Sunday traffic (Austin, Round Rock, Temple: buy, live, moving)

[brock2010]

I was in Austin the Sunday after Halloween and traffic was bumper to bumper on I-35. Are Sunday's usually that busy?

[ashbeeigh]

Yes. I work at a hospital on Sundays. Getting there at 7:45 is a breeze but leaving between 2:30pm and 4:30pm is a nightmare. I will not take the highway to get home.

[Need4Camaro]

I-35 in general is a terrible road through Austin. I personally think its more of a design issue than traffic issue. Especially that double decked section and areas in S.Austin where there is alot of road work.

When I'm passing 'thru' Austin, say from SATX to DFW, I typically get off at 71, head west, catch MoPac, head north to 45, recatch I-35 in Round Rock, crawl between 45/I-35 to 1431, after that its typically okay.

Could do 45/130 as well but its fairly pricy.

Whats funny is about 50 miles north of us, Temple TX has a recently redesigned section of I-35 that has more lanes and better interchanges than most of I-35 does through Austin - the state's capital.

[brock2010]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

I-35 in general is a terrible road through Austin. I personally think its more of a design issue than traffic issue. Especially that double decked section and areas in S.Austin where there is alot of road work.

When I'm passing 'thru' Austin, say from SATX to DFW, I typically get off at 71, head west, catch MoPac, head north to 45, recatch I-35 in Round Rock, crawl between 45/I-35 to 1431, after that its typically okay.

Could do 45/130 as well but its fairly pricy.

Whats funny is about 50 miles north of us, Temple TX has a recently redesigned section of I-35 that has more lanes and better interchanges than most of I-35 does through Austin - the state's capital.

I live right outside of Temple so I know what you mean.

[CarnivalGal]

I haven't been on I-35 in five years, and I live here. I avoid it like the plague.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by The Pointer

Land is easy to acquire where there is nobody to push out. Austin is not that simple to change.

It’s poor driving skills that slow everything down in Austin, not the road. Three lanes downtown is plenty of room to move traffic. Watch how one person braking when they should be cruising to get momentum. That impacts miles of people behind them. The split road is not new, so it’s not the problem.

N4C lives in a transportation dreamland. He has grand plans for all the cities he drives in. (And there’s nothing wrong with any of those dreams).

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by The Pointer

Land is easy to acquire where there is nobody to push out. Austin is not that simple to change.

It’s poor driving skills that slow everything down in Austin, not the road. Three lanes downtown is plenty of room to move traffic. Watch how one person braking when they should be cruising to get momentum. That impacts miles of people behind them. The split road is not new, so it’s not the problem.

The split road is not new, but the population of Austin has grown exponentially since I-35 constructed, and little to nothing has been done on I-35 to address the increased traffic.

The trucks don't help either.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

N4C lives in a transportation dreamland. He has grand plans for all the cities he drives in. (And there’s nothing wrong with any of those dreams).

Indeed. N4C’s transportation dreamland, a magical place where highways fly freely and an overpass at every intersection!

Maybe I’m a bit of a radical but hey it looks like there’s others pondering free the I-35 dream —

https://cbsaustin.com/amp/news/local...owntown-austin

This along with Project Connect - which I may not see until I’m in my 60’s ripe old - seems like I’m on a roll!

I may buy a lottery ticket tonight

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Indeed. N4C’s transportation dreamland, a magical place where highways fly freely and an overpass at every intersection!

Maybe I’m a bit of a radical but hey it looks like there’s others pondering free the I-35 dream —

https://cbsaustin.com/amp/news/local...owntown-austin

This along with Project Connect - which I may not see until I’m in my 60’s ripe old - seems like I’m on a roll!

I may buy a lottery ticket tonight

I will say, as someone who is "not from here," I have always been baffled by the lack of overpasses. Other places have freeways much older than Austin's that were built with overpasses. It's like they put in stoplights and then are just shocked when cars are actually stopped.

The whole concept of access roads boggles my mind too. You put a short offramp with a light at the end at some of the busiest exits and then are surprised when all the cars stopping backs up the offramp. Um, kind of saw that one coming, didn't you? It's not like crossing 3 lanes of traffic during rush hour to turn right at your exit was a problem anyone could foresee either.

Not I-35, but I've also wondered what the reasoning behind having a lane that just ends on 183 North just past Braker. It turns into a shoulder that's a mile wide - plenty of room to keep it a functional lane of traffic. It becomes a huge bottleneck every evening. Doesn't seem like you'd need an engineering degree to figure that one out.

I will say that Austin freeways aren't the best planned I've seen.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by CarnivalGal

I will say, as someone who is "not from here," I have always been baffled by the lack of overpasses. Other places have freeways much older than Austin's that were built with overpasses. It's like they put in stoplights and then are just shocked when cars are actually stopped.

The whole concept of access roads boggles my mind too. You put a short offramp with a light at the end at some of the busiest exits and then are surprised when all the cars stopping backs up the offramp. Um, kind of saw that one coming, didn't you? It's not like crossing 3 lanes of traffic during rush hour to turn right at your exit was a problem anyone could foresee either.

Not I-35, but I've also wondered what the reasoning behind having a lane that just ends on 183 North just past Braker. It turns into a shoulder that's a mile wide - plenty of room to keep it a functional lane of traffic. It becomes a huge bottleneck every evening. Doesn't seem like you'd need an engineering degree to figure that one out.

I will say that Austin freeways aren't the best planned I've seen.

The access roads in Downtown are a mess with the frequent offramps / onramps / intersections in one area, and the offramps offloading you right before the stop light making right turns a hit or miss experience if you're merging off I-35. When the double deck section ends, traffic in the 'thru' lanes are funneled into merging traffic from cars entering from their right and exiting from their left

I personally would remove those access roads and use braided ramps with non-yielding 'keep moving' right turns into Downtown.

The suburban access roads seem to be designed a bit better because they typically let you off the highway as far back as 1 mile from the street you're attempting to exit onto giving you time to merge. Then there is an onramp right before the intersection so merging traffic can 'skip' that intersection if they desire.