Lower speed limits cut serious crashes, a city report finds. The Mobility Committee hears it Thursday with downtown street plans and Parmer Lane

Lower speed limits and traffic calming are working, according to a new city report. Crashes that killed or seriously injured someone fell 39% on neighborhood streets after Austin set a 25-mph default speed limit, city transportation staff wrote in a monthly mobility report prepared for the City Council's Mobility Committee.

The committee meets at 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, at City Hall. Council Members Paige Ellis and Zohaib "Zo" Qadri sponsor its agenda items. The agenda also includes downtown street plans and the Parmer Lane highway proposal.

What the speed report found

The report, Speed Management in Austin, looks at results since the city started its Speed Management Program in 2020. The mobility report lists these findings:

• Traffic calming: At treated locations, the share of drivers going at least 10 mph over the limit fell 78%, and crashes involving death or serious injury fell 33%.
• Major roads: Streets that got lower speed limits saw 14% less high-end speeding and 17% fewer crashes involving death or serious injury.
• Neighborhood streets: Those crashes fell 39% on residential streets after the 25-mph default covered hundreds of miles of them.

Staff say they will keep pairing lower limits with street changes, prioritized by speeding, crash risk and community need. The report also says the city's draft street lighting plan should reach 60% in December, with the final plan expected in early summer 2027.

Downtown streets

A staff presentation on the Austin Core Transportation (ACT) Plan, the downtown mobility plan, lists more than $1 billion in capital investment and four priority streets:

• Fifth and Sixth streets from North Lamar to Congress: conceptual design, with public engagement in 2027.
• Sixth Street from Congress to I-35: preliminary engineering is done, and staff are reviewing grants and private development partnerships to pay for it.
• Seventh and Eighth streets to I-35: interim projects are funded through TxDOT's I-35 Capital Express Central project, to be in place before ramp changes in 2033.

The first phase of Congress Avenue sidewalks, protected bike lanes and trees, between Cesar Chavez and Seventh, should be finished in late 2027. Light rail will move a planned bikeway from Third Street to Fourth.

Parmer Lane

The Urban Transportation Commission will brief the committee on its Oct. 6 and Nov. 10 actions, including recommendations on the CAMPO and TxDOT Parmer Lane project.

What our records add

The ACT Plan vote. The council adopted the plan on March 26 by a 9-1 vote, with Council Member Marc Duchen voting no and Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison absent.

The money for speed humps ran out. At an Aug. 6 budget meeting, Transportation and Public Works Director Richard Mendoza said the program's capital money was exhausted. The program got $7 million over six years from the 2020 bond, staff said. The council was then considering a budget amendment for more traffic calming.

Parmer. On Oct. 22 the council adopted Council Member Krista Laine's resolution asking CAMPO and TxDOT to put safety, walking, biking and transit first on Parmer. Our story explains the highway concept.

This year's toll. Our latest count of 2026 traffic deaths has the details.

What's next

The committee also sets its 2027 meeting dates. The Barton Springs Road Bridge open house is Monday, Nov. 16, 5 to 7 p.m., at the Dougherty Arts Center.