Is traffic normally this bad in Austin?? (Houston, Dallas: middle-class, homes)

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by N. Olikee

I've never really understood the "traffic problem" in Austin. However, I don't usually have to deal with rush hour........thank goodness.



Remember, Austin grew immensely over the past decade. And, it esp. grew to the north...........which is weird to me.......won't go into it, but that was just a bunch of ranch land up there around Cedar Park, Leander, Round Rock not so very long ago.



Austin traffic is NOT bad.......Atlanta is bad!

We've been known to say that more than once(after 25 years in Atlanta).

We're part of that 'weird growth' in north-north Austin. One reason we moved to Avery Ranch is the actual availability of highways to go in nearly every direction. I can't imagine living where the traffic doesn't move or where the highways will never be completed(you KNOW where I'm talking about!). BTW, wasn't Circle C a 'ranch' before it was developed?

We actually looked much closer in but since we don't need to commute into town AND we have many destinations farther to the north, we decided NOT to contribute to the 'horrible' Austin traffic!

[N. Olikee]

I LOVE Atlanta. Although the traffic is bad, they do have light rail which we utilized the last time we were there. Wish we had something comparable here.

I don't mean to "put down" the northern exurbs, but if you had asked me 15+ years ago which way Austin would have grown, I never would have guessed to the north.

[Danbo1957]

Stay off of IH35 and Mopac. You're welcome.

[sxrckr]

Yes, it gets very bad unfortunately. I saw a list or article that said it's the worst for a city of this size.

[Seoid]

Originally Posted by Danbo1957

Stay off of IH35 and Mopac. You're welcome.

Yup. I made it work for YEARS by doing this.

[BitViper]

Originally Posted by N. Olikee

I am constantly "awed" by the length- of -commute people (sp. on this website) are willing to make. 30 minutes one way? Really?! I always (probably mistakenly) assume that's without traffic.

The worst traffic I have ever encountered was the day before Thanksgiving in the LA area. Had to drive from Torrance (south bay) up to Northridge, CA. A 45 min. drive took me 2 Hours!

When you come from the land of the 60 min commute (for 10 miles) then 30 min is a walk in the park!

We've been eyeinga move to Austin.. and have focused our search to south of the city Bordered by 71/ 290 and Barton Pool rd.my assumption is that I'll have uto work city central or just north of the city

[slim2none]

It was horrible and I got stuck in it all the time even when I tried to avoid "rush hour" times. ... Is this normal for Austin?

Yes.

Traffic and general congestion, whether in a car, on foot, or on a bike was probably the biggest factor in my deciding to move away. It is not just during rush hour. On weekends we had to get all of our errands run by 11 am or get stuck in parking lot traffic. If you want to enjoy some of the genuinely nice places in Austin it has to be at off off peak times. The Town Lake (sorry Lady Bird was a wonderful person but a horrible name for a lake) hike and bike on the weekends is like Times Square on New Years Eve (slight hyperbole, but only slight).

[dinop]

The key to Austin traffic is to work from home or live on the same side of the river as your job. I like to live in the city, inside mopac, i-35, south of 183, north on Ben White. Traffic isn't as bad here as a big city, it's just unpredictable and maddening because it gets so backed up during rush hour, 10 min drives turn into 45 mins. The issue is and will always be the river, there are 5 commuter bridges across it through central Austin and 2 of them, Congress and First/guadalupe end at Martin Luther King so they are useless to the Dell/Silicon Hills commuters that are heading South at 5 pm. That leaves Lamar, Mopac, and i-35 for the daily migration South and thus the headache. Heading North, 183 also becomes a daily parking lot but those people can now hop the train for an alternative to Cedar Park.

Getting to the airport is annoying b/c 71 shouldn't have the 3 lights on it but I guess city/state is too cheap to build the Riverside overpass.

[veloman777]

Driving at night is a blast. Everyone is home after 8pm and the roads are relatvity dead after that time.

The problem how I see it, is that too many people live the same schedule. More jobs need to be 2nd or 3rd shift. It's a ghost town after 11pm or so. I am able to bike from Highland to Tarrytown and only have about 1 car pass me late at night.

Weekends can be just as bad as weekdays during the day. And those suburb areas can often be worse than near downtown. You'll often see the feeders from I-35 looking like a parking lot for over 1/4 mile near the cross streets.

When you have nearly a 1 million population and require most of them to drive a car, you will have traffic.

[eepstein]

Most areas within central austin and downtown are extremely expensive forcing people to move out to the suburbs. The cheap gas we have makes that possible. As I have been saying for years (and most don't listen), the city of Austin has NO plans to do anything about it's infastructure. Many of it's main thoroughfares are poorly designed and need to be widened, Mopac and I-35 are complete disasters. Most other cities take a "proactive" approach, and Austin takes a NO approach. As I have said many times before, the cities MAIN focus and goals are for the whealthy that don't have to move far away from town to make a living.

The traffic will only get worse, the pollution will only get worse, the cost of central Austin living will only go higher. But hey, at least we have our Tahoes, pickups, and Longhorns. Do we really need anything else??

Originally Posted by veloman777

Driving at night is a blast. Everyone is home after 8pm and the roads are relatvity dead after that time.

The problem how I see it, is that too many people live the same schedule. More jobs need to be 2nd or 3rd shift. It's a ghost town after 11pm or so. I am able to bike from Highland to Tarrytown and only have about 1 car pass me late at night.

Weekends can be just as bad as weekdays during the day. And those suburb areas can often be worse than near downtown. You'll often see the feeders from I-35 looking like a parking lot for over 1/4 mile near the cross streets.

When you have nearly a 1 million population and require most of them to drive a car, you will have traffic.