Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The N-S/E-W difference is quite dramatic. My commute is all south of 635 as well, but East-West.
To/From Austin Downtown is always bad. The thing that makes DFW so crazy is that there are tons of areas of congestion. The 75/NDT/35 and 635/PGBT/121 type commutes get the most discussion on this board and they are certainly all congested but the worst might be the one coming in on 30 or 80 from Rockwall/Forney/etc. I have never experienced it but I have been leaving DFW in the AM in that direction and those roads are a parking lot for miles upon miles coming into town in the AM and leaving in the PM.
I kind of got off topic there, but I guess what I was trying to convey is that the speed of your commute on a mile/min basis is definitely better than average for DFW.
But are they supposed to keep throwing $$$ at expanding the roads every time someone's office moves? It's a crappy situation, but there's only so much $$$. The way to ease traffic is to offer alternatives to driving. When will DFW finally learn that? It's not 1960 anymore.
I hear you, man. I think companies should be either incented to offer telecommuting options (through tax breaks) or companies heavily reliant on technology should possibly even be fined for NOT offering telecommuting options. There's no reason whatsoever for me to get in a car and drive to work. I'm a "knowledge" worker; everything I do is on the 3 lb laptop that I haul 14 miles each way every day.
If you're a teacher, nurse, doctor, etc., you pretty much have to go to work. Work can't come to you. I get that. But wouldn't it be nice to get people like me off the roads so people who do physically have to be at work can have an easier time?
Quote:
Originally Posted by HP48G
Eventually there won't be room to widen highways and build more exchanges and turnpikes ... however there's always lots of empty land north all the way to OK, so the sprawling cycle will continue.
Yup. Like a plague of locusts, consuming all resources and laying waste to the land as they romp north towards the Red River. You can't escape their effects even if you're well south of the storm, like we are. You pay no matter what through higher utility rates, longer commutes, higher taxes, etc. Peoples' decision to move to north Texas takes money out of my pocket every day. I'm sick of it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mentallect
It's just idiots desperate to argue the other way. Anyone who knows anything about time, speed, and distance knows that generally 25 miles is not a long distance at all, and should only take a half hour tops, which is not a bad commute at all (and you don't have to "drive through 3 cities" just to drive 25 miles either). But when you literally have millions of people with literally thousands more arriving every week trying to commute on tight 3 lane streets at the same time with lights still calibrated to traffic from 5 or 6 years ago, then THAT'S when your daily commute doubles or nearly triples and becomes akin to a "long haul trucker" commute. Moreover, not everyone can work from home or live 2 stop lights away from where they work, like so many people on this forum love to brag about---especially with the housing crunch in DFW. In fact, MOST people don't. So going by their ridiculous logic, anyone who drives a car in the morning to get to work "IS traffic." Absolutely ridiculous.
Yup, I agree! I "was traffic" on my way to work today. Drove through 3 cities too. And even if you time your commute just right, there's always Dallas's Idiot Brigade ready to ruin your day by crashing into each other and snarling traffic. I was 15 minutes later to work than I usually am because of two idiots on 75 this morning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by calgirlinnc
Where are the flying cars? We were promised flying cars!
Housing is the WORST!!! Definitely the worst part of the growth in DFW, with traffic coming in second. The laughably poor housing situation alone is actually starting to run people AWAY from DFW. It's just that right now, DFW is still growing much faster than people are leaving. For now...
People complain about the traffic here, but I think some perspective is helpful. After living all my life here, up to age thirty-one, I moved to Atlanta for the last fifteen years. Holy crap, our problems here do not even compare in the slightest. We moved back in the fall of 2015. Shortly after our return, my wife was grousing about traffic we were in, and I reminded her that the traffic here MOVES. Even if it is slowly. I've been in Atlanta traffic that was stopped for hours, and I mean dead stopped, not moving. I've had drives that normally took 25 minutes take three hours. I've been back in Texas not quite two years, and haven't run into that kind of traffic yet. We're doing something about the roads here, and have been. And the roads and highways have been built since the 60's, have been built with a decent amount of foresight. All of which I can not say about Atlanta, so hopefully things will remain manageable as more people arrive here.
People complain about the traffic here, but I think some perspective is helpful. After living all my life here, up to age thirty-one, I moved to Atlanta for the last fifteen years. Holy crap, our problems here do not even compare in the slightest. We moved back in the fall of 2015. Shortly after our return, my wife was grousing about traffic we were in, and I reminded her that the traffic here MOVES. Even if it is slowly. I've been in Atlanta traffic that was stopped for hours, and I mean dead stopped, not moving. I've had drives that normally took 25 minutes take three hours. I've been back in Texas not quite two years, and haven't run into that kind of traffic yet. We're doing something about the roads here, and have been. And the roads and highways have been built since the 60's, have been built with a decent amount of foresight. All of which I can not say about Atlanta, so hopefully things will remain manageable as more people arrive here.
EXACTLY ! DFW HAS bad traffic during peak yes, but compared to some other cities like atlanta , bay area , and especially LA Id take dfw traffic any day. What I hate about dfw is how stupid the lights are synchronized.
People complain about the traffic here, but I think some perspective is helpful. After living all my life here, up to age thirty-one, I moved to Atlanta for the last fifteen years. Holy crap, our problems here do not even compare in the slightest. We moved back in the fall of 2015. Shortly after our return, my wife was grousing about traffic we were in, and I reminded her that the traffic here MOVES. Even if it is slowly. I've been in Atlanta traffic that was stopped for hours, and I mean dead stopped, not moving. I've had drives that normally took 25 minutes take three hours. I've been back in Texas not quite two years, and haven't run into that kind of traffic yet. We're doing something about the roads here, and have been. And the roads and highways have been built since the 60's, have been built with a decent amount of foresight. All of which I can not say about Atlanta, so hopefully things will remain manageable as more people arrive here.
Yes, I moved to Atlanta after living in Houston (and Dallas, Austin and San Antonio) and swore never to complain about Houston traffic again. Dallas is similar to Houston. Both are nowhere near as bad as LA.
DFW has done massive amounts of road (and transit) improvements over the last quarter century. Atlanta basically did nothing from 1995-2010 despite growing nearly 2 million people. DFW has tried.
People complain about the traffic here, but I think some perspective is helpful. After living all my life here, up to age thirty-one, I moved to Atlanta for the last fifteen years. Holy crap, our problems here do not even compare in the slightest. We moved back in the fall of 2015. Shortly after our return, my wife was grousing about traffic we were in, and I reminded her that the traffic here MOVES. Even if it is slowly. I've been in Atlanta traffic that was stopped for hours, and I mean dead stopped, not moving. I've had drives that normally took 25 minutes take three hours. I've been back in Texas not quite two years, and haven't run into that kind of traffic yet. We're doing something about the roads here, and have been. And the roads and highways have been built since the 60's, have been built with a decent amount of foresight. All of which I can not say about Atlanta, so hopefully things will remain manageable as more people arrive here.
That's damning us with faint praise, though. "At least traffic here moves!"
Small consolation when your office hasn't moved, YOU haven't moved, yet your commute time doubles in the space of 2-3 years. That's crap, and it's worth complaining about. (In case you're wondering...yes, we blame YOU, the people who keep moving here.)
I guess I have it pretty good compared to some of you...
No commute to worry about. I have no problem moving further north every 5-10 years as traffic increases. It's worked out well for me as far as housing goes, I buy in an up and coming area, 5-10 years later I sell and pocket a lot of cash, then move a bit further out and trade up in housing, rinse, repeat.
Overall, I think growth has been fairly well mitigated in most instances. Plano is a good example of this, I remember when Coit Rd was a single lane road. Now pretty much everywhere in Plano, all major roads are 3 lanes. Frisco hasn't done as well as Plano, McKinney I would say is doing a fair job, time will tell if they can keep that up, Prosper/Celina/Melissa are all putting plans in motion to accommodate future growth and have mapped out projections of where they will need to be in terms of infrastructure.
Further south, 635 was ALWAYS a mess, but the new Express lanes help immensely. 75 is practically unrecognizable vs what it was 20 years ago. North of Plano, 75 is fantastic. PGBT makes crossing Plano a breeze, before that, you were forced to take Parker, Park, or 15th, none of which were ideal.
About the only complaint I have regarding traffic where I live is the 380 corridor... Classic case of too little, too late. They haven't even finished widening the road yet and it's already projected to not being able to handle the near future demands of traffic and it will need to be under construction again.
With the exception of Frisco, I don't think any other suburbs are having real issues with their school districts, and most are providing very good educational standards compared to elsewhere in the US (and bucking the trend for most of the rest of TX.)
I honestly can't see any glaring problems that are in dire need of attention across the metroplex due to growth. I've lived in other cities that handled these issues with much less foresight and intelligence, and I guess if you haven't seen first hand just how badly it can be to not plan ahead for growth, you wouldn't know what a good job the DFW area has done in comparison.
No, you didn't. You posted a link to only one house in DFW and only one house in Sacramento (oddly enough, one of the more affordable parts of California), which showed that the smaller house in Sacramento costs AT LEAST 50% more than the bigger one in Irving. Maybe you don't care about square feet, but most people do.
Yup. As one of CD's few actual Irving residents, I can tell you those comps were ridiculous. As a recovering academic there is absolutely no way I could support a family in Pleasanton. I have family still living out there having trouble managing it with a far better-quality resume than I possess.
I do not like the way DFW have become a hive due primarily to the movement of economic refugees - CA and points north have lots going for them and it's tragic that all these companies are having to move in the first place -- it rips up communities out there, and breaks up communities here as DFW catches the gentrification bug). But DFW has done a pretty decent job of planning for growth and being accommodating, and some of the newer roadway structures are actually pretty awe-inspiring.
BigDGeek: I hear you. We're the forum grouches here. But then, unlike you, these people will never affect MY commute: none of these people will ever come near "unsafe" Irving except on their way to the airport.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
And even if you time your commute just right, there's always Dallas's Idiot Brigade ready to ruin your day by crashing into each other and snarling traffic. I was 15 minutes later to work than I usually am because of two idiots on 75 this morning. 
