AUSTIN, Texas — We’re proud to launch our newest 10 p.m. KVUE news feature: What the Beep? This weekly news segment puts you behind the wheel. Tell us your traffic troubles, weird intersections, long lights, bumper-to-bumper mayhem, and we'll get answers from the people responsible.
Our first stop: South by Southwest (SXSW). It's one of Austin's crown jewel events.
It attracts a ton of people. Last year, 73,000 people attended the film festival, 75,000 filled the conference meetings, and more than 160,000 showed up to listen to music. But of course with all those people in town, there are drawbacks.
There will be dozens of blocked streets and intersections in downtown, and there's something else gunking up the gears. In previous years SXSW’s opening week paralleled spring break for Austin schools. So many Austinites were gone on vacation. Not so this year. Spring break won't be happening during SXSW’s first week, which is next week.
If you are attending any SXSW events, there's always MetroRail to take you to Republic Square, special routes on Capital Metro buses, rideshare services, bicycles and your own two feet.
If you do have to drive in Austin, our free KVUE app is a great way to keep up with traffic congestion.
Bottom line: Unless you're attending any of the SXSW events, forget about going downtown. If you do need to go downtown, check out our list of alternative ways to get there.
And for a map of street closures for SXSW, click here.
Finally, what roads get you frustrated? Let us know and we’ll get answers from our area traffic planners to see what’s going to be done – if anything – to make improvements. Send us an email to whatthebeep@kvue.com