Skip to content
birdflumanual

birdflumanual

Better Get Finance

Primary Menu birdflumanual

birdflumanual

  • Finance & Oportunity
  • Business & Finance
  • business ideas
  • SEO marketing
  • traffic finance
  • News Business
  • General
  • About Us
    • Advertise Here
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Sitemap
  • traffic finance

Don’t expect traffic problems around Circuit of the Americas to be fixed anytime soon

4 months ago George T. Taft

Table of Contents

  • ‘Start Me Up’
  • What is being fixed?
  • Mobility problems inside COTA
  • What about Cap Metro?
  • Why not just ride a bike?
  • Can anything else be done?

The 1,500-acre venue has also spent the last decade infuriating many of those same fans when they become ensnarled in the periodic traffic jams that happen when thousands of vehicles are crammed down country roads in rural Travis County.

The traffic debacle around a Rolling Stones concert last year caused such an uproar, it sparked a new urgency about addressing transportation problems and disability access issues at COTA. While there have been notable infrastructure improvements in recent weeks, some of the biggest changes to the surrounding transportation infrastructure could still be years away.

‘Start Me Up’

By most accounts, the Rolling Stones put on an amazing, well-produced show – if you could get in. Some concertgoers told KUT the traffic was so bad they couldn’t access the venue.

Related Posts:

  • River Road residents concerned about truck traffic, quarry
Rolling Stones performing at Circuit of the Americas

Courtesy of Andrea Cardenas

When the show ended, the problems continued.

“We reached this one parking lot and we just stayed there for like an hour and a half. Not moving at all,” said Andrea Cardenas, a St. Edward’s University student who attended the show with her dad last November.

“We were seeing people sitting against the gate just sleeping or kind of giving up, because people were really not able to get (Uber or Lyft) rides,” she said. “I don’t know if I would want to go again if the traffic situation would be like that.”

Her experience was far from isolated.

In their only public statement about the fiasco, COTA officials accepted no blame and offered no apology to Rolling Stones fans. Instead, COTA’s statement blamed worker shortages by outside staffing companies and the Waze app for “turning heavy traffic into a mess.”

COTA’s defensive response infuriated fans even more. The anger was so visceral it reverberated inside Austin’s City Hall.

Weeks after the concert, City Council used its leverage over COTA to require quarterly meetings with local officials on the status of infrastructure upgrades around the venue. COTA has to get city approval to apply for subsidies from the state’s event trust funds program. Council attached a list of requirements to that permission slip.

“It was important to me that the city of Austin took action,” said Vanessa Fuentes, a City Council member who introduced the item and whose district includes Circuit of the Americas. “We have to think about the safety of our community.”

The first quarterly update, issued ahead of schedule on March 4, revealed COTA had hired business consultant J.L. Powers & Associates to help track down local, state and federal funding that could help pay for transportation and safety upgrades.

A map showing which roads are under which government's jurisdiction.

City of Austin. This map shows who’s responsible for which roads. Yellow roads are under TxDOT’s jurisdiction, red roads are Travis County’s and the city of Austin is responsible for the blue roads.

Some progress is being made, even if it might seem to be happening at a glacial pace.

What is being fixed?

Circuit of the Americas is fed by two roads from State Highway 130: FM 812 and Elroy Road.

Travis County just weeks ago finished widening Elroy Road from two lanes to five, including a middle turn lane. The project spanned about 1 mile west from Circuit of the Americas Boulevard to the already widened section of Elroy Road that connects to SH 130.

Newly widened Elroy Road

Travis County. Travis County widened Elroy Road from two lanes to five from Circuit of the Americas Boulevard to about a mile west. The project included a bike lane and sidewalk, and lifted the road out of a floodplain.

FM 812 falls under TxDOT’s jurisdiction. The two-lane road is slated to be widened to four lanes, but contractors won’t even be able to bid on the project until 2030 under the regional transportation schedule by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.

CAMPO, which is governed by a 22-member panel that includes Austin City Council members, could vote to fund the project sooner. Fuentes says she’s spoken with her Council colleagues on CAMPO about advancing funding for FM 812.

“The power is in CAMPO’s hands,” she said.

Right now, there are no plans to add sidewalks and bike paths along FM 812. TxDOT says a shared-use path for pedestrians and cyclists could be built as part of the FM 812 widening project planned for the next decade.

Google Streetview image of FM 812 near Circuit of the Americas

Google Street View. FM 812 is a two-lane road leading to Circuit of the Americas from SH 130.

But a smaller, short-term effort to fix FM 812 is coming soon. TxDOT is planning to repave and re-stripe a section of the road to add a center turn lane.

That $1.2 million project will span from FM 973, which is west of SH 130, to Elroy Road east of Circuit of the Americas. The project is scheduled to start this month and should take about two months to complete, TxDOT said.

Longer term, TxDOT still plans to build a new segment of FM 812 from FM 973 to U.S. Highway 183. But that’s in the early stages.

A map showing where a new section of FM 812 could be built between FM 973 and U.S. 183

TxDOT. This TxDOT map shows where a new section of FM 812 could be built between FM 973 and U.S. 183. The project is still in the early stages.

Construction is slated to start later this year on traffic signals at SH 130 at FM 812, one of the area’s busiest intersections during major events. Right now, there are just blinking yellow lights indicating drivers should slow down and proceed with caution.

A Google satellite image of the intersection of FM 812 and SH 130.

Google Earth. Traffic signals are scheduled to be installed by the end of the year at this intersection of FM 812 and SH 130.

Another traffic signal is under construction at Elroy Road and Circuit of the Americas Boulevard, according to a quarterly update from COTA to City Council.

Mobility problems inside COTA

Among the 14,000 fans watching as 78-year-old Mick Jagger strutted the stage at COTA’s Germania Insurance Amphitheater was the local tax man.

Bruce Elfant has been the Travis County tax assessor-collector and voter registrar since 2012. On that particular night, he happened to be on crutches, recovering from a broken ankle.

Things did not go well.

Elfant said upon his arrival, the ADA accessibility tent near the gate was unstaffed. No wheelchairs were available. On his way out, Elfant struggled on crutches to find transportation help getting back to his car.

“We witnessed other people with disabilities who were visibly upset at being told that they would not be transported back to their vehicles until the venue was emptied out,” Elfant wrote in a letter to COTA’s chief financial officer, Anna Panossian.

Elfant said because of the lack of help at the venue, he was forced to walk on crutches more than allowed by his doctor. Both feet became seriously swollen.

In his letter to Panossian, Elfant called for the creation of a disability access task force. COTA did exactly that, creating a committee that includes Elfant, representatives from the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, ADAPT and two members of the Austin Music Commission.

“I’ve been around a while, so this can turn dark in a hurry. But I’m optimistic and hopeful that some good things are going to come out of this,” Elfant told KUT.

The task force had its first meeting in early March and got a tour of the COTA facility. Some members said they were encouraged by the attitude of COTA staff.

“They really took the problems that they encountered very seriously,” Austin Music Commissioner Oren Rosenthal told the commission at its last meeting in March. “When we talked about that Rolling Stones concert, they were embarrassed. They said, ‘Please don’t judge us by this Rolling Stones concert.’”

“PR-wise, it really gave them a black eye, but just personally as professionals, they felt that they had performed poorly, and they take that very personally,” he said.

COTA officials declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this story.

What about Cap Metro?

Could public transit help solve some of these transportation problems around Circuit of the Americas?

After the Rolling Stones snafu, the statement from COTA staff – the one that sought to deflect blame – pointed the finger at Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, among others, saying the regional transit agency should “heed the calls” of local elected officials for more public transportation in the area.

Capital Metro officials were surprised to read the statement, because COTA officials had not reached out to the transit agency for help with the event.

A CapMetro bus waiting to make a left-hand turn in busy traffic

Pavel Mezihorak/KUT. Capital Metro says it’s restricted by federal regulations from competing with private charter bus companies.

Existing demand doesn’t justify a regularly scheduled fixed-route service to Circuit of the Americas, Capital Metro said, given the pressing demands across other parts of its service area.

Capital Metro says providing shuttle service to COTA doesn’t make sense either. Because Capital Metro receives grants from the Federal Transit Administration, it’s severely restricted from competing with private charter bus companies taking groups to COTA.

Why not just ride a bike?

While it is theoretically possible to ride a bike from Austin to Circuit of the Americas, a 14-mile ride from downtown, the infrastructure is not exactly hospitable to cyclists.

The COTA track at the 2021 NASCAR race

Michael Minasi/KUT. Cyclists get to ride the same track that NASCAR and F1 use during regular bike nights at Circuit of the Americas.

Austinite Tyler Markham participated in a “bike night” that happens most Tuesdays at COTA, giving cyclists a chance to cruise the 3.41-mile racetrack. He took the bus as far as he could and biked the rest of the way.

But riding home to East Riverside in the dark was more perilous than he realized, especially along miles of county roads.

“There’s a few stretches where I had to bike on 50-, 60-mile-an-hour roads that didn’t have shoulders,” Markham said. “Definitely taking your life into your hands a little bit trying to do that … feeling the whoosh of cars going by a couple feet away from you.”

TxDOT “does not have a current construction project for shared-use paths,” the agency said. But they could be built as part of the FM 812 widening project planned for the early 2030s.

The new Elroy Road improvement by Travis County includes a sidewalk and bike lane.

Can anything else be done?

Besides improving infrastructure, COTA organizers could have “soft endings” after concerts – smaller events or attractions that give people a reason to stick around rather than making a mad dash for their cars, said Kara Kockelman, a professor of transportation engineering at UT Austin.

COTA announced plans last week to build a “massive amusement park” with more than 30 rides and two large roller coasters, which could give people a reason not to leave right after a show.

Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic at the COTA amphitheater in 2016

Gabriel C. Pérez/KUT. Spectators watch the performance at Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic at the COTA amphitheater in 2016.

Communication is also important. Providing a clear expectation that transportation will be difficult, using more electronic road signs to convey information about traffic flow and road closures, and printing warnings about potential mobility problems in a large font on tickets could help, she said.

“If people are just like, ‘Yeah, I’ll just read a book in my car and wait for this to pass,’ I think that would be helpful,” she said.

But there are no easy substitutes for improved infrastructure.

“Nobody wants to do anything in the middle of the night except drink or sleep,” Kockelman said. “It is a multi-hour exit.”

Tags: ""Succeeded His Business"", 2 Of Cups Business, 525 Business 5 Bankruptcies, Accounting Business Letter To Client, Bracken Business Communications Clinic, Business Account No Deposit, Business Administration Fafsa, Business Balance Sheet Explained, Business Card, Business Card Printing La Plata, Business Card To Secret Website, Business Cards Media Bar, Business Central Png, Business Coaching Site Cloudfront, Business Contract Lawyer 47201, Business Marketing Pearson Quizlet, Business Milleage Leager 18, Business Mobile Broadand Plans, Business Plan For Supplement Company, Business Plan Loan Originayor, Disrupting Digital Business Harvard, Ffiec Business Continuity Templates, Gauge Ear Piercing Business, Good Openings For Business Letters, Holton Investment Business, Indiana Wesleyan University Business, Indianapolis Business Times, List Business In Search Engines, List My Business Yahoo, Lunch Susbcription Business Model, Morgan Hill Business Liocense Renewal, Nee Small Business Bill Signed, Negotiating Business Acquisitions Practical Law, Networking Trends Small Business, New Business In Shorewood Il, School Business Officer Being Unethical, Small Business Administration Mass, Small Business Comunity, Small Business Corporation South Africa, Small Business Depew Llc, Small Business Medical Offices Chicago, Small Business Office Lakewood Nj, Small Business Plans Verizon, Small Business Storage Array, Small Business Sucess Stories, South Florida Business Journal Twitter, Torrington Ct, United Business Tech Response Sla, United Domestic Business Food, Video Business Woman Bukkake, Ways To Improve Business Technologyreddit

Continue Reading

Previous Stanley Park traffic changes: Man with MS speaks out about impact
Next Police conduct traffic study at BWHS

More Stories

  • traffic finance

Czech finance minister proposes raising 2022 budget deficit to $13.6 bln -Czech TV

5 days ago George T. Taft
  • traffic finance

Lori Lightfoot’s official SUVs rack up traffic tickets

1 week ago George T. Taft
  • traffic finance

TDOT’s SmartWay Traffic and TDOTFIX Hotline Now Available on MyTN

1 week ago George T. Taft

Recent Posts

  • Finding Product-Market Fit In Open-Source Business Models
  • 5 Steps To Start Your Own Freelance Business
  • Your business revamp will only work if you empower its people
  • From small-time business to the stock exchange
  • Czech finance minister proposes raising 2022 budget deficit to $13.6 bln -Czech TV

Archives

  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2018
  • January 2017

Categories

  • Business & Finance
  • business ideas
  • Finance & Oportunity
  • General
  • News Business
  • SEO marketing
  • traffic finance

Visit Now

maui car rental
Intellifluence Trusted Blogger

BL

TL

You may have missed

  • Business & Finance

Finding Product-Market Fit In Open-Source Business Models

4 days ago George T. Taft
5 Steps To Start Your Own Freelance Business
  • business ideas

5 Steps To Start Your Own Freelance Business

5 days ago George T. Taft
  • business ideas

Your business revamp will only work if you empower its people

5 days ago George T. Taft
  • Business & Finance

From small-time business to the stock exchange

5 days ago George T. Taft
  • traffic finance

Czech finance minister proposes raising 2022 budget deficit to $13.6 bln -Czech TV

5 days ago George T. Taft
birdflumanual.com © All rights reserved. | CoverNews by AF themes.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT