Jester or Great Hills? which has worse traffic to downtown? (Austin: homes, buying)

[maximizer]

Hi all,

We are considering buying in either Great Hills (close to Laurel Mountain school) or Jester. Can someone compare rush hour traffic to downtown from these locations? Google says they are about equal - 30-40min leaving at 8am on a Wed. Anyone have experience with both?

Also, how is traffic from Jester to North Austin? It looks easy according to Google, I suppose it's mostly going against traffic flow.

Besides traffic, any other insights comparing the two are appreciated. We have 2 elementary school children, and it seems kind of a wash to us: we have a slight preference for Hill>Anderson over LM>Westwood, but also a slight preference for being closer to schools.

Thank you!

[Austin97]

I think jester has worse traffic in both cases. The intersection of 2222 and 360 is just bad during rush hour because of all the people coming from river place, lake way, steiner etc.

360 going north is also bad because 360 has lights which slow everything down. Great hills feeding into laurel mountain can go down yaupon to spicewood springs, then under 360 then spicewood springs all the way to mopac which is very consistent (except for a 2-3 week period last year where it was getting really backed up).

Once you are on mopac it is slow but not any different then 2222/mopac

I work at far west and mopac and can go from laurel mountain to far west/mopac in about 10-12 minutes (I leave about 15 minutes before my meetings, park and get to them on time). Then I would expect it would take another 20 minutes (or more) to get downtown.

[je4xff]

Originally Posted by maximizer

Hi all,

Besides traffic, any other insights comparing the two are appreciated.

Thank you!

I live in Great Hills and will tell you I think that it has excellent paths to getting around town - because you are right where Mopac, 183, and 360 converge, so you have many options for getting around. If you're in Jester, you have more limited ways in and out. They're both nice areas.

[sua2017]

If you plan your trips to North Austin not around peak driving times, your commute from Jester to either Four Points area, Far West area, or Arboretum area will be not bad to get your living essentials. Great Hills might have the downtown advantage of getting you there faster because of traffic at 360 and 2222 but it won't be a huge advantage, probably 10 minutes at most but I have never done the drive in peak driving time from Jester to downtown. I live in Great Hills-- love it here!

[Austin97]

google maps will also let you look at traffic during rush hour and do estimated times so you can try that for a few days in a row.

Keep in mind traffic should be lighter now that kids are out of school.

People mentioned that google can do historical traffic analysis but I wasnt able to find the feature. Maybe do a google search to find it.

[balor123]

Did Google Maps also mention to you that it's going to potentially take you 10-15min just to get out of Jester? Most of the homes there aren't right near the exit. There's a lot of speed humps, steep hills, etc. that really slow things down. Some parts of Great Hills could also take some time but not so many obstacles at least. Jester is wholly dependent on 360 and 2222. 2222 traffic to/from downtown isn't too bad but 360 is a royal PIA and there are no alternatives, especially from Jester. There can be bad traffic at 10am, noon, and then again at 4-5pm on 360. 183 without traffic is very fast and against the flow (which is mostly to Cedar Park) also not bad with lots of alternatives for people not commuting in/out of town. Same story for Mopac. Plus, I'm not a big fan of the character of Jester Estates. It's for people who wish they lived in the middle of no where but who need to be near the city. It'd drive me mad quickly.