AUSTIN -- A group of Austin eighth-graders are taking on one of our city's biggest challenges - traffic.
As part of a class project, St. Gabriel's Catholic School students have been using geometry to find innovative solutions to fight gridlock within the city. The areas they're focusing on include I-35, the Pennybacker Bridge, downtown Austin and the 2244/2222 parallel.
Monday afternoon the students presented their solutions to Austin City Council Member Ann Kitchen, chair of the city's Mobility Committee.
"They understand that we can't all be in the same place at the same time, and that's what congestion is. So we need to think about ways to deal with that," Council Member Kitchen said. "I was very impressed with the way that they were thinking. They were identifying very real-world problems and thinking about what can be done to fix them."
Cathryn Gunawan's solution to congestion on 360 near the Pennyback Bridge was adding additional bridges to both sides of 360 at the Pennybacker Bridge. She said the bridges would connect to other main roads instead of 360, giving drivers more options to get to their destinations.
"I really wanted to solve the traffic problem through 360 because I travel on 360 every day to get to and from school and other places as well," Gunawan said. "I came up with bridges on either side that travel to other main roads because some people do not want to stay on 360 because they go through 360 to get to their destination."
After the presentation wrapped up, Kitchen talked to students about the future of transportation within the city. She talked to them about creating dedicated lanes for testing autonomous vehicles and adding more charging stations for electric vehicles throughout the city. She also talked about the possibility of creating charging stations you can drive your electric vehicle over.