The Austin community will be able to give their thoughts on Sixth Street renovation options in a public input survey open until Oct 19. The survey provides three possible alternatives for the future of Sixth Street.
The first alternative adds bike and scooter lanes on both sides of the street with places dedicated for drop-offs from vehicles. The second option has a bike lane on one side and a ride drop-off on the other. The third option adds only a car drop-off on one side.
“The historic Sixth Street is one of the most iconic places in Austin,” said Romani Lalani, a capital improvement program manager for the city. “The whole goal of this project is to identify a long-term vision for Sixth Street between I-35 and Congress Avenue.”
While the public input survey will have “significant influence” over how the city chooses to renovate Sixth Street, the city also has to consider financial, technical and practical constraints, Lalani said.
“We’re using these three (alternatives) as kind of a starting point for what we do, and then we’ll continue to have conversations, and more things will be discovered as we go through the design process,” Lalani said. “It is possible that it doesn’t look exactly the way that alternative one or alternative two or alternative three looks like.”
Accounting senior Ankitha Gantasala said she doesn’t think a bike lane is necessary because she doesn’t see many people biking or scootering on Sixth Street, but she liked the third option, which would only add a car drop-off lane. She said she now plans to participate in the public input survey.
“(The third alternative) could make the community safer,” Gantasala said, “They’ve already started doing that with the barricades … but I think the car drop-off lanes could definitely make it safer and more efficient.”
Neuroscience junior Ashley Hehenberger said she did not like any of the options and said she felt the city doesn’t want “Sixth Street to be Sixth Street” anymore.”
“I don’t really see a need to change it especially when it has such a big economic impact on the city,” Hehenberger said.
Lalani said she would love to see anyone who has an opinion on the street fill out the survey, even if they just live in the area and don’t really go to Sixth Street.
“It’s an opportunity for people’s voices to be heard,” Lalani said. “We would encourage people to let us know how they feel.”
