Our Summer Town Hall is coming up in just one week. Don't forget to mark your calendars, and we'll see you there. Also in this email we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Austin Parks Foundation, and we share a message from Austin Transportation Department on the Far West traffic calming devices.
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| | The meeting will address citywide and District 10 issues. Council Member Alter’s Appointee to the City Manager Search
Advisory Task Force, Jan Lehman, will collect public input on what the City
Council should look for in a new City Manager. Austin Transportation Department
will discuss speed mitigation efforts like speed cushions in the district.
District 10 staff will present information on CodeNEXT. The City Budget Office
will share information about public involvement in the budget process, followed
by a budget activity designed to foster conversation about how the City should
prioritize with our budget challenges. Representatives from Austin Water, the
Austin Strategic Mobility Plan, and Capital Metro will have information tables.
We hope you will find time to join us.
Monday,
June 19
6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Westover
Hills Church of Christ Gymnasium 8332
Mesa Drive, Austin, TX 78759
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| | | | | Austin Parks Foundation Day
For 25 years, the Austin Parks Foundation has improved our public parks, trails, and green spaces. In recognition of their work, Council Member Alter, along with Council Member Leslie Pool and Mayor Steve Adler, declared June 12, 2017, to be Austin Parks Foundation Day. The APF engages thousands of people in our parks each year through the City's Adopt-a-Park program and through hundreds of volunteer work days, including It's My Park Day. Congratulations to Colin Wallis, CEO of Austin Parks Foundation (pictured above). |
| | At the request of Austin Transportation Department and Austin Police Department, we are passing along the following information. The post below was written by ATD and sent to our office.
Far West Boulevard Traffic Calming damage
It has come to the attention of the Austin
Transportation Department (ATD) that the recent safety improvements constructed
on Far West Boulevard were damaged, possibly intentionally. These safety improvements, which were
warranted through a rigorous engineering process following a request initiated
by the neighborhood, are intended to slow down vehicles traveling through the
residential area.
The design includes two speed cushions, and 4-foot
tall reflective delineator posts to channel traffic over the cushions and keep
vehicles from traveling into the bike and parking lanes. Several of the
delineators at two locations appear to have been cut down, allowing vehicles to
swerve around the speed cushions. This
poses several potential safety risks as, not only will vehicles be able to once
again speed, but the devices are now less visible at night which could cause
vehicles or bicyclists to strike the devices, causing the risk of serious
injury.
ATD takes safety very seriously and has already
began work to replace the damaged devices and limit driving around them. If
damaged again, ATD will continue to replace materials to ensure effective and
safe traffic calming on Far West Boulevard, and will review opportunities to
reduce the likelihood of damage in the future.
The Far West Boulevard traffic calming is the
result of a neighborhood initiated request through ATD’s Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) Program. LATM is a request-based program to improve the quality and safety of
neighborhood streets by installing speed mitigation devices, such as speed
cushions. In this instance, the neighborhood submitted a valid application for
traffic calming, including a petition of support from the neighbors along the
project area, and data collected by ATD, such as vehicle speed and volume
counts, validated the need for traffic calming.
ATD has also contacted the Austin Police Department
and working closely with them concerning the damages. If the poles were
intentionally cut down, the individual/s committed a crime by vandalizing
public property and will be held criminally responsible for their actions and
any injuries or damages caused by their actions.
If you have knowledge
of this being an intentional act, please help the City keep your streets safe
by reporting vandalism so that the individual/s may be held responsible.
Contact the Austin Police Department with tips about this
crime by calling Crime
Stoppers at 512-472-TIPS or text "Tip 103" + your message to CRIMES
(274637) or
use the new Crime
Stoppers App.
You can also submit tips by downloading APD’s mobile app, Austin PD, for free
on iPhone and Android. |
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