Our friends at Movability Austin are in the running for significant funding for transportation demand management from the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO).
The proposal, if it progresses, would mean Movability working with CAMPO in laying out a vision, priorities, and strategies for a regional TDM plan. CAMPO has recommended funding $300,000 to research metrics and baseline data. Movability will be responsible for getting a 20 percent match, taking the funding total to $360,000.
Austin, like most places, is perfect for TDM.
Its young population of students can easily learn about transportation options. And the city is a leader in branding, embracing its weirdness. So there are endless possibilities for positive messages to penetrate about the benefits and value of getting out of the drive-alone mindset.
The downtown area, at least as a starting point, will work well for getting around in more sustainable ways, like with bicycles, walking, bikeshare, scooter share, or even more flexible shared ride hailing and traditional transit.
Once all that is improved, it will be well worth giving the entire region a look. And at least one major incentive is there: Traffic can be really horrible around Austin.
See Mobility Lab’s other Austin TDM stories here, including the audio from our 2017 SXSW session in Austin on How to Uber-ize public transit to save it.
Photo by Paul Mackie/Mobility Lab.
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