AUSTIN, Texas - It's been two years since Austin City Council unanimously adopted the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan or ASMP.
The policy document guides Austin's transportation planning and implementation over the next 20 years in a coordinated approach among city departments and regional partners.
"Achieving a better mix of commuters is the only sustainable way to manage Austin’s growth," said Assistant City Manager Gina Fiandaca, who oversees Mobility. "We want to make sure the City's able to provide residents and commuters as many options as possible to reduce their impact on congestion, and in doing so, decrease their carbon footprint."
The ASMP is divided into seven key focus areas listed by the city as:
- Prioritizing our safety
- Managing our demand
- Supplying our transportation infrastructure
- Operating our transportation network
- Protecting our health and environment
- Supporting our community
- Implementing our plan
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The city says chief among ASMP's goals is to accommodate the ability for Austinites to shift how they commute. By 2039, the City hopes about half of Austinites will get to work without driving alone in a car.
The ASMP lays out strategies to allow more people the ability to safely and efficiently commute by transit, foot, bike, scooter, carpool, or any other mode that replaces driving a car alone.
The city says the COVID-19 pandemic showed Austinites—and the world—that many businesses can adapt to a telework environment and maintain productivity.
"We've completed dozens of spot improvements to enhance the speed and reliability of existing bus service while partnering with Capital Metro to plan for and implement Project Connect," City Manager Spencer Cronk said. "Not only are efforts to build out the robust roadway networks envisioned by the ASMP well underway, but Austin voters expressed their enthusiasm for continuing to expand our urban trail, bikeway, and sidewalk systems by approving Proposition B, the Active Transportation and Safety Bond, in 2020."
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Austin, Travis Co. leaders talk ‘Strategic Mobility Plan’
At City Hall on Monday there was a special-called meeting between Council Members, County Commissioners and Cap Metro board members.
Looking forward to the next 18 years, the City says it will continue to follow the ASMP's Top 10 Strategies to bring positive change to the lives of all Austinites:
- Reduce traffic fatalities, serious injuries by focusing on safety culture, behaviors
- Manage congestion by managing demand
- Build active transportation access for all ages and abilities on sidewalk, bicycle, and urban trail systems
- Strategically add roadway capacity to improve travel efficiency
- Connect people to services and opportunities for better health
- Address affordability by linking housing and transportation investments
- Right-size and manage parking supply to manage demand
- Develop shared mobility options with data and emerging technology
- Build and expand community relationships with plan implementation
- Move more people by investing in public transportation
Learn more about the ASMP and view the City's Two-Year Report, including the Action Item Dashboard at austintexas.gov/asmp.