The City of Austin is opening a stretch of 6th Street to vehicles on Friday and Saturday nights. As part of that, the city has been installing new safety devices that keep people on newly-expanded and protected sidewalks.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis announced the change Wednesday, saying keeping people off the road is simply a matter of safety.
She said reopening the street to vehicle traffic is also necessary because blocking it off requires a lot of police resources while APD struggles with officer shortages.
Davis said the goal is to protect people visiting the area all days of the week, and not just on weekends.
“A key part of this initiative was to develop a plan that would increase pedestrian safety, decrease the number of officers being injured and the need to respond to resistance,” she said. “And also making the experience for those visiting and those who live here, who come down to 6th Street, more enjoyable.”
Starting this weekend, visitors will see newly expanded sidewalks with rubber curbs and fencing. First responders say this will not change their presence downtown and hopefully will allow them to respond to more areas of downtown, and not just 6th Street.
The stretch of 6th from I-35 to Congress Avenue has been closed to traffic on weekend nights for decades. The area is a nightlight destination filled with restaurants, bars, clubs, and live music and comedy venues.
After a mass shooting in 2021, the city launched a safety initiative that included adding more street lights and installing road barriers.
Last summer, Austin’s Downtown Commission recommended surrounding the entertainment district with 65 removable steel-rod barriers. The barriers would be put in place every Thursday and removed on Sundays, at a cost to the city of more than $500,000.
How best to protect people visiting entertainment districts has been at the forefront of many people’s minds after a man killed at least 14 people when he drove into a crowd in New Orleans on New Year’s Day.
But the City of Austin had been considering these changes before the New Orleans attack. Mayor Kirk Watson calls them necessary safety improvements and said they will continue to go forward despite some concerns.
“Our downtown needs a little bit of renovation and this is one element of that,” Watson said. “The changes you’ve seen on how we approach safety here are part of a larger effort to re-energize, renew and renovate 6th Street. We want to create a district that is not just connected, but integrated, with the rest of downtown, and that is not how it feels right now.”
The city started reopening the road to traffic on Thursdays and Sundays at the beginning of December. Chief Davis said that has gone well and will now be expanded to the full weekend.
She said the police department will assess how things are going and make adjustments as needed.
