AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Starting Friday, March 7, Sixth Street will be re-closed to vehicular traffic through the end of South by Southwest, according to the Austin Police Department.
Fences currently separate vehicular and pedestrian traffic on Sixth Street. This is temporary, and the City plans to permanently widen the sidewalks.In January, the City began testing out opening the historic downtown street up to cars from Brazos to Red River Streets on Friday and Saturday nights. This area has long been closed to vehicles, allowing people to walk freely in the middle of the street as they hop from bar to bar.
The goal of this program was to break up stagnant, late-night crowds that often become unruly – and sometimes violent – Police Chief Lisa Davis said.
Sixth Street is one of the city's primary tourist destinations, and due to an influx of people coming into town for SXSW, crews will go back to the "old ways" again for the week for public safety reasons, closing the street down to traffic.
APD told KXAN last week that vehicular traffic will return once SXSW is over, and this is no longer a pilot program, but a permanent solution.
Early data 'demonstrates several positive effects'
According to data collected over a roughly six-week period, APD saw reductions in:
Number of arrests Use of force incidents Officer injuries Memo: Police data shows Sixth Street safety pilot has ‘positive effects’ so farThe blow chart, included in a city memo released this week, maps out those statistics.
Chart provided by the Austin Police Department shows data about the Sixth Street Safety Plan. The table compares the same period in 2024 and 2025 for the Number of Use of Force Reports and Number of Arrests. The chart displays information for Sixth Street and the George Sector, which is a geographical area inclusive of Sixth Street. It also includes Citywide totals for comparison. (Austin Police Department)City still creating roadmap for permanent infrastructure changes
Part of APD's goal with the new Sixth Street format is to break up large, stagnant crowds, primarily full of people not entering any of the businesses on the street."We're doing after action reports almost every weekend," Davis said. "Documenting 'what did we see, what did we need this weekend, what do we need moving forward?'"
The fences that separate the sidewalk from the roadway are not meant to be permanent. The long-term goal, she said, is to physically widen the sidewalk.
"That will take time," Davis said.
In the meantime, city staff are using the data gathered during the pilot to see if it makes sense to install bollards or any other types of barriers.
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