Quote:
Originally Posted by nixcity
Agree, however Austin does not have the density that cities around the world have to justify that kind of investment (unless it is in the G/L corridor). American cities (except a few) can't compare to the density levels as found in Europe and Asia.
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I don't know if I agree about G/N.L. I think you have to look at density within 1/4 mile of a transit line and I don't think you see it. Sadly, there is only so far people will walk and Cap Metro is having a hard time telling people that they need to make density adjustments that will cause them to walk 1/2 mile to a bus stop. I think S. Lamar is the densest corridor with respect to people who really live on the corridor. However, I'm not an expert.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Novacek
The preliminary recommendations for the Brodie/Slaughter/William Cannon corridors are out.
www.austintexas.gov/BSWcorridors
The other corridors are held up waiting on the S/WC recommendations.
From what I can tell (and as the planners signaled earlier) for the most part they're treating these corridors as more suburban. Some of the profiles are new ones from the austin mobility plan draft, such as a shared use path on both sides instead of sidewalks/bike lanes.
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I'm pretty sure that it's the other way around. The whole process is held up because they can't issue recommendations of which projects to do until the studies for William Cannon and Slaughter are done. These documents don't represent everything they are going to do for this round of work. They are just all the things they can do which will be considered along with all the things that they can do for all the other corridors which have been done for years.
I think they are more likely to focus on William Cannon projects closer to 35 because that 35 interchange is being re-done so improving flow to it gives you more bang for your buck.
However, the Slaughter/35 interchange is a huge bottleneck so working on that part of Slaughter isn't going to give you as much benefit as working closer to Mopac where they are building a Diamond Interchange which moves an incredible amount of cars. You also won't be bogging down the same side of 2 adjacent corridors.
It's going to be really interesting to see if the bond group recommends doing any of the "long term" improvements which are all the most expensive projects in the corridor. I'm especially curious if we'll see the "super street" on 969 from 183 to Decker. It might make sense because it would help increase capacity to the new 183 expressway.
They only have around 400 million dollars to spend on about 2.5 billion dollars of projects spread out on 9 corridors. It could be 10 if they also consider a current study of Guadalupe from MLK to 29th. We are going to see an awesome ward politics debate from the council when recommendations come out. No one wants to point out to Kitchen and Garza that they are currently getting almost 100 million dollars in I-35 work while the rest of austin settles for a roundabout on the 51st frontage road.
Here are all of the plans if anyone is interested:
http://austintexas.gov/corridors