AUSTIN, Texas – In response to strong community concerns over safety on the road, the City of Austin is rolling out improvements in east Austin.<\/p>\n
Data from Montopolis Drive between Riverside and U.S. 183 show just how dangerous that area has been.<\/p>\n
Data on Austin crashes <\/p>\n
By the numbers:<\/p>\n
City data shows that between 2020 and 2024, there were 359 crashes along Montopolis Drive between Riverside Drive and U.S. 183.<\/p>\n
To put that into perspective, that\u2019s about one crash every five days.<\/p>\n
The push for safety changes comes after two deadly crashes in the past year. One death was a cyclist, another was a pedestrian.<\/p>\n
Data collected in a 24-hour period on Montopolis showed 465 vehicles driving above the posted speed limit of 35 mph.<\/p>\n
“I’m surprised that they’re not higher, actually, because there’s just no regard over here,” said Arieane Shanks, an East Austin resident.<\/p>\n
Safety improvements to come <\/p>\n
Why you should care:<\/p>\n
Austin Transportation and Public Works started gathering community feedback this spring on safety and mobility concerns.<\/p>\n
“Based on that input and based on crash data and speed data we’ve collected, we’ve developed a set of short-term recommendations that we think can really help address some of those really problematic areas,” said Joel Meyer, Transportation Safety Officer with the Austin Transportation and Public Works.<\/p>\n
The safety improvements will begin in the spring and take place over the next year and a half. That includes traffic signal upgrades, accessible ramps, construction of sidewalks and new street lighting.<\/p>\n
“We really wanted to take a deep dive into how we could make this street safer for everyone. We know there are a lot of schools, we know there are a lot of religious institutions along this corridor. And so really just looking for ways to give people more options and get to those places safely,” said Meyer.<\/p>\n
A community survey found that two-thirds of residents feel somewhat, or very, unsafe traveling along Montopolis Drive.<\/p>\n
The biggest concerns are speeding, a lack of protected bike lanes, unsafe crossings, and drivers failing to yield.<\/p>\n
“They get on these roads, and they’re so congested. So, they’re just like riding each other’s rears a lot. And then with the school population, this is a slow area. You should just do 35 miles an hour. This is not a speedy area, but people don’t care,” said Shanks.<\/p>\n
What’s next:<\/p>\n
Long-term improvements are also in the works, including plans for more pedestrian crossings, a continuous protected bike lane, and design changes to reduce speeds while keeping traffic flowing.<\/p>\n
City staff expect to provide an update on those long-term plans by mid-2026.<\/p>\n
For more information on the project, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin’s Jenna King<\/p>\n East Austin<\/a>Transportation<\/a>Riverside<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas – In response to strong community concerns over safety on the road, the City of Austin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,2924,223,17139,840,394,216,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-23954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-east-austin","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-riverside","14":"tag-transportation","15":"tag-travis-county","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}