Commute from Cinco Ranch/E.Katy to Greenway Plaza? (Houston: home, neighborhoods)

[AGGIEZ]

My wife and I are looking to move back to Houston after being gone for a few years. We lived in the Memorial area previously but we're considering moving a little farther out on our move back (smaller mortgage, larger home, pool, larger yard, good schools, etc.). We're considering the Cinco Ranch area, east of Grand Parkway, because we don't want to move too far out.

Question: What is the commute time from the Cinco Ranch neighborhoods that are closer to the Westpark Tollway? What is the commute time from the neighborhoods that are closer to I-10?

Thanks in advance!!

[oespinoza83]

depends on the time of day you are commuting. I live in Katy (near 99) and commute I-10 to 290/BW8 every morning. If I get on I-10 before 6:10 am, I can make it to the BW8 junction in 10-12 minutes. If I get on after 6:10 am, it can take 25-30 min just to get to the BW8 junction. I assume the later you get (eventually probably peaks at 8:30ish) the worse it gets. And that is not even taking into account the traffic you are going to hit on 610 since you are going to GP.

[EasilyAmused]

Westpark is a parking lot headed west in the evening. With the extension, its only going to get worse.The backup starts at Fondren around 4:45. Once I get to the beltway exit there's no traffic at all zipping into the Memorial area.

Honestly, i don't think being close to the Westpark or close to 10 will make any difference in time. 10 might be faster with its toll lanes though. At least along 10 there are alternate routes and quick exits.

[AGGIEZ]

good point on I-10 tolls and alternate routes.

[KerrTown]

My mom works in Greenway Plaza. From Cinco West to Greenway Plaza takes about 1:00-1:15 h if you leave between 8-8:30am. Subtract 10-15 min from East of 99.

On the afternoon commute, the freeways start jamming exactly at 4:00pm. At 3:30pm the Katy Freeway slows down a little bit because of volume. By 3:45pm, the freeway is sluggish and you can forget about going home at 5:00! With all this population growth, I would expect the freeways start to jam at 3:00pm in the near future.

[hbcu]

so why did we expand I-10 again?

[eric3781]

Originally Posted by hbcu

so why did we expand I-10 again?

So that they could make part of it a tollroad, create an artificial bottleneck at Dairy Ashford that always backs up past Highway 6, where the tollroad entrance is, forcing people to get on the tollroad and pay exorbitant tolls.

[AGGIEZ]

We would be looking on the East side of 99/Grand Parkway...probably closer to Westpark Tollway. What does the commute time look like from this area to Greenway starting out at 7:00-7:30

[EasilyAmused]

I can leave from kirkwood and Memorial at 7:25 and dump into west park and 610 feeder within 20 minutes. Other travel times add on.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by eric3781

So that they could make part of it a tollroad, create an artificial bottleneck at Dairy Ashford that always backs up past Highway 6, where the tollroad entrance is, forcing people to get on the tollroad and pay exorbitant tolls.

I love the afternoon rush hour where there are 3 bottlenecks on the outbound side: Sam Houston Tollway flyover exit where cars are weaving in to get to Jersey Village/Cypress and out to get out of Memorial City to go home to Katy, the Addicks Park & Ride HOV overpass where everyone is getting on SH 6 back to Copperfield/Cypress, and the end of the toll lanes after SH 6 where one-person occupancy toll traffic merges back into the main lanes. There is a slight back-up at the Barker-Cypress, Greenhouse, and Fry Rd exits for the Cypressites going home; after Fry, it's smooth sailing back to Cinco Ranch/Katy.

How's the Westpark? I hear it's not that much better with solid backups on the two lanes from SH 6 to SHT/BW 8.