https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/20 … e-in-2033/

I received the PDF application.  Take a guess as to whether it's fillable.

Did you have to print it out, fill in by hand, fax it back to them, then email them to check the fax machine? 😆

Pickup shuttle vans operate within specific underserved zones and don’t leave a zone or cross from one zone into another. They just circulate within a single zone. I use the app to indicate where I am in a zone and where I want to go, and then, just like Uber, the app offers me available shuttles with how many minutes away they are. Then I pick one and can track it on the map. Very cool. Usually, those time estimates are pretty accurate but sometimes they are way off, for no discernible reason except maybe traffic. I could request a van while still on the train and it would arrive at Kramer Station pretty soon after I got there. I had to get the timing just right. I didn’t want it to arrive too early because the driver might not wait around for me and then I’d have to request and wait for another one. But sometimes the wait at the station was inexplicably long, the arrival time on the app would keep changing. In the reverse direction, I would request a shuttle to come near my office and the app would tell me where I needed to be and when. So, I could request a shuttle 30 minutes before I was done working, knowing the app will offer a shuttle with a 5 minute wait time and another with a 20-30 minute wait time. I would pick the second one and take a leisurely stroll to the pickup location after 5, instead of waiting until closer to 5 to request the short wait time but then being in a hurry to not miss it or be rescheduled, which the app will do sometimes.

The service is included in the price of a day pass or you can buy a pass from the driver. I just showed the driver my day pass from the CapMetro app. Simple. No scan. I think you can use it without the app, by telephone, but I never tried that. Sometimes (rarely) it will divert to pick up others which could delay my arrival at the station, another risk. Mostly it’s like a private limo, but sometimes it’s true ride sharing. Late arrival at the station risks having the crossing arms down at the cross street near the station, so traffic is backed up on Kramer. When that happened, the shuttle couldn’t get near that station and I had to get off the shuttle in the middle of the road and make a dash for the station to catch the train. Fortunately, I’m able to do that but others might not be.

~davew~

I started noticing them in late March but only going west on Enfield toward Mopac (turning north before getting that far).  At first I thought they were street mapping camera cars, but I re-thought that when I was seeing them seemingly on the same route and usually two or more at a time--so I assumed they were in a testing phase.
Saw one today moving north on Guadalupe toward 38-1/2. So I suppose they are to be contended with and not just testing.

First of all, I doubt there will be any measurable decrease in traffic.  Since it's well-known that building more roadway lanes doesn't actually reduce traffic (because it increases demand on the suddenly less-congested roadways), I expect that the effect with transit on roadway traffic will be similar.  We can look at cities with massive transit systems (e.g., NYC, Los Angeles), and their streets are still choked with cars.

Second, transit advocates need to stop pushing rail as a way to reduce traffic because (a) it's not true, and (b) it's pandering.  I'm reminded of an old Onion article, "98 Percent Of U.S. Commuters Favor Public Transportation For Others".  Excerpt:

Finally, transit should be promoted for what it actually is: a way to get around quickly and safely.  The point is not to reduce traffic (because it doesn't), the point is to provide an alternative to traffic for those willing to use it.

"When you make walking, biking, and public transit an afterthought for nearly a century, it shouldn't be a surprise when walking, biking, and public transit are second-class modes of transportation."

We might take it for granted now that local elected officials are pushing for auto alternatives, but given that I can remember a time when such ideas were considered lunacy, hearing a councilmember attack the car culture is nothing short of startling.

As a vegan in the 80s I was also very much an outlier.  Now you can't throw a carrot in this town without hitting a vegan.

This reminds me, a while back I hacked the forum code to allow YouTube videos to be embedded.  I edited your post to embed the video, rather than just link to it.

To embed a video do it like this, taking out the spaces:

[ youtube]PgW1F6PtFDc (the id from the YouTube url)[ /youtube]

(2) The tunnels shuttle convention-goers around in Tesla electric cars.

(3) The cars will initially be driven by humans but are expected to go autonomous at some point.  They might also introduce some larger-capacity vehicles.

(4) There are two tunnels (one for each direction), about 0.8 miles long each.

(5) The convention center says that walking would take up to 25 minutes, which sounds about right, considering pedestrian gridlock.  (The Boring Company, self-servingly puts the walk time at 45 minutes, which isn't believable).

(6) The big news about this is that a tunnel for cars can be substantially smaller than one for subway cars, and as a result, the cost of the project was a tiny fraction of what it would have cost to put in a subway.  The total cost for both tunnels and 3 stations (2 surface, 1 subsurface) was reportedly only $52.5M, compared to $453M for the same length of subway.

(7) Future plans are to build a loop that connects the airport, the entire Las Vegas strip, and downtown, with trip fare being far less than taxis.

(8) Testing showed that the system can move over 4400 passengers per hour.  That's far short of 30,000 for a subway.  At first I thought that maybe that's okay because higher capacity would be overkill if there wasn't that much demand, but the largest conventions have 100,000 attendees, so it could be that waits for the shuttle could be considerable, possibly longer than just walking.

Travis County is excited to announce a new program for employees called the Commuter Leave Incentive Program (CLIP) that begins Oct 1.    This new program, CLIP, rewards employees who walk, telework, work a compressed work week, or use public transportation for their daily commute to and from work.  With each sustainable commute you accumulate points that will translate into leave (see website for details).  For the first 3 months (Oct-Dec) you will earn double the points!  That’s right!  So be sure to sign up soon!

The goal of CLIP is to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality so everyone wins.  Employees can find more information about how to participate in this exciting new program by visiting traviscentral/clip.

Our issues, as transportation cyclists, are tied up with both urban design and public transportation. Recently I found two episode that might be of interest to transportation cyclists. 

The Man How Rebuilt Paris:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlHlSCvh0JA
(My takeaway: To fix our streets, I think we are are going to need a bigger emperor.)

The Day The Gauge Changed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v81Gwu … EEfMAkXhs6
(My takeaway: So, we COULD have light rail along Guadalupe/Lamar in MY lifetime.)

Watch out, these are addictive.  I searched for anything he has done that directly relates to cycling, but I didn't find anything.  I'll bet we have some forgotten history, though. This guy takes requests, so if we know of any forgotten cycling history that deserves to be remembered, we can always ask.

Stop Name, CapMetro link
================
CP East Leander, https://www.capmetro.org/stopdetail/index.php?stop=5956
This is near the existing Leander station.

CP West Parmer, https://www.capmetro.org/stopdetail/index.php?stop=5957
This (Rutledge and FM 620) is near the existing Lakeline station.

CP Robinson, https://www.capmetro.org/stopdetail/index.php?stop=5958
This is supposedly "Southeast Corner of SH 45 W and FM 620" but the coordinates put it on private land south of 45.  Maybe there will be a subdivision there one day??

CP West Serta, https://www.capmetro.org/stopdetail/index.php?stop=5959
This is at Metric and Rundberg.  It would actually make a lot of sense to put a train station here as it is near a bunch of warehouses (including the Amazon Fulfillment Center on Rutland) AND houses/condos/apartments AND there is already a parking lot there.

CP Clarkson, https://www.capmetro.org/stopdetail/index.php?stop=5960
This is, as you noticed, not (yet) a train station.

CP Austin Junction, https://www.capmetro.org/stopdetail/index.php?stop=5961
This is at 5th and Pedernales near "The Pedernales" condo development.  Would be nice to see a station here as another one is needed between the Plaza Saltillo and MLK stations.