What is causing this? There is simply not enough capacity in our current transportation system to handle the increasing number of trips in Austin. Whether this is due to insufficient capacity being built or too much growth, the simple fact is that we currently do not have enough capacity in our transportation infrastructure to meet the growing needs of our city.

What should we do about it? There are two general approaches to tilting the capacity/demand ratio more in our favor. Reduce total demand, or increase capacity.

Demand reduction includes programs like carpooling and vanpooling, which reduce the number of trips, and also newer ideas such as tele-commuting, which removes trips completely. ACPRT supports and encourages these efforts as being very efficient (cost wise) alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles. However, we do not believe that our problems can be solved by demand measures alone. The scale of the problem is too large to be effected by the limited opportunities in these areas.

This leaves capacity increases as the best way to reduce congestion and the ensuing problems. But what kind of capacity should we build? Three ideas have been considered in Austin - more roads, improved bus service, and light rail transit. ACPRT believes another option, Personal Rapid Transit or PRT, should be considered as well.

Public Transit Goals

Any public transit option that is considered should be measured against the community's needs. As stated in the first paragraph, seventy percent of Austinites feel that traffic congestion is Austin's number one problem. Air quality is another problem that concerns Austin, with it's high level of environmental awareness. The single-occupant automobile trip is a major contributor to both of these problems. Removing trips made by a single person in their automobile is the best opportunity to improve both the congestion and air quality situations in Austin.

Therefore, the number one objective of Austin's transit program should be to effect a significant reduction in the vehicle miles traveled on Austin's roadways. While the definition of significant is open to interpretation, ACPRT will use 10% as the minimum to qualify as significant. A more comfortable standard is twice this, or 20%. Any transit alternative or package of alternatives should have the potential to remove at least 10% of automobile trips from area roadways, and preferably 20%.

The Scale of the Problem

Figures from the Texas Transportation Institute's Urban Mobility study (see the links page) show travel in Austin totaling 18 million vehicle miles per day in 1997. CAMPO states in their 2025 plan that the average Austin area commute is nine miles, giving a total of two million vehicle trips per DAY for the Austin area. This figure is a conservative estimate since the TTI data is from 1997 and doesn't include the last three years of fast growth AND the average trip length (including all trips, not just work commutes) is likely shorter than the nine-mile average commute reported by CAMPO.

Further estimates by TTI state that Austin must remove 92,000 daily trips from our roadways each year in order to just keep pace with area growth and to maintain current levels of congestion.

With two million total Austin trips, a transit system will have to handle at least 200,000 trips per day to meet our 10% goal. 400,000 daily trips will need to be removed to meet the 20% goal. No transit improvement option currently being consided by Austin has the potential to remove trips in these quantities. PRT does.

A Better Option