History of Bicycle Facilities and Planning in Austin, TX

Last update:  December 26, 2025

Austin started planning for bikes way back in 1972, anemically.  After that, they upped their game with a new master plan every seven years on average, but the plans weren’t well-implemented until circa 2009 when the city finally started properly funding them.  Today, it is nearly “Mission Accomplished”, with the city having installed hundreds of miles of bike lanes, many of them protected lanes, with more lanes and upgrades already approved.  We got most of what we wanted.  Despite this, the percentage of bike commuters hasn't increased and the fatality rate hasn’t gone down.  So, there are still many opportunities for advocacy.

The most significant highlights

1972:  The first Bicycle Plan, which resulted in the very first bike lanes.

1981:  City hires its first Bicycle Program coordinator.  But then they discontinued the position/program, seemingly in the mid- to late 1980s.

1994:  The city resurrects the Bicycle Program again and hires a coordinator, but does not fund the program at all.

1996:  An all-ages helmet law goes into effect, but proved unpopular and was amended a year later to be for kids-only.

1998:  A new Bicycle Plan brings bike planning into the modern era, but without funding, it’s not much implemented.

2009:  The Plan gets a major update, and is properly funded for the first time, resulting in the facilities actually getting installed.

2023:  Another major update to the Plan.

2024:  The City finally officially bans parking in bike lanes.

The Bicycle Plans

Before cities can implement projects, they have to be defined in reports called “plans”.  Those plans get approved by a City Council, and then get implemented by city staff.  It’s common that after 5-10 years, a new plan is drawn up, replacing the previous plan.  Here’s the history of when the City Council approved Austin’s various bicycle plans, with more details in the chronology following the list.

1972:  The very first Bicycle Plan, calling for the very first bike lanes

1975:  Austin Area Bicycle System

1980:  The Austin Bikeway Plan

1991:  Feds enact ISTEA law, requiring local planners to consider non-car transportation, and to help with funding.  This was a ground-shaking change, for the whole U.S.

1996:  Bicycle Plan, Part I (design standards)

1998:  Bicycle Plan, Part II (specific roadway projects).  If I'm looking at it right, Part I + II together are less than 20 pages.

2009:  A major update to the previous plan, extremely comprehensive, with hundreds of pages.  This was the first plan to be properly funded and mostly implemented.

2014:  Another major update, notable for the shift to protected bike lanes, and a focus of serving “all ages, all abilities”.

2023:  The update expands the network to a whopping 430 miles, of which 56% is already complete.

Complete chronology of City involvement in bike issues

• 1972:  The very first Bicycle Plan.  It’s hard to criticize this plan because they were starting from nothing.  Council effected it by adding the provisions to the city’s Code of Ordinances, but the historical Code is not available online.  I wrote to the clerk to request a copy, but I’m not holding my breath.  Excerpts of what is available, in the minutes summary:
• Provided for the “Registration, licensing, and inspection of bicycles.”  It seems that registration and licensing was mandatory; there’s another reference to “license number plates”, and part of the ordinance “designate[d] bicycle dealers to conduct inspections and issue licenses”.
• Required certain equipment, seemingly a horn and a light.  Bike lights have long been required by Texas statute, but maybe not back then then, so if so, Austin was ahead of the curve.  Of note: “Mayor Butler noted there was a bicycle light and horn combined advertised at $2.77 and he as glad to see these available at that price, and this provision in the ordinance would not work a hardship on anybody to comply with the lights.”
• Banned bikes from riding on certain sidewalks.  This is where that prohibition began.
• Banned “the movements of vehicles upon and across bicycle lanes under certain conditions.”  I don’t know whether this banned parking.
•     The mayor at that meeting was Mayor Butler, for whom the Ann and Roy Butler trail is named (along with his wife).  He also owned a car dealership at 45th St. and Lamar Blvd., but apparently didn’t see bicyclists as a threat. (minutes from City Council meetings of 6/15/72, 6/29/72) 
  
  A later plan recounts, “Two pilot projects were developed in response to the 1972 plan: The University Project and the Wooldridge School Project. These resulted in the completion of bicycle lanes and signed bicycle routes in the University of Texas area. Notable bicycle projects emerging from that plan include bicycle lanes on Guadalupe Street, Berkman Avenue, Far West Boulevard, and Mary Street.” (2009 Bicycle Plan, p. 6) 

• 1975: “Austin Area Bicycle System”.  Council adopted this “Interim Report”.  It called for 95 miles of paths, 199 miles of bike lanes, and 87 miles of bike streets to be implemented over six years.  Notably, routes were disegned with school-age children in mind. (2009 Bicycle Plan, p. 6) 
• 1980: “Austin Bikeway Plan”.  By 1980, the city had completed only 27.7 miles of the 199 called for in the 1975 plan. (2009 Bicycle Plan, p. 6)  The city then adopted the Austin Bikeway Plan on 10/16/80 calling for a citywide network of 160 miles of bicycle lanes and other bike-related improvements, to be installed over ten years. (council minutes)  At the council hearing, a city staffer said there must be enforcement of no parking in bike lanes, but that absolutely did not happen. The (now-defunct) Austin Cycling Association spoke in favor of the plan, as did cyclist “Jay Bond”; I think knew a cyclist Jay Bonds in the 1990s, I presume it was him (though I might be conflating Michael Bonds and Jay Beeson).
  
  Here’s how the plan actually turned out, according to the Chronicle:  “In the early Eighties, voters approved almost $2 million in bonds to implement the Austin Bikeway Plan, which called for a comprehensive citywide network to include 160 miles of new bicycle lanes, and other policies designed to break down barriers to continuous cycling.  The result, according to a 1993 report of the Austin Transportation Study: only 49 miles of bike lanes were set aside, and of these, all but six are being used for parallel parking by motorists.  Few of the other recommendations of the Austin Bikeway Plan were implemented, including bike route signage, provision of wide outside lanes on new road projects, and bike lane maintenance.  Ironically, over half of the $2 million in bonds approved by voters was transferred from its intended use for bike lanes to pedestrian and trail projects.  And, incredible as it sounds, $368,000, or about 20% of the total, went to fund the Veloway at Circle C, a facility that allows exercise-deprived suburbanites to burn off the accumulated stresses of week-day commuting by riding bicycles around in a circle on weekends.”  (I can’t find the actual 1980 plan document online, but it’s listed as available at the Austin Public Library, along with the Austin Bikeway Design Manual.) 
  
• 1981: First Bicycle Program Manager. The city created this position in the Urban Transportation Department. (2009 Bicycle Plan, p. 6) 
• 1981 and 1984: First significant funding.  Voters approved $1.9 million in bonds to fund the projects in the 1980 Bikeway Plan. (2009 Bicycle Plan, p. 7)    However, as per below, the city mostly didn’t spend the money on bike facilities.  Probably a major factor in that result was that:
• 1984: The Bike Program is discontinued.  It was nice while it lasted. (2009 Bicycle Plan, p. 7) 
• 1987: Status of the network.  It had grown to 52 miles of bike lanes and 180 miles of paths. (2009 Bicycle Plan, p. 7) 
• 1989: Wasting bike lane money on the Veloway. Council decided to spend 20% of the funds which had been earmarked for bike lanes, and instead spend it on a bicycle racing loop at Circle C, infuriating transportation cyclists. (source 1, source 2)
• 1991:
  Feds push for bike projects. The new federal ISTEA law required local planners to consider non-car modes, and provided funding to make non-car projects happen.  The importance of this act can’t be underestimated—it was ground-shaking shift in U.S. transportation policy, and responsible for bike/ped projects implemented across the whole country.
  
  First Austin Bicycle Map.  Published as a partnership between the city, Bike Texas (then the Texas Bicycle Coalition), and local bike shops. (2009 Bicycle Plan, p. 7)  
  
  Austin Bicycle Safety and Mobility Task Force (BTF) forms.  They held 30 meetings and submitted a report to council in 1992 suggesting safety improvements for council to authorize, but council didn’t.  In 1993 they authorized the task force to work for another year.  A new task force would start in 2007. (2009 Bicycle Plan, p. 8) 
  
  Transportation user fee created.  The City starts adding this fee to residents’ utility bills, but car-free households are exempt. (more...)  
   
• 1994:
  New Bicycle Program.  A new Bicycle Program starts, to meet the requirements of the federal ISTEA legislation requiring non-car planning, but the City doesn't provide funding for the Bicycle Coordinator position.  The Dept. of Works was forced to shift money around to get the position funded and a Coordinator was hired (Rick Waring), but then the entire Bicycle Program itself had no budget. (source 1, and 2009 Bicycle Plan, p. 8) 
   
  “Spot Improvement” hotline.  Waring’s Bike Program institutes a hotline for bikers to call with problems such as potholes and bike lanes littered with glass or impeded by overhanging branches. (Chronicle, 5/23/97) 
   
• 1995:  Bike racks start appearing on city buses.  Might have been early 1996; in 1996 a speaker asked city council to get the racks on “all” the buses, since in the first phase only some buses got the racks. (Bike Texas, 3/21/96 council minutes) 
•  
• 1995-98: Underfunding. The City continues to not fund the bike program or any bike lanes.  Somehow, probably through grants or creative accounting, the Program provides free bike racks (along with installation) to any business around town that wants them.  The city hired Yellow Bike Project members to install most of the initial racks.
•  
• 1996:
  New Bicycle Plan, Part I passes.  It’s Part I of two-part plan.  Part I is general policies and standards, with Part II forthcoming, specifying specifically which roadways should get which facilities.  Here’s the text of the plan, which the City no longer cares to publish.  (Passed 4/11/96, Council Resolution No. 790215-21)
   
  Helmet law.  City Council passes an all-age helmet law, taking the community by surprise, since Doug Ballew secretly lobbied for it and got the Council to pass it as an “emergency” measure so it wouldn’t need the normal three readings.  Helmet laws are counterproductive, since they discourage cycling (example), which makes cycling more dangerous for those who remain, as the #1 predictor of cycling safety is the proportion of cyclists on the road.  Critics also told City Council that the law would lead to harassment of minorities, which they ignored, but which is exactly what happened: over 90% of the no-helmet tickets given to kids went to black and Hispanic kids.
   
  City fails to assign a Pedestrian Coordinator.  The local daily paper lambasts the City Council for planning to “waste” taxpayer money by hiring a Pedestrian Coordinator, despite the fact that Austin’s sidewalks are insufficient and often in disrepair.  Council immediately caves and lumps pedestrian responsibilities into the already understaffed and underfunded Bicycle Program, renaming it the Bicycle and Pedestrian Program.  Here are excerpts from the Statesman’s absurd 5/14/96 editorial:
   
  “MINISTER OF SILLY WALKS.  Remember the old Monty Python skits?...The Austin City Council’s current majority is the only group that could take that sendup as a serious recommendation. [Certain councilmembers have] decided that Austin should become the second city in the entire country to have a Minister for Pedal Extremities, officially known as the Pedestrian Coordinator....If somebody doesn’t change his or her mind as the new ministry faces its second and third readings, $45,000 of your bucks—or more— will pay somebody to coordinate our walkabouts....We don’t need a bicycle or pedestrian coordinator....Just as there is no such thing as i temporary tax, there is no such thing as a temporary bureaucracy.  And the less actual necessity for it as a separate entity the more likely it will hang around, growing in expense as it desperately seeks to justify its continued existence and broaden its authority.  This or the next council should eliminate both the bicycle and pedestrian coordinators and add their duties to those of existing city staff."
   
  (Right under that editorial, they also applauded the new helmet law, ignoring both how cycling laws depress cycling and are disproportionately applied to people of color.)
   
  It’s amazing how completely f**king clueless is the local daily is about transportation planning.  It ought to be embarrassing to them that they’re spewing nonsense about something they know absolutely nothing about.  Of course, the paper has frequently been anti-cyclist and has suffered the shame of journalistic scandals such as completely making sh!t up. (more on the shenanigans of the local paper) (more on sidewalks in Austin) 
   
  Cyclist runs for City Council.  Shaun Stenshol, a Critical Mass rider, ran for Place 4 and garnered 0.91% of the vote (including mine).
   
• 1997:
   
  Helmet law repealed for adults.  The helmet law proved unpopular, with critics pointing out that police were using it as an excuse to target minorities, and countless cyclists getting arrested and going to jail for biking without a helmet.  (The same thing nearly never happens to drivers who don't wear seat belts.)  In response to public outcry, the City amended the law to apply only to kids, not adults.
  
  Waring resigns is the Bicycle Program coordinator, partially because the City wouldn’t fund bike/ped needs.  In an open letter to City Council, he wrote, “I am extremely disappointed. The 1998 budget you approved has zero dollars in allocations for bicycle and pedestrian program needs and service provision. Frankly, this is one of the reasons I resigned my position [as the City's Bicycle Coordinator]…How do you expect staff to provide services without funding?”  (In 2001 Waring became the manager for the bike/ped safety program of Oregon.)
   
  All councilmembers ride in the “Political Pedal” ride.  Local bike advocate David Foster organizes a “Political Pedal” ride and invites all politicians (and the public) to attend.  Notably, every member of the soon-to-be-seated City Council participates.  Foster was motivated in part by the decision of a grand jury not to indict the driver who ran over and killed cyclist Tom Churchill, wanting lawmkakers to demonstrate their commitment to safe cycling by riding themselves.  The ride is nearly spoiled when another cyclist invites the police to attend, who typically threaten to jail (not just ticket) cyclists who aren't wearing helmets. (more...)
   
  Candidates endorsed by the League of Bicycling Voters elected to council.  LoBV endorsed Bill Spelman and Willie Lewis primarily based on their promise to repeal the helmet ordinance, though after election both voted only to amend the ordinance, removing the requirement for adults but keeping it for kids.
   
• 1998:
  
  New Bicycle Plan, Part II passes, but with no funding.  Part I of the plan was general policies and standards, passed in 1996.  Part II of the plan is which roadways should get which facilities (generally bike lanes).  Council provided no actual funding to implement the plan, as per previous bullet item.  Here’s the actual plan, which the City no longer cares to publish.  (Plan passed on May 7, 1998, Council Resolution No. 980507-D.)
   
  Cyclists appointed to City boards.  Starting an era of cyclists getting smart and becoming part of the government rather than just begging the government for accommodation, two bike advocates successfully get appointed to city boards: Michael Zakes to the Urban Transportation Commission (appointed by councilmember Willie Lewis), and Mike Librik to the Parks and Recreation Board (appointed by councilmember Jackie Goodman).
  
  Keith Snodgrass hired as Bicycle Coordinator, replacing outgoing coordinator Rick Waring, but resigns the same year for personal reasons.  The position goes unfilled for several months.
   
  Worse turnout on the Political Pedal ride.  The inaugural ride in 1997 was an election year, while 1998 was not, which is probably why the 1998 ride saw less participation.  Only three Councilmembers attended: Gus Garcia, Jackie Goodman and Daryl Slusher. Councilmembers who didn’t were Mayor Kirk Watson, Bill Spelman, Willie Lewis, and Beverly Griffith.  The ride was also attended by Texas Land Commissioner and losing Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Garry Mauro.
   
• 1999:
   
  Another bike advocate joins the UTC.  Patrick Goetz gets (no pun intended) (okay, maybe a little) appointed to the Urban Transportation Commission, joining existing advocate Michael Zakes.  Each commissioner is usually appointed by one councilmember, but Goetz was appointed by a consensus of Council.  With enough interest in biking issues among commission members, they form a Bicycle Subcommittee.
   
  Council gets undeserved credit for Austin being a “Top 10 Bicycling City in N. America”.  Bicycling magazine bestowed that decidedly undeserved honor on Austin, and the Texas Bicycle Coalition (now Bike Texas) send City Council a congratulatory message.  I sent my own message about why the honor was not deserved.
  
  City rejects Amy Babich’s petition to run for Council.  They invalidated her petition because some of the signers didn’t write the word “Austin” in their address.  I sh!t you not.  She eventually gets approved.
   
  Linda Dupriest hired as Bicycle Coordinator in February.
   
  
• 2000:
   
  Approval of Crosstown Bikeway, later to become the Lance Armstrong Bikeway.  See 2009 for completion and more history.
  
  More bike activists join the UTC.  Strong bicycle advocates Tommy Eden and Mike Dahmus are appointed to the Urban Transportation Commission.
   
  Annual Political Pedal ride.  This year's ride saw participation from Councilmembers Gus Garcia, Jackie Goodman, and Daryl Slusher; Councilmember-Elect Will Wynn, Council runoff candidate Raul Alvarez (Place 2), council candidate Amy Babich (Place 5), and U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX). Notable was Garcia's repeated insistence that riders wear helmets because "It's the law."  (Garcia apparently forgot that he was part of the vote to amend the ordinance to no longer apply to adults three years ago.)
   
  Leslie loses run for Mayor.  Lovable homeless transvestite and bicyclist (but not bicycle advocate) Leslie Cochran pulls in 8% of the vote.
   
  Raul Alvarez wins Place 2 seat.  Alvarez was car-free until his run for Council which necessicated a car.  We endorsed him, a reader says they voted for him based on our endorsement, and he won the runoff against Rafael Quintanilla by just 201 votes.
   
  Babich loses run for Council.  She ran for Place 5 and got 5.6% of the vote, which was not actually last place. (May)
   
  Slusher assists in it-and-run investigation.  After the police declined to investigate the hit-and-run assault on cyclist Jay Williams (even though witnesses provided the driver's license plate number to police), I forwarded Williams' letter to Councilmember Daryl Slusher's office. After he wrote to the police chief, the police decided to take action on the case after all.
   
  Loophole banning electric bikes in bike lanes closed. Outgoing councilmember Bill Spelman sponsors a successful resolution to allow electric-assist bicycles to ride in bicycle lanes. (Under state law, anything with a motor is considered a motor vehicle, and motor vehicles are otherwise prohibited from “driving” in bike lanes.)
  
   
• 2001:
   
  Bike program downsized. The city eliminated the manager position for the Bicycle Program, and downsized the whole program to just 1.5 to 2 technical staffers.  (Media reports cite budget cuts from an economic downtown.)  As the Chronicle put it: “Without project managers, the program couldn’t even get projects rolling for its available funds—$5 to $10 million on bond monies, some still left from 1998 and more from the 2006 bond referendum.”
  
  The half-baked Pfluger Bridge is built.  The idea was to give cyclists a safe alternative to the car bridge for crossing the river (especially since a cyclist was killed on the car bridge in 1991), but since the new bridge didn't actually reconnect with N. Lamar, it was essentially useless for that purpose.  The city said they didn’t have the funds to build the extension.  The bridge wouldn’t be extended to N. Lamar until 2011.
  
  Gale and Cochran lose Mayoral bids.  Transgendered Jennifer Gale (whom I endorsed) and transvestite Leslie Cochran both lost their bids in the Mayor’s race, with local pundits noting that they split the homeless trans vote.
   
• 2002: City says new projects must have bike lanes and sidewalks.  Patrick Goetz writes: "Tommy Eden and Mike Dahmus [on the Urban Transportation Commission] single-handedly managed to pilot [this item] from concept to legislation, no small feat in the land of the road warrior. Hats off to them - they deserve a big thank you from the bicycling community."  However, Councilmember Danny Thomas, who championed the resolution, nevertheless made certain to stipulate that it wouldn’t apply to any projects funded under the current bond package, meaning we’d have to wait five or so years before this would take effect.
   
• 2005:
  Bicycle Advisory Council forms.  The citizen group advises the Urban Transportation Commission, which in turn advises the city council.  That’s the chain/path to effect change in the city:  BAC > UTC > Council.  (I can’t find the exact year the BAC formed, but I think this could be pretty close.)
   
  Clarke loses bid for Council.  I endorse Margot Clarke in her run for council, but she’s defeated.
   
• 2006:
   
  City continues to allow parking in bike lanes on Shoal Creek Blvd. I mounted a battle to try to get the City to ban parking in bike lanes, but they refused, even ignoring the advice of its own staff.  Some years later the City finally did agree to car-free bike lanes on that roadway.
  
  Bike Program gets a manager again. The city had axed the manager position for the Bicycle Program in 2001.  Five years later, they finally restored that position, with Annick Beaudet heading the office.  Beuadet and Public Works director Sondra Creighton pushed for the Program to be better staffed, and won approval for a new staff position in 2007 and another in 2008.  Also, as the Chronicle notes, “Creighton also elevated the bicycle program manager within the city org chart, a huge boost to the program’s ability to work collaboratively with department directors, council offices, and community partners.” (source)
  
  Attempt to revive the helmet law. Former mayor Bruce Todd asked Council to reinstate the all-ages helmet law.  Cyclists flooded council chambers to oppose it, and Council declined to reinstate the law.
  
  Only 2% of city transportation funds spent on cycling.  That’s $2M out of the $98.9M budget. (Bike Texas) 
  
  Cheating cyclists out of bond money.  Voters passed $150 million in bonds (Proposition 1, in 2000), including $20 million for bike/ped projects, to be spent over ten years.  In March 2006, Councilmember Raul Alvarez asked the city how the money had been spent so far.  The answer was that the first $67.2 million all went for highway SH-130 right of way, and not a penny for any of the other things promised to the bond voters on the ballot, including bike/ped projects.  As the result of Alvarez' request, $10 million was proposed, with about $5 million for sidewalks. (This item written by Roger Baker.)
   
  
• 2007: Street Smarts task force convened.  Mayor Wynn and Lance Armstrong launch the task force composed of bike advocates, medical/health professionals, and transportation planners, to come up with ways to make non-car commuting safer and to encourage it.  In 2008 the task force presents 100 recommendations to city council, including new street markings, bike route signs, cyclist safety education, a 3-foot passing law, and a ban on cars parking in bike lanes.  Most of the recommendations make it into the city’s 2009 Bicycle Plan, but the city doesn’t officially ban cars from parking in bike lanes until 2024.  The task force grew out of the 2006 helmet law push, with cyclists pointing out that a helmet law was insulting when the city wasn’t providing a safe riding experience.  (Statesman, Bike Facilities Toolbox report, Comprehensive Final Report, original project website, analysis by one of the members) 
• 
  
• 2008:
   
  Reaffirmed parking in bike lanes on Exposition Blvd.  Activists tried to get the city to ban parking in the bike lanes on Exposition, but were unsuccessful.  Some years later, the city did ban car-parking in the bike lanes.  (source)
  
  Barton Springs Rd. gets its first bike lanes.  (source) 
   
  Progress on the 1998 plan.  After ten years, only 35% complete.  The plan’s goal was to have 4% of Austinites bike to work by this year, but that figure has been stuck at around 1% from 1990-2025. (source 1, source 2)
• 
  
• 2009:
   
  Progress on the 1998 plan.  Only 58 miles of bike lanes added (5 miles per year) taking the total to 131 miles, but multi-use paths and designated shared lane and wide curb lane facilities exploded. (2009 Bicycle Plan, p. 10)
  
  New Bicycle Plan.  The City waited over a solid decade to update its first bicycle plan, but it’s huge and comprehensive, at nearly 600 pages (PDF).  Smartly, staff memorialized this right up front: “The history of bicycle planning in Austin proves that without a commitment to make bicycle transportation part of the budget process and to provide staff to carry out the plan, a multi-modal transportation system that includes bicycles will never be completed.”  The plan also recounted a history of the City’s bike planning efforts, which was invaluable to me in piecing together the early history for this article.  Council passed the plan 6-0. (6/11/2009 minutes)
  
  Three-foot passing ordinance.  Austin passed a law requiring vehicles to pass cyclists no closer than 3 feet, since Texas Governor repeatedly vetoed the legislature’s attempt to enact a statewide law.  The local ordinance was passed at the behest of the citizen-led Smart Streets Task Force. (§12-1-35, Bike Texas) 
  
  Austin gets its first sharrows.  (source)
   
  Dean Keeton gets bike lanes.  (source) 
  
  Lance Armstrong Bikeway.  In 1999, Yellow Bike co-founder Eric Anderson came up with the idea for a “Crosstown Bikeway” downtown, 5-6 miles of safe space for cycling from Mopac to 183 at Montopolis, partially along abandoned railway lines, mostly along 4th/5th Streets, and using a combination of bike lanes, shared lanes on low-traffic segments, and off-street paths. (map)  Anderson promoted his idea and won approval from City Council on 10/26/2000. (PDF of minutes, article mentioning approval)  Council then ridiculously renamed the project to The Lance Armstrong Bikeway, despite the fact that Armstrong was a sports cyclist, not a transportation cyclist, and had nothing to do with the project.  If they wanted to name it after someone, they should have named it after the idea’s progenitor and champion, Eric Anderson. (12/14/00 council minutes)  Their renaming decision came back to bite them when Armstrong was disgraced following revelations in 2013 that in his cycling career he had cheated.  The bikeway opened in 2009. (source) 


• 2010:
   
  Bike Program revival. The Chronicle refers to the Bicycle Program as “revived” and says that in 2009 it opened more thon 20 miles of new bike lanes, and that “Ten miles of new lanes opened in the last quarter of 2009 alone—more than in any full year of the city’s history—bringing Austin citywide to a total of more than 131 miles of bike lanes.”
  
  Failed effort to get a Bicycle Boulevard on Nueces.  The effort was started the previous year, but ultimately the city said no. (LoBV, Statesman) 
  
  
• 2011: Pfluger bridge finally reconnects with N. Lamar.  Ten years after the city built “The Bridge to Nowhere”, they finally built the extension to connect it to North Lamar Blvd., so cyclists can use it as an alternative to the car bridge over the river.
• 2012:  First Ciclovia.  The city’s Bike Program and Bike Texas host Austin’s first ciclovia, a temporary closing of streets to cars to provide a space space for walkers and cyclists.  The event is called “Viva Streets”, and is repeated yearly through 2015.  After a ten-year hiatus, the Ghisallo Cycling Initiative resurrects the event. (official 2012 website, Bike Texas’ 2012 announcement) 
• 2013:
  Downplaying climate change.  Mayor Lee Leffingwell, on the board of CAMPO, the regional transpo planning authority, voted to remove the phrase “climate change” as a goal in CAMPO’s long-term transportation plan.  If you think that climate change isn’t a problem, then you plan more for cars and less for bikes/ped/transit. (source)
  
  Protected Bike Lanes approved.  Car-free councilmember Chris Riley got the city to adopt the national NACTO standards for safe roadway design, which calls for signed pedestrian crossings and “protected” bike lanes, with some kind of physical barrier between the bike lane and the traffic lane, not just paint on the road.  The approval was just in principle, we still had to wait for a new Bicycle Plan to indicate where they’d be installed. (source)
• 2014:
  New Bicycle Plan, and Protected Bike Lanes.  This is when the city made the shift from mere bike lanes to “protected” bike lanes, with the flexible white poles (thanks to Chris Riley, see the 2013 entry).  They don’t 100% prevent cars from entering the bike lane, but they sure as hell discourage it.  And importantly, cyclists feel they’re safer and people are more likely to ride where they’re installed.
  
  The introduction to the plan was written by our hero, Chris Riley.
  
  The vision for the plan is that cycling should be accessible by "all ages and abilities", and calls for that network to be 370 miles. (source) 
  
  According to the 2023 plan, the 2014 was “part of the City’s first truly multimodal mobility infrastructure bonds of 2016, 2018, and 2020.” (full plan; backup link)  People for Bikes was impressed with the plan and ran an article highlighting some of the most important graphs.
  
  The plan notes that the bike network includes 210 miles of bike lanes, 2.6 miles of protected bike lanes, and 17.8 miles of buffered bike lanes, but doesn’t specify whether the protected and buffered lanes are included in the 210 miles figure.
  
  The Planning Commission initially did not approve the new bike plan, with one commission asking if a cost-benefit analysis had been done to evaluate the inconvenience to drivers where a car lane had been removed, concluding with "I just think the money could be better spent on more needed services that are actually going to be utilized than an empty [bike] lane." (Austin Monitor)  Eventually, it was passed by the Planning Commission and City Council. 
  
  Southern Walnut Creek Trail Opens.  Austin’s first urban trail (actually a paved path) opens, at 7.3 miles.  In 2024 it will be extended all the way to Manor, TX.
   
  
• 2015:
  No increase in percentage of bike commuters.  The 1996/98 Bicycle Plan called for cyclists to be 8% of commuters by this year, but that figure has been stuck at around 1% from 1990-2025.
   
  UT closes access to Speedway from MLK.  This destroys an important bike thoroughfare for cyclists.  In 2000 they had banned biking between 21st and 26th/Dean Keeton.  In 2021 The Bicycle Advisory Council called on UT to provide a connection for cyclists between Speedway and MLK but I don’t think anything ever became of it.
   
• 2019:
  Car-free bike lanes on Shoal Creek.  In 2006 I led an effort to get the city to ban parking in the bike lanes on Shoal Creek Blvd., but failed.  But the city finally did it combined with a redesign of the roadway, commencing in 2019 and finishing in 2020.  How did the city finally get the guts to do this, considering that even in 2019 a full 70% of residents along the street wanted to be able to continue to park in the bike lanes?  The cynic in me says it could be because in 2006 councilmembers were elected at-large, while by 2019 Austin had switched to district-based representation, so the Shoal Creek residents had only a lone councilmember representing them.  (KUT, Community Impact) 
  
  Status of the network.  The build-out of the bike plan was 34% complete, with a target of 50% by the end of 2020, and 80% by 2025.  The article also notes that 38-45% of residents surveyed were interested in cycling but concerned about safety, while 39-45 said there’s no way they would bike. (source) 
   
• 2020: BCycle becomes MetroBike.  Austin’s docked rental bike system was started in 2013 by Elliott McFadden as BCycle.  In 2020 it was rebranded to MetroBike, to operate as part of CapMetro.  By 2024 it had grown to 80 stations and 800 bikes, compared to the original 11 stations and 110 bikes. (Chronicle, Bosch, KXAN, Austin Monitor) 
   
• 2023: New Bicycle Plan.  The 2014 plan called for a total network of 430 miles, with an “all ages and abilities” priority network of 370 miles.  The 2023 plan explodes the priority network to 1200 miles. Since the last plan, the number of installed network miles has more than doubled (plan p. 11), and a Chronicle article notes that 56% of the previous plan’s 430 miles is completed.  A nice color-coded map shows the additional streets from the 2023 plan superimposed over the existing network. (Plan PDF)
   
• 2024:
  Finally banned parking in bike lanes.  The City finally bit the bullet. (source)  Took them f**king long enough!
  
  Austin to Manor, TX bike path.  The focus here on Bicycle Austin is on bikes for transportation rather than sports or recreation, but maybe this path will attract commuters from Bastrop?  So anyway, Austin first built the Southwest Walnut Creek Trail in 2014, which went most of the way to Manor, but in 2024 finally completed it.
  
  “Big Loop” around Austin planned.  Austin starts planning to connect the various trails/paths in a big loop around the City. (KXAN) 
   
• 2024-26: Airport Blvd. bike path.  One of the most notoriously bike-inaccessible roadways got a spiffy bike path installed, completely segregated from Airport Blvd.  Here's the City's project page, and a local news article.
• 2025:  Ciclovia returns.  After a 10-year hiatus, Austin gets a new Ciclovia event, this time hosted by the Ghisallo Cycling Initiative, in Mueller. (website)
• 
  

Funding

This is an incomplete list, but I know there were bond elections to fund bike projects in at least 2000, 2006, 2016, 2018, and 2020.

Where do we go from here?

When I started in advocacy, there was no Bicycle Program within the City government, and no advocacy group pushing for things like bike lanes.  Then in the 1990s we got both.  Our advocacy group was the League of Bicycling Voters, which transformed into Bike Austin.  But then Bike Austin went away, purportedly combining with two other groups to form a new general alt-transpo group (Safe Streets), but if they're doing something visible for cyclists, it’s not very visible.

But did Bike Austin’s demise leave a big hole?  Not really.  Because in the intervening years, the City charged ahead with building hundreds of miles of quality bike facilities, updating their formal Plan every several years.  They also finally (2024) banned parking in bike lanes.  So, with the City doing just about everything we want in terms of facilities, it kind of seems like “Mission Accomplished”.  What is there left to do?

To answer that question, we need to ask another:  what are the problems that remain?

An obvious one is that despite hundreds of miles of bike lanes, it’s still dangerous to bike.  Cyclist fatalities are actually going up.

Sources: Vision Zero ATX and Austin Police Dept.

It’s not entirely clear as to why.  One data researcher is trying to find out.

And unless we can find out why, then we can’t really address the problem.

So, that’s where advocates could start.  And besides that, I have an entire page devoted to what aspiring bike advocates can do.  (Me, I’m mostly retired after decades of doing this.)