About DAPR

The Real Estate Council of Austin’s Downtown Austin Park and Ride (DAPR) is a proposal to quickly alleviate parking issues, reduce traffic, and move people around downtown efficiently.

Two major issues confront us today: a deficit of 2,500 parking spaces, growing to 7,500 over the next five years; and serious congestion resulting at this moment in having as many as 10 ‘failing’ intersections in the downtown area.

DAPR is the quick connection.

The DAPR plan is simple: construct five parking garages around the perimeter of downtown capable of holding an average of 1,000 vehicles each coupled with a rail-like, green technology, rubber-tire vehicle system to get parkers to downtown destinations. DAPR stations would incorporate GPS technology to provide real-time transit information to riders who would wait about 5 minutes on average.

Several plans ranging from commuter rail to circulators to street cars to improved bus routes are in the works. All will be important to downtown in the long-term. However, Austin needs a quicker connection solution.

In less than two years and for a total cost of around $100 million, we can have DAPR up and running. It can serve as an important connector for people and to other long-term transit plans.

Background

In the summer of 2007, The Real Estate Council of Austin (RECA) formed a Downtown Mobility Task Force. The Task Force is chaired by 2008 RECA president, Tom Terkel. Task force members include the following RECA Board Members; Brian Cassidy, Peter Cesaro, Craig Douglas, Kalinda Howe, John Lewis, Don Martin, Jeremy Smitheal, and Mike Weaver.

The task force hired HNTB to conduct a study of downtown traffic congestion and assist with formulating a solution that would meet the following goals:

	Take cars out of the most congested intersections
	Help improve Downtown mobility
	Locate garages at the perimeter of Downtown for easy access
	Complement and supplement portions of the ‘Dillo routes
	Complement future Downtown rail plans
	Use a rail-like, rubber-tired technology with LNG/green technology
	Develop a simple circulating loop route
	Create a number of limited stops along the route, built like rail stops and incorporating the latest GPS tracking/information technology
	And above all, the proposed system must be simple, but flexible, and cost-effective, assuring timely implementation

The task force looked at lots of different kinds of systems and technologies; a number of different kinds of parking facilities; 19 possible sites around the Central Business District where parking garage structures could be built and could have the most impact; and a variety of different possible circulator routes.
Throughout the process of developing this study, the RECA Mobility Task Force and HNTB met to discuss the project approach and ensure alignment with the City of Austin’s strategic growth initiatives.

The resulting proposal, Downtown Austin Park and Ride (DAPR), is simple: construct five parking garages around the perimeter of downtown capable of holding an average of 1,000 vehicles each, coupled with a rail-like, green technology, rubber-tire vehicle system to get parkers to downtown destinations.