Austin eyes closing another round of neighborhood streets to vehicle through traffic

In late May, the Austin Transportation Department closed certain neighborhood streets to most vehicle through traffic in an attempt to encourage socially distanced outdoor exercise such as walking and biking.

The program left neighborhood streets in East Austin and South Austin open only for emergency vehicles, deliveries, residents and business access. Now, the city is looking at another round of streets to close, a process ATD Director Robert Spillar said will be repeated every month.

The streets include Avenue F, cutting through the North Loop and Hyde Park neighborhoods, as well as a nearby loop in Crestview connecting Arroyo Seco and Grover Avenue. The full list of potential additions can be found on the map below.

In a memo to the mayor and City Council written June 24, Spillar said the new streets were identified “based on community feedback, Council direction and lessons learned from the initial batch of streets.” He said the final announcement on the next set of streets will be made around July 2, and residents can still provide feedback on the city’s website on the selections and any other streets on which they would like to voice an opinion.

Those lessons learned, Spillar said, included modifying the closure on Comal Street to open up more access to local businesses and cemeteries. Overall, he wrote, 77% of the more than 1,000 comments submitted as of June 5 were supportive of the initiative.

ATD Public Information Specialist Jacob Barrett said there is no set number of streets that will be added to the program—the city could adopt any or all of the streets under consideration. He said the streets also will not necessarily all be selected July 2. Rather, that date will be used as a marker to give communities reminders to provide feedback.

In addition to the three streets that closed to vehicle through traffic in May as part of the program, ATD previously shut down portions of Riverside Drive and Pleasant Valley Road to support more walking and biking access. In June, in a separate resolution, Austin City Council voted to install temporary bike lanes along Congress Avenue from Riverside Drive to the Texas Capitol by the end of the month.