Austin Streets and Highways

From Jacci Howard Bear ,
Your Guide to Austin, TX .
Getting around town gets a little easier if you know and understand a little bit about how Austin streets are named and the general direction that the roads and highways run especially in the central part of Austin. Downtown Austin streets are rather grid-like but our rivers, creeks, and hills along with growth and development mean that it's not all straight, parallel roads and standard naming conventions. A map is handy to have when you first move to town. North/South Downtown Austin Streets: Named for rivers in Texas, the streets appear in the order they flow through the state with Congress Avenue running down the middle. Moving east away from Congress are Brazos, San Jacinto, Trinity, Neches, Red River, and Sabine. Moving west away from Congress are Colorado, Lavaca, Guadalupe , San Antonio, Nueces, and Rio Grande. Other major north-south non-highway streets in or near downtown include Lamar Blvd. and Shoal Creek Blvd. East/West Downtown Austin Streets: Originally named for trees, streets north of the river are now numbered although you will sometimes find the old tree names in the names of events and businesses.

The numbered streets start with 1st Street along the north side of Town Lake. 1st Street was renamed in 1993 to Cesar Chavez St to honor the union organizer and Hispanic rights activist who died in April of that year. Now, where Guadalupe and Lavaca converge at Cesar Chavez the north-south road is known as South 1st Street.

Many of the numbered streets north of downtown. zig, zag, and merge due to later development. You'll also find the occasional 1/2 street such as 38 1/2.
Some of the downtown numbered streets and their original tree names are:

2nd - Live Oak
3rd - Cypress
4th - Cedar
5th - Pine
6th - Pecan
7th - Bois de Arc
8th - Hickory
9th - Ash
10th - Mulberry
11th - Mesquite
19th (now MLK) - Magnolia

Central Austin Street Addresses: North-South street addresses are numbered starting at the river getting higher as you go north or south. A low street number on N. Lamar is north of but closer to Town Lake than a high number on S. Lamar - which would be further south.

Going east-west, numbering starts with Congress Ave. with addresses going higher as you move east or west from Congress. If you have an address like 100 E. 6th it's the first block east of Congress. 500 W. 6th would be about 5 blocks west of Congress.

You can use the Central Austin numbered streets to help figure out the general location of an address on a North-South street. For example, 525 N. Lamar is the address of Whole Foods - the 500 address range tells you it's 5 blocks north of Town Lake between 5th and 6th Streets. The Old Bakery & Emporium at 1006 Congress (in the case of Congress, unless the address specifically says S. Congress, assume it's north) is 10 blocks north - between 10th and 11th Streets. Austin Streets Around the University of Texas: 19th Street, along the south side of the UT campus is now Martin Luther King (MLK) Boulevard. Dean Keeton Street is along the north side (more or less) of campus and is also known as 26th Street. A portion of Guadalupe Street that runs along the west of the main campus is known as " The Drag ." Red River is the east boundary of the main campus area. U.S. Highway 183: Depending on where you are, Hwy 183 runs north-south or east-west. It also changes names from Bell Boulevard in far north Austin to Research Boulevard to Anderson Lane to Ed Bluestein Boulevard . Note that Anderson Lane runs parallel and to the south of Hwy 183 from Loop 1 to Lamar Blvd. where Hwy 183 becomes Anderson Lane (at least for those street addresses along the frontage road). Farm Roads and Ranch Roads: In Austin, there are some key Farm Roads and Ranch Roads that serve an urban community .

RM 2222

Running east-west it comes into town from Houston as Hwy 290 and changes to Koenig Lane , Northland Drive, and Bull Creek Boulevard as it travels across town.

FM 1325

In north Austin MOPAC ( Loop 1 ) and Burnet Road converge into FM 1325. Major Routes for Traveling North-South and East-West: Getting uptown or downtown is a lot easier than going cross-town in Austin. Here are the easiest routes for getting from one side of town.

Austin Streets for North-South Travel

The major north to south roads are (from east to west):

Interstate Highway 35
Lamar Blvd
FM 1325 to Burnet Road to Lamar
FM 1325 to Loop 1
Loop 360 (Capital of Texas Highway)

Streets that cross the river are marked North on the north side (ex. N. Lamar) and South on the south side (ex. S. Congress). Street numbering starts at the river with the higher addresses those furthest north or south.

Austin Streets for East-West Travel

From north to south, here are the main roadways for getting from the east side of Austin to the West side (or from west to east):

US Hwy 183 (Anderson Lane/Research Blvd)
Anderson Lane/Spicewood Springs Road
RM 2222 (Hwy 290/ Koenig Lane /Northland Drive/Bull Creek Boulevard)
45th Street
35th/38th Streets
Enfield/15th Street
1st Street (Cesar Chavez Blvd.)
Barton Springs /Riverside (South side of Town Lake)
Oltorf Street
Ben White Blvd/Hwy 71/US 290

These are generally not fast routes and some become quite congested during rush hour but they can be quite interesting, scenic drives. TexasFreeway.com has maps and analysis of the problems with east-west crosstown freeway travel (there basically is none) and descriptions of some of the routes described above.