Anyone here use the Gulf Freeway? (Galveston, Texas City: home, move, design)

[timtemtym]

The Gulf Freeway has always been under reconstruction in some part or other. It's the oldest freeway in Texas. You used to hear the joke that the Gulf Fwy was started the same year we dropped a bomb on Hiroshima. While that is now a thriving city, the Gulf Fwy is still being worked on. They'll fix one bottleneck (used to be right at Almeda Mall) and it just creates another one.

I hope they eventually build the telephone rd tollway they started to build up by UH to put through to Pearland. 45 needs more alternates than just Hwy. 3.

[Trae713]

Originally Posted by danieloneil01

It has everything to do with amount of lanes. There's to many people on the road for just 3 lanes. And even before the construction this section was horrible. Beltway 8 is heavily used and dumps both directions onto 45 which goes down to 3 lanes causing the traffic.


And I drive this everyday. It's not people driving 10 under in the left lane causing the problems.

Maybe not always, but people not consistently passing the cars to their right and not moving for faster traffic. An extra lane would help, but if people knew how to drive and were paying attention, then that would help, too. Another big one is the slow riders in the middle lane. 45 South is going to be especially bad now that summer is almost here.

[piyf]

Originally Posted by MobileDave

The bottleneck is because it goes down to 3 lanes after the Beltway.

They are expanding from the Beltway south to one mile past Clear Lake City Blvd. When it is finished it will be 5 lanes on each side with 3 lane frontage roads on each side. The construction will not be complete until 2014.

Thank god. Now if they could just fix 45 and 610 south that would be perfect.

[bluelion_ms3]

last week i went to visit my mom near eastwood transit center, and i noticed the HOV lane entrance there now has an option for TOLL!!! we went to have lunch at Mai's and i jumped on HOV from downtown and that entrance also has the toll option... the dollar amount stated $4.50 so i don't know if that's the price all the way to the end of the HOV in clearlake. i'm assuming that since they're not widening the HOV lane to mimic katy fwy, they will put ez-tag monitors at each entrances and exits of that particular HOV lane....that SHOULD help out the traffic on Gulf fwy, but it also may congest the HOV lane.

[Hawk11ns]

Back in 2000 I commuted to my first job near the Compaq Center (now Lakewood Church) from 518 @ 528 in League city and door to door would take me only ~20 minutes. Ever since they messed with the exits near Nasa Road 1 and opened up all the retail in the same area - as well as f'd with the BW8 interchange - it has gotten worse. Now the same commute takes 40 minutes on a good day.

[piyf]

And it's only going to get worse when the new huge outlet opens up by the dog track.

[MobileDave]

Not to mention all of the new houses, apartments, townhouses and people that are moving to that area and just south of there.

[jasonamd]

Originally Posted by Hawk11ns

Back in 2000 I commuted to my first job near the Compaq Center (now Lakewood Church) from 518 @ 528 in League city and door to door would take me only ~20 minutes. Ever since they messed with the exits near Nasa Road 1 and opened up all the retail in the same area - as well as f'd with the BW8 interchange - it has gotten worse. Now the same commute takes 40 minutes on a good day.

~30 miles in 20 minutes...that's pretty good....

[houstonfan]

Originally Posted by jasonamd

The biggest issue heading south of the beltway is where the lanes coming off of the beltway eventually end and everyone waits until the last second to merge causing everyone else to slam on the brakes so they can get over. Constantly see people driving down the shoulder after the lane ends to get those one or 2 more cars behind them so it will save them the all important 5 seconds on thier journey.

Yep, it's exactly this. See it at all major interchanges. Don't know what makes these people think they're more special than the rest of us who wait our turn. They also clip people off, putting everyone at risk. And if an accident happens, well, that just tops it all.

[houstonfan]

Originally Posted by timtemtym

The Gulf Freeway has always been under reconstruction in some part or other. It's the oldest freeway in Texas. You used to hear the joke that the Gulf Fwy was started the same year we dropped a bomb on Hiroshima. They'll fix one bottleneck (used to be right at Almeda Mall) and it just creates another one.

Same thing for IH10. Either the civil engineers are stupid around here, or they r tryin to keep employment avail. decade in decade out. If u move a bottle neck, it will form somewhere else. A real solution, such as alternate route, more lanes, is needed. And why add only one-two extra lanes at a time when you know the population is exploding?