Thar She Glows: What’s Up With the Signal at Fourth and I-35?

The intersection in question (Photo by Benton Graham)

Bike lanes and sidewalks are popping up all over Austin. Look no further than nonprofit PeopleForBikes calling it out as a “city on the rise” in its “2024 Best Places to Bike” ratings. But biking on the Fourth Street path is a uniquely pleasant experience where bikes and scooters buzz around safely separated from cars, dog walkers use the sidewalk, the MetroRail chugs along, and a sparse trickle of cars populate the road. In many ways, the route resembles the type of transportation utopia to which the city aspires.

However, there has long been a problem with this route: I-35. Once a person on the bike path reaches the I-35 frontage road, a pleasant commute turns into a game of Frogger (h/t to the city employee who planted this 1980s video game reference in my brain). The unshaded wait for a break in car traffic could last what feels like an eternity.

That experience appears to be a thing of the past with the newest traffic signal at I-35 and Fourth. The Austin Transportation and Public Works Department (TPW) activated the traffic lights in mid-June with the Texas Department of Transportation’s approval, according to a newsletter from TPW.

“I think it does show how far we have to go in building a safe, walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly city if such a prominent crossing did not have a light in the year 2024,” said Adam Greenfield, director of advocacy with Safe Streets Austin. He added that the light sends a strong “signal” about how the city is encouraging alternative modes of transportation. (Greenfield declined to confirm if the pun was intended.)

“The signal here is very complex with regard to the multimodal crossings, rail and frontage road operations, so the project involved collaboration among three entities: the City of Austin, CapMetro, and TxDOT,” TPW’s Jack Flagler said in an email. “This required a high level of coordination and approval from multiple stakeholders. The signal itself operates in coordination with the rail gate arms and will be able to adjust in height as the TxDOT Capital Express Central project progresses.”

Flagler added that the pedestrian and bike signal turns green (or white) every minute if someone presses the button. During the signal’s first week in operation it experienced some equipment issues but has been running smoothly ever since.

Greenfield said he hopes for a future when signals might change more quickly for pedestrians and pointed to other cities that provide a countdown letting people know how long until the signal will change. The city spokesperson said that type of technology is not typical in the United States.

Room for improvement aside, Greenfield expressed some optimism about the city’s direction. As Project Connect, the I-35 expansion, and the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport overhaul hog the transportation spotlight, little tweaks to intersections, signals, and smaller roadways are already quietly changing the city’s transportation landscape. “Right now,” Greenfield said, “the city is really firing on all cylinders. Maybe that’s a regrettable car analogy.”