The Government

Last update: December 24, 2025

For activists, the first step is knowing how the government is structured.

City government

• City Council.  The governing body of the city, elected by voters.
• Urban Transportation Commission (UTC).  Advises City Council.  Members appointed by Council.
• Bicycle Advisory Council.  Advises the UTC.  Elects its own replacements.  Anyone can apply.
• Bicycle Program.  Staff that plans and implements bike lanes and other facilities.  City Council hires the Coordinator, the Coordinator hires the other staff.

More details on my page about city government.

Regional government

• CAMPO.  Plans transportation projects for a six-county area.  If you want bike lanes or paved shoulders on FM roads between cities, this is the entity.
• Travis County Commissioners Court.  Despite the name, it’s not a court of law, it’s the main governing body for the county (like a City Council is for a city).

More details on my page about county and regional government.

State government

• Texas Dept. of Transportation.  They’re the ones doing the reconstruction of I-35, for example.  See their website.
• Texas Legislature
• They canceled Austin’s ability to have red-light cameras (infringes on lawbreakers’ rights, I guess).
• Bike Texas has valiantly tried in several sessions to get them to pass a law requiring drivers give at least 3 feet of space when passing cyclists, but the lege keeps rejecting it.
• A bill as been filed to let cyclists treat stop signs as yield signs (2025), but it’s far from law yet.
• Find out who represents you in the lege.

Federal government

The federal government doesn’t usually have much impact on bicycling issues, but in 1991 they passed ISTEA which required local governments to consider non-car transportation in their planning, and ISTEA provided funding assistance for those projects.  This was ground-shaking and began the growth of bike and pedestrian facilities across the whole country.