Latest news with #MobilityBond
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Roundabout opens in Dove Springs area, bike lanes up next
Austin (KXAN) — The latest milestone is complete along South Pleasant Valley Road. It's part of a bigger project to improve safety and mobility along South Pleasant Valley Road from Oltorf Street to Onion Creek Drive. That's more than 15 miles of roadway. The City of Austin held a ribbon-cutting on Thursday, May 1, to celebrate the completion of the roundabout at the intersection of Teri Road and South Pleasant Valley Road. 'This area in Dove Springs, Southeast Austin, has been historically under invested in, so seeing these type of safety improvements come into our neighborhood does come a little bit of like, 'okay, what's going on?' It's a little, it takes a little bit of adjustment. But after you do it a couple of times, it becomes the norm. And this is really about normalizing safety,' said Vanessa Fuentes, Mayor Pro Tem and District 2 City Council member. The city says roundabouts typically reduce injury crashes by 75%. Plus, with the newly added bike lanes and a new MetroRapid line running through the neighborhood, city leaders say it benefits current residents and future Austinites. CapMetro celebrates launch of Dove Springs Pickup Zone 'We're bringing the necessary safety infrastructure to give people that choice, and once they have that choice, it is going to increase participation. So I think with us building out a strong bike network throughout our city is looking at what will future generations benefit from and what is the safety that current Austinites deserve,' said Fuentes. One neighbor we spoke with welcomes the change. 'We love it because we like alternative modes of transportation, I like the pedestrian crossings and the extra space. I've been out of a lot of places that the funding can go to. This is not one of the worst,' said Emmanuel Sanchez. The roundabout marks the completion of Phase 3 of the South Pleasant Valley Road project. The next phase of work will install protected bike lanes between Teri Road and Button Bend Road. From there, shared-use pathways south of Nuckols Crossing will begin construction. Funding for the South Pleasant Valley Road Corridor comes from the 2016 Mobility Bond. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Better sidewalks show 22% reduction in serious injury and fatal crashes
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Making the streets of Austin safer for people to feel better about walking, biking or catching the city bus in their neighborhood is a priority for the City of Austin. The City of Austin recently wrapped up construction improvements to the intersection of Stassney Lane and South First Street in South Austin. It now has separated bikeways, a shared-use path, high-visibility crosswalks and it's now ADA-compliant. The intersection is one identified as a high-crash intersection and was prioritized for safety improvements under the 2018 Mobility Bond Vision Zero Intersection Safety Program. 'It's important that we make sure that every, everyone that's using our transportation network can use, can walk, can bike, can roll, and can do that easily through intersections where we have a lot of vehicles traveling through every day,' said Cody Stone, the Interim Project Delivery Division Manager. The City says that Vision Zero major intersection safety projects are seeing a 22% reduction in serious injury and fatal crashes and a $28.5 million reduction in the comprehensive cost of crashes every year. 'With improvements, we see anywhere from 10 to 30% reduction of crashes, and we're reducing those severe, serious injury crashes. Vulnerable users on bikes and pedestrians it's much more likely to be serious or fatal when they're involved in a crash. So making sure that we reduce those crashes, in particular, is our focus, and having sidewalks that are up to the latest ADA compliance and are separated from our travel way helps to address those safety issues,' said Stone. To learn more about the City of Austin Sidewalk Program or to report an unsafe crosswalk or sidewalk in your neighborhood, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
