Austin Transportation to facilitate food pickups

In an effort to improve safe access to curbside pickup, the city’s Transportation Department is installing temporary pickup zones for restaurants that have made the now-required shift away from dine-in service to take-out and delivery. A press release from the city explains, “Austin Transportation has begun converting some paid on-street parking spaces near restaurants into free temporary loading zones to make room for more people to pick up food while practicing appropriate social distancing to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.” At the moment, the city has concentrated its efforts on areas with high concentrations of restaurants that lack loading space. As of Thursday there were about 50 loading zones on the interactive map created by the city. In person, zones are marked with blue and white signs that read “Food Pick-Up Priority.” Restaurants can request a pickup zone by filling out an online contact form at SmartMobilityATX.com.