AUSTIN, Texas — It’s been nine months since the city of Austin reconfigured car and bike lanes on Barton Springs Road, and city leaders say the safety pilot program has been working so far.
Austin Transportation and Public Works’ study on the program showed that there used to be about 738 people on a daily basis who would speed on the road. Now, that average has dropped sharply to 264.
The safety pilot program came about after a car crashed into a crowd on the sidewalk of Barton Springs Road and seriously injured 10 people back in 2022.
Some locals who work and bike on the street are glad to have that an extra layer of protection.
“It’s a lot nicer because it used to be, you know, you never knew if cars, somebody is on their phone texting, you know, they’ll drift into the bike lane,” Michael Zakes, who works at Barton Springs Rental and Tours, said. “Now, it’s pretty obvious if they’re going into the bike lane.
Kyle Clarke, a frequent biker, also remembers a time when the road didn’t always feel the safest.
“It got pretty tight if you were on a bicycle and weren’t riding on the sidewalk,” Clarke said.
In the six-month period when the city implemented the pilot safety program, they found that the number of drivers who were speeding decreased by 64.2%. Only two crashes with full crash reports were reported during that time period.
The study also found that the eastbound and westbound travel times had no major changes. However, some locals feel like the road is more congested with only one lane of traffic.
“It just seems more condensed,” Vicki Cutherell, a local biker, said.
Because of the safety risks with biking on streets, Cutherell decided to bike the trails and ditch the streets altogether.
“It's up to me to put myself in a safe spot, and I'm just not going to choose to go where cars are,” Cutherell said. “I'm just wondering why people would ride bikes [in] that area when there's other options.”
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But locals agree they just want drivers to slow down as they’re going down this road.
“If you’re flying down here, you’re not going to be able to stop in time,” Zakes said.
City staff will continue to monitor and collect data over the spring and summer months. A final update with the next steps will be released sometime between late summer and early fall.