Emails, Jim Wick, director of community engagement, Office of the Mayor, City of Austin, April 8-9, 2015

From: Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) [mailto:wgselby@statesman.com]

Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2015 3:24 PM

To: Wick, Jim

Subject: Inquiry for a fact check

Jim:

Good afternoon.

I write to ask how the mayor reached this conclusion, which was part of his prepared remarks at a Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce gathering April 1: “We have gone from being the 24th most congested city just about ten years ago to being the 4th most congested. More congested than NYC.”

Also, are there particular other city officials we should query?

Thanks.

g.

W. Gardner Selby

Reporter / News

Austin American-Statesman

PolitiFact Texas

3:38 p.m.

April 8, 2015

We used the INRIX traffic scorecard to reach this conclusion. It’s located here: http://www.inrix.com/scorecard/

Here’s the latest scorecard: http://www.inrix.com/three-takeaways-from-inrixs-7th-annual-traffic-scorecard/

You can see there that we are ranked 4th and NYC is ranked 5th.

I’ve attached the INRIX scorecard for 2008, which also has the numbers for 2007 congestion ranks on page 24 of the report. Austin was ranked 21st in 2008 and 26th in 2007.

Please let me know if you need anything else.

Thanks,

Jim

Director of Community Engagement

Office of the Mayor, City of Austin

From: Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) [mailto:wgselby@statesman.com]

Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2015 5:27 PM

To: Wick, Jim

Subject: Following up

What year was Austin ranked 24th?

Are there other relevant congestion measures?

g.

10:40 a.m.

April 9, 2015

I believe that may have been a typo in the speech – The Mayor meant to say 26th instead of 24th.

There are some other congestion rankings out there, but Inrix seems to be the only one that issues rankings on a year to year basis.

Jim

Director of Community Engagement

Office of the Mayor, City of Austin