Austin Leads Texas Cities In Shift Away From Vehicle Use
 

Dec 5, 2013, 7:51am CST
Austin Leads Texas Cities In Shift Away From Vehicle Use
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=354083
David Rockwood, outside Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop, shows the kind of bicycle common to many bike sharing networks. Austin is getting ready to launch its own bicycle sharing network soon.
Nick Simonite/ABJ
Michael Theis
Digital Editor-
Austin Business Journal
Mirroring trends seen elsewhere in the nation, Texans living in urban areas are driving less, according to a report from think tank TexPIRG. The report’s authors say the decreased driving trend means that policymakers should be shifting infrastructure funding priorities away from road projects and into alternative modes of transportation.

“There is a shift away from driving in our cities here in Texas and across the country,” said Sara Smith, Program Director for the TexPIRG Education Fund in a statement. “Policy makers need to wake up and realize the driving boom is over. Based on these national and local trends, we should be investing in public transit and biking for the future.”…

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/bl....html?page=all
http://www.texpirgedfund.org/sites/p...ns_print_0.pdf

I seriously doubt that "policy makers" will be making any kind of shift away from the status quo any time soon--especially since they have figured out they can raid the gas tax money meant to pay for road construction and use toll roads instead. Don't think toll bike lanes would work quite as well.
But, in a perfect world........

Come to think of it, toll bike routes might work pretty well, but you'd have to have a bunch of riders to make it worthwhile.

Traitors. It is our duty as Texans to consume oil.

Let's see. Boomers are aging...old people drive less. Doesn't mean they bike or walk or use transit. A decline in vehicle use is just that..a decline in vehicle use and likely a demographic aging trend like the drop in crime and the rise in health care costs.

But would we have to stick the little "Toll Tag" sticker on our foreheads?

They could issue a chip timer and make it a race and a toll-commute at the same time!

Telecommuting plays a significant role in the data, at least in austin, as pointed out in the article.
I am also of the opinion that we need better data, as the report states repeatedly.

My anecdotal summary based on moving through austin by bike, walking, bus, and train:
Is that I see much larger numbers of commuter cyclists (and significantly more women!) on route 31 headed north/south to/from downtown during the work week and south of ben white in general(south central market/redd/western trails/pack saddle pass, etc.). The bike racks are often times full in my zones of the city, at grocery stores, libraries, schools, etc.. Weren't always before. Big change even since 2010, IMO.
I see many more folks walking in my neighborhood.
Basically, every time I get on the #10 , 1M, 1L, #3 in SA, they are pretty much full, if not standing room only. Been riding these same routes since '97 and they weren't always this way.
The Red Line train was almost empty when I first started riding it. Very easy to put my bike on, even with our children's double trailer.
Now it is often standing room only, w/ no place to put your bike. Oftentimes no way to get on with a bike trailer
Anyway, no exact numbers to back this up. Just my daily observations moving around our clogged city.
Hope we get a bit more relief from the frantic auto traffic, austin and statewide, sooner rather than later.

Here you go…
How do you Take 7,000 Cars off Local Roads?
More and more local employers are beginning to understand their role in our city’s traffic problem. Just ask Central Texas’ largest and highest profile employer, Dell. Dell recently set a goal to have half its workforce work from home by 2020. Dell employs about 14,000 locally, so that means roughly 7,000 vehicles off our local streets and highways.
“We had a lot of greenhouse gas emissions reduced,” says Dell’s Vice President of Corporate Responsibility Trisa Thompson of the impact of the 20 percent of Dell’s workforce that already telecommutes. “It was about 6,735 metric tons of CO2 last year.”
Movability Austin Article Here
http://movabilityaustin.org/2013/12/...f-local-roads/

Ah, yes, I see Austin isn't leading people away from bicycling, the author just doesn't consider bicycles to be vehicles.