The City of Austin survey closes tomorrow, Thursday 8/31, for your input on the design for the Red Line Trail from Braker Lane to Northern Walnut Creek Trail (NWCT). The Red Line Parkway Initiative certainly supports the project, but there are a few items missing and unaddressed issues remaining. We ask for your help in amplifying our request to resolve these and make the project better for our generation and future generations.

We encourage you to include these highlights in your comments at the end of the city’s survey:

• Please work with the Red Line Parkway Initiative and Shoal Creek Conservancy on improving the trail alignment for the last quarter-mile as it approaches Walnut Creek Trail. There are other alignment options that would be safer and more enjoyable for trail users and would have less or similar environmental impact.

• Please describe how shade can be incorporated into the project, including trees and large bushes. This includes specifying on the schematics (design map) where these shade elements can be placed.

• Please describe where a future, second parallel trail can fit, in order to accommodate increased numbers of walking, bicycling, and other trail users, especially from Braker Lane to the future Broadmoor Station and Uptown ATX. This area will be among the densest places in our metro area for residents and jobs, and this trail corridor is the only one planned for the current population and the even higher population this area will have soon.

• Please share with the public the design for the Red Line Trail on the Austin Energy site from Kramer Lane to the Schwab site. It is critical that our public agencies remain transparent, so that citizens and decision-makers have a basis for making informed decisions, and so that our government agency staff stay connected with the public whom they serve.

Read more about the project at the City of Austin website: Red Line Trail 60% Design Virtual Open House. You can also take the survey at this direct link.

Thank you for your participation, and please reach out to us if you have any questions or suggestions.