Lily Tomlin, the great comedic actor, allegedly said that line about things getting worse. It certainly applies to how people move around most big cities like Austin, Texas. I’m now an authority of the subject because I read the FAQ and attended one protest held by Rethink35.org titled “Wider Won’t Work.” Oh, I also have ridden my bicycle daily for four years and 4,000 miles in Austin so far this year. I see traffic, because like all cyclists on the street, I AM traffic. So, yeah, maybe I am an expert. And as with the (un)affordable housing and homelessness crisis, we Austinites can all agree on two things: 1) there is a problem with transportation in Austin, and 2) we do not agree on what to do about it.

Cars, Cars, Cars

The big bad wolf of this battle, who is going to huff and puff the main highway through town, is the Texas Department of Transportation, aka TX DoT (pronounced Tex Dot). With a pricetag of $4.5 Billion for the project (actually, $5.9 Billion total split into three projects, to avoid federal enviromental scrutiny, Rethink 35 says), and 10 years of construction, the impacts will be huge. Tunnelling to widen the lanes north and south of Town Lake and tearing down the upper deck will be disruptive but not in a good way. Some businesses and homes have received a 90-day notice to get the hell out. Of course, it will fuck up traffic for a decade.

The history of I-35 is quite literally divisive. Building it where it was split the city into two, which was racist. People of color east of the highway were “redlined,” meaning banks wouldn’t gve them home loans. So the expansion has uncovered those old hurts, particularly amongst long-time residents. Many Black, Latino and working class people have had to leave town because they cannot pay increased rents or mortgages due to taxes that keep rising thanks to gentrification: tearing down old houses to build new, expensive, and frankly ugly new ones that mostly white people can afford. That’s progress, aka capitalism, for ya. Government is like a tired, jaded old husband: mostly uncaring and usually impotent.

The rally was nice, though. A few hundred people heard elected officials and activists speak angrily about the injustice of it all. There was a food truck. And a drone picture of the (mostly white) crowd at the end. Yet, without a lot more people protesting, probably with direct action, and winning some lawsuits, I’m not the only person who is skeptical TXDoT can be stopped. One headline I saw said: “TX DoT: We’re doing it.” (Translation: Screw you, Austin, we’re the State.)

So, contractors will be firing up the bulldozers, jackhammers, pavers, etc. in a matter of months, renewing the old divisions, and wreaking havoc on local and through traffic. Despite the many good ideas to be more forward-thinking, like use the existing new toll road to the east for 18-wheelers, spend money on public transit and multi-modal infrastructure (e.g. bike lanes), the State is overriding local input yet again.

The road to success is always under construction.

-Lily Tomlin

What About the Bike Stuff?

Cyclists should care because there are promises in the plan to put in more bike lanes and sidewalks, including “caps” over portions of the new highway near downtown. But those caps would come at a cost of $500 million more to Austin taxpayers. We’ll see if things stay the same, improve, or get worse, but I’m voting with Lily Tomlin. That’s because TXDoT is not known for giving a damn about anyone not in a motorized vehicle. Thousands of people commented on the project (I suspect mostly in the negative), and the Austin City Council recently voted to recommend a pause for another environmental review, done by someone else than TX DoT. Yep, they approved their own review.

However, TXDoT just announced spending $345 million state wide on projects for bicycles. Mostly they will help cars at intersections, but that will help bicycles. There’s also a trail or two. And it includes $11 million to make Austin’s rentable bike program all electric bikes and have more of them in farther out locations. So, they’re not completely pro-car-nage. But pretty close.

Pausing the Cruise-ing

In other news, Cruise, one of three companies operating driverless Ford electric vehicles in Austin, paused operations to “rebuild trust.” This is because a pedestrian was hit by a regular car, the run over and dragged by one of their Frankenstein’s creations in San Francisco. They also lied about it to the California government, but claimed they didn’t.

The first time I saw one of these robot freak machines without a human person at the helm in Austin, it was stopped next to me on Guadalupe Street (aka “The Drag,”) and encroaching into the bike lane. I yelled at it, and the steering wheel actualy turned. Since then, I’ve noticed them slowing or stopping, but also coming too close and going too fast.

While some say they’re safer than human-driven cars, the jury is still out on that. They tend to stop and block traffic when there’s construction and have impeded EMS and fire trucks. Not good. Where do you look at a four-way stop sign? How can you get them to pull over after a crash?

So, I’m all for way mo’ testing (see what did there?) before these monsters are allowed back on the road. However, Cruise is allowed to use them with a driver. Once again, the City can do nothing about it; the State has the legal say so. I’m sure they’ll be back running their death machines in no time. That’s worse.

Another Bike Shop to Close

In this post worserest news, Cycleast, a long-time local bike shop (in East Austin, naturally) will be closing by the end of the year. Times have been tough after the pandemic surge in cycling died down and with supply chain issues and increased costs. Like Monkeywrench, Bicycle Sport Shop selling to Trek (who closed the Guadalupe location, which was before it Ozone Bikes), and others, competition is stiff. I’ve recetly chatted with some workers there, and they seemed resigned and ready to move on to other things. One told me that maybe it’ll be back in some other incarnation, like a trailer.

Searching for Hope

If there is a bright spot to be found, it’s that some people care enough to really get involved. Maybe they will lose this battle. Eventually, though, renewable energy, different modes of getting around (flying cars are a real thing now), trains (we’re getting more–in a separate project I didn’t mention) will probably happen. If things get less worse, aka better, before Austin becomes a hellscape of 110+ degree summers, water shortages, and recurring electrical grid failures remains to be seen. I mean, we had 10 days of no electricity during Snowpocalypse, so hell already did kinda freeze over. How much worse can it get? Maybe it will get better.

Coming full circle, let’s go back to Ms. Tomlin for this gem:

“Even if you win the race, you’re still a rat.”

-Lily Tomlin

---

Copyright 2023 A Dude Abikes. All rights reserved. Shortlink to this post.