I'm feeling more like an Austin Traffic Complainer with each passing day

[Return2Paradise]

I couldn't drive 5-10 MPH over the speed limit even if I wanted to. I can rarely drive the speed limit, since the majority of traffic in the areas I drive is usually going 15 to 30 MPH below the speed limit, regardless of congestion.

[Moonlady]

Originally Posted by scm53

I don't drive slow, and I've had my share of rear view mirror filling p/us. So that is one form of aggressive driver, especially noticeable if it aligns with your eco-self righteousness. Then there is the tuner rice rocket lane darter aggressiveness - just as prevalent, just as dangerous, maybe a notch or two down the intimidation scale. Finally, there is the oblivious Odyssey - containing every distraction known to man, hurtling down Mopac at 75.

Lucky us. We got 'em all. Jammed onto roadways that haven't kept pace with the population growth.

^^This

Here is a quote from another thread on the Austin forum that I thought summed it up pretty well.

...the drivers around Austin are terrible and far worse. An odd mix of weird aggressiveness, excessive passiveness, incompetence, randomness, carelessness and inability to maintain vehicular control....

We are tied to Austin with kids and grandkids here. Tried looking outside the city for a place to retire and frankly, I just don't like the suburbs or the country life. So, we bought a house somewhere that's convenient to everything we need - work (for me), shopping, doctors, etc. Yeah, we still go to our eye doctor in Bee Cave and hubby has a doctor at Seton on 38th, but otherwise, everything is within a 5 mile radius (or pretty close) so we don't need to get in traffic much. So that's the strategy for now - hoping we can stay where we are for several more years at least and tolerate the insanity!

[riaelise]

You know what, I wish Austin and its suburbs had a better transit system. Hell, I'd settle for all-buses if that's cheaper. We need something. All of these people jammed together on a road and the answer is toll MoPac? Heck, Dallas has DART.

(looks at DART website)...now that's a decent transit system! I'm jealous!

[scm53]

All of these people jammed together on a road and the answer is toll MoPac? Heck, Dallas has DART.

The tolled lanes on Mopac aren't to increase vehicle capacity as much as it is to facilitate mass transit -- express buses and van pools. The dynamic tolling will ensure they always move at highway speed by pricing the paying traffic so high that only a few will use it at peak times.

And, we would have a much better transit system if all the cities in the metro area (cough, cough, Round Rock) payed into the tax base.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by riaelise

You know what, I wish Austin and its suburbs had a better transit system. Hell, I'd settle for all-buses if that's cheaper. We need something. All of these people jammed together on a road and the answer is toll MoPac? Heck, Dallas has DART.

(looks at DART website)...now that's a decent transit system! I'm jealous!

DART is regional..15 cities voted to join and pay taxes to create what you have today.
This was back in 1983.

My brother lives in Grapevine and I go up there a lot and we've ridden DART to numerous events.

IMHO Austin and surrounding areas are too built out now for something similar.


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

[zhugeliang1]

That's the reason I decided to keep renting not buy a house. I deliberately chose to rent in central Austin so we can bus/bike/skateboard as much as possible. For driving I do whatever I can to find 'back country roads' and drive on those to avoid being on I-35 going in and out. In about 4 years I am going to re-evaluate the situation and if the rent and traffic situations are not good at that point of time then I may go to a less-populated city/area/state.

[Shredding_Gnar78]

Originally Posted by zhugeliang1

That's the reason I decided to keep renting not buy a house. I deliberately chose to rent in central Austin so we can bus/bike/skateboard as much as possible. For driving I do whatever I can to find 'back country roads' and drive on those to avoid being on I-35 going in and out. In about 4 years I am going to re-evaluate the situation and if the rent and traffic situations are not good at that point of time then I may go to a less-populated city/area/state.

A+. It's pretty obvious what happened here.. they herded ~500,000 transplants into Austin with the intention to squeeze them for Taxes, over valued housing (20% overvalued according to Fitch), rising utilities, commercial real estate attraction and mortgage arbitrage.

[Roadking2003]

Originally Posted by riaelise

You know what, I wish Austin and its suburbs had a better transit system. Hell, I'd settle for all-buses if that's cheaper. We need something. All of these people jammed together on a road and the answer is toll MoPac? Heck, Dallas has DART.

(looks at DART website)...now that's a decent transit system! I'm jealous!

DART carries a tiny tiny fraction of the people in Dallas. But I guess if it goes from near your home to near your job you are among the very lucky tiny percent of Dallas residents.