YEAR OF MOBILITY
- Crafted $720 million Smart Corridor mobility bond package that will decrease congestion on major arteries and increase safety
- Voted on CAMPO to prioritize overpasses on Loop 360 to get additional $204 million from Texas Transportation Commission to add to $46 million passed in mobility bond, which will result in being able to drive the length of Loop 360 from Highway 183 to South MoPac without any stoplights
- Approved Vision Zero Action Plan to improve traffic safety with a goal of zero deaths
- Started safety improvements on the five most-dangerous intersections in Austin
- Finalist for U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge, leading to the establishment of the Smart State Consortium, a statewide initiative to public-private innovation to Texas’ mobility challenges, the creation of a new research triangle formed by the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, and Southwest Research Institute, and the establishment of the Texas Automated Vehicle Proving Ground
- Won Mayors’ Challenge Ladders of Opportunity Award from U.S. Department of Transportation for pedestrian safety project on Rundberg Lane
- Despite departure of incumbent ride sharing companies, Austin gained multiple transportation network companies operating at scale with a real choice for fingerprinted drivers
- Created a taxi co-op, partially deregulating taxis in Austin
- Welcomed Chariot, Ford’s new on-demand shuttle service, to Austin, the second city it’s operating in after San Francisco
- Was named one of five global mayors to be an initial member of the Bloomberg Aspen Initiative on Cities and Autonomous Vehicles to galvanize experts and data to accelerate cities’ planning efforts, and produce a set of principles and tools that participating cities, as well as cities around the world, can use to chart their own paths forward.
- Launched Austin Don’t Rush, a city-wide one-day challenge to get local commuters to do something other than drive alone during rush hour. This resulted in increases in downloads of Capital Metro’s mobile app and ridership increases across their system as well as an 11% decrease in downtown drive times during the morning rush hour.