Mobility Committee (MOBC) Meeting Transcript – 3/5/2026 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 3/5/2026 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 3/5/2026 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [1:05:28 PM] welcome everyone to the mobility committee meeting. Today is March 5th, 2026. It is 1:05 P.M. And we are meeting here in the chambers of the Austin city council. We have a number of items to get through today, and I am joined by vice chair qadri, mayor pro tem vela and council member Krista Laine. We have a number of speakers today, so I think we have one that is general public communications. So we're going to go three minutes on the general communication. But if it's acceptable to everyone, we have eight or more speakers on the items today. So we're going to go with two minutes for those. So everybody has a chance to speak. And we can still stay within our our time limit today. On that note, let's go ahead and call our speakers. Danielle. >> If I can have Lucy tucker. >> Is Lucy tucker here? Oh, okay. >> Yeah. Hi. Can you all hear [1:06:28 PM] me? >> Yes we can. >> I just wanted to submit general public comments, I guess, about walkable city. I think, you know, we're spending millions and billions of dollars trying to expand roadways, and that's just further incentivizing traffic. And we're going to get nowhere. So we might as well spend that money on transportation that works for people and helps to give people other options. And that way, more freedom to move around the city, because we'll probably be spending about the same amount of money on public infrastructure. But I don't know, I think about like my own personal experience. I get in to work pretty early in the morning. It's about ten minutes when I go home and, you know, the roads are full up. It's 30, sometimes 40 minutes, and that's just me and my daily life. So yeah. We deserve I was Americans who believe in [1:07:29 PM] freedom. We deserve more opportunities to get around. Thanks. I yield the rest of my time. >> Thank you for your comments, I appreciate them. >> And that's everyone for public communication. >> Okay. And then we have some speakers signed up on item number two. >> Yes. If we can have Ryan Saunders, who is also going to be a remote speaker. >> All right. We'll do two minutes for each speaker here so we can hear everybody. >> Hi. My name is Ryan Saunders, and I'm here to speak specifically to the topic of a shift from predominant one way streets to two way street in downtown Austin. I'm in commercial real estate, predominantly focused on local regional food, beverage, hospitality and retail clients. And I talked to tenants every day. And I can count on one [1:08:30 PM] hand how many downtown at the target. Overall, there's a disconnect between transportation and public works. Connecting viability of commercial activity based on the volume of vehicles. It's a citywide problem, but it's easy to overlook in downtown because it is assumed to be pedestrian friendly, even if it is not. The more accessible an area is to pedestrians, the more value it has to retailers. A developer once told me to examine the area and think about what created the current conditions, and you can see there is more of what is being rewarded and less of what is being punished. Conditions rewarded pedestrians on second street and is the most successful street in downtown. I personally only come downtown if there's a special event at a venue or if I want to go out to bars, but if I'm looking to grab lunch, brunch, dinner or go shopping, downtown is not on my radar. There are businesses that want daytime office traffic and nighttime partying bars. But how trustworthy is it for a business to open based on office traffic when, for example, even Fridays? That would be both a lunch and happy [1:09:31 PM] hour. Prime sales day is one of the days that's predominantly used as a work from home, day from companies. And when you are commuting downtown or driving in downtown, traffic is usually worse on the one way streets and people are just using it as a cut through because they think it's faster than using other roads. And you want people to actually come downtown as a destination. And even in rush hour, traffic is focused on certain streets and others are empty, leaving dead blocks, offices that are opening and expanding, even the UT medical campus are choosing the domain over downtown. My opinion is two way streets promote the type of environment that encourages retail and 18 hour uses. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Up next, we'll have Adam Greenfield, followed by Hayden black walker and Sinclair black. [1:10:41 PM] >> Just a minute. Okay. Great. It's up. >> Seems we have a presentation that maybe we need to see on this. >> Sorry. Yeah. There's a there's a few slides. Okay okay okay. Good afternoon. Council members Adam Greenfield here with safe streets. Austin, nice to be with you. We thank staff for all their work on the plan and for the robust conversations around two way street reversions. This is the growing coalition in support of this. And I'm going to talk about two issues very quickly. One is pedestrian safety. There was a much cited report from a firm now part of aecom, the largest planning firm in the world, and it addresses pedestrian safety benefits of two way streets. It says the [1:11:43 PM] conventional wisdom has always assumed that one way streets were safer and more comfortable for pedestrians to cross than two way streets. As is often the case, the conventional wisdom is wrong. In fact, crossing a one way street presents clear greater difficulties to the pedestrian than crossing two way streets. There are only two possible conflict sequences that pedestrians can encounter in crossing a two way street. On one way streets, there are 16 different conflict sequences. There are many other studies confirming safety benefits and much empirical evidence supporting the safety case for two way street conversions. Just to note that the federal crash modification factors clearinghouse, which is a federal database of safety measures, does not address two way street conversions and is thus not an appropriate resource for this conversation. Traffic flow. So regarding traffic flow, it is crucial to consider the entire downtown [1:12:43 PM] network as a system rather than evaluating individual streets in isolation. Streets like fifth and sixth carry a lot of traffic because they are one way, because they concentrate traffic on those streets. A two way grid would redistribute traffic more evenly across downtown. And downtowns that have done this in other cities have seen exactly that result. Many in the community have noted frustration with navigating downtown, and how the one way streets thwart their efforts to get from a to B. We hope council will continue this conversation. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Up next we have Hayden black walker, followed by Sinclair black and Mateo barnstone. >> Good afternoon. My name is Sinclair black. I was a member of the group master planning group for the great streets master plan that was adopted, [1:13:44 PM] finished and adopted 25 years ago. In 2001. And I it was a privilege to work on that. The city staff did a really great job of organizing both technical and public concerns, and we met alternate weeks with one committee for each, every, every two weeks. It was. A real privilege to work on it because it seemed like such an important thing. 25 years ago, it was adopted. There had been only a few conversions, probably mainly, I think second street. Second street is a pretty good example of the advantages of a two way street, which is designed first for pedestrians and then for balance of traffic. And. Our [1:14:49 PM] recommendation was that all the all the streets in downtown except Guadalupe, lavaca and fifth and sixth be converted to two way. Those two pair would have to include a lot of additional study. There's a great economic study that the it was done about the conversion of second street and done about six years ago. I think the city commissioned it from a national firm, and they came up with a some astonishing results. One was that the tax base in the ten year period. Increased by 35 times during that ten year period. So and haydn will talk more about that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon, council [1:15:49 PM] members. Haydn black walker I just wanted to build on some of the things that Sinclair said. I'm the current chair of the board for safe streets. Austin and I work with Sinclair at black and motel. I wanted to just reiterate that Sinclair and Roig Kennedy created the master plan 25 years ago. Thanks to them, that second street exists the way we enjoy it today. Previously, it was for high speed, one way lanes to get to mopac as quickly as possible. Today we know it is a successful place to enjoy cafes, outdoor dining, shopping, the acl theater and a variety of residences, hotels and city hall. In 2019, the city of Austin economic development department commissioned a consultant, economic and planning systems, inc. To study the return on investment for both second street and the Seaholm district. That study was issued in 2020 and analyzes the return on investment from 2000 to 2018. So it's been a while, but I think it's still [1:16:50 PM] relevant. The study noted that the area added 4000 housing units, 2,000,000ft S of commercial and retail space. The city's investment in those areas was $315 million. The city's tax revenue generated by the area were ten times higher in 2018 than in 2000, and currently yield $22 million a year, and that number is eight years old for the second street district. Tax revenues to the city in 2018 were more than 35 times higher than in 2000. As important as financial concerns are, and this is also from the report, community realized a variety of public benefits, and they list many of those affordable housing, millions in contributions to the affordable housing trust fund, public safety substation and downtown, a new state of the art performing arts center at acl, privately funded great streets improvements, privately funded parks, trails and plazas, privately funded public art and local businesses. Thank you. [1:17:53 PM] >> Thank you. >> Up next, we'll have Matteo barnstone, followed by Carol Frazier and Travis Schneider. >> Good afternoon, members of the mobility committee. My name is Matteo barnstone. I'm making comments in my personal capacity today. I want to start by acknowledging the amount of work staff has put into the act analysis. Downtown streets are complex systems with many competing priorities, and I appreciate the effort that has gone into studying them. I'd like to offer additional considerations regarding two way conversions, however. In short, I think there's a failure to appreciate the benefits of two way streets and an overemphasis on the challenges of such conversions that is, leading to decisions that are not in the best interest of downtown. First, the staff has emphasized signal timing to create a 15 mile per hour green wave. Coordination of signals can certainly be useful for cyclists, but from the standpoint of driver behavior, it's unlikely to have much effect. The average car can reach 15 miles an hour before it clears the [1:18:54 PM] intersection, and can easily reach 30 to 35 miles an hour by mid-block. When signalized intersections are spaced more than a football field apart, signal timing alone simply doesn't regulate the speed of human drivers. In practice, on multi-lane one way streets, drivers tend to accelerate quickly and jockey for positions between signals. So while signal timing may work well for bicyclists traveling at a steady pace, green waves are invisible to cars. Geometry and street design ultimately play the decisive role in shaping driver behavior. Second, the analysis assumes that two way streets require left turn pockets at signalized intersections. Intersections in some locations that may be appropriate but is not the only option. Left turn pockets are not required or used in many signalized intersections. Many downtown intersections could function well, as always, stop intersections, which eliminates the need for dedicated left turn pockets while allowing for two way operations. And third, even where the signals remain [1:19:55 PM] necessary. There are a variety of design strategies available. Bus or bike lanes can merge briefly through intersections, and parking lanes can be eliminated near corners to create space or needed, I will send you the remaining comments by email. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Up next, we'll have Carol Frazier, followed by Travis Schneider and Amy Deluna. >> Now I have to ask, are you giving the comments or is the baby giving the comments? We'll see. >> Hi everybody. Hi all, I'm Carol Fraser. I live in district one and this is my five month old lydian. I'm somebody who drives, walks and bikes downtown, and personally, I just find the one way street [1:20:56 PM] network to be too fast. Why? Dangerous, loud and confusing, and in a variety of ways. It's not conducive to a place that I want to take my growing family. First of all, I don't find it conducive to driving safely. I sometimes have to cut across multiple lanes to make turns. It's really hard to navigate downtown if you're not familiar with it. I actually am a new driver to downtown, so that's me a lot. And it encourages speeding to actually catch the lights as the previous speaker just talked about. I also don't find it conducive to safe biking. I find it hard to get directly to my destination, and many people end up going upstream on bikes and scooters going the wrong way, which is really dangerous. And it's just a confusing network for tourists especially. It's not conducive for safe walking. You have high speed vehicles that are right next to the sidewalks. It's confusing to have to remember to which way to look when you're going to cross the street, and to teach your kids about this as well. And if [1:21:57 PM] there was just more consistency at the intersections, then it would be safer for those pedestrian vehicle interactions. And if you're taking transit, it's confusing to know which street to get on to take your bus to go in the right direction. So overall, it's not conducive to a safe and enjoyable downtown living environment, a place where people want to live and take their kids or eat at a restaurant outside. It's reducing business revenue and civic gathering. And if we want more people to walk and bike and take transit, meet our mode, shift goals, reduce the urban heat island effect, fight climate change. I think converting to one way streets to two ways is a no brainer. So I think we should go back to the future, so to speak, and make Austin's downtown streets the way that they were intended, which is two way with safe and predictable intersections. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Next, we'll have Travis Schneider. >> Good afternoon, council members. I'm Travis Schneider, urban planner and co-chair of [1:22:58 PM] aia Austin's mobility advocacy committee. In my view, the Austin core transportation plan is a thoughtful document that should be approved without delay. After approval, however, the city should study one scenario. The plan leaves off the table fully reverting downtown to two way streets, as the plan itself notes, two way operation provides more routing options and less driver confusion. It also improves visibility for businesses and pedestrians, since drivers have to look both ways before pulling onto the road. Renowned planner Jeff speck, who visited Austin last month, has reverted many Austin American downtowns to two way streets with positive, transformative results for safety, crime and business activity. Despite this precedent, the plan leaves fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, San Jacinto and Trinity one way maintaining our confusing grid, though these streets are proposed to lose vehicle lanes. Staff notes they are downtown's, quote, heavy lifters requiring dedicated left turn lanes that would disrupt transit only lanes if reverted to two way. Some counterpoints. First, San Jacinto and Trinity carry very light traffic and are prime [1:23:58 PM] candidates for reversion, with no dedicated turn lanes and dedicated bus lanes. Second, Guadalupe and lavaca carry similar traffic to fifth and sixth, but are already proposed for two way reversion with transit lanes and a reduction of vehicle lanes from 6 to 4. Third cmf safety research. Comparing one way to two way streets alone is currently inconclusive. Yes, but reversion would create a key benefit for our downtown a single vehicle Laine per direction instead of 2 in 1 direction. Single Laine flow mitigates aggressive driving and Laine jockeying, as mentioned previously, and a consistent single Laine two way grid could distribute traffic more evenly. As mentioned earlier, reducing demand for fifth through eighth streets and questioning the need for those dedicated turn lanes. This distributed demand could further enable replacement of signals with stop signs on all streets, maybe except for fifth Cesar Chavez, congress, etc. Further reducing driving speeds, improving pedestrian safety, and saving the city money. In the meantime, the plan already positions the city to enact these affordable reversions, so I recommend approving the plan while also requesting a third party study of downtown wide [1:25:00 PM] reversions. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Up next, we'll have Amy de Luna, followed by Joshua Goldenberg. >> Hello, mobility committee members. My name is Amy de Luna, and I am on the board of aura and Austin for everyone. And I am here to speak on the act plan, specifically on converting one way streets in downtown Austin to two way streets. I've lived downtown for five years and I've worked. I worked downtown for almost ten years. I walk, bike, bus and drive through downtown Austin. I walk several downtown streets daily because I have a dog who I walk multiple times a day. I find myself on west fifth or west sixth every day, because my dog loves to explore those areas in hopes of finding discarded pizza crusts, tacos, or random chicken bones. Too often I see drivers going the wrong way on these streets. Thankfully there are. They are quickly corrected by other drivers or by me waving my hands and yelling at them that [1:26:00 PM] they're going the wrong way. When I cross one way streets downtown, I make sure to look both ways because of how many drivers I've seen going the wrong way down one way streets. I also see far too often people making illegal left turns at a red light. When there is a two way. When a two way street meets a one way street, like at six in bowie or at fifth and nueces. Probably because they get confused and think it's okay to do that, or they're just blatantly breaking the law by running the red. And I really hope it's not that having some streets one way and some streets two way downtown is confusing. Making all the streets two way would reduce that confusion and make the streets safer for everyone. Thank you. >> Thank you Joshua. >> Good afternoon. My name is Josh Goldenberg and I'm a high school junior representing myself, the Austin youth council and aura, which is a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing housing, abundance, transit and safe [1:27:01 PM] streets for all. When I grow up, I want to feel safe while walking and biking around downtown. Currently, I feel much more comfortable walking down second street than I do on many other streets in the area. This, from my experience, has a lot to do with the fact that it is a two way, on one way streets like Trinity and San Jacinto. I often walk along an empty road when all of a sudden a roaring, a roar of speeding traffic zooms by. Just as quickly, the street returns back to the dead state it was in before. This unpleasant walking environment makes it easy to understand why there usually aren't many other pedestrians there. A few weeks ago, I was further convinced of the necessity to convert our streets to two ways when I missed a bus a seven bus because of the confusing stop locations on seventh and eighth streets. It was my first time boarding a bus from that particular spot, and because of the confusion caused by one way streets, I missed a line which was only running every 30 minutes at the time. I also [1:28:01 PM] hope you all consider the that the Austin youth council recently voted unanimously, unanimously to support this initiative after a robust debate. Robust debate. We believe that two way streets are a long term solution which will increase walkability and livability in the downtown core as the voice of the people who will live with this change for the longest amount of time, I hope you will take our support into consideration when considering the plan and two way streets. So thank you for your consideration and your attention and please support two way streets. Thanks. >> Thank you for your comments, Danielle. Do we have any other speakers on your list? >> That's everyone. >> Okay. That's great. That moves us into our minutes. A couple of housekeeping items. Did you have a question you wanted to ask really quickly before we get into the briefing on that item? >> Yeah. Well, while it's kind of still fresh, is it okay? Is it okay if I ask questions around two way street stuff right now, or should we wait [1:29:01 PM] until after the presentation? >> If they're more robust questions, it might be helpful to have the presentation. But if it's a clarifying question I think it's okay to do now. >> Yeah. I mean, I'll just ask when we finish the presentation. I just had to do with some of the comments made, but I could ask that later. >> Okay. In that case, we will take the items up in this order. The first one that we'll do is going to be the minutes. And then we're going to jump to item number three, the briefing on project connect, including the federal transit administration record of decision for the Austin light rail phase one. And then we'll go to item two, which is the Austin transportation plan that many of our speakers were speaking to today. And then five briefing by memo for missing middle and mixed use zoning study memo. And then for the Austin transportation public works ongoing mobility program and then previously distributed memos. So I know we're jumping around a lot, but item one, item three two, five [1:30:05 PM] and then four. So on that note, item one is approval of the minutes for February 12th, 2026 mobility committee meeting. Do I have a motion made by vice chair qadri, seconded by councilmember Laine? All in favor by unanimous on the dais. And that will take us to item number three, our briefing on project connect. Welcome. >> Now we're on okay. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Leanne Conti I am. >> It's dedicated to the support of the delivery of the project connect program. I'm joined today by Jennifer pine, Austin transit partnerships executive vice president for [1:31:06 PM] community, federal and state planning, community and federal programs. It's always a mouthful of good luck, Jen. Always saying that. And Lindsay would atp's, executive vice president over engineering and construction, thank you for inviting us here today to provide an update on Austin light rail, a key component or really the centerpiece of project connect. We are eager to highlight the milestones that have been reached in the last several months, which are really exciting. But before I do turn it over to Jen and Lindsay to do that, I want we wanted to ground these accomplishments in the context of the overall program, which for several of you and for many in our community has been, you know, we've been working on this for a long time. You know, me, I'm like, oh, since 2016, it's been ten years. It's an exciting point to be at. And so I will give a little bit of intro and history on project connect. So what is project connect? It is a transit expansion program that is a [1:32:06 PM] program of projects. I think sometimes we hear in the community project connect interchange with Austin Wright light rail, but it's really a whole system which includes a new light rail system, improvements to our existing commuter rail system, expanded bus service, and other supportive improvements. And project connect started as a planning initiative by capital metro, our our transit agency, to identify a long term transit vision for the region, and it was coordinated between the city and capmetro as both entities back in the 2016 time frame were embarking on planning initiatives. The city on its long range transportation plan that you all know today as Austin strategic mobility plan and capmetro on project connect. So after a two year community process, the long range vision was adopted by the capmetro board and incorporated within the city's transportation plan. So the city actually adopted project connect as the the transit vision that is needed [1:33:06 PM] to meet our, you know, our 50 over 50 mode share goal that you all are so familiar with. And then in 2020, city council made the decision, with the support of capmetro, to call for a tax rate election to fund an initial investment in project connect as including the implementation and the ongoing operation and maintenance of the program. And in November of 2020, voters approved that tax rate. And we have been in implementation mode ever since. So as part of that referendum and related actions at that time, the city and capmetro decided to create a single purpose entity to deliver project connect and particularly Austin light rail. So they created a local government corporation called Austin transit partnership to be solely focused on that. Atp has a board with appointees from both the city council. The mayor serves as city council's appointee, and from that metro's board commissioner [1:34:07 PM] Travillion is that appointee, as well as three members of the community that have expertise in specific, specific topics that are important for capital project implementation. So those are the three main partners that are involved in delivering project connect, each with its own responsibilities and components of the program. So capmetro is delivering a number of improvements. Their list is long, including bus rapid transit. If you're familiar with the 808 37 routes, that's pleasant valley and expo center. Those are new rapid transit services that are operating under the project connect banner, as well as pickup, which is an on demand transit service. Five new pickup Zones have been implemented under project connect with project connect funding. Also, commuter rail projects improving the existing red line you're familiar with Mccullough station. Leander double tracking other double tracking projects on the red line, and then planning for a future [1:35:08 PM] green line. Capmetro is also delivering new park and rides and operations and support facilities to support all of these new services. The city. I'll go back one. Sorry, the city has a responsibility as well on project connect. As part of the program, $300 million were identified for anti-displacement investments related to transit. These investments and programs are managed and implemented by Austin housing. We are also the regulatory and permitting entity. And and for the projects that are largely being delivered within city of Austin right of way and are managing, you know, the right of way that those projects will operate within. So there's a lot of interconnectedness between the city's role with these transit projects. And then the largest component of project connect is the new light rail system, [1:36:09 PM] which is what you'll you'll be hearing from Jen and Lindsey about here in a moment, is being delivered by atp. And you know, before I do that, I just wanted to thank you all and the council for the continued support of this program. It's long term investment, both in how long it will benefit the community. Planners like me think in generations and hundreds of years. So not not only that, but in how long it takes to design and build and bring forward. And that takes patience and a steadfastness from our elected officials in the community. And so we appreciate appreciate that. Thank you. So I will hand it over to Jen okay. >> Good afternoon. Members of the mobility committee. Again I'm Jen pine from Austin transit partnership. So let me advance the slide here. We're going to talk a little bit about Austin light rail phase one. Provide an update on some activities, especially over the last couple of months. And what's ahead. So just to level set, phase one is the first ten [1:37:11 PM] miles of an expandable light rail system that we are progressing. About 15 stations, at least 29,000 daily trips are expected on this service once it opens, and we've been in project development for a couple of years, but we are excited to talk about how we are really moving on to the next phase. This is an at grade electric system designed to respond to all the population growth and employment growth that has occurred, but also plan for its continuation. These are a couple of renderings that we have to highlight some components of the project. For example, on the drag. As part of the project, we'll be adding light rail to the street and to what we expect will be our highest ridership station right by UT, but also transforming that streetscape to be more suitable for pedestrians, bicyclists and all modes of transit. On east [1:38:13 PM] Riverside, where we have a little bit more space in the right of way, we're proposing to include a greenway concept as part of the project. That essentially means rearranging the different components of the street, such that sidewalks, bicycle facilities are running right next to light rail in the middle of the street. That allows for continuous pedestrian and bike movements. It also allows for us to introduce more shade to that area. Another highlight of the project is that we will be building a new bridge over lady bird lake that will provide connections for transit, but also for bikes and pedestrians. And the final image up here is a drone point of view looking down on east Riverside and pleasant valley. Just to give you a sense of what the greenway might look like and how the light rail will connect with bus and other modes of transportation. So our timeline we have been working on project [1:39:13 PM] development, the preliminary engineering and the environmental review under the national environmental policy act. So those are some big milestones that we've achieved in the federal process to complete Nepa. But as we look ahead to 2026, it's getting ready for construction, getting the teams on board to do that and readying in all ways, we are still anticipating construction activity starting in 2027. So just a minute more on those milestones. We are pursuing federal grant funding for this project. And there that is a years long process where we go through a number of Gates, and we achieved a couple of big ones in the last few months. One of those is to receive a rating from the federal transit administration. This is a prerequisite part of the grant process, since the new starts program that we are pursuing funds from is competitive. There are projects pursuing those funds from all across the country. There is a [1:40:14 PM] rating process that helps fda to understand how all these different projects competing for funds compare. So Austin light rail received a medium high rating, which was among the highest from this cycle. So that expresses fta's consideration that we are a very competitive project for those funds. We also completed the Nepa, the final environmental impact statement in January of this year. We completed that work within two years, which is highly unusual and really actually has not happened for a major Eis project since that requirement was instituted. So that what does that mean? It allows us to go to the next phase of the project, more detailed design, and to pursue utilities, work and other items, knowing that those would be reimbursed by future grant funds. So to that end, we are awarding a number of contracts in the first half of this year towards final [1:41:14 PM] design and construction Mackenzie. >> Thank you. So upon receiving the record of decision and completing the environmental impact statement, we very quickly moved into awarding those contracts that Jen mentioned. And we have divided into three major contracts to deliver the program, the first one being for the full ten mile light rail alignment. And this is a Progressive design build contract. We awarded that in February to Austin rail constructors. The second we are anticipating awarding here shortly in the second quarter of this year for the operations and maintenance facility, and the third will be later this summer for the light rail vehicles or the trains themselves. I mentioned that we are going to be designing and building this under what is called a Progressive design build model, and what I want to highlight about that is the [1:42:15 PM] approach of bringing our contractor in very early in the process to develop the design, informed and guided by how it will be built, how long it will take and what it will cost, and that collaboration being key to delivering on our commitments to our community of a light rail system that we can all be proud of and and ultimately continue to expand. So what does that look like and where are we at in the project? Those contracts will ultimately be multibillion dollar contracts, but we are awarding them in phases in part to embed transparency and accountability and collaboration into each stage of the work. And this first authorization is for that pre-construction work and getting us ready for 2027 to begin construction. We'll come back to our board, and atp will then authorize the next phases. We anticipate coming back this summer to authorize finishing [1:43:15 PM] the remainder of the design, and then in 2027, for the actual construction work packages. But 2026 will be another big year for the program. And I'll highlight just a couple of key things we will be achieving. One is advancing the design to a critical point of initiating the permitting process. And the second is that we'll you'll start to see us out in the field here in the next couple of months as we begin field investigations and things like locating utilities and surveying ground conditions to make sure that our contractors are ready to have shovels in the ground beginning in 2027. Part of that work of readying ourselves for construction is additional planning on how the work will be done. We often get asked what the schedule for construction is, and now that we have our contractor on board, we're very excited this year to develop that first preliminary schedule that will help us work with our stakeholders and [1:44:16 PM] property owners and businesses along the alignment to be able to communicate when we are building and where additional construction coordination that we look forward to partnering with, you know, txdot and the city and cam and capmetro and many others is to make sure that we are mindful of the $25 billion plus of public infrastructure being built not only by us, by all of those partners as well, in the same time frame. And so we're working as a partner in the construction partnership program to align those efforts and make sure that there is a single consolidated message to our community so that everyone knows how to maintain their mobility while Austin is growing. And, Jen, do you want to talk a little bit about some of our other stakeholder programs we're building for construction as well? >> Okay. There are a couple items that we heard throughout community engagement over time. One is how are we going to support businesses, especially [1:45:17 PM] during construction. So that is something we are committed to doing and organizing and funding programing to help support them during that time. Right now we are conducting a needs assessment. We've done a lot of research, talking to other cities about what they've done to support businesses during construction, but we want to make sure that it's very much tailored to Austin. So we've been conducting meetings and focus groups with businesses, with business organizations, but also community members and organizations that want to support the local businesses in their community. To understand what would be most helpful and form our programs. So that's something that we will be rolling out later this year after we've completed the needs assessment. The other item is public art, which is has always been an item of interest when we're out talking to folks. And so a public art program will be part of our project and fully integrated into the design work. Right now we are constructing [1:46:17 PM] that program, the framework of it, how the community will engage, how artists will engage. And that's another activity for this year. So with that, that concludes our slides. But of course we'd be happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you for the presentation. I'll just start by saying we very much appreciate having a Nepa process that seemed to be extremely thorough, but also must have been very diligent to be able to hit the timelines and the approvals that you need in in the moments that we have, you know, this is a project that people are very excited about. And so I'm glad to see that the team in place has been working through these. You know, Nepa process is not easy. There's a whole lot of checks that need to be gone through to make sure that the documents are fully prepared and accurate when they get submitted, and so I want to extend my appreciation to the team for working through it so diligently on the timeline that you have, which which is great to see that it's come out in two years. I'll kick off with [1:47:18 PM] one question, and then I know others may have questions, but when you talk about Progressive design build, I know there's a couple different ways to bid projects and to be able to hire on contractors. I've heard of design, bid build. Can you talk about what exactly about this process was, why it was selected, and why some of the other ones weren't selected? As as far as protocol for finding your contractors? >> Yes. So we evaluated all of the available delivery models as part of our procurement process, including design, bid build and fixed price design build. And we also did a lot of industry engagement and learning from the market. And what we consistently heard is particularly in transit, multibillion dollar, very complex projects that the market is no longer willing to sustain. The risk that comes along with fixed price design, build. And in that environment, [1:48:18 PM] contractors bid on a not to exceed amount based on a very early preliminary level of design that was developed by someone else. And they have to assume whatever risks may occur to them, and they price that in. And that's resulting in projects that are rarely delivered to those budgets on these big, complex transit jobs that are ultimately a mix of, you know, rail infrastructure with public utilities and streetscape and urban realm. And there's just so many complex pieces to that puzzle, it's hard for them to understand those risks and price it that early. And so we moved to a model where they will be able to help us develop the design with all of those risks in mind, and mitigate those risks and manage them by owning the design process at the same time. This is Austin's first light rail system, and we are not handing away the keys to the castle. We want to build collaboration into that design [1:49:19 PM] process and so have an integrated team with them. I mentioned we awarded the first contract February 18th. That was a Wednesday. Our contractor is or became embedded and co-located with us the following Monday. So we are working together, hand in hand to advance the design in a way that makes sure we are always aligning the cost, the schedule, the budget and Austin's expectations. >> That's great. Thank you. Two other committee members have questions on this presentation. Let's go with mayor pro tem vela first. >> Thank you. Chair. The director Molinaro from the fta recently resigned. And do we know who the other interim or the next director is? And and again, my sense of it was Molinaro seemed to be a very good fta director, and I was sorry to see him go. Where are we with with the new director and the new direction of the [1:50:20 PM] fta, if any. >> So thank you for that question. And we are sorry to see administrator Molnar go as well. He was very interested in this project and excited about the economic development that he saw along the line. So a new administrator has not been proposed, suggested at this moment. One of the career staff members is an interim position there. But that's a short term. And at this moment we're not sure who that will be. But, you know, we're all we work. There's continuity in our day to day folks that we work with at the fta, so we'll just continue to press on. >> Great. Well, best to director Molinaro wherever he ends up. But like I said, I was looking forward to to him hopefully approving this and and getting us on down the road. The record of decision that that's the Nepa Wright the final step in the Nepa process, the does that mean we can start acquiring land for the project? [1:51:21 PM] >> It does. So the record of decision enables us to have pre-award authority to complete certain project activities. And that just means we don't have the grant agreement at this time. But the costs that we incur for those activities are reimbursable under a future grant. And so property acquisition is one of those items. Utilities relocation is another. And the furthering of the design is the third big one. >> Great. And are we anticipating land acquisition activity starting. >> We are those pre-acquisition activities are occurring now meaning things like surveying the property and appraisals and those various other activities needed to prepare for the acquisition process. But we are initiating those as we speak. >> Great. Well, that would be exciting. The last question what is the status? I know we we are in litigation with the Texas attorney general right now over the authority of atp to issue bonds for the project. What's the status of that, that [1:52:21 PM] lawsuit. >> So there is a jurisdictional question that is sitting at the Texas supreme court, and we are awaiting their ruling on that, and we expect to hear back on that later this year. In the meantime, I want to assure you that there is no pause, delay or slow down to any of the work. And every day we are advancing the project to fulfill our commitment to our voters. >> Great. Thank you very much. >> We have other questions from committee members. Let's go with council member Laine. >> First, congratulations on hitting that tough deadline and getting such a strong rating. I'm interested to hear a little bit more about what factors you think led to the medium high rating. >> Well great question. So they look at a number of different factors, including the mobility improvements, quantifying different things like that. And that's a very structured prescribed calculation that they do where I would say [1:53:23 PM] Austin light rail overperformed is in the area of land use and economic development, which is just more qualitative in nature. And we like all the grand, we were really able to demonstrate some really smart land use policies that were implemented over the last couple of years that show this mutually reinforcing things. You know, you're making this huge transit investment in areas where you're also supporting housing and driving economic development so that you're enhancing mobility where you most need it. That and just really the pace of economic development and the kind of interest and demand along the light rail line, those were some factors that stood out. >> That's great. Thank you very much. You spoke a little bit about some of the challenges of costs as we move forward and and this different approach of contracting that can help with [1:54:24 PM] that. In, in what ways are you accounting for cost increases in these coming years, especially as we look at the impacts of tariffs on construction costs, labor supply, construction, that kind of thing? >> We are embedding cost into every day of the work rather than waiting for, say, bring design, you know, work design for six months and figure out what the cost is and then advance it six months or 12 months more and figure out what the cost is. Then we're actually embedding the cost estimating into the every single day design working group so that as any particular design idea or innovation comes up along the project, we have the contractor who has the expertise sitting there at the table to say, okay, that that could be a great idea, but it's going to either save you X dollars or it might add Y Y dollars, and that will inform our decision making along the way. Rather than having a [1:55:26 PM] design team of architects and engineers who are great designers, but they aren't coming from the background of what the materials and the labor will actually cost to implement those ideas. >> Thank you. Thank you again for your work. >> I have just another wrap up question about the the end of the line for the three points. Is atp going to be building those park and rides out, or what is the conversation look like right now? And I know there were some discussions around maintenance yards, all those conversations still happening. And how would the park and rides function? >> We do have park and rides identified for all three ends of line at 38th street, yellow jacket along east Riverside and oltorf along south congress. Those are part of the project that was affirmed in the record of decision, and investigated as part of the environmental impact statement. So those are part of the project. [1:56:28 PM] >> Okay. And the maintenance yards. There's been good discussions on making sure that trying to maintain the the rail system and the cars that are driving on it will be approximate to the rail line itself. >> The operations and maintenance facility is is also part of our project definition and was studied in the environmental process. And that is the next contract that we will be awarding here anticipating next month actually for the design build of the operations and maintenance facility. >> Okay, that's great to hear. If there's no further questions, I think that is it on this item. Thank you so much for the diligent work. We really appreciate it. And that will take us to item number two, discussion and possible action on the Austin core transportation plan and downtown street design. [1:57:32 PM] >> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. Committee members. Richard Mendoza, director for transportation and public works. This afternoon. I'm also joined to my left by miss Michelle marks, transportation officer with strategic projects with our department. I'm going to hand it off to her to run through some quick slides and an update on the plan. But first, just a quick overview. The Austin core transportation plan is the small area downtown mobility plan our team has been working on the past few years, and of course, this is the long range mobility plan for our downtown space. That downtown space is bordered by I-35 on the east, mlk on the north, north, Lamar on the west, and lady bird lake on the south. For our viewers that may not be familiar with that. We originally planned to bring this forward for council adoption at the end of last year. However, we did hit the pause button to allow the preliminary engineering work on [1:58:33 PM] east sixth street to continue and catch up. That's been completed, and now we're going to be bringing this forward for council consideration and adoption at the March 26th regular meeting. This will be part of the Austin strategic mobility plan. And of course, by default, that also updates the imagine Austin plan. So with that, I'll hand it over to miss marks. And thank you. Oh, certainly. >> Thank you. Thank you, director Mendoza, and thank you for having me here today. I'm excited to provide this briefing on the act plan. As director Mendoza mentioned, it's been about nine months a year since we hit pause on this work to kind of delve more deeply into the preliminary engineering work for sixth street. So excited to come back to you today. Thank you, director, for setting us, us up [1:59:34 PM] a little bit. Just to add a couple more thoughts to, you know, why the act plan is important and why we're updating it. It it is kind of our small vision for downtown, and we haven't done that work since the adoption of the asmp. So it really was time for us to align our downtown mobility plan with the kind of bold, aggressive vision set forth in the asmp. Not only that, but you know, just that the age of our previous mobility plan, you know, it hadn't taken into account a lot of state of the practice changes in just transit and bicycle planning and infrastructure that we've seen in cities across north America in the last 20 or so years. And then a lot of contextual changes we're seeing around us in our downtown. We just heard about one here today with project connect. We're also seeing, as we all know, [2:00:34 PM] significant changes with I-35 adjacent to downtown. So there are just a lot of there's a lot of change kind of driving the need to kind of reassess the function and role and design of our streets to kind of coalesce around all of these big projects happening in the vicinity. So the act plan, the intent really is to create a unified transportation, long term vision. As director Mendoza said, we we did kick this off some years ago. Back in 2018, 2019, really beginning the bulk of the effort on this project. But then unfortunately, due to global pandemics, we put that whole work on hold for a couple of years, picked it back up in 2022 and then in 22, 23, had some very robust public engagement throughout those years. I'll hit on that in a moment. And then developed a [2:01:37 PM] draft plan for initial review and public engagement in 2025, but again, put that work on hold to do a little bit more work on sixth street regarding that two years of public engagement. We did work really closely with a project working group that represented dozens, several dozens of downtown stakeholders connected directly with at least 80 different downtown stakeholders, had various public, downtown, specific and citywide events and pop ups and online surveys, and very intentionally, you know, created a proactive engagement plan to go out and make sure we were hearing from distinct, focused populations so that we were getting representative input in our public engagement. We did begin the process of kind of plan, comment and review last year. [2:02:39 PM] In 2025, we did visit design commission, urban transportation commission, planning commission briefed this group a more or less a year ago. And then we did hit pause on that work to to dive more deeply into sixth street. And then we've recently begun going back to commission's in preparation for coming back to city council at the end of the month for adoption approval on March 26th. So a little bit of what we heard generally during engagement throughout the process. But, you know, these last few bullets really speaking to some of the comments and feedback we've been receiving in the last year, generally, absolutely strong support for creating kind of a human centered, pedestrian scaled, walkable downtown and [2:03:40 PM] one that provides for all of our our modal needs. So really thinking about how we retrofit our streets to accommodate transit needs and provide speedy and reliable transit service and how we extend our protected bike Laine infrastructure in in downtown on streets where we don't have that today, in the last several months, we've, you know, in regard to bicycle infrastructure, really heard a strong desire to make sure that we're providing strong east west bicycle connections through downtown, particularly looking at fifth and sixth, not just through downtown, but all the way up to Lamar and thinking about what programmatic improvements we might need outside of the act plan boundary past Lamar as well, to really provide that quality east west bicycle connection. So you will see that concept folded into the [2:04:41 PM] revised act plan as well. And then again, as alluded to, referring to and providing illustrations for what ultimately has become the preferred cross section for sixth street, reflecting all of the community engagement that transportation public works has conducted with stakeholders in developing that preferred cross-section over the last several months. And then this issue that's of interest to many in the community that we heard comments on today, is considering opportunities for additional two way conversions in downtown, and I will speak to that in just a moment, just to acquaint you with the structure of the act plan, since it's been a while since we dived into this with you. Again, the intent of the act plan is to reflect those smp goals and to reflect them in recommended priority and supporting projects. So what you're seeing on the screen here in red on fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth are the [2:05:42 PM] priority project recommendations in the act plan, with those street segments in blue serving as supporting projects. And these priority projects are labeled thusly because they really do help us kind of align and integrate with all of the various kind of contextual changes I mentioned earlier around us. I-35 project connect, the congress avenue urban design initiative changes at the convention center et-cetera. And what you're seeing on your screen here is, you know, a representative Paige from the act plan that walks through in great detail the recommendations for these priority and supporting projects. And what you can see here is, is really the kind of conceptual driver for the entire act plan. And that's, you know, taking a very [2:06:42 PM] contextual analysis street by street almost, you know, even further segment by segment of those streets and really thinking in great detail what the, the modal and and multimodal and safety needs and function are for each of these street segments. Thinking very carefully about trade offs and how we balance those so that we can meet those needs as closely as possible. And then in meeting those needs, really taking this conceptual approach of reallocating oftentimes superfluous space from vehicles to mobility needs, namely active transportation, bicycle facilities, wider sidewalks and transit only lanes as well. So the example you're seeing on your screen here, for example, is at west fifth, I believe. And the illustration shows how the act plan is proposing [2:07:43 PM] taking what's currently a four Laine vehicular roadway, narrowing that down significantly to two vehicular through lanes, and allocating that extra space to multimodal and safety needs like protected bicycle facilities and transit only lanes. Again, this is just one representative project example that we wanted to put on the screen as an example, but it does go through in plan and section view here, segment by segment for each of these street corridors. With that kind of detailed contextual analysis, I did want to speak to questions about two way conversions. Really briefly. What you're seeing here on the screen are the two way conversions that are recommended in the act plan. Those are the streets in kind of highlighted purple on your screen. So two way conversions recommended for seventh, ninth, [2:08:43 PM] 10th brazos. What you're seeing here in pink. The pink streets are the existing one way streets downtown that the act plan, based on that contextual analysis, is recommending to stay as one way. And we'll talk a little bit about why that is. You can see also here just contextually trying to explain some of the function that these one way streets serve in our network. On seventh and eighth, we are going to have to move forward with directionality changes on those streets just to connect to the changes that txdot is making adjacent to downtown. They are moving those highway on and off ramps. So seventh and eighth are going to necessarily have to change in order to kind of feather in, to txdot work, to connect to those kind of high demand on and off ramps. You can see in the [2:09:44 PM] screen that fifth and sixth are proposed in the act plan to remain one way, and that's largely in in order to prioritize space for those types of improvements that we walked through in the previous screen. So making sure that we have enough space for those transit only lanes and those continuous bicycle facilities that travel through the intersection on the next screen. Here, we have provided just a little bit more context for downtown street grid. You can see that the streets in purple are throughout downtown. Most of our streets are in fact two way streets. Those are those purple streets. And again, that act plan will be adding additional two way street conversions to that network only at per the act plan, only six streets are proposed to remain as one way corridors. And those remaining one way streets really are. Somebody [2:10:45 PM] used the term earlier heavy lifters. You can see on the map here that, you know, these really are not only the streets that are connecting to those high demand I-35 on ramps, but there are east west crosstown connectors, fifth and sixth. They connect all the way from I-35 to mopac. And I think we can probably count on one hand the number of streets in our system that actually do that. Right. It's Chavez and fifth and sixth and 15th and and infilled. There just aren't that many. And so these really serve a critically important role in our network are kind of nascent. Construction mobility group has released a construction mobility plan as part of their effort. They're working really hard to figure out how we keep our network kind of up and operating efficiently during construction. And and that traffic analysis has really kind of underscored the important role that fifth and sixth serve as those [2:11:46 PM] crosstown connector streets. Without them, our system would be in big trouble. Not only that, though, I also want to stress the important role that these streets, these one way streets serve in our transit network as transit routes. You know, you can scroll down. There's been a lot of kind of rightful reflections on on the wonderful outcomes that second street has provided us. You can see that on the map here, too. It's important to acknowledge kind of the different kind of street that is that each of our streets in our network serve a specific, important contextual role. And second street is marvelous. But you can see on the map that it dead ends at Seaholm and convention center, and it doesn't carry transit. So we've overlaid here our transit network downtown with the proposed kind of act plan one way streets. And you can [2:12:47 PM] see the correlation really, these heavy lifter streets are also our transit network, heavy lifters. And it's that allocation of space from vehicles to transit only lanes that's going to help us improve transit speed and reliability to and through downtown. And we've got that kind of example of how we're reallocating that that space currently dedicated to vehicular vehicular use in the cross-sections here at the bottom left. On your screen. Here are the kind of critical crosstown bicycle connections proposed in the act plan. You can see the important role again, that fifth and sixth will play connecting east and west over to congress avenue, where we have excellent protected bicycle [2:13:47 PM] infrastructure, north south, which will help users then connect down to the new protected bicycle facilities. That project connect will be providing along fourth street and then overlaying that with additional bicycle improvement, bicycle network and system projects really is going to help us provide kind of a robust bicycle system downtown as well. And then just a couple of evocative images from some of our peer cities. These are photos from both Seattle and Portland to extremely kind of. Heralded cities when it comes to pedestrian, bicycle and transit infrastructure. Both of these cities have one way downtown street grids, and the work that they've been doing in their downtowns recently is [2:14:49 PM] very much a precedent for the act plan. They've been doing exactly what the plan is recommending, and that's reallocating space from underutilized one way streets and taking that space and creating safe and comfortable bicycle, pedestrian and transit improvements with that extra vehicular space. So a couple of images here on the screen to just kind of help folks sense what those improvements could look like on the ground here in Austin. And just to wrap up, kind of the the considerations on one way streets versus two way streets, you know, it's important to understand that there really is, you know, no one size fits all approach, one way streets and two way streets. One is not necessarily better than the other. It's really comes down to contextual [2:15:51 PM] considerations of kind of functions and needs for that street, and really kind of a detailed practice of engineering judgment is really critical to figure out what type of street is best for what type of context. Two way streets are not necessarily safer than one way streets. I was really kind of heartened and pleased to hear reference from community members today to the crash modification clearinghouse, which is a critical tool of our profession and trade. So I'm happy to see folks digging into that. And the speaker today was correct. There is no crash modification factor for converting a one way street to a two way street. However, that that the the question about whether two way streets are safer than one way street is not settled case law. However, there is settled case law on what factors what design factors do impact safety and [2:16:53 PM] walkability on our streets, and that is speed management that is controlling left turns and providing frequent, safe, protected pedestrian crossings. Pedestrian crossings that are vehicle movements and that is making sure that we have the multimodal facilities that we need on those streets to provide users that space. I think we can all think of many two way streets that need those features, too. So what the plan is proposing to do is to make sure that we are providing those features on our street grid downtown by reallocating the right of way where we can take that space from cars to meet that modal multi modal function. We really appreciate the conversation that's been having in the community about [2:17:54 PM] making sure that our downtown is as walkable as it possibly can be. So we have integrated into the revised plan some additional measures that you'll see in the plan in order to make sure we're providing that critical 350 foot safe, protected pedestrian spacing opportunity and those signals to slow vehicles down. We want to make sure that we don't have any signal gaps in our downtown. So we did go back and take a look. And we did see opportunity to add signals at San Antonio at both fifth and sixth. So we have included that recommendation now in the updated plan that you'll see online soon. To address that gap, we're also going to be exploring additional speed management tools to provide or explore the opportunity to provide raised intersections along sixth street within kind of the core of the entertainment district. So we'll be able to report back on [2:18:55 PM] that soon. And then regarding signal timing, a critical tool for kind of metering traffic speeds in our kind of tight downtown grid, our current signal timing is time to ensure that vehicle speeds cannot exceed 25 miles an hour. As somebody mentioned to me recently. Good luck even trying to get close to 25 miles an hour during peak. But we are going to take a kind of surgical look and do some speed studies to make sure that there are no areas of of downtown where that outcome may be slipping a little bit and doing some modeling to look at opportunities, to kind of tweak our signal timing to reduce speeding, if that in fact, is a need. So we're thinking specifically along fifth and sixth west of Guadalupe would be an area we would want to take a look at. Regarding [2:19:56 PM] implementation of act plan project recommendations. Director Mendoza said it right. This is a long term vision plan with, you know, recommending large scale cip projects. And, you know, these projects are going to be kind of folding, be folding into kind of our citywide cip needs analysis in association with all of our needs across downtown to figure out, you know, what local, state and federal funding sources need to be allocated where based on need. But we do include a robust implementation section in the plan, and that includes recommendations on which projects may be need to be out at the gate first in order to coordinate with some of the construction happening around us, not only to kind of alleviate kind of construction related pressures, but also to kind of connect to that infrastructure on opening day. And we recognize that [2:20:58 PM] implementation is going to continue to take, you know, coordination with our colleagues, including at grade streets, to make sure that we're implementing the act plans, kind of mobility recommendations and needs with our urban design objectives for the pedestrian realm behind the curb. And the act plan does include, you know, several hypothetical scenarios of how projects could be implemented over time with various kind of hypothetical assumptions for what that might kind of how that might translate into funding needs. You know, like all projects, you know, the takeaway is the sooner you do it, the the less it cost. So no great revelation, revelation there. But we do again, want to take a look at what some kind of nearer term between now and for example, 2032 when surrounding projects are going to be complete. What would be an ideal completion scenario by [2:21:58 PM] then? So with that, I'll leave you with what will be our request for council action on March 26th. And that's to consider an ordinance to amend the imagine Austin plan by updating the smp and adopting the act plan into the smp. So with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Thank you very much for that presentation, and I appreciate your patience also, because I know that we've had this Teed up almost to come to mobility committee a couple of times. And so I know there's been some really good discussions happening. I'm going to kick it over to vice chair qadri because this is in his district. And so I know that him and his chief of staff have been looking at this very closely for a while. >> Sure. And shout out to Melissa Buehler, who's also been looking at it as well. >> Shout out to Melissa. >> I have a few questions that I had planned to ask regarding the presentation, but based off [2:22:59 PM] of some comments from speakers, I wanted to ask some questions. You know, I was thinking about two way streets, and one of the speakers talked about the economic impacts of two way streets. So could you go into more detail on two way streets and how they could potentially help businesses? But also on the flip side, and two way streets hurt businesses. And then one thing that I thought about, just because it happened in the district that I think a lot of folks are still thinking about, was the horrific mass shooting that happened on on west sixth, west sixth being a one way street. And, you know, and obviously APD and ems is such an amazing job. I do want to eventually daylight something that I want to work on regarding the waymo situation. But I did want to ask you when it comes to public safety. So not necessarily crashes, but just public safety like we saw with the with the shooting that took place one way versus two way streets, you know, depending on the [2:23:59 PM] situation, could one, you know, set up B be safer or more helpful for first responders. So two questions wanted to do with like economic impacts of one versus two way streets, positives negatives. And then the other one had to do with public safety positives or negatives. >> Yeah I'll take the first one first. The act plan did not get into the does not get into kind of detailed questions of land use. It really is positioned as a safety and mobility plan. There certainly is great opportunity to work with our colleagues across departmental on as the central city plan moves forward. And imagine Austin updates to think about more how how we. Envision our land use in downtown in the future and how we can kind of work congruently on both sides of the right of way to make [2:25:01 PM] that happen. >> Google. Transportation and public works. If we compare the economic opportunities for two way street versus one way, as we look into the one way street approach, it provides more opportunities for back of the curb improvements, a lot of opportunities for more pedestrian space, sometimes sidewalk cafes back of the curb. So the the space is more, more available for those activations for those streets. So we believe that with one way street approach, the activation and revitalization of the streets, that is going to create more opportunities for businesses. >> Sorry. Did you all have any comments around the public safety aspect of that? If not, I can circle back with you all later. But like I said, just because it's so top of mind [2:26:01 PM] with what happened. >> Yeah. Thank you. Council member. Yes. In terms of emergency response, I was very unfortunate incident over the weekend. Obviously, you know, lives you know, seconds matter. Sure. When it comes to lives. And we work very closely with our public safety departments when we're evaluating any reconfiguration of any street within the city. And, you know, you know, the one way street versus two way in an emergency situation, all streets are two way for emergency response vehicles. You hear sirens coming, you get out of the way. But we'll continue to work with our public safety personnel and look for opportunities not just downtown, but anywhere in the city where engineering redesign of a street network. If they're experiencing challenges, we can work with them to make those adjustments. An example is the the new fire ems station down in, I believe, sunset valley, [2:27:04 PM] where we had to obtain an access easement for public safety. We've added to the S&P and extension of industrial oaks drive, so we're always working with them on ensuring that our street network supports their ability to provide critical services to our community. >> Great. Thank you. And then I did have some questions on the presentation, which I enjoy the presentation. So my first question was when we talk about the one way and two way conversions that were are ultimately recommended in the plan, could you talk about some of the analysis and modeling that went into why one way versus versus two way? >> Thank you. Sure. I think that's also a great question. >> I'm going to be I'm going to do a lot of great questions today though. >> So sure, if you are asking [2:28:04 PM] us if we really model the the one way versus two way into a traffic model, we didn't do that, but we did some sanity check on the on the analysis that we had done, especially under the construction management plan. Like we had done a lot of analysis how things are going to look for the next ten years. And we found out that fifth and sixth street, those are the skeleton of our east-west connectivity. And if we want to keep that operational during the next ten years, it is it is essential that we keep them one way. And those are the two critical corridors that were identified during the analysis under the construction management plan. And we also looked into some of the some of the opportunities, like if we can allocate the spaces for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure and also like sidewalk cafe opportunities for activating the streets. Those are absent [2:29:05 PM] in the two way streets. And again, like if we are to convert the streets to two way, we need to make sure that even for the ems and, you know, safety devices to to get there, we need to have the operational opportunities. And that's going to be absent because of the lack of space in the two way street conversion. >> Got it. Thank you. I'm going to I think there's one of the slides at a timeline and showed that this the conversation started in 2018. Obviously there's a gap in 2020 because of the pandemic. But knowing that the project started in 2018 with the data collection, how has the traffic data been either updated or collected to arrive at the recommendations that we see today with the with the one, one and two way conversions? >> So council councilmember, the traffic data were collected for all those streets and updated. And you know, as we [2:30:07 PM] have seen, a lot of bigger projects come in like I-35, central section reconstruction as well as project connect, we also exchanged the data. And if you look into some of the recommendations coming out of I-35, like how they connect to downtown and also project connect, they have used our analysis in their in their recommendations as well. So it's not that we collected our own data and came up with the recommendations. We shared our data with our partner agencies and made sure that all the recommendations that we have come to and the recommendations that they come to like, it was a collaborative effort between all the agencies. >> And I'll just add to that, it was actually somewhat fortuitous the delays in some regard, because we were able to get some kind of clarity and finality on what project connect bus routes were going to look like, as well as and the lrt route, as well as where those new ramp connections at [2:31:07 PM] I-35 are going to be. So those really are some of the critical kind of determinants of, of of where those kind of heavy lifter one way streets we think really need to carry forward right now. >> Got it. And then outside of the traffic data, what other what other aspects or things were taking into consideration. >> It really is in large part the function of the street as, as we just spoke to and its role in the transportation network. Also looking at, you know, what critical multi facilities are are missing on these streets. If we have crosstown connections at fifth and sixth, we also need to think about how that serves transit and bicycles for example. So it really is thinking about how do we create a cohesive network for not just vehicles but transit, transit and bicycle users and pedestrians. And so what [2:32:07 PM] improvements do we need within individual street segments to to kind of fill those gaps? >> Got it. Thank you. I got one more question before I go on a long rant. So I just wanted to see sorry, my last question, would you be able to clarify how and why or why and how we're converting lavaca and guard to two way as part of the Austin light rail project, and how that's different than than what what we're going to see on fifth and sixth street. >> Thank you, vice chair. I think on that one. We need to get back to you on that for all the details. And we need to even consult with atp as well on that. Great. >> Thank you. Yeah. Of course. Okay. Well I appreciate y'all's once again the presentation and for for answering all my great questions. And then so so so [2:33:08 PM] now my not for my long ramble. So we've had many conversations as a staff with staff. And I think we're on the same page on how we prioritize different modes of on our street and where we put and where we put moving people safely over moving cars more quickly. And I think that's extremely important as we look at, I mean, safety on our streets. And I want to make sure that as a city and I've heard this, I mean, I would talk about this when I before I was on the dais and being on the dais. And what we talk about on the dais is getting as many people out of cars as possible and being, you know, as careless as possible and, you know, less car dependent and ultimately car free. And, you know, those are great talking points and things to say, but it's really important that we're able to actually put everything in place for folks to to live that reality as a reality. And I'd also like to think with just conversations we've had with folks in the community and with local planners and urban planners and urban designers, [2:34:10 PM] that maybe one day in the future our downtown could have, you know, two way streets, you know, throughout maybe not during my time on the dais, but maybe, you know, when when I think the baby's still here, when the when that maybe the baby's not here, but maybe when that baby's on the dais, you know, we could see that. So I think it's important that our plan has things in place that we could accommodate. You know what? What the city and what downtown might look like. And I don't know that I don't know, 20 or 30 years. Right. So I brought forward a motion sheet that's been passed out to folks on the dais. I think you guys might have it in front of you all as well. And I wanted to share it. It's not, you know, it's not final. There's still room for further refinement as we look for final draft of the plan that will hopefully be voting on and adopting on March 26th. So fingers crossed for that. But I wanted to quickly just walk through. There's four bullet points. Sam zo qadri [2:35:11 PM] March 5th, 2026 draft act plan motion sheet for discussion and mobility committee. So we're not taking action today on this. It's we're just talking it through. But for the so for the for the first bullet point it. You know we want to make sure I guess the reasoning behind that is we want to make sure that when we fund capital projects out of the plan, that we are as comprehensive as possible about that investment in the cost estimate and with our funding partners with the city. I'm an example with that. An example of that would be airport shared use paths. You know, where the community has shown a vision of what we as a city would like to implement, like a shared use path with trees. And then when we have a final product, you know, there might not be trees, right? So we want to kind of address that. The second bullet point, it'll it'll outline the need for updated studies and engagement of any future redesigns for any remaining one way streets downtown, to make sure we can reassess whether two way even makes sense. The third bullet point kick starts our curb management work in the [2:36:11 PM] downtown area, and then the last bullet point is meant to kick start the implementation of our multi- modal projects and two way conversions identified in the plan, so austinites can start feeling these benefits as soon as possible. So, you know, we're still going to be taking input from folks and kind of working on this motion sheet, but just wanted to to daylight that that's it. >> Sounds good. Thank you for working on that. Vice chair and Melissa Beeler. Yeah. I wanted so you asked a question about Guadalupe and lavaca, right. And they said they'd get information back to you, maybe just send it to the whole committee so we can understand that. Because I was going to ask a question, too. But since he already covered that, I won't do that. I did want to daylight the discussion around the east west bike connection. I'm really glad that that's something that you're thinking about, because fourth street right now has a fantastic bikeway along cat metro's red line. Txdot has been very collaborative on getting the safer crossing across the access road over toward the [2:37:12 PM] convention center. Are there any thoughts about how we bridge the gaps between fourth street, fifth street, sixth street? I'm going to say I'm a big fan of having better connectivity through the Seaholm district and way over into fifth and sixth street, over toward mopac, where the Johnson creek trailhead is. I think it's really important to be able to streamline that bike network, but I didn't know if there was any thought about making it super intuitive for someone who is maybe renting a bike for the day and trying to utilize those, is there going to be a really, you know, cohesive pathway to kind of tell a brand new to Austin visitor on a rented bike how to get all the way from east to west from I-35 over to mopac. Is that something that you all are thinking about at this stage? >> Thank you councilmember. That's an excellent question and observation. And so, you know, the plan's a long term [2:38:13 PM] vision. Plans. We do have a bike network in mind that right now is lines on the map. But as we start diving into these, as we get and realize available funding and start diving into the design details, that's when we'll go back out in the public and then we'll look at the multi-modal needs to include the bike network, bike plans that are still needed to fill gaps to ensure it operates as a system. So short answer. Yes. Okay. >> That's great because I know y'all are doing some fantastic work in the Seaholm area in particular. I know many, many years ago there was one idea we've had to kind of shift programing and identify more sources of funding to help with that. Just those couple of streets right in front of trader Joe's where it's like one way, this way and two way, that way, and then it kind of gets you across Lamar through the secret bike route, and then it just stops and you're kind of stuck with all this car traffic. So I'd love to see us [2:39:15 PM] be able to close that part of the gap. Not everybody necessarily wants to to bike on the trail. Yes, it's lovely, but you oftentimes have some other sorts of conflicts with people who are enjoying the trail at a at a different pace, or there's dogs on leashes and things like that. And I just love being able to provide the opportunity regardless of where people want to be. And I realize that kind of gets outside of the footprint of the core transportation plan, but I don't want to miss any opportunities and go back later and realize that we should have taken something up at a at a different point in time. Do other committee members have any questions on this particular presentation? Go ahead. Mayor pro tem. >> Thank you. Chair. Are the entrance ramps to I-35 changing? You know, right now, Cesar Chavez, a street just north of eighth street. I'm thinking of going northbound. So I was just wondering about that because I realize that we're completely redoing that. And I don't know [2:40:16 PM] if the because again, thinking about the one way, two way street, as y'all mentioned, that a big reason the streets that we have as, as, as one way or one way are because they feed onto the, the highway ramps and that that's obviously kind of, you know, traffic pattern. Walkes what size 35 are going to look like in the future? What are our entrances and? >> Parabolic managing engineer. Awesome. Transportation, public works. I can't necessarily speak to every ramp change, but yes, we've been working with txdot for a number of years now. And for example, there's a there's a sort of, I would say, a major sort of on ramp to I-35 on eighth street that doesn't necessarily exist now. And so those are all kind of we recognize this sort of long term vision between the plan and I-35 and capex, to be sure that, you know, the designs of both are working together as best we can. You know, to some degree, it doesn't lock in the [2:41:17 PM] directionality of every street downtown. But if we would it you know, there's kind of that cascading effect to how it would impact I-35 and kind of what they're designing and building. And so there is an opportunity probably in the future to to change the directionality streets, as the plan says. But, you know, it's one of those things we'll just have to continue to look at. And it does, you know, impact the egress and ingress into downtown. >> Wow. And I mean, again, currently they I believe Cesar Chavez on ramp northbound on ramp is closed. And so is 15th street on ramp which again just completely changes the traffic flow downtown. And you know. >> Some of those closures are mainly for for construction and temporary. But yeah, as you say, all it takes is one ramp to really have a huge impact. So yeah. >> Yeah. No. And and with that I've heard the, the the case [2:42:18 PM] for the, the one way street conversions. Again I'm supportive of it. My what would give me pause would be that. Traffic is going to be very difficult in the downtown area once project connect gets going. Once we have two you know, who was I talking to the other day? They called it open heart surgery on our on our kind of downtown transportation system. I would be cautious about making major changes amongst that, and not honestly, because I know the the impact whether they're going to be good or bad or whatever the case may be. But I just don't feel like we would almost wouldn't give them a fair chance to, to to go to, for example, to go to a large change in traffic patterns downtown in the midst of major construction, which disrupts [2:43:18 PM] the like a normal travel patterns, I feel like everyone's going to blame the street conversions for what is not necessarily the. I don't know if y'all could speak to that, but it's just a concern to do it in the midst of major construction downtown, I feel like it would be a lot harder to evaluate the changes than to do it. You know, once things have settled down in terms of the major construction projects. >> Yeah, I think that's absolutely spot on and something that we will be considering in detail as we move. You know, if an implementation plan is called for, we would absolutely be needing to think in surgical detail the relationship between changes in city streets to those to that construction activity happening around us. Yeah. >> And lastly, and I may have missed it, but we are still I know we've discussed a lot about with the north of eighth street right to pedestrianizing congress, north of eighth street or ninth street, I can't remember, but is that part of [2:44:19 PM] the plan? >> Councilmember. That's part of the congress avenue urban design initiative. And right now we're doing phase one south of there. And we're looking at a hybrid approach, if you will, of pedestrian mall versus streetscape improvements. But that will be in phase two. And we're continuing our conversations with the state capitol on that. We'd love to replicate something they've done on north congress. Yes, but those those conversations are continuing. >> Okay. Thank you. And let's give kudos to the state for significantly improving congress avenue. Now, the Texas mall between 15th and mlk, they really did a tremendous job there. So thank you. >> Completely agree. I think the access from the north, the north part from UT and the Blanton museum into the the Texas capitol is is really, really nice looking. It's charming. And I think it's a [2:45:19 PM] lot more pleasant for the folks that are, you know, wanting to be tourists and to go check out the Texas capitol. And so I'd love for, you know, the, the other side of it to be just as beautiful in any way that we possibly could do that. I will make one last plug before moving to the next item. And I just wanted to say the the typicals that are provided are super helpful. And I know there's a lot of discussion around how to make street trees easier to plant, easier to permit, less in conflict with utilities. Would definitely love also to think about there's a lot of the graphics that have the pedestrians, you know, on the outside of the TRE and would love also to see if there's ways to enhance how many cyclists can also be on the other side of the TRE. There's, you know, obviously the discussion of car traffic and bus traffic and just want to make sure that that experience for cyclists is is safe as well. Yes, it's pleasant, but first and foremost, it's safer that way if anything does go wrong. But thank you for the presentation. All right. That will take us to [2:46:22 PM] item two. Discussion. No, no, we already did two. And we're not taking action today. So we will see that on a future agenda for the city council. The next item will be number five briefing by memo, the missing middle and mixed use zoning study memo dated January 30th, 2026 is there. There may not be a specific oh, I see Andrea bates here. There will be a short presentation. I saw only transportation folks in the room until you popped up. >> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon, council members. I'm Andrea bates, assistant director for Austin planning. I'm joined by Jonathan Lee, senior planner with our department. In late January, planning released the missing middle and mixed use zoning study, which identified gaps in Austin's existing zoning districts and recommended new zoning districts for missing middle housing and mixed use development. That would help fill those gaps. This study [2:47:23 PM] responds to a number of recent council and land use commission recommendations related to creating more opportunities for missing middle housing and mixed use development. But since we are here at mobility committee, I wanted to touch briefly on the connection between the study and the city's goals related to mobility. The study directly responds to multiple Austin strategic mobility plan goals. For example, the S&P includes a recommendation to update zoning regulations to allow for missing middle housing types and mixed use infill development. There's another recommendation to revise zoning to allow for and incentivize transit supportive densities, and require an appropriate mixture of land uses along the transit priority network and within a half mile of planned high capacity transit. The zoning tools proposed by this study would support the specific goals, as well as the overall goal of a 50 over 50 mode share split between private vehicles and other [2:48:24 PM] forms of transportation. By 2039. We are here for any questions from the council on the study. >> Thank you. I really appreciate it. I know this is not the housing and planning committee meeting, which I also serve on, but I'm really appreciative of getting this report. I know that the planning commission has also been having these conversations as well, and so I look forward to council being able to take action and provide direction on it. As we've heard in a couple of presentations, especially some of the ones earlier today, it's really important that our land use is sufficient for what our transit planning is aiming to accomplish. And so I know in particular around the oak hill area, one of the reasons that a metro rapid has been hard to implement is because the land use around it predates all of our modern planning, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't, you know, try to make sure that our housing and our our city and community planning efforts are streamlined with our mobility goals as well. So I appreciate that this is geared toward that [2:49:25 PM] 50 over 50 mode split that we have been aiming towards since. I think we adopted the smp in 2019. If I'm correct, I'm seeing nodding in the audience. Okay, so I think that's really important. And I also have put a post up on the message board that we have a draft in the works of what council action could be to further the conversation around the missing middle and mixed use idea, and how to make sure that some of those housing goals are are achievable and that we can actually see housing come into the market that is geared toward walkability and complete communities. We're working with mayor pro tem vela's office and council member lane's office, and a couple of others to try to move this forward. So I don't know that I have any specific questions in this moment, but just wanted to daylight that, you know, these conversations go hand in hand. You can't really have a bus to nowhere with no one to pick up, but at the same time, we need to be thinking about how how our transit planning and our [2:50:26 PM] housing planning complement each other and actually help us achieve the environmental goals that we're all aiming to accomplish. Are there any other do you have any questions? Yeah. Councilmember Laine does. >> First, thank you for this report. It was really excellent. I enjoyed it very much. And I also like the proposals that you're bringing forward. I'm wondering if any planning has been done around parking for these these concepts. >> Jonathan Lee, senior planner with the planning department. We, as you all know, don't have parking requirements in the city of Austin. So those would not be part of these proposals. And since this is just in the study phase, we don't quite yet have detailed site development standards. But we are looking into things like requiring parking potentially to be off an alley, for example, limiting the number of driveways to create a kind of pedestrian [2:51:27 PM] oriented, walkable environment. And so parking and garages aren't kind of right in front of the new missing middle developments, for example. >> Thank you. I just want to feel for where you're going with it. Thanks so much. >> Yeah. A little while back, I think our vice chair, qadri, eliminated the parking minimum requirements. And so I know, and I know you know this because of your professional background as well. But I know there's folks that say, you know, bank lending tends to kind of drive what people choose to build and what they can get loans for, not just city council saying you need ten spots for the sake of having ten spots. Did you have any questions or. No. Just moving the microphone closer. >> Getting ready for future items. We're close to it. >> Right we are. Yeah, we're we're getting close to it. One thing I'll just flag there's discussion around auto oriented uses. And so this is something that I've been hearing a little bit more these days, and wanted to know if you could speak to [2:52:27 PM] it at all, trying to kind of separate out what is a use based descriptor versus form based, like what is the goal we're trying to accomplish? I know that lots of different development types have the transit help me. The tia traffic impact analysis. So what is what is the goal with talking about auto oriented uses? Is it more about use of space or just specific types of what types of commercial businesses are operating? Can you talk to me a little bit about that? >> Yes, I think a lot of it is around the type of businesses, things like drive thrus, self storage units, things that are just by their nature, going to have lots of car trips. I think that that is a part of it. We also have precedent for restricting auto oriented uses in the city through the overlay, and that's something that the study recommends we potentially emulate in the new mixed use [2:53:28 PM] zoning districts in particular. But I think the conversation about maybe going with a more form based approach versus a use based approach is is a good one, and it's something that we can look into in this next phase of work. >> Okay. I know a couple of years ago, as we talked about some of our land use rules, that conversation came up and we were trying to figure out, like, is it is it the use that we're trying to regulate, or is it specifically that we want the space to be used for other things? But I'm happy to unpack that. Behind the scenes, we know where to reach out to you if we have more questions, but appreciate that if there's no further questions. I think that takes us to. The next item is for the report on Austin transportation public works related to ongoing mobility programs, shortly known as the manager's report. >> Thank you. Chair. In your [2:54:28 PM] agenda packet will be the city of Austin mobility report for March 2026. Got a few items of note one. We just completed the 11th year of our vision zero program. You may recall last year we celebrated the ten year anniversary and the data for the 11th year is encouraging. We're showing an overall decrease of 22% in serious traffic injuries and fatalities over 2024. Of particular note is a marked decrease in the number of pedestrian fatalities. We had a drop of nearly 23% and serious injuries fell by 15%. So that's indicative that the strategies that we are taking in terms of intersection improvements and engineering design approach are achieving the desired results for our program. Also included is an update on a lighting project. Lighting is also very important [2:55:29 PM] for pedestrian safety as well as our bicycling safety. We partnered with the shoal creek conservancy to install lighting on the shoal creek trail underneath sixth street. There's a illustration of that led lighting. As you can see, it's a marked improvement over the prior condition. And then finally, we continue to implement and execute on the climate pollution reduction grant. Partnering with capital area rural transportation or our transit system carts to expand routes both to, I believe, bastrop as well as Georgetown and Round Rock. These are heavily used corridors, a lot of construction. As you recall, the one of the goals and metrics of the G is to increase alternative modes of transportation to reduce our carbon footprint. So that completes the report for this month. >> Short and sweet. And wanted [2:56:30 PM] to recognize. A couple of weeks ago, vision zero celebrated ten years in Austin, Texas. It is a wonderful program that has saved lots of lives, and the transportation public works department has put out a fantastic report of all of the improvements that have taken place over that time. Are there any questions of the director? I don't think so. I think those waiting for the future items conversation that takes us to items to discuss at future meetings. I know April, we're looking at moving bike month up to April. We at times like to investigate some of the new bike friendly infrastructure that has been implemented around town, and doing a bike ride has been incredibly too hot. So then we're going to talk about bond bridges and and different funding sources. Citywide lighting plan, the crg briefing and other memos that may come out as appropriate. And then in may, we will likely be taking up txdot capital [2:57:31 PM] express construction, because we know we have some deadlines and goals to be making decisions for that particular project. Other txdot projects potentially. All right. I got a whole laundry list. Why don't you go ahead and take it? >> Vice chair? Yeah, I. >> Just wanted to highlight our office is working on a a letter of some sort around as it relates to the incident that happened after the mass shooting with waymo. So we'll be working on it, and we'll probably put something on the message board in the upcoming few days. So not a future item for discussion, but something that will be discussed I guess. >> Okay. >> I'm really interested in that as well. I know that the city doesn't necessarily have every tool in the toolbox that we would like to be able to use to make sure that folks utilizing our streets are safe. But I believe the school district also had some issues with the autonomous driving vehicles and stopping for busses. And so I think that's a pertinent conversation for us to be talking about. You know, we may not be able to change [2:58:32 PM] legislation, but we could at least see what it is that we do have as a tool in our toolbox to help keep our community safe and and our children safe. So on that note, if there's any other future items that you think of in the meantime, please send them to us. We do have quite a long list with maybe about 20 different topics on it. So we're trying to work those in, in, in ways that make sense with the deadlines that the city council has and to bring up these topics in a timely fashion. So if there's no other questions or remarks, I will adjourn the meeting at 2:59 P.M. Great job everybody.