I had to drive through Austin headed north this past weekend. I have not been that way in over a year. I can comfortably say that downtown Austin appears to have the most dense skyline in Texas now. Surpassing Dallas and Houston. I was stunned at the number of skyscrapers I saw. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
It's not great, tbh. Massive influx of people for years without any planning or infrastructure to support it.I had to drive through Austin headed north this past weekend. I have not been that way in over a year. I can comfortably say that downtown Austin appears to have the most dense skyline in Texas now. Surpassing Dallas and Houston. I was stunned at the number of skyscrapers I saw. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
The traffic is horrible because the infrastructure and road system, particularly I-35 and the surrounding roads, were built to satisfy a capital city the size of, say, Jefferson City Missouri, and definitely not the exponential growth leading to what Austin has become especially since the tech boom started about 25-30 years ago.
There needs to be an extensive highway / interstate system running through the city and the public transit system vastly improved beyond the current system which is pretty much just buses. But the problem is building an actual cosmo city grade rail system would be prohibitively expensive and not to mention you would have to eminent domain out tons of private property. And subways in Texas will never happen due to the bad soil grade and water shelves.
The fact that Austin is by far the biggest city that only has one interstate (north/south, i-35) that runs through it, and absolutely nothing east-west to speak of, is just ridiculous
Yeah every time I go through Austin it seems like there are new skyscrapers under construction. And the traffic has been horrible for the past 30 years at least. It just isn't possible for the roads/infrastructure to support that much growth.
It's going to take a Big Dig to come close to addressing the I-35 issue. No one is willing to comprehend the disruption that's going to cause in the meantime. The light rail plans being pushed look like half-measures. Build an El from downtown to the airport first.
There used to be a law that no buildings could be taller than the Capitol so that it would stand out... Lol was just a matter of time.
I love to visit family in round Rock but I can't take that crazy traffic
Funny, because I actually tried to view the Capitol from 35 and no dice..........
Should have been here in the 80s.
Such fun it was.
The planners in this state are ing re ed, they plan for the next 5-7 years and by the time they finish renovating or expanding any roads/freeways- the traffic has already surpassed what it was 7 years before…
case in point… i moved into a fairly newish area of new homes and there was a small country road…took em three years to build/expand a newer one even after all the new homes had been sold/occupied
suddenly we see 4 lanes (two each direction) so we think ok- that might work for a little while but entire area is booming…
couple months go by and they finish their construction and TWO of the four lanes were closed/filled in with earth/dirt/
as those lanes were closer to some homes..and im like wtf?
two ing lanes - how long before it becomes ANOTHER gridlock?
in california they look 50 YEARS AHEAD when buildingn - this is why you see 8-10-12 ing lanes EACH WAY on a lot of areas in california- they KNOW that one or two lanes are nothing when looking at 40-50 years into the future.
I-35 -
they need to start NOW and build two three LEVELS on top of the current artery that is there now
i mean 2-3 levels from WACO to ing 100 miles past San Antonio - NOW!
It's not re ed. It's designed so that the infrastructure is always being worked on.
Only time you see things "done" is when you have toll roads and that.
oh those toll roads that rick perry sold our land to the chinese so they could skull us?
dont even get me started on that- but “dems collude with china blah blah” lololol
I still love it.
My father talks about the traffic problems so this has been going on for a while.
It has definitely gotten worse since I graduated but I drive up quite a lot for work or to leave out of the Austin airport.
The food is pricey but very good if you follow the people who know whats going on. The sports are fantastic.
The rec leagues are incredible. The community who wants to exercise just beats the out of SA.
With the exception of our Mayor who saw the vision of the greenway trails. Thank you Howard Peak. Are you still alive?
If California was looking 50 years ahead they would have built a good public transportation system instead of the money pit that freeways are.
Yeah, I can't agree with the Cali characterization. The only thing they planned into the future was a housing crisis.
It looks like Pflugerville did at least a little homework for future expansion, but that's also where all our serial killers live.
Ask anyone who lives in california if they dont think that the freeway system is one of the best in the USA. It is, By far.
It is amazing how much traffic it moves every day.
Pretty sure BB and I each lived in California for a time.
Yeah any time a road expansion project is finished around me, some other en y comes right behind, blocks lanes for months on end, and rips the brand new road up. SAWS loves to do that .
LA is the poster child for why American car culture is toxic as . You spend through the nose making these wide ass highways only to induce demand that brings them to gridlock not long after you expand them. Ugh the 405 between Sepulveda Pass and LAX was such a nightmare to drive when I lived on the west side. City should have built a real subway system like NYC has. ing Santa Monica NIMBYs killed even having one subway line on the westside for decades.
Just asking
Subway in earthquake zone a good idea?
Or do you mean above ground transit?
I was told
Years ago iH10 was planned to run through Austin but locals fought it. It would have been on US290 and run through Koenig Lane
San Antonio said we’ll take it
The rest is history
Major earthquakes take out bridges and shut the highways down too. LA has a subway system but it's small and if you want to use it realistically you're going to have make connections with busses which suck because they get stuck in LA's ridiculous traffic. Japan is more seismically active than California and they make world class subway systems in their cities work there.
Got it
Surface faculties would seem to more easily repaired
But I have never heard of earthquake damaged subway systems. It may have happened but I am not aware.
The freeways were awesome - if you drove them every day you should understand then - 8-10-12 lanes
now
take san antonio mentality and have these assholes build freeways in cali -
how nice would 2-4 lanes be there?
Of course there are other options and there is a metro in los angeles and of course it could be much better all around - but are you kidding me? 20 million or more people live in the south california region and that freeway system moves 24/7 - I lived there 20 years and never got caught in a gridlocked freeway where NO ONE MOVES FOR A LONG TIME -
If you have driven from san antonio to austin and happen to be unlucky and get stuck when there is an accident - you tell me that THAT happens in a california freeway?
Never
every accident i ever encountered on a L.A. freeway was like an orchestration - accident happened, cars stopped for about 5 minutes - vehicles in accident were moved to the side - or highway patrol closed the outside lanes until the cars could be moved
while at the same time - traffic went AROUND the accident and done. Zero fuss, very little delays everyone goes home.
I-35? You are ed - sitting in your own ing lane - trapped. Soon assholes in their pickup trucks climb off the highway , roll over the median, create a new lane over ing grass and maybe you can get off I-35 - good ing luck.
Vehicles in the accident REMAIN on I-35 blocking traffic for HOURS.
Man i drove that 405 sepulveda pass and it was a piece of cake it slowed down...cars slowed....it sped up...10-20 minutes - back to normal and everyone speeding back up to 95 mph and if you werent going at least 90 - people would pass you up pronto.
90 mph on 405 wtf now I know you're trolling me unless you're talking about going that speed north of the pass. I have a really hard time believing you ever lived in LA with comments like that.
For once I actually agree with our resident Berniecrat Spurs Homer on a lot of this. CA highways are a better driving experience than TX. Los Angeles metro was nowhere near as bad for me as DFW, Austin, or Atlanta. The biggest issue I had in CA were the goddamn motorcyclists going 120+ in traffic weaving in and out and there are a LOT of them in CA.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
