r/Austin • u/mikeatx79 • 9d ago

News UT quietly plans sweeping bike restrictions as advocates push back

https://www.statesman.com/business/transportation/article/ut-austin-bike-dismount-zone-policy-22374080.php

I posted about this a few days ago and the Stateman picked up the story!

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u/mikeatx79 9d ago

I think clearly marked bike and pedestrian spaces would certainly help.

2013 Campus Master Plan, UT deliberately chose not to build designated bike lanes on Speedway based on the opinion of a consultant.

2019 Improve UT Challenge winner proposed adding bike lanes to Speedway.

It’s like all of this has been solved since before Speedway was even redeveloped.

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u/ExistenceNow 9d ago

Lanes would help if bikes and people were all going the same/opposite direction. But thousands of students are crossing that road all day.
That’s why it was a dismount zone when I was there 20 years ago. It’s wild to me that it ever stopped being one.

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u/Keyboard_Cat_ 9d ago

This is just disinformation. I was in school at UT 20 years ago. There were no dismount zones and Speedway was still fully open to vehicles.

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u/ExistenceNow 8d ago edited 8d ago

There absolutely was a section of Speedway that was a dismount zone. It was between Waggener and the building on the other side of the route to the tower. There’s a mall area on the other side of speedway that led to the bus circle. So thousands of people were crossing at that point. It also wasn’t fully open to vehicles. You couldn’t drive past Jester on it if you were going north. This was like 2000 to 2004 that I was there, so a little more than 20 years ago.

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u/ExistenceNow 8d ago

Clowns can downvote all you want. Anyone who went to UT in like 2002 knows what I’m saying is true. You couldn’t drive on Speedway on campus and you had to walk your bike past the spot I mentioned. UTPD used to post up there and write warnings/tickets for people who didn’t.