Which is more connected. College Station to Houston or Waco to Dallas? (Plano: employment, places to live)

[texasdiver]

Waco is just as close to Austin as Dallas. When we lived in Waco I had neighbors who commuted to Dallas and down block other neighbors who commuted to Austin. Both had spouses who worked at Baylor so they chose to live in Waco.

When we lived there we rarely ever went to Dallas for any reason. Much more likely to go to Fort Worth or Austin for culture and such. Downtown Fort Worth is nicer and more accessible than Dallas and there is more fun kids stuff in Fort Worth with the zoo and museums (before they made the Perot museum). And Austin has the music scene.

On that basis I'd say that College Station is more connected to Houston because that's really all it has. Waco has Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin all within the same distance and Wacoans just have a lot more big city options.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

With the Aggie Tollway, CS (don't forget Bryan as well) and Houston will be even more connected. Magnolia and CS will be within a reasonable commute by modern standards. Already, NW Cypress and CS are commutable.

I'm still baffled as to why College Station gets a Tollway to Houston but Austin doesn't get a Tollway to Houston

Aggie Tollway is the Tom Ball Tollway right?

I couldn't help but wonder why they didn't just make Route 6 a full freeway, surely it wouldn't take too much longer from the 290 junction vs the Aggie Tollway would it?

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

I'm still baffled as to why College Station gets a Tollway to Houston but Austin doesn't get a Tollway to Houston

Aggie Tollway is the Tom Ball Tollway right?

I couldn't help but wonder why they didn't just make Route 6 a full freeway, surely it wouldn't take too much longer from the 290 junction vs the Aggie Tollway would it?

Technical reason: portion being tolled is segment 1 which is mostly in Montgomery County. Their financing method involved tolls

Practical reason: section 1 mostly consists of Houston suburbs, which are generally tolled. Connecting large metros usually isn’t a good idea to be tolled (like Houston and Austin as you mentioned). Even though college station isn’t a Houston suburb, as this thread suggests, the two areas are very connected with eachothers suburbs, so it’s not like a highway between two large metros. Section two, however isn’t tolled which is further away from Houston, so not near as many daily commuters will end up using this portion daily, making it impractical to roll.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

, surely it wouldn't take too much longer from the 290 junction vs the Aggie Tollway would it?

Can’t give you an exact amount of time on how much time it would shave of. But somewhere around 20-30 minutes is a realistic estimate. For someone that just needs to go there for the day, it doesn’t mean much. But for daily commuters, it means a lot.

[austinaggie]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Waco is just as close to Austin as Dallas. When we lived in Waco I had neighbors who commuted to Dallas and down block other neighbors who commuted to Austin. Both had spouses who worked at Baylor so they chose to live in Waco.

When we lived there we rarely ever went to Dallas for any reason. Much more likely to go to Fort Worth or Austin for culture and such. Downtown Fort Worth is nicer and more accessible than Dallas and there is more fun kids stuff in Fort Worth with the zoo and museums (before they made the Perot museum). And Austin has the music scene.

On that basis I'd say that College Station is more connected to Houston because that's really all it has. Waco has Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin all within the same distance and Wacoans just have a lot more big city options.

Austin is the same distance to College Station as it is to Waco and it’s a much nicer drive.

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by austinaggie

Austin is the same distance to College Station as it is to Waco and it’s a much nicer drive.

Waco to Dallas 95 miles Waco to Austin 102 miles.

Houston to College Station is 95 miles , College Station to Austin is 106 miles so College Station has some city options as well. Funny how that all works out isn't it..

[Redlionjr]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Waco’s economy is definitely more tied in to Dallas, but A&M does more for Houston than Baylor does to Dallas. Sheer size could the reason. It actually annoys me how many A&M engineers are hired by the city.

Both have a lot of connections Even outside of the economy and the schools though.

Yeah my job is basically a A&M pipeline. Most of my co-workers are Texas A&M graduates. Ironically when I was going to school in Waco I knew plenty of graduates who would end up getting jobs in Dallas. Dallas was pretty much the go to city after college. So I'm not really sure which city is more connected to what metro.

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Waco is just as close to Austin as Dallas. When we lived in Waco I had neighbors who commuted to Dallas and down block other neighbors who commuted to Austin. Both had spouses who worked at Baylor so they chose to live in Waco.

When we lived there we rarely ever went to Dallas for any reason. Much more likely to go to Fort Worth or Austin for culture and such. Downtown Fort Worth is nicer and more accessible than Dallas and there is more fun kids stuff in Fort Worth with the zoo and museums (before they made the Perot museum). And Austin has the music scene.

On that basis I'd say that College Station is more connected to Houston because that's really all it has. Waco has Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin all within the same distance and Wacoans just have a lot more big city options.

Bryan-College Station is just as close to Austin as Waco is though. With that said when I lived in Waco I can recall going to Dallas literally every other weekend. Even the college I went to had more Dallasites than Austin students. I did go to Austin frequently but Dallas was all the time. Granted I had friends that lived in Dallas but Dallas did seem to have more of a connection with Waco than Austin. I can even recall hearing jokes referring to Waco as a Dallas suburb when I lived there. But Austin did have a connection to Waco as well.

[LocalPlanner]

I think there's a strong professional connection between Houston and CS because Houston is an engineering town, and TAMU graduates a ton of engineers.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

In my opinion, what makes Brazos more connected to Houston than Waco to Dallas is that there's more of a continuous middle between Houston and CS. As mentioned, the Aggie Expresslane will only multiply this. Navasota, Todd Mission, Magnolia, Pinehurst, Tomball. Within 30 min, you'll already be entering Houston suburbs.

[dallasboi]

Waco is more connected to Dallas than Dallas is connected to Waco.

Same for College Station and Houston

In other words....Neither pair is an equal connection. So it really just boils down to the decisions that college students make while they attend those Universities.

Its up to them to decide how much time they choose to spend in Dallas or Houston.

Small road trips are fun to college students...They are the ones who would drive back and forth to Dallas or Houston.

Houstonians and Dallasites don't really have a reason to drive to CS or Waco....outside of driving through on a trip to The Texas Relays.