The State of Austin’s Sidewalks
The easiest form of active transit anywhere is to simply walk to your destination. It costs almost nothing (if you want to count footwear in the cost) to travel by foot. Walking helps to avoid the hassle of fighting traffic, especially in towns like Austin that have heavily congested roadways. Austin prides itself on active transit as an alternative to driving. However in recent years there have been many complaints about the condition and accessibility of sidewalks in Austin. How are people supposed to walk to their destination if they do not have a safe path to do so?
A news report from 2016 stated that 40% of Austin’s sidewalks were being crowded by shrubbery and other vegetation (Dugan, 2016). Problems similar to this have appeared in many areas around Austin. This is a hazard to pedestrians as it obstructs the view of the street and of oncoming traffic on the sidewalk. It also restricts access for those with disabilities as the vegetation makes it difficult to navigate, which goes against the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). City code states that property owners are in charge of maintaining the vegetation on their property that could potentially obstruct the sidewalk for pedestrians, cyclists, or anyone else. According to the news report, there were almost 5,000 complaints made to the 3–1–1 number for Austin’s public works service that is in charge of sidewalk maintenance in 2014. Only a year later, in 2015, that number increased to over 6,000 (Dugan, 2016). The city of Austin updated their 2009 Sidewalk Master Plan to handle the addition of new sidewalks around the city and to fix already existing sidewalks that were in need of repair. This plan was updated to account for new roads being built around town and provide a clear plan for which roads would be getting new sidewalks built and which sidewalks were going to be repaired. According to a handout made by the City of Austin’s Public Works Department in 2016, they are responsible for over 2,400 miles of sidewalks in Austin. However the city of Austin is missing 2,580 miles of sidewalks based on the roadways in pedestrian and residential areas. Of the 2,400 miles of existing sidewalks, only 20% are reported as being in good condition (City of Austin, 2016). The number of complaints made to Public Works decreased to under 2,000 in 2016 which may have been due to the updated plan (Dugan, 2016).
Despite the adoption of the updated Sidewalk Master Plan, there have still been issues arising from the design of a few sidewalks. A recent article highlights the debate over the design of a section of sidewalk in downtown Austin. The sidewalk has an unusual zig zag design and many people feel that it does not adhere to ADA standards. One engineer defended the design saying that it did follow ADA regulations. He states that the sidewalk is wide enough for wheelchairs to traverse and that vision impaired pedestrians should be able to identify the changes in alignment using their canes to trace the edge (Pritchard, 2018).
Surprisingly, there are people in Austin who do not mind not having sidewalks. Some people have claimed that sidewalks will give access to criminals to enter their neighborhoods. Also, since one of the focuses of the master plan is to build sidewalks near schools to make them more accessible for students in the area, some people believe that they will lose their students’ bus routes because the sidewalk will extend the walking distance to their school (Pagano, 2017). Another recent problem that has arisen on the streets (and sidewalks), is the addition of rental bikes and scooter services like Bird and Lime. City law has allowed the use of these scooters on streets, in bike lanes, and on sidewalks, except for a few places downtown and near UT campus on Guadalupe (Wear, 2018) which have caused a lot of congestion on our walkways in Austin.
A few weeks ago, sometime in August, some friends and I decided rent Lime scooters and ride around the Downtown Austin area. We started on Caesar Chavez, went rode down South Congress, came back across the Congress Bridge and rode to Guadalupe and 6th, where we parked on Caesar Chavez near Red River Street. As we rode around, I noticed some of the problems and reasons as to why people have been complaining about the state of our sidewalks.
Down South Congress, the sidewalk gets very narrow making it hard for large groups of people and especially scooters to maneuver around others. There was really no consistency with the width of the sidewalk. It would widen out when we got near some restaurants or other businesses that were along the street so that the entrances to the buildings were more accessible, but in between buildings the sidewalk would get narrow once again. It also must be noted that it was not only people taking up space but also trash cans, benches, and trees or other decorative vegetation. Speaking of vegetation, there were bushes and trees along the edge of the sidewalk in spaces between buildings that had low hanging branches that I, as a 6 foot 2 inch man, had to duck to avoid while riding the scooter. There was a section of the sidewalk that was closed for construction so pedestrians had to go down an extremely narrow walkway that construction workers had built to keep walking traffic out of the street. Crossing the Congress Bridge we had similar issues, as the sidewalk was not very wide and there were a lot of people walking along it. We rode in the street to have more space to ride and to avoid pinning ourselves or others on the bridge railing 50 feet above the water. Along with little space on the sidewalk, there was no bike lane in the street, so we had to share the lane with some unhappy drivers, but let’s leave that for another article.
Once we were back in the main part of downtown on the North side of the river, we encountered basically the same pedestrian cluttered problem. The sidewalks were not narrow but they were filled with lots of pedestrians walking around and sitting in benches. These sidewalks however were in much better condition than on South Congress. The trees were more well-kept and there was more room to walk around, sit on the benches, or ride a scooter if there were not too many people.
Some other things that I have noticed about Austin’s sidewalks is that in most residential areas there is only a sidewalk on one side of the street. In addition to this, the sidewalks have a habit of changing from one side of the street to the other, forcing you to have to cross the street in order to continue walking on a sidewalk. I live in the Riverside area and the entrance to my apartment complex has a sidewalk on only one side and it ends about halfway down the entrance road, making it impossible for foot traffic to enter the complex. People walking in and out of the complex are forced to hug the wall or walk in the grass to avoid traffic, which is unrealistic.
Austin is trying to make improvements to the sidewalks around the city but it will take time. The 10 year goal that Public Works set in the 2016 Master Plan is projected to net the city 40–60 miles of sidewalk based on the current funding which is a small percentage of the 2,580 miles of sidewalk that Austin is missing (Pagano, 2017).
Sidewalks are an important part in the infrastructure of any city, especially cities as eco-friendly as Austin. “It’s where people who can’t drive are… and it’s where people who just like to walk are” (Pagano, 2017). Sidewalks can also form the identity and connect your community. “It gives you a real sense of pride in your neighborhood when it looks nice and tidy” (Dugan, 2016).
References
City of Austin. Let’s Take A Walk. 2016. Retrieved From: https://austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Public_Works/Street_%26_Bridge/FINAL_Website_Sidewalk101Handout_Reduced.pdf
Dugan, Amanda. Overgrown shrubs blocking 40% of Austin sidewalks. 12 May 2016. Retrieved From: https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/overgrown-shrubs-blocking-40-of-austin-sidewalks/1049799969
Pagano, Elizabeth. WANT TO MAKE AUSTIN A CITY FOR EVERYBODY? ADD SIDEWALKS. 28 November 2017. Retrieved From: http://www.austinmonthly.com/AM/December-2017/Want-to-Make-Austin-a-City-for-Everybody-Add-Sidewalks/
Pritchard, Caleb. City defends unusual sidewalk design. 19 March 2018. Retrieved From: https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2018/03/city-defends-unusual-sidewalk-design/
Wear, Ben. Invasion of the sidewalk snatchers soon to descend on Austin. 4 May 2018. Retrieved From: https://www.mystatesman.com/news/wear-invasion-the-sidewalk-snatchers-soon-descend-austin/32BRnd0lBkojswJm81Z7LI/
