Austin’s Kirk Watson puts focus on transportation at annual mayor meeting

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin Mayor Kirk Watson is in Kansas City this week for the 92nd U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting, serving as the vice chair of the Standing Committee on Transportation.

At the meeting, Watson said cities should be more focused on localism when investing in the transportation system in the United States. KXAN Traffic Anchor Erica Brennes spoke with Watson to learn more about what this meeting means for Austin.

Q&A with Mayor Kirk Watson

This Q&A has been edited for clarity.

Brennes: “Overall, how is the meeting going so far?”

Watson: “One of the things I really like about it is that I always learn so much about different things that I can bring back to Austin. Also, being in the leadership position that I am with the Standing Committee on Transportation, it allows me to interact with federal officials, where we can talk about the kinds of things that we need, and the help that we need from the federal government so that we can do better for our constituents back home.”

Brennes: “You mentioned that you spoke at the meeting about being more focused on localism when it comes to investing in our nation’s transportation. Can you elaborate on that?”

Watson: “One of the interesting things about the pandemic was that it changed a lot of our transportation habits. For example, with the Amazon trucks and other delivery trucks that are on our local roads, it’s our local roads that are taking the brunt of a whole lot of the transportation. One of the things that we’re advocating for and we’ve been advocating for… in transportation and in other areas as well, is that the federal government particularly as it reauthorizes some of these laws, that what it will do is it will focus on what we’re calling localism. That we put that money directly with the local government so that we’ll be able to make those immediate or more immediate decisions about how to help our constituents and have a greater impact in that regard.”

Brennes: “Talk to me a little bit about the projects going on right now, or big future upcoming transportation projects in the Austin area that are relying on federal funding.”

Watson: “Austin has about $25 billion worth of infrastructure projects that are in play everything from our airport, to the light rail system Project Connect to Interstate 35 itself and then beyond that. So it’s very important to the relationship that we have with the federal government. This government has been the best I’ve seen in my time and local office. It’s been the best I’ve seen in dealing with local government, but we have some bills that are going to be reauthorized. And so if we can make improvements there, they will make it even easier going forward.”

Brennes: “I know across the entire country, there are huge transportation needs. Austin is not alone. What do you hope to bring back home after this meeting to the Austin area?”

Watson: “I’ll give you one example. I had a great meeting with officials from Amtrak. As a result of legislation that’s been passed in the past couple of years, Amtrak has received more money than it has received in the whole history of Amtrak since the 1970s. And a big chunk of that money is going to those places that they can upgrade Amtrak to get more intercity passenger rail. So I met with the folks from Amtrak yesterday to talk about what are next steps that we can take to make sure that the Dallas-Fort Worth to San Antonio corridor is in play. Because if we could get intercity passenger rail between Austin and San Antonio… think about the difference that would make in the quality of life of people that live on that corridor.”

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