Concerns aired about Lost Creek Blvd.

Commercial traffic, speeders and cut-throughs prompt city to seek remedy plans.

Lost Creek residents might hear from the city of Austin by the end of the year about a plan to tackle increasing traffic on the community’s main thoroughfare, Lost Creek Boulevard, city officials said.

The Lost Creek Civic Organization hosted a panel discussion this month so residents could air their traffic concerns with the city’s Transportation Department.

“We conducted a survey a couple of months ago about issues, and one of the things that came up in the comments section over and over was safety and security, mostly related to Lost Creek Boulevard,” civic organization president Paul Schumann said.

“It’s a combination of impacts — it’s cut through traffic, it’s commercial traffic that goes through . ... Plus people speed on it. The speed limit is 35 miles per hour most of the way, and a very high percentage of people speed.”

Schumann said that residents of Lost Creek, like much of Austin, have felt the effects of navigation apps such as Waze and Google Maps, which often encourage drivers to leave congested main arterial roads and to cut through smaller side streets to get to their destination more quickly.

Anna Martin, area engineer for Lost Creek, said the city of Austin has done some data gathering of the traffic on Lost Creek Boulevard, but needs to analyze the information before a plan can be formulated.

“What’s concerning to (residents) is Lost Creek Boulevard itself, because it has a really high traffic volume and residents have speeding concerns,” Martin said. “The local area traffic management program is a request-based program . ... A study and evaluation is done to see if a street is eligible for the program. Lost Creek (Boulevard) is definitely eligible, but since it meets certain criteria, we’ll want to take a larger look at it.”

Martin said that since Lost Creek Boulevard is an “arterial carrying a significant amount of traffic volume,” the solution is unlikely to come down to speed cushions. Road restriping, pedestrian islands and speed radar signs are among the possible solutions to slow traffic.