Having clear sidewalks not only is safer for city workers doing maintenance, but it also ensures pedestrians, especially school-age children and those with disabilities, have access to get to their destinations, said Susan Garnett, public information specialist with the city’s Public Works Department.
On May 1, the department launched its Know the Right of Way, Clear the Right of Way campaign to explain how residents can keep sidewalks and streets clear of vegetation.
The campaign is also timely as the city plans to start construction this summer on some new sidewalk projects funded through the Quarter Cent Fund.
That fund was created after the 2000 defeat of Capital Metro’s light-rail proposition. Capital Metro, the city’s public transportation provider, agreed to share 25 percent of its annual revenue that had been allocated for light rail to fund city transportation projects.
About $21.8 million of the fund remains, and on Jan. 28, Austin City Council approved a list of projects to fund. Criteria for projects included being located within 1/4 of a mile from a school, said Annie Van Zant, capital program manager with the department.
Projects located near schools include new sidewalks, pedestrian hybrid beacons, crosswalks, traffic signals and Local Area Traffic Management, or LATM, which is designed to reduce the speed of vehicles. LATM includes speed cushions or bumps, Van Zant said.
Other projects are going through permitting, design or engineering feasibility as well as coordination with other departments’ projects.
“We want to make sure if there’s other work planned in the same area, we’re coordinating with [other city departments] to maximize the outcomes,” she said.
Garnett said vegetation growing into the right of way, especially over the street, hinders workers from doing maintenance and emergency vehicles from safely driving through.
“We get a lot of service requests as well to trim back those trees, and it costs taxpayers money to send crews out to go cut those back when the property owners could easily do that for us,” she said.
Garnett said the city’s right of way extends about 8-10 feet from the curb, and homeowners often install landscaping, mailboxes or berms in the right of way.
“A lot of people don’t really understand what the right of way is and how far it goes back,” she said. “They think that once the sidewalk ends that’s where their property line begins, and that’s just not the case.”
The new campaign corresponds with the city’s Safe Routes to School program by encouraging walking to school, Program Manager Chris Moore said.
“If [an area] looks attractive, parents feel safer in letting their kids use active transportation to get to and from school,” she said.
Active transportation includes biking, walking and public transportation. Annually the city’s education programs reach about 50,000 school-aged children on how to get to school safely.
“We encourage using active transportation but using it safely,” Moore said.