No east-west routes? (Austin, Buda, Mart: neighborhood, construction, design)

[hal512]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

We HAVE a real interstate. It's called IH35 and runs from Mexico to Canada. By the way, when I flew up to Vermont some years ago, looking at a map with no miles on it, I was a bit concerned that if I flew into Burlington at 5:30 and needed to be in Middlebury to stay the night, that I'd be driving way into the night. Then I got a map with miles and realized I was talking some 35 miles or so. Which still took, driving 55 miles an hour on the highway, 1-1/2 hours without stopping (yes, I looked at the speedometer frequently) and in light traffic. Not sure how that happened, except that apparently there's a chronosynclastic infundibulum in Vermont along there.

I know! I Know! IH35 needs to be bigger. Most cities this size have an interstate going both ways and a loop connecting them. Oh well can't have everything.

[TexasHorseLady]

Why do we need one? We've got IH35, Loop 360, Mopac, 183, 290 (east and west), 71, Parmer (which will eventually be contacting IH35 north of Georgetown and has already reached 3405 in Georgetown and heads east of IH35, as well). Not counting the toll roads, of course.

Just how much more concrete DO we need so no one ever has to slow down at all?

[hal512]

All of the roads you just mentioned are on the north side with exception to 290. What about all the folks in Buda, 1626, Slaughter ect. They have no good route to get west without going thru stop light after stop light. Have you been on 360 from 4pm to 6pm? It takes me an hour and 45 mins. to get from spicewood springs road to 71 and bee caves and back. An hour and 45 mins. to go 20 miles is a bit excessive. I watch all the bikers riding past as I sit in traffic and think 1. Great I just got passed by a bike in a 60mph zone and 2. Wow you have got to have no fear to ride on 360 in rush hour. I'm not saying I want a city of concrete just connect mopac, 35 and 71 with the existing roads we have and give us a loop around the city free of lights like 95% of cities this size.

[TexasHorseLady]

I used to live South and boarded my horse in Manchaca. I was well able to get east to west at just about any time of day using the routes that existed then, and a little more recently, from Ben White/South Lamar area to Niederwald (east of IH35, east of Buda) in 20-25 minutes. I drive down in that neck of the woods frequently now.

1626, Slaughter, Stasney, Ben White, William Cannon, 1626, Davis, are just ones that spring instantly to mind. There are others. Now, granted, you do sometimes have to stop at the occasional stoplight (horrors!).

Southwest Parkway from Mopac over to 71.

As for rush hour, the major roads here are a major hassle for a short while during rush hour. So are the major roads in just about every other city that I've been in, loop or no loop. The trick is to familiarize yourself with the alternative routes for those times when traffic backs up on your favorite one. By the way, 360 at rush hour requires being fearless? Who knew? Yes, one actually does have to slow down, but that's not a reason for fear, not in my book. And it's MUCH better than most cities I've been in.

However, I can still make it from far South Austin, or far North Austin, downtown in half an hour during peak rush hour. I've timed myself. And from about 15 miles northeast of Georgetown to the Ben White/South Lamar area in about 45 minutes to an hour at non-peak times.

[hal512]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

I used to live South and boarded my horse in Manchaca. I was well able to get east to west at just about any time of day using the routes that existed then, and a little more recently, from Ben White/South Lamar area to Niederwald (east of IH35, east of Buda) in 20-25 minutes. I drive down in that neck of the woods frequently now.

1626, Slaughter, Stasney, Ben White, William Cannon, 1626, Davis, are just ones that spring instantly to mind. There are others. Now, granted, you do sometimes have to stop at the occasional stoplight (horrors!).

Southwest Parkway from Mopac over to 71.

As for rush hour, the major roads here are a major hassle for a short while during rush hour. So are the major roads in just about every other city that I've been in, loop or no loop. The trick is to familiarize yourself with the alternative routes for those times when traffic backs up on your favorite one. By the way, 360 at rush hour requires being fearless? Who knew? Yes, one actually does have to slow down, but that's not a reason for fear, not in my book. And it's MUCH better than most cities I've been in.

However, I can still make it from far South Austin, or far North Austin, downtown in half an hour during peak rush hour. I've timed myself. And from about 15 miles northeast of Georgetown to the Ben White/South Lamar area in about 45 minutes to an hour at non-peak times.

Indianapolis has about 20,000 fewer ppl than we do yet they have I70, I74, I65, loop 421 loop 465 and SR 31. They do not look like a concrete city the overpasses near Dell are the same size as any in Indy (most in Indy are smaller) Downtown Indy has a Riverwalk like San Antonio lined with huge Maple (I think Maple maybe Sycamore) trees anyway point is you can actually get around the city in a decent time (20 miles will take 15 mins.). Many of the streets with retail stores are the same size as I35 in most cities.

[TexasHorseLady]

Do you really mean "most cities" or do you mean "Indianapolis"? If you mean "most cities", can you give me other ones and the names of the routes?

Austin is not Houston, it is not Dallas (nor, for that matter, is it Indianapolis), and it has no desire to be. Roads need to be upgraded, true, but I don't think throwing interstates at the problem is the right answer for this city.

[TexasHorseLady]

I just went and googled Indianapolis, and also googled Austin, Texas. Doing this, I got the little road map at the top of the page. I looked back and forth. What I saw was that the road system was oddly similar (which I guess is the case when you've got any city - you've got roads going across it north/south and east/west, and then roads sort of looping around it as a result. I did note that the bolding of the roads on the Austin map didn't seem to have to do with the actual size of the roads, as Mopac was highlighted, 360 wasn't all the way (though the road is pretty much the same on the highlighted part and the unhighlighted part), and 183 wasn't highlighted, either, on the east side.

However, the evidence shows that the roads are there pretty much the same between the two cities. Interesting.

[hal512]

When I say most cities I mean Chicago (downtown traffic nightmare outlying not so bad), Cincy, Lexington, St. Louis, Orlando, Atlanta, Raleigh, Nashville, Little Rock, Lansing. They have plans to make 1626 part of a loop on the south side, of course they also plan on making 71 a super highway and yet they have yet to finish the 290/35 connection on the south side (unless that has happened since I moved west). I lived south and loved it but hated the commute. Yes you had a ton of routes you could take, but I was rear ended once on manchacha, the middle car in a 5 car pile up on 1st street and the best while stopped in traffic the car in front of me put her car in reverse instead of drive and plowed my one week old car. All of these happened in one year and I was stopped during all of them and my car was in perfect working order as it was brand new. So if we had roads where we didn't have to stop maybe I wouldn't get hit anymore as I have only been in one accident on a highway and that was many years ago. Instead I choose to move west and so far no accidnets.

[TexasHorseLady]

Boy, you have a lot of bad luck in cars! I'd hate driving, too, if I had that kind of bad luck. (No accidents in the past 15+ years driving the same streets that you did.) Trust me, though, you'd MUCH rather have an accident on a stop and go street than one on a highway.

Chicago's population is 3 million; the Austin metro population (which takes in the surrounding towns) is about 1.5 million. Not quite apples to apples there. I'll have to go look at the other cities to see how apt the comparison is.

[TexasHorseLady]

Little Rock appears to have fewer roads than Austin does, which is as it should be, given that their population for the metro area is only a little over half ours.

Nashville's road map on google is very similar to ours, and they are closer to Little Rock's size than to ours. Of course, they have always been a major tourist industry town.

If you turn St. Louis on its side (because of the direction the river runs compared to ours, to take into account the required river crossings), it, too, looks very similar to ours in number of major roadways.

The pattern that is forming here is interesting; thanks for throwing this out there.

However, I have to get to bed; the rest will have to wait until morning.