We have to look at: (a) peak use days, and (b) non-peak use days.
Diana Prechter volunteered to count cars in Zilker Park’s lots on a sample set of 10 days in April 2023. These were days that bridged winter, spring and early summer temperatures. Sometimes counting was done twice a day. She is continuing to collect that data into summer 2023. The data collected so far is summarized in this table:
DP’s data suggests the following:
The number of non-peak days = approximately 270 days of the year.
On non-peak days, occupancy rates days rarely reach as high as 50%.
This means that even on busy days of swimming and recreational sports, there are over 1,000 empty car-parking places in the main body of the park (off Barton Springs Road between the creek and Lady Bird Lake).
No supplemental parking capacity is currently required on 270 non-peak days per year.
The number of peak days = approximately 80 days of the year.
Peak days occur for two reasons:
(A) Special events scheduled by Zilker Park’s resident operators (Zilker Lodge, Zilker Botanical Gardens, Austin Nature Center, Zilker Hillside Theater, Barton Springs Pool “free days” or full moon swims, for example.)
To improve visitor access during scheduled special event peak days, we suggest the following:
• An internal shuttle bus from the Butler Landfill Gravel Lot to the specific park destination. We see that the Butler Landfill Gravel Lot has a parking capacity of 800 cars and appears at present to be under-utilized.
• Formalize the existing parking area under TxDoT MoPac (south-side overpass) at Rollingwood Drive. This was also recommended by the ZPVP. It would add some parking capacity without sacrificing Zilker Park land. A new crosswalk at this intersection would serve disc golf players and slow traffic entering the park from MoPac.
• Enhanced multimodal access points. For example, a new “car drop-off zone” on Barton Springs Road directly across from Zilker Botanical Gardens (location is in the very center of the park; provides equidistant pedestrian access to all points inside the park).
• Shuttle service from One Texas Center.
• Additional shuttle service from Mueller Development (Austin Energy Headquarters garage, capacity 361 cars, a 20-minute shuttle ride to Zilker Park); also a shuttle from Barton Creek Mall where there is a CapMetro #30 bus-stop (a 20-minute shuttle ride to Zilker Park).
(B) Peak days are also summer weekends for recreational activities and visitors to Zilker Botanical Gardens, Austin Nature Center, Barton Springs Pool. (We are using the City’s definition of peak use calendar days; these are the days when all parking is paid-parking; no free parking. Expanded to Friday, Saturday, Sunday in 2023.)
Possible solutions to meet peak demand for Zilker Park’s recreational users on 80 days of the year:
• A better version of the Zilker Summer Shuttle Bus. We recommend: Circulate the 2 buses instead of having them sit parked at One Texas Center. Provide service every 15 minutes (completely possible with only 2-buses needed from each parking source and a 20 minute maximum shuttle ride to the park). Possible additional shuttle service could be added from Mueller Development (Austin Energy Headquarters garage, capacity 361 cars, a 20-minute shuttle ride to Zilker Park); also a shuttle from Barton Creek Mall where there is a CapMetro #30 bus-stop (a 20-minute shuttle ride to Zilker Park). This service should start early and run until sunset, e.g. 8 am-8 pm. We recommend that Council change the management of the shuttle bus program from PARD to the Austin Transportation Department.
• A Zilker Park “parking permit reservation system” on peak use days: Park visitors would purchase a “day-long permit” either online or by phone in advance. A guesstimate of a safe number of pre-sold parking spaces would be about 1,000 as this program is initiated. It requires controlled access points to enter Zilker Park similar to controls implemented for other large-scale events in the park.
• Create a policy to implement “Green Days in Zilker Park” and increase number of days year-over-year. On these days, PARD would (a) close Barton Springs Road for through traffic and (b) create signage alerting Zilker Park visitors that parallel parking is not permitted along Lou Neff Road on Green Days and that bike riders are recommended to ride on Lou Neff Road and not the Butler Hike & Bike Trail (the trail portion as it follows the perimeter of Zilker Park). This would reduce dust and danger for pedestrians on the trail on peak summer days.
• Incentivize Zilker Park visitors to ride the shuttle bus by offering “one free admission to (eg. Zilker Botanical Gardens, Austin Nature Center, or Barton Springs Pool) this weekend when you show a stamped shuttle ticket.”
