the roads in austin are horrible (money, foundations, directions)

[S6Sputnik]

Try driving in the Greater DETROIT area..! Austin is vanilla, not rocky road

[twange]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Really? I find that perfectly normal, but, then, there are only lights like that in relatively occupied areas and I tend to drive more carefully in those areas because, without the lights, you're likely to come over the crest of a hill and find someone pulling out in front of you. Guess it's all in what you're used to/used to dealing with.

I'm sure it's normal for you because you've been driving those roads since before they were "highways". Now that I've been driving them for a bit, I know what's coming, but I didn't know that a personal relationship with a road was a prerequisite to driving safely on them But seriously, they're highways now and highways don't have traffic lights. It sort of undermines the allowable speed limits no? Granted, the more you know a raod, the better prepared you are, but I'm sure that there's a high percentage of people on these roads(visitors, passer-by)that will be very surprised by this feature. We're not talking about small back roads either, but major routes through and around Austin.

Now before someone jumps down my neck with the "see! you're trying to change things here", this isn't an indictment on Texas or a comparison to other cities, but just an observation after several hundred thousand miles and 20 years of driving this beautiful country. I mean, if you're going to make a freeway out of some road, build overpasses and eliminate this problem. It really seems dangerous and sort of half-assed.

[Mckellyb]

183 on the east side of town is, to me, the ultimate example of a road which really should have been made a bona-fide freeway, as it's a mess, now.

[TexasHorseLady]

It's not just Austin - all my life (even before I was driving, I observed this, and I've been driving for 43 years now, in Texas and out), when the Texas highways (not freeways, that's something different) go through towns or pretty populated areas (populated as in countryside populated, not middle of Austin populated), the speed limit goes down (gasp!) and there may be one or more traffic lights - probably to keep the speed demons in check. (Yeah, we have our speed demons - with roads as long and straight as ours, and as many miles to go, it's inevitable. )

So it's not just that I'm familiar with the Austin roads, but that we've always done it this way. I'm sure I'd be just as appalled at the way it's always been done in some other state, until I got used to it.

[twange]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

It's not just Austin - all my life (even before I was driving, I observed this, and I've been driving for 43 years now, in Texas and out), when the Texas highways (not freeways, that's something different) go through towns or pretty populated areas (populated as in countryside populated, not middle of Austin populated), the speed limit goes down (gasp!) and there may be one or more traffic lights - probably to keep the speed demons in check. (Yeah, we have our speed demons - with roads as long and straight as ours, and as many miles to go, it's inevitable. )

So it's not just that I'm familiar with the Austin roads, but that we've always done it this way. I'm sure I'd be just as appalled at the way it's always been done in some other state, until I got used to it.

With all due respect, I think we're looking at the same thing two different ways. You used the word "town" and that's my point exactly. Austin isn't a town anymore, it's a fairly large city with over a million folks in the greater metro area, for better or for worse(there are plenty of threads on this we all know). I've seen this design in many other states, not just Texas, out and away from cities, where small towns come and go and are spaced far apart with open country in between. Every state has this pattern: freeway for awhile, and when it goes through a town, there are lights. In those cases building expensive overpasses would be wasteful and excessive, but we're talking about the City limits and it just seems really flawed to me, especially the area on 360 around Barton Creek Mall and from there all the way to 183 and like another poster mentioned, 183 on the east side. I mean, it literally stops flowing traffic during rush hour so that someone traveling east on MLK or pulling out of some office building can cross. What a mess.

By freeway I mean:

A freeway — also known as a highway, superhighway, autoroute, autobahn, autopista, autovía, autostrada, dual carriageway, expressway, or motorway — is a type of road designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections(i.e. traffic lights etc...)

Again, these roads were built during a time of low traffic volumes, which of course is now irrelevant. I have to imagine that some traffic geek in some office somewhere is aware of this problem...

[TexasHorseLady]

Okay, where exactly are you speaking of? It may be as simple as we're thinking of different parts of the road in question.

Also, to me, IH35 is a freeway. 183, except for where it goes right across Austin, is a highway. And, the definition above notwithstanding, a freeway and a highway are two different things, in my book. A freeway has more in common with a superhighway, except that it's going through a major city, than it does with a highway (which 183 is).

[scongress1234]

No matter how you slice or rationalize it, traffic in Austin sucks. Bad signage, poorly-designed roads, many abruptly ending boulevards, and on and on. Add all the new residents, and their unfamiliarity, and the overcrowding of traffic on a system too small
to deal with the flow properly, and you have horrible traffic, which will grow worse as long as the growth surpasses road construction. Yes, there are some Texas germane issues, like frontage roads used as de facto retail boulevards, but much of it is just the lack of planning and construction, combined with the rapid increase in vehicles and newcomers. Austin is simply not a pleasant place to drive in. I would have to say that that was by far the biggest turn-off when I moved into Austin, and this from someone
moving from chicago, with constant mile long road construction traffic jams. I've seen it all, and Austin is the worst hands down.

[Chris2000]

hahha I don't think the roads are that bad at all!!!
Of course I was down in LA for a few years. I really LIKE the way there is always a frontage road, And those dedicated U-turn lanes!!! Awesome!!!
Don't get me wrong it took me a little while to get used to it, Now I love it!! I have been driving all over the place since we moved here, and Ive driven into rush hour a few times just to see what it's like here. It is nothing compared to LA or San Diego,,,,not even on the same level. On a normal day in LA rush hour you can plan on stopping for 5-10 minutes at a time on the freeway. Traffic here MIGHT stop somtimes...but its only for a few minutes, And thats seems to be mostly because of a accident or something. On days when I wasn't hampered by an accident I may have only stopped once, and almost immediately started moving again. Not fast but moving.

I guess the only thing I really notice thats bad on the road are impatient drivers. Doing 80 mph while sitting less then 2 feet from the cars bumper in front of them. Creating a situation were if someone needs to change lanes they are going to pull within inches of the car in front and behind them.
If everyone here would just relax and stay back the whole road would run a whole lot smoother,,,and their would be alot less accidents.

I'm that guy that everyone hates out here. I'm the guy who isn't in a hurry who wont ride anyones tailpipe, and who creates plenty of DISTANCE between himself and the car up ahead. I don't care if a million people are shooting past me. The funny thing is I will see cars and trucks weaving in and out of traffic, almost getting in wrecks just so they can get a little further ahead, and then Ten minutes later I pull up to the light at my exit and I'm right behind them. SSSOOOOO funny.
I can just see them in theirs cars sweating and cursing trying to get home a few minutes faster. And here I am calm and happy, and we get there in the same amount of time anyway hahaha crazy.
Its just not worth the stress
Chris2000

[Raziel]

Originally Posted by Mckellyb

Oh, and there is plenty of tailgating here...but I'll tell yuh what, it's nowhere near as bad as the Dallas-area. I grew up there, drove a tour bus for a living in college in fact, so I thought it'd never freak me out, but those folks are downright nuts. One mis-timed sneeze could cause a California-esque 120 car pileup on LBJ.

If you have a large amount of the population being new to the area, hence unfamiliar with where they are, where they're going, what they're looking for, you're bound to have a certain randomness to driving which is more than a bit off-putting. Austin has had what I'd consider a large influx of 'newbies', just by looking at license plates. Hey, I'm one of 'em!! Two cars, both with South Dakota plates. We lived there for one day to get 'em. The insurance and registration rates cannot be touched in most places.

Whole-heartedly agree! This is the major part of the problem I didn't realize it until I moved here two years ago that all of us newbies are a big part of the issue with our different habits good and bad. It's catch-up time for the city to compensate for the growth.

[readymade]

There was a study done once that had to do with how much time one saved by weaving in and out of other cars vs staying in the same lane and just going along. I don't remember the exact results but the "weavers" didn't save that much time. Like, maybe 5 or 10 minutes off an hour.

Originally Posted by Chris2000

hahha I don't think the roads are that bad at all!!!
Of course I was down in LA for a few years. I really LIKE the way there is always a frontage road, And those dedicated U-turn lanes!!! Awesome!!!
Don't get me wrong it took me a little while to get used to it, Now I love it!! I have been driving all over the place since we moved here, and Ive driven into rush hour a few times just to see what it's like here. It is nothing compared to LA or San Diego,,,,not even on the same level. On a normal day in LA rush hour you can plan on stopping for 5-10 minutes at a time on the freeway. Traffic here MIGHT stop somtimes...but its only for a few minutes, And thats seems to be mostly because of a accident or something. On days when I wasn't hampered by an accident I may have only stopped once, and almost immediately started moving again. Not fast but moving.

I guess the only thing I really notice thats bad on the road are impatient drivers. Doing 80 mph while sitting less then 2 feet from the cars bumper in front of them. Creating a situation were if someone needs to change lanes they are going to pull within inches of the car in front and behind them.
If everyone here would just relax and stay back the whole road would run a whole lot smoother,,,and their would be alot less accidents.

I'm that guy that everyone hates out here. I'm the guy who isn't in a hurry who wont ride anyones tailpipe, and who creates plenty of DISTANCE between himself and the car up ahead. I don't care if a million people are shooting past me. The funny thing is I will see cars and trucks weaving in and out of traffic, almost getting in wrecks just so they can get a little further ahead, and then Ten minutes later I pull up to the light at my exit and I'm right behind them. SSSOOOOO funny.
I can just see them in theirs cars sweating and cursing trying to get home a few minutes faster. And here I am calm and happy, and we get there in the same amount of time anyway hahaha crazy.
Its just not worth the stress
Chris2000