San Marcos to S Austin (Longview, Howe: living in, estimate, commuting)

[ant91990]

First post!

Anyway, I searched around this forum and found some answers that I was looking for but would like a more specific one.

Next fall I will be attending Texas State and I plan on living in San Marcos. However, I'm likely going to be driving to an area next to Longview Park 4 nights a week. Can anyone give me an estimate on the drive time and how bad traffic is? Google maps says 35 minutes. I'm from Michigan and I have no idea how accurate that is. I've read some threads on here about how traffic on I35 is horrendous but they seem to focus more on going from San Marcos straight through downtown Austin to North Austin rather than South Austin so I'm hoping I get to avoid most of that traffic. Any info at all would be really helpful, thanks.

[hound 109]

Shouldn't be too bad heading North on 35 from San Marcos in the evening. Hang a left on Slaughter or Wm Cannon (before you get to downtown) to get to the park. Depending on where you are in SM, 35 min. sounds about right.

Only thing that would mess things up would be a wreck on 35 heading north. Hopefully someone who makes this contra traffic drive in the evening will chime in.

[tstwahine]

I was commuting from William cannon and Manchaca (about five minutes closer to I-35 from Longview park) to San Marcos this summer and it was usually about 30 minutes... the only times it was more than that was before 9am (William cannon can stack up) and after 4pm (to about 7pm). Nice to see another midwest friend out here, we moved to Austin from Iowa.

On another note I have tried taking slaughter instead of william cannon and it was not faster unfortunately. I love the area by longview because there is a great park with fantastic trails to run in with our dog.

[ant91990]

Thanks a lot, that doesn't seem too bad but I was hoping you guys would say about 20-25. Oh well. I'll be leaving SM around 530pm so I'll have to fight it a little bit but the way back should be no problem. Hopefully I'll be able to make it downtown for a weekend or two. Austin has quite the reputation from what I understand.

[EricEstate]

I think 35 minutes is about right.

Of course that may change based on the road conditions.

I've found Google to be VERY accurate when estimating drive times.

Austin is fun! But so is San Marcos. There is a great community there, and once you get a little circle of friends going, you will really enjoy it, so you don't have to come north for a good time.