Council adopts Austin Core Transportation Plan with amendments to explore two‑way street conversions

The Austin City Council on March 26 adopted the Austin Core Transportation (ACT) Plan, a blueprint for downtown mobility that emphasizes pedestrian priority, protected bike lanes and bus and transit priority measures.

Speakers including transit advocates and transportation professionals urged the council to pursue broad conversions of one‑way streets back to two‑way operation. Adam Greenfield of Safe Streets said the plan’s emphasis on bus and bike priority “will move more people than downtown streets can today” and urged the council to accelerate two‑way reversions across downtown corridors.

Councilmember Sam Kadri offered two amendments — one to explicitly direct staff to continue exploring two‑way street conversions and a second to help kick‑start implementation — both of which the council adopted before approving the plan as amended.

Council members noted the need to coordinate ACT plan implementation with upcoming capital priorities and with related city efforts such as the Central City plan and density‑bonus updates. The council asked staff to return with implementation steps and bond timing so that transit, roadway and safety upgrades move forward in coordination with land‑use and housing changes.