My Worst Traffic Memory (Houston, Austin: home, buy, live)

[G Grasshopper]

Reading some of the recent threads, my worst traffic nightmare came back to me, and I just thought I'd share it. This was years ago - I think it was 1980. My husband was my boyfriend at the time. We lived in Orange County, CA. I took him to LA airport a few days before Christmas, as he was going back to Texas for a family Christmas (I couldn't go .) This was during the days when you could go see people off at the jet way and wait until the jet actually pushed off. So I parked in the airport parking garage and went in with him. I don't remember, but I guess I was not thinking about rush hour, as I was not a regular commuter, and I imagine the proximity to Christmas made it even worse. When I came back, the traffic in the parking garage was unbelievable. After a great deal of inching along, I figured out that the traffic on the freeway had backed up all the way into the airport. It took me 2 hours to get out of the garage! Had I caught on sooner to what was going on, it would have been better to go buy a book at an airport bookstore and find a nice place to read for a while.

[Exiled Texan]

Stand still traffic on I-95 between Philly and NYC. Couldn't even get off the highway. Screaming baby in back seat. 3 hour trip became an 8+ hour trip.

[infoseeker2010]

I had couple..

about 4-5 yrs back.. we went to SF for 4th July fireworks.. we parked in a garage near pier 39.. unfortunately we got space on top floor (i guess 5th).. it took us 1.5 hrs to get out of the garage but after that it was breeze all the way to south bay..

last year hear in austin on friday evening.. we made a last minute plan to visit houston.. i think either of ACL/SXSW was in town.. i work south of river and at that time lived up north.. from my office i saw mopac backedup.. so decided to take 360->183.. it took me nearly 2 hours to reach home

[achtungpv]

About 10 years ago, made the mistake of parking in the TxDOT parking lot at Riverside and Congress to view the 4th of July fireworks at Auditorium Shores.

It took 2 1/2 hours to get out of the parking lot onto Riverside.

[kittenlittle]

Friday night between LA and Las Vegas. Stop and go traffic the whole way through the desert. That was weird with nothing around and all those cars, and I'm glad I didn't have to drive.

Rush hour(s) when I lived in the suburbs in Paris was horrible. 30 minute drive took 3 hours. Don't even think about the metro, unless you like getting up close and personal with the people standing next to you for the next half hour.. If you even can get on it or off at your stop.

I don't think the traffic is that horrible around Austin. It's congested, sure, but it still (kinda) moves most of the time. At least on the roads I've taken.

Out of all the cities I've lived in, though, Salt Lake City has the best traffic.

[Gorfml]

the road iced over on southwest parkway a few years ago and me and a few dozen of us were stuck in our cars from 8pm to 5am. if u tried to leave in either direction u would slide off icy hills and crash. all night ppl lost patience, took off and crashed. I was low on gas so I had to constantly shut the car off until I couldnt take the cold. I needed to go to the bathroom the whole time too

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by G Grasshopper

Reading some of the recent threads, my worst traffic nightmare came back to me, and I just thought I'd share it. This was years ago - I think it was 1980. My husband was my boyfriend at the time. We lived in Orange County, CA. I took him to LA airport a few days before Christmas, as he was going back to Texas for a family Christmas (I couldn't go .) This was during the days when you could go see people off at the jet way and wait until the jet actually pushed off. So I parked in the airport parking garage and went in with him. I don't remember, but I guess I was not thinking about rush hour, as I was not a regular commuter, and I imagine the proximity to Christmas made it even worse. When I came back, the traffic in the parking garage was unbelievable. After a great deal of inching along, I figured out that the traffic on the freeway had backed up all the way into the airport. It took me 2 hours to get out of the garage! Had I caught on sooner to what was going on, it would have been better to go buy a book at an airport bookstore and find a nice place to read for a while.

It was right before hurricane ike was about to hit the coast, I had to drive down to crystal beach (galveston area) to board up our beachhouse. I did things as fast as I could to try to beat the mandatory evacuation. I ended up leaving about an hour before the mandatory evacuation and I10 was empty all the way into houston, because all exits were blocked off once the mandatory evac went into effect. People had to follow the evac route. I took beltway 8 around houston which wasnt too bad and thought I would be home free once I hit 290. 290 was where the SHTF. The drive time from houston to austin was running 9 hours and people were running out of gas on the side of the road. Around cypress rosehill etc I called my wife to look at google maps and give me an alternate route. I dont actually know what rd she got me on but it was totally empty and I was able to drive 55. I could see the lights on 290 and it was completely stopped the whole way to austin.

The trip ended up taking me about 4 hours instead of the usual 2.5 but it was a lot better than the 9 hours that most people experienced.

[Gorfml]

hurricane Rita evacuation was epic traffic. that bus that burned and killed 24 comes to mind...then the hurricane missed Houston. really stupid public officials...

[Florinator]

Originally Posted by kittenlittle

Rush hour(s) when I lived in the suburbs in Paris was horrible. 30 minute drive took 3 hours. Don't even think about the metro, unless you like getting up close and personal with the people standing next to you for the next half hour.. If you even can get on it or off at your stop.

I don't think the traffic is that horrible around Austin. It's congested, sure, but it still (kinda) moves most of the time. At least on the roads I've taken.

Funny you mention that... I lived in Germany for 5 years, before moving to the US 8 years ago and my worst traffic memory is from a trip I took to Austria. I was in stop-and-go traffic for something like 2-3 hours. And the stops were long enough to have time to get out of the car and socialize with the other drivers, then the traffic would move 4-5 car lengths and then you'd get out again and chat. On the freeway! Yeah, those freeways that have no speed limits

It looked like everybody was going the same direction, taking the same freeway exit and going to this T intersection. After that it was smooth sailing all the way to our destination.

So my feeling is too, that stop-and-go traffic is worse in Germany (and apparently France as well) than here. At least here you're moving, 10-20 mph, but moving nonetheless.

[Moonlady]

A couple of years ago, there was a fatality on Bee Caves Rd and they shut Bee Caves completely down for hours. It happened around 2 PM and I thought I was safe heading home around 5:30, but when I got to the exit ramp, it was stopped. They still had not opened it. I should have cut over to 620 at 2222 and come through Bee Cave. Instead, I was forced to go all the way up to Mopac, go south and take Southwest Parkway to 71. By the time I got there, SW Parkway was a parking lot. It took me about 2.5 hours to get home that day.

I still for the life of me can't figure out what they expect when they shut down a majory artery like that. And worse, there's nothing really to tell you as you are traveling in that direction that you are going to be stopped - a road sign before 2222 saying Bee Cave was closed would have been nice. I try to get on the traffic websites before I leave work, but even those aren't completely accurate.