Does Texas deserve the ‘freeway laden’ stigma? (Dallas, San Antonio: luxury, construction)

[Need4Camaro]

I took a drive up to NYC over the weekend and went the long way through Georgia / South Carolina to go up I-95. Between D.C and NYC there seem to be a lot of freeways, some as little as 3 miles apart… I will say, you don’t see the access roads or the stack interchanges you see in Texas but they definitely had alot of freeways and parkways. The region is MUCH better connected via rail transit than just about any major Texan city though… …but do we really have too many freeways compared to the denser cities of the Northeast?

As a side note, the tolls in this region are killer. I will take our tolls over NYC tolls any day…

[Dopo]

We need to connect our major cities with rail

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by Dopo

We need to connect our major cities with rail

I think we should first focus on improving rail service in the major cities.. ..I have been riding MTA Subways / Busses & NJ Transit Commuter Rails. I wish we had this kind of service in more cities than just NYC. It is definitely in a league of its own.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Dopo

We need to connect our major cities with rail

You have a couple trillion laying around to make that happen?

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by EDS_

You have a couple trillion laying around to make that happen?

Yes, whatever money we usually waste building 20+ lane highways

[rabbit33]

20 lane highways?

Puh-leeze.

[BobTex]

Well, the East Coast with it small states and thus Senatorial power can vote themselves the perks. Texas and all the other states up to the West Coast are generally just an afterthought and considered flyover country.

There are Interstates planned for Texas but I doubt they ever get built. I-69 and I-14 two of them. Might add the planned leg from I-14 to the strategic Port of Beaumont. But ALL of this has been in the "studies" phase since 2011 except the short 6 lane jump from Ft. Hood to I-35.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_14

The Dems are on their way to shutting down mobilization by the middle class so highway construction may be considered a luxury we can't afford. Meanwhile we need to sent $Billions to Ukraine at a moments notice.

[malcorub16]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

I will say, you don’t see the access roads or the stack interchanges you see in Texas

The Texas Turn Around , technically part of the frontage/access roads, doesn't exist in other states.

Do on-ramp traffic lights exist in Texas? I know for sure they don't exist in Austin or San Antonio. These traffic meters drive me nuts.

[rabbit33]

Originally Posted by malcorub16

Do on-ramp traffic lights exist in Texas? I know for sure they don't exist in Austin or San Antonio. These traffic meters drive me nuts.

Oh yeah, they tried that on Central Expressway in Dallas back in the 70s. It was a complete bust. After about a year no one ever stopped for them. After five or ten years they took them all out.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by malcorub16

The Texas Turn Around , technically part of the frontage/access roads, doesn't exist in other states.

Do on-ramp traffic lights exist in Texas? I know for sure they don't exist in Austin or San Antonio. These traffic meters drive me nuts.

Ive seen a few instances of the Texas U-Turns in other states but they are not so widely implemented like they are in TX. Phoenix AZ has them on some of their highways. Oklahoma and Kansas do as well on some of their urban freeways. Then there is I-85 between GA-400 & I-285 in ATL as well as Peachtree Industrial Blvd north of I-285 that also has them.

Personally Im not a huge fan of the access roads. I think they cause more problems than they fix with too much variation in speeds, businesses perched up right on them and poor traffic signal timing. I think the extra RoW would do better in creating local / thru traffic configurations, or collector / distributor systems.