AURA’s Transit-Oriented Austin Petition

(See the city council candidates who have signed the pledge at AustinNeedsTransit.com.)

Austin's streets are full. Moving more people is going to require a much better public transit system. Proposition 1’s urban rail plan is controversial, but the need to improve our transit system is not. I want Austin to be a transit-oriented city, and I want our leaders to make this goal a top priority.

Austin is an economic success story. Our economy grows even when they’re shrinking in the rest of the country. But our transportation situation is truly an emergency that threatens to end our winning streak. If people can’t get to their jobs, those jobs will go to other cities, and some Austinites will have to move to other cities to find jobs. It could be my friends. It could be me. I want Austin’s leaders to do everything they can to prevent that from happening.

Many of our streets can’t be expanded. Transit is the most efficient way to increase the people-moving capacity of our street network. The next time transit is on the ballot in Austin, it won’t be controversial. I want our leaders to follow these principles as we plan our transit system so the benefits will be clear to the whole city: