Transportation

Austin is full of bike lovers. But not everyone has the wheels with which to whip around town. Enter: bike sharing. 

Just not yet.

Annick Beaudet of the Public Works department tells KUT News that the program has seen “complications,” and that a launch planned for this spring – which would’ve coincided with May as National Bike Month – will be delayed.

Starting tomorrow, the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization – better known as CAMPO – begins asking for the public’s ideas on a series of projects.

Some projects are being dropped, while others are being picked up for consideration. 

This weekend, parts of downtown Austin will be closed Saturday and Sunday for different events.

The March for Babies will start at 9 a.m. Saturday morning. Registration for those who want to march starts at 8 a.m. at Auditorium Shores. The march raises money for children who are born too early. As a result of the march, Congress Avenue and a few other streets will be closed in the morning on Saturday.

The Austin Police Department is launching the first phase of a bike safety initiative today.

As Austin’s bicycling community grows – two percent of commuters are getting to work by bike – so does the need for increased education and awareness. Especially after a record year of traffic deaths.

Austin’s taxi drivers association is affiliating with the largest federation of unions in the United States, the AFL-CIO.

At a press conference today, the Taxi Drivers Association of Austin announced a partnership with the AFL-CIO’s National Taxi Workers Alliance.

The City of Austin says the number of vehicle crashes involving bikes and pedestrians has gone up over recent years.

In 2012, there were a total of 78 fatal crashes in Austin – a 42 percent increase from 2011. A third of those 78 crashes killed pedestrians. Three were fatal crashes involving bikes.