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Originally Posted by urbancore
didn't mean that to be taken as a quote on the price/ridership. It was a flip comment, though I bet I'm not off by a factor of 4.
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No, you're off by much, much more.
For one, they're not spending $10B, but $7B. Only ~$4B of that is local funds (if you want to include the fed portion as well, okay, though Austin passing/not passing project connect won't make a bit of difference to what we pay the IRS).
And the ridership estimate is hundreds of thousands.
http://austintexas.gov/department/ci...200114-dis.htm
https://www.austintexas.gov/edims/do....cfm?id=334033
page 31-32
That's specifically the system that truncates the Orange Line at the transit centers
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Originally Posted by urbancore
I am curious to know what the final price will be for the bond initiative, and do we think it will actually stay on budget?
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Very, very likely to stay on budget, given that the budget includes a rather huge contingency buffer.
They had the plan reviewed by APTA, and it passed muster.
https://capmetro.org/docs/default-so...rsn=cdf45d0e_2
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Originally Posted by urbancore
Austin has a hilarious way of dealing with our infrastructure. In Zilker, the city makes you put in a sidewalk on your new house, or pay a fee in lieu. Zilker, like many other urban core neighborhoods, has "sidewalks to nowhere" all over the place. A patchwork with no PLAN to connect them.
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There is a plan. The sidewalk master plan. But again, they prioritize. So in a low density environment, it'll take a while. But when the city does put in the connection, it will be cheaper than it would have been (sidewalks last decades).
Quote:
Originally Posted by urbancore
The fee in lieu is a joke, its less than $2k, last I checked. When the city decided to connect a stretch along Melridge that leads to Bluebonnet a few years ago, the budget to connect a bloody sidewalk less than 300 feet was between $250-300k. The contractors that I use to build my sidewalk to COA codes, would have done that some bit of work for $50k. COSTS matter!
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I'm not familiar with that specific project. But the 2016 sidewalk master plan estimated the city's cost for new sidewalks at ~$120 /linear foot.
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Originally Posted by urbancore
The bike lane bollards are a freaking joke. Besides the fact that they are hideous, they are routinely run over, torn up, and wind up in my neighbors on Bluebonnet's yard. I love the bluebonnet bike lanes, even though they are used by parents with strollers just as much as bikes. Moms taking up BOTH lanes completely oblivious, and this is not just a covid thing. Our bike lanes are a patchwork of whatever "Bike Lane Quarterly" says is the new thing to do...which leads to a sad network, and makes the city planner look completely incompetent. Lets pick a plan and go with it, and I would love to be a bollard salesman...all those residuals.
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The bollards (and the turtle dots) are a pretty cheap/pretty quick improvement. Where it makes sense, they certainly can be improved upon. Like Shoal Creek, which is starting with the bollards/dots and already has plans to upgrade to a poured curb.
But I'd rather have the bollards now than wait 2 years for the curb.
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Originally Posted by urbancore
My favorite though is 40mph speed limit alongside skinny ass bike lanes on Lamar. Gimme a break.
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Which is better than what was there before. Which was no bike lane at all, and people passing you in the lane.
Is the bike lane there fairly low benefit, yes. But again, it cost ~$0. The plan is to improve the infrastructure there, but that takes money and time.
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Originally Posted by urbancore
We need a citywide bike plan and stick to it.
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We _have_ a city wide bike plan. And they're sticking to it. It just takes time and money. They're making rather good progress towards implementing that plan, especially recently.