City finishes adding bike lanes to Congress Avenue through downtown
AUSTIN, Texas - If you take a drive down Congress Avenue, you’ll spot multiple people on bikes and scooters taking advantage of the city's brand new bike lanes.
“It's so important to have a safe space for people who aren't in cars. We've had a lot of issues in the past, especially with scooters here on Congress Avenue. You have a lot of tourists in town trying out the scooters, and they haven't really had a good place to ride,” said Bike Austin board president Chris Riley.
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If you take a drive down Congress Avenue, you’ll spot multiple people on bikes and scooters taking advantage of the city's brand new bike lanes. (Bike Austin)
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Riley says Austin has been adding bike lanes across the city, but this one on Congress Avenue has been a long time coming.
“Congress Avenue is ideal in so many ways. It's so central, it's fairly flat, it doesn't have bus routes on it, and so it really provides a really important connection from the south all the way up to the Capitol. It can be very helpful for an awful lot of people traveling by bike,” he said.
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Instead of three lanes on each side, Congress Avenue has shrunk down to two to make room for the bike lanes. (Bike Austin)
Instead of three lanes on each side, Congress Avenue has shrunk down to two to make room for the bike lanes.
“Congress Avenue is one of our widest streets downtown. It's 120 feet wide and, until now, it had six lanes of cars. That's the same number of lanes we've got on I-35, and so having these safe spaces is so important. I think it'll really result in people getting around Austin much easier no matter how they choose to travel,” said Riley.
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If you take a drive down Congress Avenue, you’ll spot multiple people on bikes and scooters taking advantage of the city's brand new bike lanes. (Bike Austin)
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Riley says it's not just a plus for people on wheels, but also for the people behind the wheel.
“The good thing from a driver’s standpoint is that this really minimizes the conflicts that they might have with people on bikes and scooters. Before there were a lot more issues with bikes and scooters having to navigate traffic and so we had a lot of conflicts with cars and this really avoids a lot of that conflict,” he said.