Road closures for Austin Trail of Lights

Today was a balmy 79 degrees Fahrenheit. Amazing December weather in Austin! And, yet, the orange barrel drums set up along the sidewalk on the MoPac access road reminded me that we are entering Trail of Lights season. This past Saturday was the lighting of the “tree” (in reality, a re-purposed Moon Tower with lights strung to the ground). I managed to avoid it.

Starting tomorrow, December 10th, Barton Springs Road will be closed from 5:30 – 11 pm every night through December 23rd. (Trail of Lights really only provides that much information: https://austintrailoflights.org/event-faqs/-street-closures). One of the seasons of the year when it saves me time to cycle instead of drive home from work!

Since a cold front with rain is supposed to roll in overnight, I will not be cycling to work tomorrow. However, hopefully by Wednesday, it will be dry enough to cycle the roads again; and, I’ll provide an update on whether or not a bike can make it through Barton Springs Road after 5:30 pm.

Until then, enjoy the gorgeous weather!

WEDNESDAY UPDATE (Day 2 of Trail of Lights):

From the windows at work, I could see the far right lane of MoPac slowing to a crawl while the middle and left lanes flowed (or, at least flowed as much as they ever do during rush hour). Reaching the Barton Skyway/Spyglass stoplight at north MoPac service road, the cars were backed up even further south.

I took the left turn arrow, biked onto the sidewalk, and passed the parking lot of cars on the MoPac service road. Glorious! Just after Bee Cave Road stoplight (where the bike lane begins going north), the road narrows to two lanes: cars can either get onto the ramp on MoPac north or go under MoPac bridge for a forced u-turn to go south onto MoPac service road. The bike lane was clear except for a few barrels.

After the entrance to Zilker Park on the right, Barton Springs Road was completely blocked. Perhaps it was the early hour or the cooler weather; however, there was hardly any pedestrians on Barton Springs going to Trail of Lights. It was wonderful to cycle on the wide open road!

The next barricade came at the intersection of Barton Springs Road and Azie Morton. A long line of cars was backed up trying to go west that were forced to turn left to go south onto Azie Morton. I crossed Azie Morton and joined the traffic going east on Barton Springs.

As we got closer to Lamar, the traffic backed up again; and, now, we could see Lamar backed up going both north and south. (Why north? No idea.) Left turning vehicles ran the light to go north on Lamar but there wasn’t space for them to make it through the intersection. The “walk” sign was on; and, I and other pedestrians and cyclists were weaving in-between the vehicles to cross.

Going north on Lamar, vehicles were stuck in the right lane with their left blinkers on, realizing too late that they were in a right turn lane. I followed the cyclist in front of me, moving onto the sidewalk to get around the unmoving vehicles and then riding back onto the street.

Hopefully, it stays dry enough to continue cycling the rest of the work days until end of Trail of Lights! Driving home would take so much longer than cycling.