02F75501

**Description:** The purpose of this award is to provide funding under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to the City of Austin.

The recipient will implement greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction programs, policies, projects, and measures identified in a Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP) developed under a Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) planning grant.

Activities conducted through this grant will benefit all residents and visitors to the City of Austin and surrounding areas through four main objectives:

Implementation of ambitious measures that will achieve significant cumulative GHG reductions by 2030 and beyond;

Pursuit of measures that will achieve substantial community benefits, particularly in low-income and disadvantaged communities;

Complementing other funding sources to maximize these GHG reductions and community benefits; and,

Pursuit of innovative policies and programs that are replicable and can be 'scaled up' across multiple jurisdictions.

**Activities:** The activities include three measures as follows:

1. Improving regional transit service: Dedicated measure to manage transportation demand during the multi-year disruptions that will be caused by the construction of mobility corridor upgrades.

This will reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and increase equity by improving transit service in low-income and disadvantaged communities (LIDACs).

2. Investing in mobility infrastructure: Development of eight mobility hubs and other supportive infrastructure for people to access transit, private shuttles, bike share, micro-mobility, and carpool/vanpool meetup points.

This will reduce VMT and increase equity by improving mobility infrastructure in LIDACs.

3. Inspiring behavior change: Commute tools that include trip and route planning, carpool matching, and emergency rides home.

Subsidies, incentives, and rewards for commuters to take transit, ride bikes, walk, carpool, or choose not to drive.

Partnerships with employers to support flexible scheduling and remote work.

Large-scale multilingual marketing and communications campaign informing communities (especially those impacted by major construction projects) of their low-GHG mobility alternatives.

This campaign would also include grassroots, multilingual, community-based outreach, and partnerships with local community-based organizations to develop personalized low-GHG travel planning for hard-to-reach communities, such as LIDACs.

This will reduce VMT by kickstarting behavior change to adapt to construction impacts and build cultural acceptance of non-single occupancy vehicle (SOV) modes.

**Subrecipient:** CapMetro service frequency improvements and transit reliability funding to cost $2,000,000 per year for a total of $10,000,000 over the five-year period.

Capital Area Rural Transportation service frequency and transit reliability funding to cost $500,000 per year for a total of $2,500,000 over the five-year period.

Mobility hub shuttle transportation service funding to cost $1,000,000 per year for a total of $5,000,000 over the five-year period.

**Outcomes:** The anticipated deliverables include an increase in transit service frequency, improved mobility hubs, bike parking locations, and monitoring infrastructure, and an increase in residents engaged and incentives distributed.

The expected outcomes include a reduction in cumulative metric tons of GHG emissions from 2025 through calendar year 2050.

A reduction in annual amounts of criteria air pollutants (CAP) and/or hazardous air pollutants (HAP) emissions in general and in LIDACs from 2025 through calendar year 2050.

An increase in passenger ridership, an increase in bike trips made, increased coverage of local and regional air quality index (AQI) monitoring network, and an increase in percent of land area covered by local and regional AQI monitoring infrastructure.

Also, these deliverables will reduce vehicle miles traveled, the number of trips taken with a transport wallet will be available, and there will be an incre...

The City Of Austin

1 - TACKLE THE CLIMATE CRISIS 1.1 - REDUCE EMISSIONS THAT CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE

66.046 - Climate Pollution Reduction Grants

EPA Region 6: Dallas [EPA - RO]

Austin, Texas United States

City-Wide

Climate Pollution Reduction Grants Program: Implementation Grants (General Competition) (EPA-R-OAR-CPRGI-23-07)