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AUSTIN, Texas – Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin are working with the city of Austin to provide more transportation to Georgian Acres, a neighborhood in northeast Austin known as a “transit desert.”
The term coined by Junfeng Jiao, an associate professor in the community and regional planning program, means that the area has more transportation needs than is available. The new project will help solve this problem by building an intelligent mobility hub on Wonsley Drive near Gessner Drive, just off Interstate 35 and US 183.
The hub will have bus stops, electric scooters, and pick-up and drop-off points for ridesharing. It will also have resources like an on-site health clinic and pantry. The team recently received a $ 1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to aid in funding.
“When we started this project, we reached out to residents of Georgian Acres and asked them what they wanted to see in their community instead of telling them what we wanted to build,” Jiao said. “We wanted to make sure the hub was tailored to their specific needs.”
In addition to providing transportation to the Georgian Acres neighborhood, the project also provides jobs for people recently released from prison who are looking for work. The research team has partnered with the nonprofit Jail to Jobs, which will hire two people to drive circulating buses around the neighborhood to take residents to their homes and grocery stores to improve access to groceries in an area that too is considered a food desert. Capital Metro provides the buses.
“We’re literally saving their lives, taking them off the road and teaching them a skill that can change the rest of their lives,” said Jeremias Cooper, Travis County Director of Jail to Jobs.
The UT research team, which includes members of the Faculty of Public Affairs, Information, and Economics, identified the location for the mobility center through a data-driven process that examined travel patterns, mobility infrastructure such as bus and bike routes, and socio-economic status in order to assess the demand for neighborhood transport systems for neighborhoods across Austin.
“Georgian Acres is connected on all sides by highways and high-speed roads, making it difficult for community members to get in and out of the neighborhood,” said Alex Payson of Austin Transportation’s Smart Mobility Office. “It’s also a traditionally low-income community, which means that affordability is a significant barrier to transportation for these people. We hope this community hub project will provide a variety of affordable transportation options and allow community members to choose the modes of transportation that best suit their needs. ”
The project’s researchers are involved in the UT-Grand Challenge Good Systems, the aim of which is to develop artificial intelligence technologies that benefit society. The project is in line with its goals of building smarter cities that use data and information to help governments better serve their residents.
The project is designed in such a way that it can be implemented in other parts of the city while at the same time providing resources that are unique to this area. It can also provide information on how the city and Capital Metro decide to develop their future transportation hubs as part of Project Connect, the new transit plan that includes a light rail system.
“We’re working on something that is relatively new,” said Jason JonMichael, associate director of Austin Transportation. “The regional transport models that UT is working on help us understand the demands on the transport system now and in the future. Nobody has ever gone deep into the neighborhood to find out. We are pleased that the NSF has the vision that this is a special area where we need additional research and development. “
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