Biking
Biking in Austin is becoming more and more accessible with over 230 miles of bike lanes already built. With every bike lane added, with every person out riding bikes, drivers and people in general become more familiar with, aware of, and supportive of biking as a form of commute.
Biking is not just healthy but also offers many other benefits:
- It’s much cheaper than driving. Even an e-bike uses just 5-10 cents of electricity per charge and a typical e-bike has a range of 30-60 miles.
- It’s significantly less strain on infrastructure. Bikes cause almost zero damage to roads. Larger, heavier vehicles are responsible for road damage.
- Biking is generally a much more pleasant experience than driving. You feel a lot more present, more attached to the world around you, people wave and smile, and you simply move around at more human and lower stress speeds.
Getting Around
Biking in Austin is becoming more and more accessible with over 230 miles already built. With every bike lane we add we get more and more people out enjoying a simply more pleasant way of commuting.
It’s also important to note that not every commute is fit for biking and keeping your safety and comfort in mind is always the most important thing. Manual biking is most suitable to trips of 3 miles or less which make up over half of all trips!
More distance
E-bikes can extend your biking range considerably, and 80% of trips are 10 miles or less!So if you want to start biking check out the links below to find a bike, or start planning routes and finding things that are reasonable and comfortable for you to reach.
AAA Bike Network
The city of Austin has planned out an All Ages and Abilities network with the goal of creating over 800 miles of bike lanes across Austin. You can find plans, analysis, and maps of the city’s biking network within their AAA biking network tool here. It’s a great place to get started with seeing what bike lanes are near you.
Scroll through to find regularly updated maps of what’s been finished, what’s currently being built, and what’s coming! This tool also contains a list of each project, its status, and it’s style (known as a treatment type). Style varies from painted bike lanes to fully protected and separated lanes. You can view this info in table format or by clicking on a particular segment on the build-out map.
Austin 2023 Bicycle Plan
Austin recently updated its AAA network plan to make cycling an integral part of the city’s transportation network. The biggest improvements over the 2014 plan are a number of new street identified for the AAA network and a commitment to concrete barrier or planter protection for all protected bike lanes when the network reaches full build-out. You can read the full updated AAA 2023 Bicycle Plan here.
Austin Energy e-Ride Rebate
Austin Energy is currently offering a significant rebate on electric e-Bikes, scooters, mopeds, and motorcycles purchased in Austin. The rebate ranges from $200-$600 depending on the price of the vehicle and there is an even larger rebate of $300-$1,300 for those customers on Austin Energy’s Customer Assistance Program (CAP). You can learn more about the program on Austin Energy’s website.
Biking Route Applications
The biggest and most popular mapping apps unfortunately don’t always do the best job giving you the best biking routes. They’re still very car-focused and as such tend to not consider the various side streets, short cuts, and slightly longer but safer routes that most bike riders prefer. Fortunately there are many apps available to help you plan your routes such as: