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Old 04-21-2017, 01:17 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
12,059 posts, read 13,815,851 times
Reputation: 7256

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The bottom line is that traffic sux here and will just keep getting worse until the leaders make some very difficult and costly decisions. We all know what they are, they are the silent elephant(s) in the room, but without those changes the traffic will still keep getting worse...
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Old 04-21-2017, 01:27 PM
 
2,602 posts, read 2,968,821 times
Reputation: 997
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckeye5b View Post
People are leaving Austin in droves, according to new report | All Ablog Austin



SH-130 Fail

Even An 85 MPH Highway Can't Fix Austin's Traffic Tangle : NPR


What I love is that another issue is that in most lanes in the US the left generally means on a one way street means you will be able to go straight, same with the right lane. But not here in Texas, so everyone gets stopped up in a single middle lane bc of some poor engineering choices, whoever chose to do that.

Oh and I forgot to add that one of my major pet peeves with Texas roads in general is when a lane ends or when a lane is a turn only lane, there is NO NOTICE, none whatsoever, no signs or anything. That is very, very poor imo, this is the first state that I have ever visited in, where they don't tell you when a lane is ending or when you need to merge, or when a lane turns into a turn lane or you are going straight, this is the only place I have driven where they don't tell drivers what is going on.

It seems like to me that Texas never learned how to build a proper highway system at all. Just look at the Highways all along the east coast. That is one of the best highway systems there are. I can think of two interstates that go all the way from the north to the south.

The on and off ramps here are very dangerous and induces traffic jams.

One of my questions is why are Texans in general very sensitive to criticism when everyone can see that these are obvious flaws (especially the highway system). Why not take those criticisms and go to work and fix them. I mean that is what we do at our workplace right?

Nation

From this article you can see how many highways are in place on the east coast, and there are so few here. So you can see why I say the highway system is ten times better on the east coast.


Maybe Austin could use this PDF:

https://www.planning.dot.gov/documen...ctices_MTP.pdf
Uh, this thread is 4 years old. And your articles are 3 months old (and wrong) and 4 years old.

What are you really adding to this conversation?
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Old 04-21-2017, 03:44 PM
 
Location: Round Rock, Texas
12,893 posts, read 13,217,652 times
Reputation: 13830
Texas 130 from 45 South up to Round Rock was pretty crowded at mid afternoon today. In fact between 71 & Round Rock it was packed. No telling what it'll be like between now & 6:30pm. It's been slow & go there before when we've driven it. Lunch at the Gristmill in Gruene was very pleasant today.

I'm glad to see "they" are planning to add a 3rd lane each way between 71 & 290 soon. IMO, they should add a 3rd lane each way from 45 South to Georgetown. It's needed right now. In fact if "they" were smart, "they" should add two new lanes each way. And I-35 should have 4 lanes each way from San Antonio to Denton (with 5 lanes each way approaching the major cities along the corridor). No doubt about it.

Anyone who says 130 isn't used or doesn't give relief to I-35 in downtown Austin just doesn't know what they are talking about. Same for 45 North from 130 west over to 183. It's a godsend for most of the day, but is getting very crowded at rush hours.
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Old 04-21-2017, 04:01 PM
 
224 posts, read 294,900 times
Reputation: 145
Quote:
Originally Posted by ScoPro View Post
Texas 130 from 45 South up to Round Rock was pretty crowded at mid afternoon today. In fact between 71 & Round Rock it was packed. No telling what it'll be like between now & 6:30pm. It's been slow & go there before when we've driven it. Lunch at the Gristmill in Gruene was very pleasant today.

I'm glad to see "they" are planning to add a 3rd lane each way between 71 & 290 soon. IMO, they should add a 3rd lane each way from 45 South to Georgetown. It's needed right now. In fact if "they" were smart, "they" should add two new lanes each way. And I-35 should have 4 lanes each way from San Antonio to Denton (with 5 lanes each way approaching the major cities along the corridor). No doubt about it.

Anyone who says 130 isn't used or doesn't give relief to I-35 in downtown Austin just doesn't know what they are talking about. Same for 45 North from 130 west over to 183. It's a godsend for most of the day, but is getting very crowded at rush hours.
No doubt its getting crowded, but I don't think paying almost $2/mile is worth it, if it was like other tolls outside of Texas then more truckers might take it, but to me $2/mile is like highway robbery (pun intended). But in all honesty if you look at other cities of the same size (or relative size), none of them have the traffic problems that Austin has.
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Old 04-21-2017, 04:07 PM
 
224 posts, read 294,900 times
Reputation: 145
Quote:
Originally Posted by cBach View Post
The bottom line is that traffic sux here and will just keep getting worse until the leaders make some very difficult and costly decisions. We all know what they are, they are the silent elephant(s) in the room, but without those changes the traffic will still keep getting worse...
Totally agree, to me its not worth it if I have to spend more than half my day in traffic if I want to go to a ball game or go to the lakes or go to even San Marcos. It's just not enjoyable when you can't get to where you need to be it a decent amount of time.

It's just not worth it. To me there are too many other options to live elsewhere that don't have traffic problems, so why stay here?

Honestly I think one of the fastest ways to solve their problems is build an effective transit system. Buses aren't the way to produce efficient transportation. You either have to go with a subway, or go with a railway where the lines are primarily only used for public transportation.

But I feel like people and city politicians are still stuck in the past and I don't see any immediate relief coming soon.

Last edited by Buckeye5b; 04-21-2017 at 04:30 PM..
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Old 04-21-2017, 04:40 PM
 
Location: Central Texas
20,958 posts, read 45,250,167 times
Reputation: 24738
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckeye5b View Post
People are leaving Austin in droves, according to new report | All Ablog Austin



SH-130 Fail

Even An 85 MPH Highway Can't Fix Austin's Traffic Tangle : NPR


What I love is that another issue is that in most lanes in the US the left generally means on a one way street means you will be able to go straight, same with the right lane. But not here in Texas, so everyone gets stopped up in a single middle lane bc of some poor engineering choices, whoever chose to do that.

Oh and I forgot to add that one of my major pet peeves with Texas roads in general is when a lane ends or when a lane is a turn only lane, there is NO NOTICE, none whatsoever, no signs or anything. That is very, very poor imo, this is the first state that I have ever visited in, where they don't tell you when a lane is ending or when you need to merge, or when a lane turns into a turn lane or you are going straight, this is the only place I have driven where they don't tell drivers what is going on.

It seems like to me that Texas never learned how to build a proper highway system at all. Just look at the Highways all along the east coast. That is one of the best highway systems there are. I can think of two interstates that go all the way from the north to the south.

The on and off ramps here are very dangerous and induces traffic jams.

One of my questions is why are Texans in general very sensitive to criticism when everyone can see that these are obvious flaws (especially the highway system). Why not take those criticisms and go to work and fix them. I mean that is what we do at our workplace right?

Nation

From this article you can see how many highways are in place on the east coast, and there are so few here. So you can see why I say the highway system is ten times better on the east coast.


Maybe Austin could use this PDF:

https://www.planning.dot.gov/documen...ctices_MTP.pdf
Excuse me, but one of my pet peeves is the people that ignore the VERY OBVIOUS signs saying "Lane ends, merge right" (or left), or the lane for turn only signs. They really are there and they really are obvious and in the case of lanes that are for turn only often there is a sign before to give you time to get out of the lane AND the allowed directions are painted right on the street in big white letters/arrows. Might you be one of those people? That's not a Texan being sensitive but a Texan wondering if your eyesight really is good enough to have a driver's license and worrying that someone who can't see those very clear markings might be sharing the road with them.

I35, by the way, goes from Mexico to Canada. It was a Texan (Dwight Eisenhower) who was responsible for the interstate system in the first place, for both traffic and military reasons.
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Old 04-21-2017, 05:29 PM
 
224 posts, read 294,900 times
Reputation: 145
Quote:
Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady View Post
Excuse me, but one of my pet peeves is the people that ignore the VERY OBVIOUS signs saying "Lane ends, merge right" (or left), or the lane for turn only signs. They really are there and they really are obvious and in the case of lanes that are for turn only often there is a sign before to give you time to get out of the lane AND the allowed directions are painted right on the street in big white letters/arrows. Might you be one of those people? That's not a Texan being sensitive but a Texan wondering if your eyesight really is good enough to have a driver's license and worrying that someone who can't see those very clear markings might be sharing the road with them.

I35, by the way, goes from Mexico to Canada. It was a Texan (Dwight Eisenhower) who was responsible for the interstate system in the first place, for both traffic and military reasons.
Ie sensitive person above. Have you ever driven outside of Texas? Btw I'm not the only one that complains about them and these are people that haven't lived here their whole lives either. So I guess everyone else is wrong too right? Geez get over yourself.
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Old 04-21-2017, 07:00 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
12,059 posts, read 13,815,851 times
Reputation: 7256
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckeye5b View Post
Totally agree, to me its not worth it if I have to spend more than half my day in traffic if I want to go to a ball game or go to the lakes or go to even San Marcos. It's just not enjoyable when you can't get to where you need to be it a decent amount of time.

It's just not worth it. To me there are too many other options to live elsewhere that don't have traffic problems, so why stay here?

Honestly I think one of the fastest ways to solve their problems is build an effective transit system. Buses aren't the way to produce efficient transportation. You either have to go with a subway, or go with a railway where the lines are primarily only used for public transportation.

But I feel like people and city politicians are still stuck in the past and I don't see any immediate relief coming soon.
Yep that's the elephant in the room I was talking about. We can ignore it for a while but not forever...
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Old 04-21-2017, 07:44 PM
 
375 posts, read 316,959 times
Reputation: 631
Quote:
Originally Posted by ScoPro View Post
Texas 130 from 45 South up to Round Rock was pretty crowded at mid afternoon today. In fact between 71 & Round Rock it was packed. No telling what it'll be like between now & 6:30pm. It's been slow & go there before when we've driven it. Lunch at the Gristmill in Gruene was very pleasant today.

I'm glad to see "they" are planning to add a 3rd lane each way between 71 & 290 soon. IMO, they should add a 3rd lane each way from 45 South to Georgetown. It's needed right now. In fact if "they" were smart, "they" should add two new lanes each way. And I-35 should have 4 lanes each way from San Antonio to Denton (with 5 lanes each way approaching the major cities along the corridor). No doubt about it.

Anyone who says 130 isn't used or doesn't give relief to I-35 in downtown Austin just doesn't know what they are talking about. Same for 45 North from 130 west over to 183. It's a godsend for most of the day, but is getting very crowded at rush hours.

I've been using 45 from 183 over to 35 a lot the last few weeks during rush hour! All I can say is WOW at the volume of traffic. My husband drives 130 coming up from south Austin and says it's packed some days. 183 to 45 to loop 1 used to be my easy, relaxing, and alternative route into work. Not anymore...
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Old 04-22-2017, 06:45 AM
 
Location: Central Texas
20,958 posts, read 45,250,167 times
Reputation: 24738
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckeye5b View Post
Ie sensitive person above. Have you ever driven outside of Texas? Btw I'm not the only one that complains about them and these are people that haven't lived here their whole lives either. So I guess everyone else is wrong too right? Geez get over yourself.
Yes, I have driven outside of Texas. Not quite sure what that has to do with your complaint about the non-existence of very clear signage.
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