Traffic question for transplants

[Austin97]

all the austin articles complaining about traffic or rating it the worst are based on a metric called congestion. Congestion is the ratio of the worst time to the best time. This means if austin is relatively free flowing most of the time, but slows down a lot percentage wise then it would get a worse rating.

A key component of INRIX
Real-Time Traffic Data is the
proprietary INRIX Vehicle Tracking
Algorithm, which classifies
each second of a single vehicle
trip as congested or free flow.
Congestion is defined as a speed
below 65 percent of the free-flow
speed, which is not an arbitrary
or unachievable overnight speed,
but the typical uncongested
speed on that road segment.
The result of this innovation is a measure of
congestion that reflects the real-world experience
and expectations of drivers. The total drive time
can be separated into congested or free flow,
and the ratio of these is the congestion rate,
or the percentag

.

Another metric that I think is more telling is total average commute time. This takes into account housing prices that let you live close to your job as well as how nasty traffic gets. By total average commute time austin is way down the list.

https://www.titlemax.com/discovery-c...-commute-time/

[TXStrat]

Originally Posted by brock2010

There are several articles out talking about how bad traffic is/has gotten in Austin. Was the traffic better/worse where you moved from?

Traffic in Austin has been horrible since the early 90s. This isn't anything new. If it's gotten worse, it's for the same reason it got bad in the first place. Lack of planning and infrastructure investment. The 183 project provided some relief, as did the expansion, and partial toll conversion of MoPac. However, without something like an X35 loop, it's only going to get progressively worse.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by TXStrat

Traffic in Austin has been horrible since the early 90s. This isn't anything new. If it's gotten worse, it's for the same reason it got bad in the first place. Lack of planning and infrastructure investment. The 183 project provided some relief, as did the expansion, and partial toll conversion of MoPac. However, without something like an X35 loop, it's only going to get progressively worse.

It is kind of odd that Austin doesn't have a 3dgi loop for I-35, or even just a partial loop.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

It is kind of odd that Austin doesn't have a 3dgi loop for I-35, or even just a partial loop.

Mopac is a "loop." It's Loop 1. And you and I both know that you can loop around the city through various highways like 45 to 130 to 45 down south (with a quick jump on 35) to mopac back to 45. (But I know what you're saying)

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

I moved to Austin from Houston in the late 70's and Austin was busy then but not on the same scale as Houston. Houston was in a whole other league and probably the most congested city, traffic wise, in the nation at that time....But for as long as I been in Austin, Austin has always been busy and congested. I-35 was bumper to bumper most of the time, just as it is now. There were far fewer vehicles but there were also far fewer lanes and roads. MoPac was not complete to relieve I-35. US-HWY 183 from I-35 to 620 was a nightmare on Friday with probably at least 20 stop lights along the way. The same thing on Ben White from I-35 to Barton Creek Mall. It seems like Burnet Road and 183 was the busiest intersection in Austin at that time, but I could be mistaken about that. Sometimes it seemed like it could take forever to get thru it. It seems like it's only been since the 80's or 90's that I-35 was 2 lanes in each direction north of 183, not including the frontage roads and 2 lanes in each direction south of Ben White, not including the frontage roads.

[Roadking2003]

We moved from Atlanta 20 years ago and Austin is much better than Atlanta. But our problem is we have a city council that hates cars and is doing everything they can to discourage driving cars.

[blakely]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

Mopac is a "loop." It's Loop 1.

And yet it's not a "loop".


https://www.kut.org/austin/2017-01-1...isery-of-mopac