Bobby Sandoval recoils at the idea of driving to work.
Too many cars, too many bad drivers, too many hours wasted in gridlock and far, far too many infuriating moments on the road finally pushed the Austin teacher to ditch her car three years ago and ride her bike 5.5 miles to Marshall Middle School.
She loves it and now encourages students and their families to cycle to school too.
“It’s just fun,” she said. “You can go out and get around and you have fun with the people you’re with.”
As Austin traffic worsens and the region grows, this shift is exactly what Movability, a nonprofit focused on reducing single-occupancy driving, wants to see: more people using alternative modes of transportation.
A recent Movability survey of 1,800 people in six Central Texas counties by the nonprofit shows the region is slowly moving in that direction, said Kate Harrington, Movability’s interim director. The region’s drive-alone rate for the region is 68%, a 6% decrease since 2019, the year the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan was launched. The City of Austin wants that number down to 50 percent by 2039.
“There’s no silver bullet,” Harrington said. “I know it’s slower than everyone wants, but it takes time to build out new things.”
The findings come as Austin drivers face worsening congestion from construction, population growth and more workers returning to their offices. Multiple organizations across the region are working to get more vehicles off the roads.
Movability helps employers develop transportation plans for their employees that expand access to public transportation passes and subsidize carpool, van pool and shuttle programs.
The city’s Transportation and Public Works Department pays trained cyclists to lead students biking to school. It also runs the Get There ATX campaign to educate people on other ways to get around.
Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which oversees transportation planning for the region, is working to increase carpooling to schools. AISD is teaming up with Movability to support students and staff to find other ways to school other than driving.
“Our goal isn’t to have everyone stop driving alone,” Harrington said. “That’s not realistic. If we can get 10 to 20% of people to shift their commute mode, even a couple days a week, it really makes a big difference in the way traffic flows.”
Survey shows modest shift away from driving
The Movability survey, which is funded by the city, is a snapshot of where the region is right now. Respondents came from Hays, Travis, Williamson, Bastrop, Burnet, and Caldwell counties. Among its findings:
- The average commute for the region is more than 11.6 miles each way.
- The drive-alone rate was highest in Hays County (76.7%), Williamson County (68.3%) and Travis County (58.4%)
- The carpooling and ridesharing commuting rate in Travis, Williamson, and Hays counties is 7.6%, a 31.2% decrease since 2019. It has, however, increased slightly over the last two years.
“While I can’t say this is the only factor, I feel pretty certain that the decrease in carpooling from 2019 was because of Covid,” Harrington said. “There was a lot of fear and resistance to shared modes — carpools, vanpools, transit — for over a year after the first wave of Covid. Now we’re starting to see the numbers climb back up, but they’re still short of where they were in 2019.”
Biking to work is slightly down in Travis, Hays and Williamson counties, dipping from 3% to 2%. Commuters like Sandoval are trying to change that.
Embracing biking to work
Sandoval, a special education teacher, has long enjoyed cycling. But she couldn’t commute to work for years when she lived in South Austin because the lack of bike lanes on busy roads made it too dangerous. Three years ago, after moving to the Mueller area, she began cycling to work.
Most mornings, she heads out in a tank top and bike shorts. She packs her e-bike’s saddlebags with work clothes and personal items. Sometimes her 11-year-old son hops into the back seat and the two head to school listening to a mix of contemporary, classic rock or jazz music on a portable speaker.
It energizes her and it feels good to be outside, Sandoval said. When one of the family’s cars died, they didn’t replace it.
Now she’s active in Austin ISD’s efforts to get more kids cycling or walking to school.
“I feel like, this year, I see at least a handful of other families that are riding to my son’s school with their children in tow,” Sandoval said. “That is just so exciting,”
