Does anyone besides me think the Austin highway system just plain sucks? (Portland: how much, house)

[killermike2178]

Why do we only have 2 major highways going north/southbound (IH-35 and Mopac)? With how much more rapidly our city is growing, thanks to the gentrification scheme of our city planners and developers, we need more than 2 N/S highways, and they shouldn't be toll roads, if they want people using them. better yet, just use the toll roads nobody is using and take out the toll booths. It will decongest traffic.

[rickc007]

I think this is the one topic the EVERYONE is in agreement with.

And it is probably the ONLY topic everyone is in agreement with :-)

[HappyTexan]

Actually Austin's vision is for more mass transit, not more roadways.

[centralaustinite]

highways just don't spring up like magic, they are massively expensive and need funding, complain to the state lege who has refused to raise the gas tax (that funds roads) for years and years).

the future lies in compact cities and there will be pain in sprawling ones

[Westerner92]

It seems to me that Austin in general is poorly planned. The problem is only exacerbated by the fact that most of the growth seems to be west and north. You can't exactly plop down a freeway in the Hill Country. There's no point in building more north/south freeways because where are you going to put them? A couple of blocks from Mopac? I find it amazing that places nearly 30 miles to the north are growing like crazy, yet 10 minutes east of downtown is basically in the middle of the country.

[cBach]

The solution is that Austin will have to grow East. City planners already took that into account with the construction of SH130. That is where the growth will have to be, and where it will be. Just see.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by cBach

The solution is that Austin will have to grow East. City planners already took that into account with the construction of SH130. That is where the growth will have to be, and where it will be. Just see.

You are correct.

Watching the ugly unplanned sprawl all over the hills to the west and around the lakes over the last 52 years has just made me shake my head. It's easy to see why folks want to live in those beautiful areas, but more care in planning should've been taken.

However, the no-growth crowd in Austin has been the stumbling block for the lack of a proper road network in the city itself since the early '70s.

Don't build it, and the multitudes come here anyway - so as result we have horrible traffic and "ozone action" days.

[eepstein]

Tell me sir, just how long have you been sleeping?? Your ideas sounds fine in theory, but we are not talking about the average city here. As an individual who has been in the transportation industry for nearly a decade, I can tell you that Austin never prepared for the rapid growth it has been experiencing over the past 2 decades. The city of Austin is unique because a). it never visits other cities and metro areas to learn from them b) anything it does do (the shut people up) is almost always half a**ed without any thought or planning. If you notice, ALL of the tollroads with the possible exception of a small part of Loop 1 north (near Parmer) are outside the city limits of Austin. The city itself has no interest in doing anything with it's road system. Sorry to say longtime "Austin worshipers", there are no plans to do anything for at least the next 20 years.

In theory, it sounds like a good idea to focus on public transportation. However, Cap Metro serves the city of Austin and is, and always has been a complete failing enterprise. The transportation agency continues to loose millions of dollars due to inept manangement, political corruptness, and overall idiotic decision making from a financial point of view. Before the city can successfully implement ANY kind of successful light rail, it needs to completely start over with Cap Metro. Pretty much fire all of the higher ups, and start learning from successful transporation agencies. RTD (Denver) or TriMet (Portland). Build the light rail where people actually want to go and work. Stop cutting corners by only using a single track line which is shared by other rail companies (thus severely limiting efficiency and schedules). Sure, light rail is a great idea, but some planning and real studies need to be done first. You need to be willing to spend the money needed for a real system that can benefit the most people. It's really amazing how much the city cuts corners when it comes to it's transportation infastruture. (never seen anything quite like it anywhere else)

Several billion dollars overall have been spent downtown to build big residential skyscrapers for the rich. Yet, you constantly hear the city whining about how they have no money and "budget cuts" wha wha wha.
Gee, imagine if some of that money was actually spent on important things, like transportation to benefit the other 90% of metro Austin's population??? But we can't do that because the rich in our city ALWAYS come first!!!

Originally Posted by killermike2178

Why do we only have 2 major highways going north/southbound (IH-35 and Mopac)? With how much more rapidly our city is growing, thanks to the gentrification scheme of our city planners and developers, we need more than 2 N/S highways, and they shouldn't be toll roads, if they want people using them. better yet, just use the toll roads nobody is using and take out the toll booths. It will decongest traffic.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by rickc007

I think this is the one topic the EVERYONE is in agreement with.

And it is probably the ONLY topic everyone is in agreement with :-)

I don't think they stink- I don't drive on them, so it's ok with me. I don't want to pay for new ones.

[TexasHorseLady]

"Go east, young man!" has been the cry for quite some while. Problem with that is, do that enough and eventually you've built over all the wonderful productive farmland and you're sitting there in your nice house with nothing to eat.

We do have 4 north/south highways, by the way, not two, if you include 360 and 130. (Which I do, sometimes they're the best way to get from north to south or vice versa.) Not greatly in favor of toll roads, but if they're sold to us as toll roads from the beginning (130), rather than being converted to toll roads or built rather than the improvements we'd approved for roads that are now made more difficult, rather than easier, to use due to the toll roads themselves (gee, wonder why that might be?), I'm okay with them.

But, really, I don't have much of a problem at all getting around in Austin.