,  Austin Chamber of Commerce View All Reponses >>

How will you coordinate with regional partners to meaningfully address our increasing traffic level? What is your long-term vision for addressing traffic in Austin, and what would be the immediate first actions you would champion as a City Council Member to address the crisis?

Natasha Harper-Madison

City Council, District 1

So much is already being done that I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to join the efforts. I would work with Cap Metro, COA Dpt of Transportation, TXDot, CAMPO and others to address what resources we already have that are currently underutilized to meaningfully address congestion. Additionally, we have got to address sprawl in a way that’s meaningful and productive, too many cars on the road is a problem caused by people commuting in single occupancy vehicles. Some additional options include creating a more robust partnership with shuttle TNC options as well as incentivizing telecommute options. My long term vision for mitigating traffic issues is to revolutionize our public transit and access to affordable housing along transportation corridors, we also need to make a very concerted effort to address the need to intentionally shift our inherent “auto culture”. There are too many cars on the road due to sprawl and a lack of innovation in deploying demand mitigation. Immediate action would be to maximize current projects and programs for efficiency, address transit shelters and street trees and general access issues. I support the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan (ASMP) and Project Zero.