Does anyone besides me think the Austin highway system just plain sucks? (San Antonio: to live, military)

[centralaustinite]

Even in 1990, people had idea of the kind of growth Austin would have over the next decade! How big was Round Rock in the 1990 census? Roughly 30,000 people! (up from 12,000 in 1980!)

And road infrastructure involves federal and state agencies plus local government, its like turning a battle-ship.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

Even in 1990, people had idea of the kind of growth Austin would have over the next decade! How big was Round Rock in the 1990 census? Roughly 30,000 people! (up from 12,000 in 1980!)

And road infrastructure involves federal and state agencies plus local government, its like turning a battle-ship.

My Sister-in-law started teaching at Round Rock High School in 1967 when it was a Class B school and the town's population was 3,000.

She just retired last year from the same school which has been 5A for years and the town is now 105,000.

I was being facetious about the "no-growth" crack - that was more directed at the lack of road planning & implementation in Austin.

But getting the bureaucracy to move is certainly quite a chore.

[infoseeker2010]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

It always cracks me up when people complain about Austin's 'bad planning'. Do people seriously think that in the 1800s, when the urban core was settled, someone thought about making life for people in 2011 easy? Or in the 1960s, when Austin was a little city with the state government, the university, and not much else? No one was thinking 2011. It is what it is, and you deal with what it is.

same applies to other parts of country which had same amount of population growth at some point of time, which austin has experienced in last decade or two. But still most of them have much better traffic flow and future planning than Austin.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by infoseeker2010

same applies to other parts of country which had same amount of population growth at some point of time, which austin has experienced in last decade or two. But still most of them have much better traffic flow and future planning than Austin.

In Texas, cities like Dallas, Houston, Ft. Worth, even San Antonio became big cities in the 1800's during the oil/railroad boom. Their size predated the invention of the car, and of course, the highway. Austin was never been a big town in that way. People moved to Austin because of the laid-back, mellow vibe, and the beautiful topography- the very thing people want to change by building more and bigger highways.

[ScoPro]

Actually, the ones who are changing things are those who want to live all over that beautiful topography. Of course nobody else should move there after they do.

[schil]

yes, i did have family there and it was the worst city i have been in for getting around.

[tfresca]

Yeah it has the worst road system of a city this size. No reason for a downtown trip to take an hour or more even in rush hour. I-35 was poorly planned. There should have been a limited access road that runs straight through downtown so people not stopping could blow right through.

[winkosmosis]

Building highways through cities is a surefire way to destroy them. That's what happened to every city in the 1950s and 60s. Nobody wants to live next to a highway, or on the wrong side of one.


The people who WANT to build a highway everywhere just don't understand how cities evolve. Heck, they probably HATE cities.

[veloman777]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

Building highways through cities is a surefire way to destroy them. That's what happened to every city in the 1950s and 60s. Nobody wants to live next to a highway, or on the wrong side of one.


The people who WANT to build a highway everywhere just don't understand how cities evolve. Heck, they probably HATE cities.

Well said.

Austin traffic will only continue to get worse.

Here's a message to all of you who are thinking of moving here: the city has no ability to handle more cars during rush hour on the highways. You can move here, but you are the problem if you drive a car. We don't want, and CAN'T build more highway lanes. There's no room. That's straight from TxDOT engineers - no room to expand I-35.

So why can't people get it through their heads that more cars DO NOT BELONG HERE?

Yes, next time you are going 5mph bumper to bumper, remember YOU are part of the problem.


WHO THE HELL EVER SAID TRAFFIC SHOULD FLOW FULL SPEED DURING RUSH HOUR IN A CITY? Who is going to pay for such infrastructure? Who will want to LIVE IN THAT? Do you have any idea what percentage of the city is already concrete and pavement? IT'S DISGUSTING!

I'm so sick of the automobile taking over everything. You destroy our safety, our air, the sounds, you create stress, you take so much damn space up, MONEY - LOADS and loads of money. Parking garages 100 feet deep in the earth so every single damn human being can drive a 3000lb machine into downtown for work. Who pays for that? The employees and company profits.


If you want to drive full speed everywhere - go move out into the countryside. You want obstructed car travel? Get ready to live in a very low density (read: no economy) area.

[Buckeye5b]

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