Austin the largest city with no light rail/rapid transit system (San Antonio: home, schools)

[inthecut]

Looked up the other 14 cities ahead of us in population, and they all have either light rail or rapid transit...Yep, we seem to worship stats and top ten lists here in Austin, so I hate to toss out another one...but, this one makes you think a bit, doesn't it?

One caveat..one of the cities is working on it now, for built out in 2012, San Antonio...thats what sparked conversation about the Austin-SA train on here, by the way..

http://www.viainfo.net/BusService/BRT.aspx


All the other 13 cities have fully functioning systems..Austin has nothing..

[HappyTexan]

We grew very fast in the past few years.
Urban sprawl and mass transit aren't good bedfellows unless you are talking about bus transit.
If you can't build over or under then it has to be planned in but it wasn't.
You barely had roads planned in with these developers over the past years.
I know the outlying cities had to do their own road expansions and building schools nevermind even consider mass transit.

You can't just plop a few 500 home subdivisions on a 2 lane country road and expect there NOT to be road problems.

[eileenkeeney]

They tried, but didn't do a good job.
Now they find it important to try to show that the mass transit train they did spend so much on, was not a bad idea.
Gaining ridership for the train may now be the most important goal of the transit system.
If in the process, many people (who need service) lose it, that does not matter.

If they think that one group is more likely to ride, if their bus service to the Rail stop is more frequent, then cutting service completely to others, so as to increase the frequency of service to that group, is something they will do.

The stops (at least one I know of) is so poorly placed, that it takes the one bus that serves it over 10 minutes to pull in and out, during peak traffic (I didn't time it exactly, but I am pretty sure it was in excess of 10 minutes).
So the solution, cut out half the route area that bus serves, to make up the time.

What is needed is better planning.

Increasing train ridership should not be more important than serving the transit needs of the most citizens it is reasonable to serve.

[Nomadic9460678748]

Austinites voted down true light rail around 10 years ago. Such foresight for such a "progressive" enclave.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Nomadic9460678748

Austinites voted down true light rail around 10 years ago. Such foresight for such a "progressive" enclave.

You can go to the portland city data forum and read about their light rail there. Just because they have it doesnt mean that it is working well.

[HappyTexan]

Not all cities are destined to have light rail. A good bus/taxi system in the city (Austin) would service it's purpose well. Build some mass parking garages at the edges and utilize the bus system.
I'm familiar with the northern end..so I would make The Domain a major hub since there's still land to build on..make a massive park and ride lot and have a good, reliable bus system that brings you downtown.

I hate going downtown due to the traffic and parking. But, if there was a good bus system, I would park at The Domain and take the bus downtown to do my business.

I think the problem is that Austin wants to service not only themselves but the outlying suburbs and towns as well. This will just be cost prohibitive.

[atlanta hope]

Car pooling lanes might help too...

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by Nomadic9460678748

Austinites voted down true light rail around 10 years ago. Such foresight for such a "progressive" enclave.

I was just looking at the map for this. Looks like it used many of the same existing ROWs as before but didn't have that Highland Mall/MLK eastward bend. Cost was over $1B so it is almost 10 times as costly as what was finally delivered.

Federal Transit Administration - Austin, Texas/Light Rail Corridors

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by atlanta hope

Car pooling lanes might help too...

They tried that in Florida when I lived there. I-95 ran similar to I-35 with 3 lanes. From Ft Lauderdale to Miami they blocked off that far left lane and called it HOV during rush hour.

The market in blow up dolls soared

[HappyTexan]

I was on I-35 yesterday in south Austin. Making my way home I noticed all the 18 wheelers on I-35 and thought to myself..yup..that 130 tollroad that would free up the truck traffic is working like a charm