Bus Riders Union of Austin, Texas | El Sindicato de Pasajeros

Having lived in Central Austin for thirty-three years using the Bus system as my main form of transportation, I watched the city grew into a large international destination while the bus routes are locked into to a 1950s era segregated Texas city. I am an East Austinite but I often need to go over to the other side, West Austin has very few bus routes and no rational reason for what there is. On a recent Sunday I needed to go to Northwest Hills only to learn that there are no buses on Sunday west of Burnet Rd, the same when I had to go North Central to the Wells Branch area. There are no buses from the East Side to Laguna Gloria/Mayfield Park, Mt Bonnnell, the West side Green belts and Preserves such as Bright Leaf, do they think we just like paying for them but not using them or we have no need for the West Side businesses or employers? Back on the East Side my main routes are 18-MLK and 20-Manor that do not connect to UT and West Campus, Austin’s largest employer, cultural center and densest neighborhood, just making these busses cross town would work toward healing with the I35 east/west division. It seems everyone in the city with the posable exception of the Cap Metro board knows there is a great need for cross town busses but the system stays tied to the old Jim Crow system of eighty years ago of dividing Austin along I35.
To do any thing with public transportation in Austin you must realize that this is a large modern city, close to a million people in Austin/Travis County and another eight hundred thousand or so in the surrounding counties that needs a public transport system that works today, not based on a fantasy that Austin is the little city it was thirty years ago, nostalgia has its place but not in urban infrastructure.
I offer the below routes as a starting plan for a more rational bus system. I do not of course believe its a perfect plan and I am sure that many of you can improve on it. The city is big enough to support a system that could put a bus line down Lamar all the way and one that connects to downtown. With a more grid like system it would of course need a system of more frequent busses, a more rational schedule that would place time points where major routes cross each other.

Mac’s new routes or improvements

1. An I-35 route along the access road from S. Congress to Tech Ridge P@R.-A common sense route that any one looking at a map would see. Austin often promotes the I35 corridor as the preferred growth area, so why is there no i35 bus?
2. A Lamar Route from Berger Center or points south to Tech Ridge P@R.-Another major transit corridor without a rational bus line, Austin is large enough for two lines on Lamar one going to the university and downtown.
3. A route along S. Congress from I35 to 6th/5th to Red River to 51st to Cameron to Yeager to Tech Ridge P@R-maybe at first an odd idea but if you look at a map it's a major transit north/south whereas one road Cameron dies out Red River begins, would make a more rational bus line out of the old 37.
4. The 18 MLK from Decker Lane to HW 696 to MLK Guadalupe/Lavaca to Enfield to Lake Austin-Makes no sense that the MLK bus does not go on MLK past UT,The Bullock Museum, Blanton Museum , etc.
5. The 20 Manor Road Manor to 26th (Dean Keaton) to Guadeloupe to 24th to Windsor to Lake Austin-Another obvious cross town corridor that is makes no sense as it is now laid out. Why does it turn back just as it gets to UT and the Drag area to go down an uninhabited access road.
6. A 38th-35 Street Route Laguna Gloria/Mt Bonnell 35th to Lamar at 38 To 38 1/2 street to Manor to Bergman extension in Mueller with a posable loop through Mueller to Airport,45th to Camp Maybry. Like the new West Campus overlay Mueller is filling up and like WCOL there is no bus service.
7. A 51st route Ed Bleustien to Airport to 53 to North Loop to Hancock, to Balcones-Possably the number one route I hear talked about from riders in Central Austin what is up with no 51 street East West Access?
8. The 6 (change the #to 12) Techni Center to Webberville to 12th to 11th downtown to 12th to Enfield to Lake Austin. The Major Central East Side route would make a natural tie to Central West Austin
9. A loop of Lake Austin Blvd. to Cesar Chavez to Ed Bluenstein to Anderson to Spicewoods Springs. Yes There is no Ceasar Chavez Bus or an Ed Blumstien bus or Anderson Ln bus they go together well
10. The 30 From BCM Walsh Tarton, Bee Caves, Barton Skyway loop to Barton Creek to Riverside to Ben White to Bergstrom/Del Valle Corr-Another route to cross South Austin To the airport
11. 331 Bergstrom 71-Ben White loop pass Tech plants back to Ben White and West Gate to BCM. Another straight across easy access route, another set of employers no accessible.
12. Possibly a Balconies bus-An area I am not really knowledgeable about but it makes for around dozen routes.