Austin Rides to the Front

By Annick Beaudet, AICP, and Katherine Gregor

When Pauline Rubben's car broke down in 2012, she decided to try living car-free. Rubben, 57, became a daily electric-bicycle commuter for the first time in her many years of living in Austin, Texas. "I never would have considered it, if I hadn't felt that cycling was a safe choice," Rubben says. "I researched and weighed the safety measures the city had in place, and I also factored in bus schedules and car share. Now my daily commutes are fun and exhilarating."

The safety-enhancing dedicated bikeways that Rubben enjoys are the result of a sustained effort by the city and community members to transform Austin into a great place for transportation cycling. Over the past several years, the city has made a concerted planning, programming, and infrastructure push toward that goal. In part, this effort has been inspired by participation in the Green Lane Project, organized by the nonprofit People for Bikes. In the program, top officials and bicycle program staff took two inspirational trips between 2011 and 2013; they visited the Netherlands and Denmark, going to cities in which one-third to one-half of residents travel by bike daily.

The Green Lane experience revved up Austin's planning vision: Shape the city and its roadways to encourage people to take short, daily trips by bicycle. Despite big obstacles — limited funding, oppressive summer heat, Texas's car-centric culture, and decades of sprawling growth patterns — it's working. In 2013, the city hit a milestone goal in its Bicycle Master Plan four years early: Some two percent of Austinites now commute regularly by bike. Next up: Hit five percent by 2020 or sooner. Austin's successes have earned it a designation as a Silver Level Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists.

The early days

The city needs people to think of bikes as transportation because Austin-area roadways are regularly named among the most traffic-congested in the country. In searching for mobility solutions in the face of the recession and rising gas prices, this fast-growing city started looking seriously about a decade ago at bicycling as part of a transportation solution.

A 2002 council resolution directed the city to build bicycle facilities each time a road was constructed or reconstructed. As this policy was implemented over time, street resurfacings and on-street parking reconfigurations also were aligned. "Whenever you have an opportunity during road work, add bicycle facilities — otherwise you lose that opportunity, perhaps for a generation," notes Austin public works director Howard Lazarus.

Further, six elements of Austin's experience stand out as most powerful for other cities to replicate:

• A strong bicycle program. Austin's bicycle program was led by Annick Beaudet (coauthor of this article), and staffed with a mission-driven mix of designers, planners, project managers, and outreach staff. The program took a well-rounded "6 Es" approach: engineering, education, encouragement, evaluation, enforcement, and equity.
• Street-smart task force. Formed in 2007 by Mayor Will Wynn and Lance Armstrong — an Austin resident — this citizen group was instrumental in building momentum for the development of an updated bicycle master plan. Most of the recommendations it made have since been implemented or are being worked on, including addressing major gaps and barriers within the cycling network, and then innovative facilities like colored bicycle lanes, bike boxes, shared lane-marking "sharrows" and an integrated bicycle and multiuse trail plan.
• Bicycle master plan. Adopted by city ordinance in 2009, the new master plan updated bicycle network and programming recommendations from 1998. It laid the framework for investments in staff resources, programming, and infrastructure. Another update should be final this month.
• Critical mass of bicycle routes. Between 2008 and 2013, the city added 175 miles of new and improved bike lanes, cycle tracks, and multiuse trails.
• National Association of City Transportation Officials' Urban Bikeway Design Guide. Use of the NACTO guidelines has been critical for intersection and cycle track designs.
• Forging a public works partnership. The bicycle program was housed in the Public Works Department in order to improve integration of bikeway improvements with capital improvement program project implementation.
• Treating bike facilities as "business as usual." This is now the norm for design and construction processes.

In 2014 transportation planning for bicycles was transferred back to the city's transportation department, which had always been a partner. This supports Austin's increasingly active pursuit of coordinated multimodal mobility solutions.

While all of these elements laid the foundation for success, they only could take Austin so far, increasing bicycle mode share from about one to two percent. What did Austin need to get to the next level? For answers, we turned to Europe.

The Green Lane experience

Austin competed to become one of six U.S. cities selected by People for Bikes for the 2011–2013 Green Lane Project. This project provided a spectrum of support to its chosen cities, including research and scholarships to study bike-friendly European countries. Austin officials who traveled to Europe were key decision makers; they included a city council member, the city manager, the public works director, the city traffic engineer, and an assistant director of the planning department.

"One big takeaway for us was that cities need to serve not 'cyclists' but rather 'people on bikes,'" Lazarus says.

Those on the European study tour learned that European cities weren't always cycling meccas. Through active planning and investments, leading European cities such as Utrecht, Holland, and Copenhagen, Denmark, have increased their bicycle mode share from the single digits in the early 1970s to between 30 and 50 percent today. Additional takeaways: It takes time, even decades, to build mature bicycle networks, and it's important to make incremental improvements and retrofits — the best you can manage and afford at the time. Every project doesn't have to be a perfect solution.

In Holland and Denmark, we learned that the sustained development of bicycle infrastructure stemmed from a grassroots desire to improve quality of life for people living in cities. Of concern in Holland were rising deaths, especially of children, because of rising motor vehicle use, and the noisiness of cars. Over several decades, European cities have been balancing the comfort, efficiency, and safety of all modes — and making context-sensitive trade-offs as necessary.

People in the cities visited ride bicycles more often because doing so is safe and convenient there. Cities acknowledged early on that to entice people to use bicycles, separation from motor vehicles is a must. They also actively promote the benefits of cycling, focusing on the carrots of infrastructure investments and letting the sticks, like rising gas prices and parking woes, work quietly for them.

Denmark has actively encouraged cycling, and now the Dutch are following suit. (The Amsterdam bicycle program manager told us that the city can do better than its already impressive 40 percent bicycle mode share.)

Robust public transit systems are integrated with bikeways and bike share systems, making not using a car at all truly efficient. Children grow up riding to school on their parents' bikes, further normalizing cycling. Electric bikes have created a demand for regional bicycle "highway" systems; commercial bicycle vehicles are gaining popularity for product delivery.

Strategic investments

Influenced by the Green Lane Project experience, Austin officials became converts to the idea that physically protected bicycle lanes — known as cycle tracks — are essential to make cycling an appealing choice for short, daily trips. Austin is increasing its number of cycle tracks, which figure prominently in the current bicycle master plan update.

Still, painted bike lanes remain by far the most affordable solution to establishing a bicycle network. In Austin, their average cost is about $15,000 per linear mile (when added as part of road resurfacing or reconstruction). By contrast, cycle tracks can cost $50,000 to $500,000 per mile.

Austin has found that creative retrofits of roadways — with relatively inexpensive, easily implemented improvements — benefit not only people traveling by bicycle, but also pedestrians, transit riders, and motorists. Furthermore, attention to the needs of cyclists helped spur a review of many old assumptions, leading to universal improvements in the transportation network. For example, strategic adjustments to intersection signal timing have helped all travelers.

Austin is now making signature investments in facilities that invite people to bike. A new bike share system launched in December 2013. The Boardwalk Trail at Lady Bird Lake completes a key waterfront trail through central Austin. A system of multiuse "urban trails" is being planned to serve transportation, water quality, and recreational purposes. A new set of bicycle and pedestrian bridges will open in 2015, and will physically separate bicyclists from motor vehicles through a major highway interchange while providing a connection to the Violet Crown Trail — a regional network under development.

It's not just about infrastructure, though. Austin has been developing its commitments to cycling on multiple fronts.

Law enforcement. A 2009 law requires cars and large trucks to remain three and six feet away, respectively, from vulnerable road users, including cyclists. The Austin police department has been educating the community about the law through targeted enforcement efforts, including undercover stings.

Behavioral research and marketing. Research has shown that more than half of Austinites are interested in bicycling but concerned about their safety. This indicates that as safety is enhanced, ridership can be increased.

Metrics. Complementing target audience research, Austin also evaluates its bicycle network through yearly bicycle counts on major routes. Permanent real-time counters measure daily ridership on the Lance Armstrong Bikeway.

Transit agency partnership. Secure bicycle parking at transit stops, improved design standards, and bike share all help to expand the transit shed.

Austin continues to face severe mobility challenges — in part, the city is the victim of its own popularity. Each year more than 50,000 newcomers migrate to Austin and Central Texas, which translates to about 100 people and 70 new cars per day. Shifting some of those shorter trips to bicycles may be a matter of survival, to retain Austin's top standing on national "Best Cities" lists.

In 2012 the Austin city council adopted the new Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan. It established a policy to invest in a compact and connected Austin. "This long-range plan to shift toward denser mixed use development patterns, and less sprawl, will help to make the bicycle a more feasible mode of transportation in the future," says Garner Stoll, AICP, who led the creation of Imagine Austin.

He adds: "This is a landmark plan that is truly shifting how the city makes investments — and it includes specific goals for bicycle transportation." Also under way is a new Long-Range Capital Improvement Program Strategic Plan aimed at strengthening the link between capital investment and Imagine Austin priority programs.

Pauline Rubben thinks the future looks bright. As a daily transportation cyclist, she says, "I am doing what I love and saving money for other things I love, rather than feeding a car. It's been very freeing for me."

Annick Beaudet was the city of Austin Bicycle Program manager from 2006 to 2013 and is now with the city's Capital Planning Office, where she facilitates strategic long-range planning for city infrastructure investments. Katherine Gregor provides strategic communications for multimodal mobility and Imagine Austin implementation for the Austin Transportation Department.

Resources

Images: Top — Pauline Rubben, 57, became a bicycle commuter after her car broke down in 2012. Her daily commute takes her onto one of Austin's newest physically protected bike lanes, known as cycle tracks. Following close behind her is a bicyclist using Austin's new bike-share system, B-cycle. Photo by Nan Dowling. Middle — The green paint on the Guadalupe Street cycle track helps keep parked cars out of the bike lane and heightens awareness of the cycle track for both bicyclist use and pedestrian safety. Photo courtesy AustinTexas.gov. Bottom — This new cycle track in downtown Austin uses concrete barriers to create a separate bike lane. Photo courtesy AustinTexas.gov.

The League of American Bicyclists: www.bikeleague.org

NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide: http://nacto.org/cities-for-cycling/design-guide

People for Bikes: www.peopleforbikes.org

Check Austin's bike ridership numbers here: http://lab-wallercreek-bikes.austintexas.visio-tools.com

City of Austin Long-Range CIP Strategic Plan: www.austintexas.gov/department/cip-planning-documents