ACL 2021: Transportation

How in the world do 80,000 people all get to Zilker Park, a landlocked zone bordered by a river, a highway, a creek, and a road that is closed down for the Festival?  I've tried all sorts of ways to get in and out over the years, so I'm back to provide a report.

For many years, I had the smug superiority of being able to park at my Mom's house, which was right up above the Park, and then walk down without any hassle or trouble.  It was amazing.  Although, if I'm honest, walking back up that hill at the end of the night could sometimes be a major bitch.  But mom sold her house, and I now lost my free parking space, and have to join the unwashed masses in a hunt for transportation.

The ACL Website used to provides several options, but that doesn't exist anymore.  Jerks.  If you have other ideas, please hit me up - comment here, DM me on Twitter, whatever - I want this to be as easy as humanly possible for me (and everyone else).

1. Drive your own car.  There are places you can park (even though there is zero official parking by the Park).  On Azle Morton Road (formerly Robert E. Lee, which runs between Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Zilker) there are a few houses with big yards or driveways that will have cardboard signs up offering parking for $40 per day.  Just know that you should not randomly park on the streets in Zilker/Barton Hills/Tarrytown/Bouldin, etc.  The neighbors will have that ass towed unless the signs there allow for event parking.  
• City Hall, Palmer Events Center, and One Texas Center have allowed for Fest parking in the past, at more like $15 a day, but that is a much longer walk (and getting out of parking garages after an event sucks).  
• I have also parked in the garages near MoPac off of Bee Caves Road, and those work pretty well.  Can't recall the cost.  
• Also, usually, the Austin High Band does a fundraiser where you can park in the AHS parking lot for a fee.
• This website lists paid parking locations with their distance from the Park: https://www.premiumparking.com/city/austin/acl-music-festival
2. Free Shuttle from Downtown.  In my post from 2018, I declared that this option sounded like hell.  My reasoning was that you still have to find a place to park in downtown, and then you have to ride back with 80,000 people at the end of the night when everyone smells like death and is crowding into the buses.  However, I tried it, and it actually works really well.  You board the bus at Republic Square Park (about 5th and Guad), and then it takes you directly to the Barton Springs West entrance.  When I did it last time, they had loads of buses queued up and ready to go, and we didn't have to wait very long at all on either end.  Was clean, easy, and best of all FREE.
• Know that you'll need a mask for this - one of the few places they are demanding masks is on the busses.
3. Uber/Lyft.  The website says that pickup locations are either Lamar/Barton Springs or under the Mopac bridge by Austin High.  The first of those sounds like a long ass walk, and then you'll be mired in the McDonald's parking lot waiting with a million high school kids for their moms to roll up in the minivan. 
• I worry a little bit about Uber as an option this year, as I would imagine that many Uber/Lyft drivers are reluctant to let muddy, wet, concertgoers into their cars.  Since we can expect a muddy time this year, you may have trouble with getting a car.
• In 2019, we tried a slightly different maneuver and walked from the Fest to a local bar, had a beer or three while we waited for surge pricing to go down, and then scored a reasonably priced Lyft to get us home.  Worked pretty well.  Still it cost $54 in total (because we took one to a lunch spot, then lunch spot to Zilker, then bar to home).  So, not cheap, but better than being unsafe, right?
4. CapMetro.  No thanks.  Rode this in February for the first time ever.  I suspect that the ride, and stops, and bus switches, required for me to get home would take so long that I might as well just sleep in the Park.
5. Just sleep in the Port-o-Potty and never leave.  YES.  This is the best plan.
6. Biking.  Hahahahahaha!  My old lazy ass is never going to bike to the Festival.  I know some young, hip dudes who ride all the time can probably crush this, but come on.  For those of you considering it, they have a ton of bike racks where you can lock it up, but know that if you get wasted on Sunday night and leave your bike behind, ACL threatens the bike could be impounded.  The racks are at Stratford Dr. or Azie Morton Road.
7. Walking.  I mean, this might be the right call.  The problem is that parking in the surrounding neighborhoods is very much verboten, and they will tow your car if you aren't in the right spots, so where are you actually going to park that you can reasonably walk plus not get towed?  I need more friends.
8. Electric Scooters (Bird, Lime, etc.).  I have been eyeballing this option for a while, thinking it might allow me to park somewhere further away - my office, a friend's house in central Austin, Randall's parking lot - and ride a scooter to and from my car.  I don't know how they would enforce this, but the ACL website says that there will be two drop off locations for dockless scooters, one by Chuys, one on Azle Morton Road.  So you'll have to come at the park from the east?  That seems like a pain.  And then also, the problem would be coming out of the park at 10pm and realizing that there are no scooters to be had, and now your car is 5 miles away.  
• This is exactly what happened to me in 2018 on the last night.  My buddy had left earlier to drive on home to Dallas, and I figured I would find a scooter by Austin High.  That was not in the cards, and I ended up walking all the way back downtown by myself, which was not optimal.
9. Get dropped off by your mom.  Damn, I wish this was still an option.  My wife would roll her eyes so hard they'd get freaking stuck on her shoulder blades if I asked her for a ride.
• Although a friend's wife dropped us off in like 2017, and we spilled bourbon all over the back of her car, and she is my hero now!  Should out to Mandy!
10. Other weird options: There are pedi-cabs, but I have a feeling those will be pricey.  And I always feel guilt for those dudes carrying my fat ass around.  Motorcyles/scooters (like, gas ones) - parking for those is available at the corner of Sterzing Drive and Toomey Road (Toomey is that road behind Chuy's and Uncle Billy's).  Uh, like roller blades?  They don't have a dock, so you can't canoe...

From my experiences last year, I think the free shuttle to downtown is the best option.  Now it will probably be really miserable or something because of COVID, but it worked really well last year.  I'll probably do the plan of walking to a bar for some post-Fest beers and waiting for a later night Uber/Lyft.