Austin - 10 years behind on roads? (Houston, Dallas: movers, houses, neighborhoods)

[southwest1230]

Below a snapshot of how Mopac typically looks at 5PM





After 1 year of living here I noticed that this city is growing VERY FAST. TOLL ROADS are the main issue right now. A TR or two or three would help clear congestion cutting thru the city; but TXDOT wants to convert existing roads into tolls! (the natives are angry about that) Travelling the main vein (I-35) during peak hours is a serious no-no, if at all possible. MOPAC, the western vein has gotten terrible as well. 183, the eastern vein, is also toast. This all happened just since I moved here last year. Pros: The side/access roads are a great option to use. U-turns are EVERYWHERE in case u miss an exit; love that! Cons: TXDOT waited too late to add more parkways and expand main roads; now they are all but forced to build tolls. In that respect, TXDOT sux.

[Trainwreck20]

TxDOT can only do what the state and feds give them money for, and there was no money to build these roads...it was all going to Houston or Dallas, which also needed roads and were bigger cities. Basically, no one with money was buying the argument that "hey, the Austin area is going to double or triple in size in the next 10-15 years, please give us a few billion". Then, when it actually does happen, TxDOT gets the blame....

[southwest1230]

trainwreck, question is, who is running the show/minding the store? Is there a game plan in place where multiplatform agencies can effectively guide the entities, like a metro planning commission with teeth that is composed of movers and shakers from the proposed entities, that can keep projects from stalling and pool their resources when pleading their cause before TXDOT? Or is Austin the municipal version of a poor street urchin, helpless, getting nothing but scraps while its bigger brethern feast on Filet Mignon? I think every concerned party in Austin does its own thing, hoping somehow that the twain shalt meet......you know what happens when you ASS-U-ME, folks! LOL!

[atlanta hope]

Hey Southwest, if you think that's a bad photo of traffic, come on up to Atlanta! We have 6 lanes going north and 6 lanes going south of that!?! And it's not just at 5pm either!?! Fridays are the worst -- rush hour starts at lunch!!!

[Driftwood1]

Sure, traffic in Austin is laughable compared to major city jams, but I think what irks people most is that the planning was so poor.. my 6 yr old with his hotwheels can do better design work.. He actually asked me one time " why does the road get skinny, then get wide again just over the hill?"

--That was Mopac which loses a lane for 1/2 mi near 5th street... Anyone know why?

[Trainwreck20]

MoPac was built as a marvel of 'accomodation'. Most of the neighborhoods did not want a freeway running through their neighborhood. MoPac was built while trying to minimize the impact to the surrounding area - no frontage roads, some convoluted exits/on ramps, and limited width. It actually worked very well for many, many years and was one of the better designed roads in the city as far as minimizing impact goes. It actually has been a victim of its success....the city has developed due to the functionality of MoPac. If it had not been built, or was a road with stoplights, the whole character of NW, W, and SW Austin would be different. There just were not that many people out that way 'back in teh day'.

On the flip side, they could have used iminent domain to take more houses and build a wider road and set aside land for expansion...but hindsight is 20/20 .

[achtungpv]

Actually part of the traffic problems are caused by the frontage roads. Any transportation planner will cite this as a major cause since they provide too many access points to the major highways. Frontage roads are pretty unique to TX since TX law required all land owners to be given access to state highways that fronted their property. To keep from having driveways on major highways, the frontage road system was developed. This in turn caused development to occur almost exclusively on the major transportation corridors instead of arterials off of the main roads. This adds even more traffic.

TxDOT funding usually gets siphoned away from Austin because of the State Legislature's dislike for Austin not being a lapdog like every other city in the state.

[Trainwreck20]

TxDOT said they are not building frontage roads on any new projects....apparently, the traffic flow is neither helped nor hindered overall, but frontage roads take more space and money than no frontage roads. So frontage roads are less efficient per $ and per ft2.

[Driftwood1]

Well, I'm still surprised that they couldnt keep the width for just that short stretch, 1/2 mile, maybe less? Eliminating that little bottleneck could buy them alot of time, really easing rush hour..

I once heard a guy say "well, why would anyone ever want to go south of the river anyway?" I guess they figured everyone would be getting off by 5th st anyhow..
They figured wrong..
Cheers

[jclAustin]

Originally Posted by southwest1230

<snip>
MOPAC, the western vein has gotten terrible as well. 183, the eastern vein, is also toast.
<snip>

Had me a little confused (granted it's not hard to do.) Up north around the arboretum, 183 crosses over Mopac and becomes the western vein.
However, the traffic still sucks, but it's not as bad as many cities. Not yet at any rate.