A $1 million grant will help the University of Texas at Austin, Austin Transportation Department and local nonprofit Jail to Jobs build and evaluate a community mobility hub to address community-identified challenges in north Austin's Georgian Acres neighborhood. Mobility Hubs are places in a community that bring together public transit, bike share, car share, and other ways for people to get to where they want to go without a private vehicle.
The project team, led by the Principal Investigator, Junfeng Jiao, Associate Professor, Community and Regional Planning program at UT School of Architecture and Jason JonMichael, Assistant Director with Austin Transportation Smart Mobility, proposed a solar-powered hub within Austin's Georgian Acres community. The hub will provide access to a neighborhood bike system, a bike-share station, e-scooter stations and more while offering free WiFi and other community services such as a mobile health clinic and food pantry.
Georgian Acres is a North Austin neighborhood bound by Rundberg Lane to the north, US 183 to the south, I-35 to the east and Lamar Boulevard to the west. It is what Jiao considers a “transit desert,” referring to the area’s high demand for transportation service but low supply. Commute times in Georgian Acres are 67% longer than the city average.