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- Abundance/available selection of public school (K-12) systems that are decently rated.
- Ease of finding a house that has a pool and no HOA.
- Most laid back traffic culture.
- Abundance/available selection of public school (K-12) systems that are decently rated.
Probably Austin although I havent dug to deep on San Antonio or Raleigh school districts, I know Austin has great schools however.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrJones17
- Ease of finding a house that has a pool and no HOA.
Once again not educated in terms of this in Raleigh or SA however most of Austin proper has no HOA's. Its suburbs however do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrJones17
- Most laid back traffic culture.
What does this really mean?
If it means least congested city then definitely not Austin, San Antonio is decent but Raleigh would probably win here.
If it otherwise means laid back in terms of you arriving 20 - 30 minutes late to work because of traffic, Austin is pretty forgiving of this (or atleast the job I have is).
If it means least congested city then...
Hahahahaha... ...definitely not Austin, San Antonio is decent but Raleigh would probably win here.
Not necessarily congestion, but basically which city are you least likely to get honked at or get the finger if you accidentally, say, cut someone off.
Not necessarily congestion, but basically which city are you least likely to get honked at or get the finger if you accidentally, say, cut someone off.
Actually this is a good question.
I moved to Austin about 2 years ago and I have in that time period noticed a DRAMATIC shift in the way drivers treat other drivers as more and more people move here and traffic congestion becomes more of a pain causing locals to become more irate and impatient.
When I moved here people were very patient (mind you this is coming from driving in Atlanta where many drivers are from the Northeast or Chicago). I typically come to full stops when making right on red and there are times when I have limited visibility that I refuse to turn. I was always suspecting people to honk at me, none did ...AT FIRST... they used to be willing to wait on you to do your thing and it was like... a big city with small town people...
Now however its chaos. Thing is about Austin, its liberal politics are very laxed on minority drivers so many of them are running around without licenses and insurance and there is ZERO...and I mean ZERO law punishment. Maybe a ticket and thats it...IF that. The city keeps enforcement down purposefully to prevent enforcement from oppressing certain minorities. Because of this, Auto Insurance here is HIGH, and you'd better be carrying GAP and Uninsured Motorists with that.
Today, while its not cut-throat chaos like Chicago, NYC, heck even Houston or DFW... drivers do not like to wait and they will make that blatantly apparent between hounding a 4x4 Grille in your rear view mirror or blowing if you subtlally stop at a yield sign and the oncoming car is more than 50 ft away from the intersection. To top it off we also have nannies that hog up the left lane doing 20 mph under the limit regularly and all sorts of driving behaviors convolaged into a giant fricken mess which makes me ever so grateful that I...
#1 live near a rail stop
#2 can also work remotely
In terms of aggressiveness, Austin drivers are nothing compared to Houston IMO. But still, I don't think it's a fun place to drive a car around in, and I personally avoid driving as much as possible. When I go to San Antonio I'm usually amazed at how empty the roads are in comparison to Austin.
For the first two questions, I don't really see how anyone can answer without knowing what your budget is. I suspect that these cities are three different price ranges.
Is the rail system in Austin decent? Or is it like MARTA in Atlanta where you can't really get to all the cool spots via train?
MARTA >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>> ++++Extra Greater Than x100++++ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Cap Metro Rail
Its a decent rail system for what it is but it is lacking in functionality in many ways
Its actually more of a commuter rail than it is a light rail as its a Diesle 2 car train and cannot have stops too close together. Its final station in Leander only see's service during commute hours while they have to pay full taxes on it and they are trying to get out of the contract.
There is no connection to the airport
The rest of its stops have a plethora of last mile issues. Fortunately for me my job is only a few blocks walk, but that station also has no parking so residents cant drive to the station and the bus service doesn't align with train service times at that stop, and probably several other stops. They are rebuilding the downtown station and I have no idea how thats going to come to be but you basically got off at downtown and scootered / biked to the rest of Downtown.
For me though it gets the job done and Im happy to atleast have some rail rather than no rail and hope they don't nix it. My alternative is to pay $200 per month in tolls (+$100 extra in gas) to drive to work vs a $100 monthly train ticket. In that light its not bad.
MARTA rail you can get places if you live and work ITP.
CapMetro rail however barely passed votes and subsequent votes to expand and improve the system have failed miserably.
There is hope though, Austin is pending to install a subway under downtown and possible other rail connections if it passes votes come next November.
FWIW in Southern Cities, MARTA rail is probably about as good as you're going to get it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by whereiend
No, it's not decent in that way. It's a single line that has a fairly random route, not a comprehensive system.
Yes, and its like this because they bought out an old and unused freight line to install the service on.
Last edited by Need4Camaro; 02-06-2020 at 08:33 PM..
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