Remember last month when President Obama came to town? The city feared his visit would bring along a traffic nightmare.

The opposite happened. Austinites listened to the Mayor’s recommendations to work from home and the city saw astonishing reductions in traffic. Travel times on that day were down by 60 percent on MoPac and 22 percent along our major downtown corridors during peak hours.

Now, the Mayor is trying to do it again. Last week, he announced the “Austin Don’t Rush” initiative. On May 11th he is asking Austinites to really think about a different way to get to work (other than driving alone in a car during rush hour). Alternative options can include anything from carpooling to riding a bike. To make things even easier, Capital Metro is offering free service on all of its buses and trains all day long.

“We did it for the President,” Mayor Adler said in a press release. “We can do it for us. If each of us does a little, we can all do a lot.” More info>>