Austin transportation staff proposes scoring framework to rank projects for 2026 bond

Transportation and Public Works staff outlined a six-anchor, metrics-driven framework March 24 to help score and prioritize transportation projects for Austin’s potential 2026 bond.

The department told the Bond Election Advisory Task Force it will use the City Strategic Plan anchors—equity, affordability, innovation, sustainability and resiliency, proactive prevention, and community trust—to evaluate projects and programs and translate them into measurable criteria such as equity analysis zones, transit route importance, sidewalk and bike facility gaps, high-crash network rankings and project readiness.

Transportation officer Michelle Marks told the task force the approach ties directly to the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan (ASMP) and the citywide strategic plan. “We have a vision that Austin is the model for safe, reliable and sustainable transportation,” Marks said. She said staff plan to quantify needs across the city, score projects against the anchors and return to the task force later with a scored and prioritized list of projects for further sensitivity testing.

Why it matters: the department said it faces a large universe…