Look for best / fastest route from Bee Caves to Wells Branch (Austin: to live, rated)

[nadialight]

Hi All! I'm looking for a faster (or at least less stop and go) route from Barton Creek Boulevard (just of Bee Caves road) to Wells Branch. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Currently I'm taking 360 to MoPac and Mopac to Wells Branch... but 360 is starting to tire me. Thanks for your help!

[Trainwreck20]

360 north to MoPac? That is a long stretch on 360. You can also take 360 south to MoPac and take MoPac pretty much the entire way.

I have not had the N-S commute in several years now, but I found that at the peak of rush hour, I generally preferred 360 (it was "drive for a while, then stop at the light for a few changes", while MoPac was "creep, stop, creep, stop, creep, stop....for an hour). When it is not peak hours, MoPac is generally better because it has no lights.

[b. frank]

Originally Posted by nadialight

Hi All! I'm looking for a faster (or at least less stop and go) route from Barton Creek Boulevard (just of Bee Caves road) to Wells Branch. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Currently I'm taking 360 to MoPac and Mopac to Wells Branch... but 360 is starting to tire me. Thanks for your help!

I used to drive this way daily.
I found that the most consistent way is:
From Bee Cave: take 71 east, left on Southwest Parkway, enter Mopac north and go all the way.
Of course Mopac can be horrible, but it can also be quite smooth and you'll be able to count on a general window of transit time. I think 360 (or 620) to Mopac is very unpredictable.

However, I haven't done that commute for about 6 months, so maybe it has changed

[fil]

How about 620N to I45 or to Anderson Mill (which is just about finished being upgraded to 4 lanes) to McNeil which turns into Wells Branch?

It's a long drive no matter how you look at it.

[PeacePlease]

360 up to Mopac is not so bad compared to the alternatives.

When I used to live close to that area and needed to commute to the north part of Austin, I used to take Bee Caves Rd all the way to Mopac (yes crossing 360). From there take Mopac all the way up. But on the way back during rush hour, it will be bad.

[atxcio]

Yeah, there isn't much that is a better alternative to 360 north to Mopac. There are shortcuts everywhere along the route, but full of stop lights/signs. They don't save much (or any) time, but they might make you feel a little less frustrated. IMO, the traffic heading N on 360 from Bee Caves Rd isn't too bad til you get near the bridge... If that area is the problem, the "sanity" shortcut for you might be to exit 2222 and take Lakewood / through NW Hills to Steck and Mopac or something. But again, it's probably not saving any time.

West Austin to NE Austin is a very big pain.

[another_hot-day]

Originally Posted by fil

How about 620N to I45 or to Anderson Mill (which is just about finished being upgraded to 4 lanes) to McNeil which turns into Wells Branch?

It's a long drive no matter how you look at it.

Just about finished? It tool them forever and a day to get the one side "done" and now they tore up the other side and never have anyone working on it...
Just about finished meaning?

[another_hot-day]

Sorry about that. I live right off Anderson Mill and I'm sick of that roadwork.

[Moonlady]

I commuted from Lake Hills (Bee Cave & Cuernavaca) to 1325 and Howard Lane and all I can say is, leave early. The 3 options for going north, 620, 360 and Mopac are going to be obnoxious unless you hit them early enough to avoid the worst of rush hour. The morning commute doesn't seem to be nearly as bad as the afternoon for some reason and of course exiting onto Bee Cave has become a nightmare! If anyone has any sugeestions for getting around that, I'd like to know!

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

360 north to MoPac? That is a long stretch on 360. You can also take 360 south to MoPac and take MoPac pretty much the entire way.

I have not had the N-S commute in several years now, but I found that at the peak of rush hour, I generally preferred 360 (it was "drive for a while, then stop at the light for a few changes", while MoPac was "creep, stop, creep, stop, creep, stop....for an hour). When it is not peak hours, MoPac is generally better because it has no lights.

I dont do that drive very often, but I think 2244 to mopac then up mopac would be the best way. I stopped driving on 360 a long time ago because the lights slow things down too much.

I have another post which lists the exits on mopac that you can go into the right lane and drive really fast then exit to a stop sign that gets you back on immediately.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/austi...commuting.html

I dont know off the top of my head which roads north to south have usable exits.