18-04-2025
Why Austin will spend $80k to remove newly installed bike lanes
Austin (KXAN) — The City of Austin is about to spend $80,000 to remove bike lanes installed six months ago because of the volume of complaints from Southwest Austin neighbors.
But not every neighbor is against the new bike lanes.
'Since their installation, we started riding every single day to school,' said Circle C Resident Greg Klipp.
Greg Klipp has two students at Mills Elementary who will eventually go to Gorzycki Middle School. Those two schools were recently chosen for improvements by the city's 'Safe Routes to School' program.
'I think the bike lanes have been a wonderful addition to the community. My kids feel safe riding in the streets. We can get to and from school without having any sort of conflict with walkers, dog walkers. Everyone uses the sidewalks, and the bikes stay in the bike lanes. And before the lanes were implemented, speeding was the main issue on Hillside Terrace,' said Klipp.
And since the new bike lanes went in last October, the city says the change has slowed down traffic in the neighborhood.
'We saw a 25% reduction in speeding on Hillside Terrace and Barstow. But we also saw some challenges. Neighbors were reporting challenges getting to the mailboxes, frustration with not being able to park immediately in front of their home, and then just concern that we put in too many signs and markings in their neighborhood where they weren't before,' said Anna Martin, the Assistant Director with Transportation and Public Works for the city of Austin.
Those challenges became complaints, which are now leading to changes.
'I think that there are different ways that they could have gone about making it safer, versus everything that they put in. Having one bike lane on each side of the road, going with traffic would have made more sense,' said Circle C resident Shelley Brothers.
On Hillside Terrace, you'll see the sidewalk, the two-way bike lane, an area for parking, and then two lanes for traffic.
Months after their installation, the city hosted in-person and online surveys where 64% of the 1,300 responses strongly opposed the project.
The city decided to change the bike lanes on 3 neighborhood streets to one-way painted lanes, which would allow people to once again park along the curb in front of their homes.
'I think what the city is implementing with the removal of these bike lanes in favor of shared use is basically requiring students and other bicyclists to ride in traffic without any means of reducing vehicle speed. I feel like that's just a return to the status quo, which was unsafe,' said Klipp.
That said, Klipp is not surprised the city got so much negative feedback.
'It doesn't shock me at all. I feel like the bike lanes were installed with very little notice to any of the residents. It seemed like they just kind of popped up overnight, and it was a shock to the system, especially for people who live on the streets, with the bike lanes. I think some advanced notice or communication from the city about what was being implemented before it was done would have probably alleviated some of that shock,' said Klipp.
The City has implemented 600 Safe Routes to School improvement projects, following a similar notification protocol for each, but this one in Circle C just didn't land as they had anticipated.
'I will say the feedback afterwards was unique, or has been unique. It made us realize that we didn't hit the mark with public engagement the first time around,' said Martin.
The city plans to wait until the end of the school year to make the changes.
The area people complained about is a small portion of the entire project around Mills & Gorzycki. The entire project cost $1.3 million to implement, which included curb and signal improvements, bike lanes and other features to make it safer for students to walk, bike and scoot to school.
If you have concerns about this project, you can email the city at MobilityBonds@
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