Rainey Street Pedestrian Improvements

WGI engaged in a neighborhood-wide transportation planning effort for the Rainey Neighborhood near Downtown Austin. The area was unique in that it was rezoned as a central business district after decades as a single-family neighborhood. The area has transitioned to a commercial and late-night entertainment district and is further transitioning to a significant high-rise area with residential condominiums, apartments, and dense office space. The right-of-way in the area is significantly constrained and the neighborhood is adjacent to a highly congested interstate highway. In addition, there are only a couple of paths into/out of the neighborhood for vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists, and the older street network is not friendly to larger transit/delivery vehicles.

WGI provided a comprehensive inventory of every mode within the area and conducted public workshops and stakeholder outreach meetings to determine the needs of the stakeholders. After identifying the transportation needs, WGI developed a comprehensive list of improvements focused on pedestrian, bicycle, and transit-oriented travel to create a vision for the neighborhood. Feasibility of the improvements and a timeline/cost analysis was completed for each improvement.

WGI also met with the development community to understand their area plans and how to leverage those projects into better transportation improvements areawide. The City and development community engaged with WGI for additional phases based on this initial work, including finalizing the improvement list, identifying potential funding sources, and detailed design of several improvements. Improvements are now in various stages of design and implementation.

Project Highlights:

• Urban revitalization
• Public workshops
• Community/neighborhood engagement
• Mobility studies
• Coordination with the City of Austin
• Identification of Constraints
• Plans included multimodal solutions