Getting Around

Last update: February 2018

Bicycle Rentals

When I first wrote this article decades ago, smartphones and eBike rentals were not a thing.  Man, how things have changed.

• CapMetro Bikeshare  Austin's official bikeshare system.  Check out a bike from any of several stations around town, and return it to any other station.  It’s not as convenient as the “start anywhere, end anywhere” services, but it’s a hell of a lot cheaper.  (As I write this in 12/25, it’s $2.50/trip, $10/day or $25/mo., plus 25¢/minute of riding time for each of those, which is +$15/hr.)  Started its existence as "Austin B-Cycle" in 2013.
• Start/End anywhere rentals.  Bird and Lime
• Spinlister:  Peer-to-peer bike rental system.  (Rent directly from owners, rent directly to riders.)  Find nearby bikes with their mobile app.
• Bike shops that rent bikes:
  
• Barton Springs Bike Rentals: 1707 Barton Springs Rd (512-480-0200)
• Bicycle Sport Shop: 1426 Toomey Rd. (512-477-3472) / 10947 Research Blvd. (345-7460)
  
• Mike's Bikes 610 N. I-35 (free delivery & pickup) (512-919-6293)
• Streamline Cycles:  503 E. Cesar Chavez (512-387-1998)
• Tsunami Cycles: 2114-1/2 S. Congress Ave. (512-448-9725)
  
• Waterloo Cycles: 2815 Fruth (512-47-CYCLE)

Buses

The schedule booklet clearly indicates which of the few routes don't serve cyclists.  You can also check on bike rack availability for your route by calling Capital Metro at 474-1200.

Note that even if your bus accepts bikes, if the rack on the front is already filled with bikes, you'll have to wait for the next bus. (Fortunately, the racks are rarely full.)

Bus fares. Buses are free if you're a UT student. Otherwise see the CapMetro website for current fares.  it's $1.25 (regular) or $1.75 (Express or Rail) for a single-ride, or $2.50 to $3.50 for a 24-hour pass.

Ozone Action Days. [CapMetro discontinued this program circa 2012.  Text remains for historical purposes.]

Days when the amount of ground-level ozone is particularly high are "Ozone Action Days" (OADs), and bus rides are free on those days. Also, as James Burnside notes, "The City does not run its lawn crews [on OADs] and advises all city employees to fill city vehicles late in the afternoon. Other than that it's business as usual. (sigh)"

You can check whether today is an OAD at the TCEQ website. Also, you can get on TCEQ's mailing list or the Clean Air Force's mailing list and they'll let you know when it's an OAD.

Hike and Bike Trails

Austin has several miles of hike & bike trails.

• The main trail is the Ann & Roy Butler Hike & Bike Trail, a 10-mile loop next to the river in Central Austin.  (Formerly called the "Town Lake Trail".)
  
• The City's website has a list of all the trails in the city.
• All Trails is a great resource for trails everywhere (not just Austin).
• See below for info on mountain bike trails.

Mountain Biking

• Austin Ridge Riders website.
• Jim Summers' review of some local (Austin) trails.

Uber, Lyft & other TNC’s

Uber and Lyft waged an ugly battle to overturn city regulations requiring that their drivers go through fingerprinted background checks.  After the City passed its regs, U/L forced an election on the issue, and ran a dishonest campaign, but citizens voted to uphold the requirement for fingerprinted background checks.  U/L then went and whined to the Texas state legislature, which has a long history of barring cities from making their own laws, and the lege dutifully overturned Austin's law, which had been passed by both Austin’s local government and a majority of its voters.  This was a horrible subversion of democracy, and  yet another example of corporations writing their own laws.  A non-profit alternative for a while was RideAustin, but they didn't have the resources to compete.

Incidentally, the proper name for this service is either “TNC” (Transportation Network Company) or “private taxi”.  They are not “rideshare”, since customers generally do not share their vehicle with other riders for the same trip.

Per-minute car rentals