Jason for Austin

A question about transportation…

I’m going to post Q & As from the various questionnaires I’ve answered. Here’s one from the Green Party regarding traffic.

Austin is one of the most traffic-congested cities for its size in the country.  What is your vision for addressing this problem?

There is no hope for federal funds to come to Texas any time soon.  All the funds we used to depend on to help build roads and infrastructure are in Iraq.

However, we can be smarter about how we use our roads.  Great ideas include: High-occupancy lanes on Mopac and even on certain main arterials like Lamar, during rush hours.

We can also work with major employers to make rush hour less severe by stretching out work hours.  Why are so many people on the road and going in the same direction at the same time?  Can some wait another hour?  Yes.  We need to encourage telecommuting.

We must also encourage ride sharing.  Cities like Los Angeles have aggressive programs.  People should share a ride for routine travel to and from work.

We must re-route CapMetro to be more useful.

We must follow the transportation examples in cities like Chicago and London (Transit for London) to encourage commuter biking.