Your Guide to Ditching the Car in Austin

Guest article by Adam Rosenfield

When you think Austin, you think of the outdoors. You remember walking from show to show at SXSW or standing for three days straight listening to bands at ACL. You think Barton Springs, and you think of the Whole Foods on Lamar. But do you think of walking to those places?

No matter what anyone says, Austin is like most other Texas cities, in that residents are very car-dependent. Live on Riverside, but work at the Arboretum? Heck, most residents think they can commute there in 10-15 minutes barring traffic.

Are you familiar with a transportation service called Capital Metro? Did you even know there were buses in Austin? Did you know there are vehicles in Austin other than buses that will A) Preserve the environment, but also B) Get you to your destination without wasting gas?

I’m here to demonstrate the litany of ways to get around Austin without a car, and discuss the most walkable neighborhoods in Austin.

History of Public Transportation in Austin

A little history…In addition to dune buggies and horse drawn carriages, Austin actually had an extensive electric streetcar system from 1891 to 1940, running from Hyde Park in the north to Travis Heights in the south, and from Lake Austin in the west to the heart of East Austin.

Capital Metro is Austin’s modern day form of public transportation. It was established in 1985, and funded by a one percent sales tax approved by voters. Capital Metro has 49 metro routes and 8 express routes. The bus system also includes The University of Texas Shuttle System, the largest in the United States. Longhorn students get to ride the shuttle system for free. For regular residents, it’s $1 for local service and $2.75 for express service.

Public Transportation Today

Cap Metro has eleven stops and runs from William Cannon, all the way to Pflugerville, with eleven stops along the way. On normal weekdays, if you wanted to make the trek from the northernmost stop (Tech Ridge near Pflugerville) to the southernmost stop (William Cannon/Bluff Springs) it would take you two hours! On the weekend, if you wanted to stop on South Congress, it would still take you an hour and 45 minutes.

Buses not for you? Try Capital Metrorail. Though it’s a significantly scaled down version of what was originally planned (a 2000 proposal was narrowly defeated and was scaled down for the 2004 vote), there are still 9 stops between Leander and downtown. It takes about an hour to get from the farthest stop to downtown.

Walkable Austin

As for a walkable city, Scott Polikov, who’s the president of Gateway Planning Group and specializes in urban planning, said that Austin was actually originally designed as a walkable city.

“Being an older city than Dallas or Houston, the elements of old Austin are much more favorable to walkers,” Polikov explained. “The neighborhoods in Hyde Park and near The University of Texas were actually designed so that residents could walk to and from the trolley.”

With this in mind, what are currently the most walkable neighborhoods in Austin? Using a score that urban planners and economists call a walk score (i.e. the amount of certain amenities within about half a mile), the most walkable neighborhood in Austin is downtown, with a walk score of 86 (keep in mind, New York City is about a 95 for the WHOLE CITY). Downtown has tons of housing options and more restaurants than you can go to in a year (keep in mind, I’m referring to West 6th, East 6th and everything in between).

West Campus follows with an 85 walk score, and old West Austin near Enfield scores an 81. With their suburban-like qualities, places like Gateway and the Arboretum scored much lower.

Don’t Forget Your Electric Bike

Ok, so you don’t like to walk and don’t like to meet random people on buses. Why not try Rocket Electrics? If your car broke down or you want a permanently green mode of transportation (there are people who commute on their electric bike every day), you can rent an electric bicycle on East Riverside, grab a beer at Draft Pick, and ride 20-30 miles per hour around the city! You’ll feel like you’re flying!

Overall, if you’re looking to ditch the car for a day or a weekend, there are plenty of options that allow you to give your gas pedal a rest.

Adam Rosenfield is a writer, recruiter and sports lover who enjoys connecting everything and everyone that is Austin, and Texas (the state) for that matter. You can tweet him at @adamrosenfield.

@theAustinot asks:

Which alternate mode of transportation do you prefer?