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Students in the UT Center for Transportation Research might leave a mark on Austin that will last long after they graduate by providing research for the city's development of land where Guadalupe Street and North Lamar Boulevard merge.
Pending approval of a final contract at today's Austin City Council meeting, the center will receive $100,000 to study mobility in the area.
The money will be used to help finance the center's Triangle Transportation Study on effective mobility in the area bounded by Guadalupe Street, North Lamar Boulevard and West 45th Street. The city's Triangle Project aims to increase development in the area to include a proposed grocery store, retail outlets, parking garages, apartments and restaurants - which could affect traffic levels in surrounding neighborhoods.
"The city approached the University for assistance, because we thought the work the Center for Transportation Research uses has a fresh approach to evaluating transportation problems within the Triangle Project," Triangle Project manager Janet Howard said. Limited funding available for locating an outside contractor for the study also played a part in the city's selection of the center, she said.
Randy Machemehl, a civil engineering professor, said the study started as a class project after he volunteered his students to analyze congestions in the area.
"The students are doing 100 percent of the work," Machemehl said. "What they are doing may serve as a guide for the city's project as it progresses."
In preparation for the project, Machemehl's class of 27 students was divided into five teams, focusing on five areas: pedestrian access, bicycle access, public transportation access and two teams for neighborhood access.
"The five teams by design will naturally have five different points of view, and we anticipate that they will have to come together to form a balanced and well-integrated plan to present to the city planners," Machemehl said. "It's very important they work together on this."
Machemehl said the students' work is in the beginning stages and will go through a series of refinements until the final plan is approved by the city and all of the stakeholders and neighborhoods involved in the Triangle Project.
The students will attend a minimum of three public meetings, at which they will present the scope of their research, their project overview and a schedule of completion to the Triangle Development board before presenting the study to the Austin City Council.
Project coordinator Nick Lownes, a civil engineering graduate student and teaching assistant for the Center for Transportation Research, said the project provides students with "real world" experience.
"The work that we do here has a chance to affect people's lives," Lownes said. "The biggest challenge I have is keeping everyone on task without trying to micromanage."
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