any real forms of micromobility. They’ve been “testing” rental e-scooters in a handful of areas for two years now, but in order to even access the apps necessary to rent one, you have to have a driver’s license. (And be over 18.) In one of the few cities on Earth where owning a car is legitimately not necessary – if anything is more of a hassle than anything else – and a large percentage of the population lacks a license because they have no need for one.
I get that some “concerns” are specific to the idea of someone trying to use one in one of Central London’s most pedestrian-crowded areas like Covent Garden – except these are almost wholly irrational, considering all of the rental e-scooter companies have geotagging & the ability to slow or even stop use of them throughout major parts of town. (In Austin, as one example, this is true on Sixth Street, or at least Dirty Sixth: its roadway & sidewalks are almost always blocked.) Even outside of the Central London core, where there are both ample bike lanes and, in some cases, roads permanently closed to motorized vehicles, scooters aren’t permitted, and e-assist bikes are entirely nonexistent. (Never mind that Lime bikes and Wheels/Helbiz sit-down e-scooters are far & away the safest ones to use.)
Still, glad to find an area of agreement on here after all the recent bickering!
I’d love that as well, but thanks to ol’ Kenny Paxton, Texas is now allowing property owners to “reject” rail lines requiring land acquisition via eminent domain. (This is why the high-speed rail line between Houston & Dallas may be doomed – even if Paxton is found guilty at his lege trial.) And unfortunately there’s no way to reroute the MoPac line around the city without eminent domain, given the reality that many (or most) of the landowners along any proposed route would likely object to it.
Perhaps not dead?
They really should of built rail along 130 - it is ridiculous to have a freight line going through central neighborhoods like it does.
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Well, ideally they would’ve built a rail bypass alongside a real I-35 bypass, meaning a non-tolled road that’s part of the Interstate Highway System (and akin to 610 in Houston or 635 in Dallas), but at least they’re thinking ahead in terms of planning an autonomous-trucking lane intended to run alongside 130 (one lane in each direction, and exclusive to self-driving 18-wheelers).