austin - move - west lake hills - avoids traffic? (Atlanta: home, construction)

[ccc999]

Considering move to Austin from NYC. Family of 4. narrowing in on west lake hills (the schools, proximity to downtown). we're excited but people still tell me traffic is such a mess - west lake looks very doable, albeit expensive. that said, the talk of so.much.traffic in austin has me really nervous - people say even close in to city it is a nightmare. Being from NYC, we are very used to traffic/suburban commutes but chose to live in the city to avoid it as much as we could. also welcome thoughts on west lake hills schools - sounds great, little nervous if it is a lot of pressure to succeed.

[RoamingTX]

There will be many pressures in Westlake schools - just as there are many pressures in life.

Traffic won’t be terrible, outside of the few big festival times (Southby, ACL, etc)

Personally, I’d probably open up my search area a little if you’re really concerned about social pressures, etc.

With some rough information on budget, commute and schools needed (EL, MS, HS) you’ll probably end up with 12 pages of comments, only 7 of which will be off-topic.

Also. Hope you like it hot. I do, this is my favorite time of year, but many from the NE have a huge issue.

Edit:
I see we’ve already gone down this path. I’m not sure much has changed.

//www.city-data.com/forum/austi...elocation.html

[centralaustinite]

I also live close in but south of downtown. If your circuit is home in Westlake or Rollingwood, EISD schools, and downtown, then you won't have any real traffic woes, sure, there will be slow downs at peak times, and there can be specific bottlenecks but nothing to get worked up about.



The horrors are folks who work downtown but live far out and have 20+ miles to navigate and no flexibility on time of arrival.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by ccc999

Considering move to Austin from NYC. Family of 4. narrowing in on west lake hills (the schools, proximity to downtown). we're excited but people still tell me traffic is such a mess - west lake looks very doable, albeit expensive. that said, the talk of so.much.traffic in austin has me really nervous - people say even close in to city it is a nightmare. Being from NYC, we are very used to traffic/suburban commutes but chose to live in the city to avoid it as much as we could. also welcome thoughts on west lake hills schools - sounds great, little nervous if it is a lot of pressure to succeed.

our traffic is overblown (35 is bad..) Our bad traffic reputation comes from an inrix study that uses the metric of % difference between the most traffic and least traffic times. This seems like a bad measure as a place which has traffic 24/7 would rank better than a place that has zero traffic most of the time and then a lot of traffic during rush hour.

When you look at total time spent commuting we are not in the top 20

I drive 8 miles to downtown at 8:30 and it takes 15 minutes door to door. this is south on mopac around farwest to 6th/lavaca

[ashbeeigh]

I agree with anywhere but here, there are lots of these discussions. But, before commenting further I'll throw out the Circle C area. Schools are great with some pressure (and maybe as much as Eanes depending) but less social class climbing as the Westlake area. Definitely some, but not as bad.

[blakely]

No issues commuting from Westlake Hills to downtown.

And if you're from NYC, Austin traffic won't be such a big deal.

Pressure in school not as bad as the NYC private school stereotype either. There's a mix of academically competitive kids and kids who are just into sports and socializing. Your kids will find a wide range. If they tend to put pressure on themselves (or you put it on them), that's usually the bigger source of stress. Sure, there's a relatively high achievement level and it's natural to compare yourself to your peers, but it's not a crisis culture.

[Need4Camaro]

If you're coming from NYC, Austin traffic will be absolutely nothing.

People say its bad here, and it does have traffic, but I came from Atlanta which is thousands of times worse than Austin.

Most of the traffic on I-35 seems to be construction related and I-35 is fairly easy to bypass as well.

[Trainwreck20]

If you live in Westlake, you will drive on I-35 (downtown) about once every year or two.

You will only have to deal with short sections of MoPac, and while the traffic is slow, you won't have far to go anyway.

[RollTide1980]

Originally Posted by Anywhere but here

Please dont respond. There is already a plethora of data to use before asking the same question over and over and over....

Are you kidding me? What a rude response.

No, please DO respond. Who cares if the question ha already been asked? Different people may chime in and things change. Why do you care if someone asks something that has been asked previously???

Seriously, don't click on it if you don't want to see it.

I for one am curious to see an updated answer to this.

[Bp25]

Some people on this board think that they have a birth right on this town and others need to get their permission before moving in here. Ignore them.