Reclaim Your Road This Summer With Austin’s Living Streets Program

Image: Austin Transportation and Public Works

Do you remember playing in the street? Sorry if this sounds too much like one of those memes about drinking from the hose, but seriously, that’s something kids used to do. The thrill of reclaiming these neighborhood spaces without the fear of getting hit by a car is within our grasp this summer thanks to the city’s Living Streets Program, which is now seeking new applications through October — and we’d like to see more neighborhoods get on board with opening their streets for people.

Austin’s ‘Living Streets’ Could Make Your Neighborhood Walkable Again

Introduced by Austin’s Transportation and Public Works Department as a more permanent version of the extremely popular traffic calming measures enabling socially distanced outdoor recreation during the pandemic, Living Streets is one of our favorite new city programs in years due to its winning combination of cost-effective simplicity and seriously transformative potential. Closing a street to major traffic using only a few plastic barriers and cones suddenly recontextualizes that space for its users, lifting the veil on the potential for walking and biking to be equally accommodated alongside cars — and since the Living Streets program’s temporary barriers still allow local traffic, deliveries, and emergency services, we’re really just simulating the experience of more permanent traffic calming infrastructure and pedestrian protection. Once residents have enjoyed their streets this way, they’re more likely to support making these changes permanent all over the city.

Summer is the perfect time to get outside & build community. ☀️😎

The Living Streets Program limits vehicle traffic on local streets to help communities walk, bike, gather and connect safely. 🚶‍♀️🚴‍♂️👋

Apply for a Living Street in your neighborhood here 👉 https://t.co/Dsq2ky4sKR pic.twitter.com/bKhEzgQSYF

— ATX Transportation and Public Works (@austinmobility) June 14, 2024

The program’s larger and longer-term Healthy Streets activations alongside its shorter-term Play Street and Neighborhood Block Party closures are possible on countless residential streets all over Austin, with thousands of potentially eligible areas highlighted in light blue on the map below — but as you can see, only about a dozen separate sites across town are currently participating:

 
 
We think Austin could bump those numbers up, and this summer is a great time to start the application process with the city. You’ll need to secure signatures in support of the Living Streets activation from at least 60% of your neighbors on the street in question, and getting all those people on board might be a challenge — but with a number of streets already pedestrianized under the program in central neighborhoods like Hyde Park, you at least have some good examples of its potential on the board. We’d like to challenge all of our readers to get a Living Street going somewhere in their own neighborhoods, and if you do, please tell us about your experience and send over some photos for a future article. We’ll totally make you famous!