"Austin, we have a problem"

[gpurcell]

Originally Posted by scm53

We have a unique situation here, in that our deliberate refusal to build a ring road has resulted in our two main travel routes force almost everyone into the CBD - even if they are not destinating there.

Yep, that is, by far, the biggest transportation problem this city has.

[kavorka]

Originally Posted by kavorka

"Rail transit projects are notorious for cost overruns. In a 2002 study, Danish planning professor Bent Flyvbjerg found that, after adjusting for inflation, the average North American rail project cost more than 40 percent more than the original approved cost, while highway projects were 8 percent over-budget, on average.(14) Two studies of more recent rail projects found that their costs were also 40 percent over-budget, on average. (15)"

14 Bent Flyvbjerg, Mette Skamris Holm, and Søren Buhl, "Underestimating Costs in Public Works Projects: Error or Lie?" Journal of the American Planning Association 68, no. 3 (2002): 285.

15 Nasiru A. Dantata, Ali Touran, and Donald C. Schneck, Trends in U.S. Rail Transit Project Cost Overrun, Presented to the Transportation Research Board, 2006 Annual Meeting, Table 2. And see The Predicted and Actual Impacts of New Starts Projects—2007 (Washington: Federal Transit Administration, 2008), p. 11.

Novacek, do you think we should factor that in?

I'll ask again. Novacek, do you think we should factor that in?

[atx1626]

Originally Posted by gpurcell

Yep, that is, by far, the biggest transportation problem this city has.

Very true. Let's work under the presumption that the people with $$$ on that side of town would want a freeway in their front yard (We all know they don't, but just pretend):

How would one pay for said ring road?

Would your solution result in SH 130 traffic "volumes"?

[scm53]

Originally Posted by atx1626

Very true. Let's work under the presumption that the people with $$$ on that side of town would want a freeway in their front yard (We all know they don't, but just pretend):

How would one pay for said ring road?

Would your solution result in SH 130 traffic "volumes"?

The plan existed in 1985, and it didn't go through anyone's "front yard". It was killed in 1994 after the Shea/Nofzinger/Slusher/Goodman faction took control of council. So let's be clear - it wasn't "people with $$$ on that side of town" - it was the same people dead set on killing even the smallest portion of it today.

And yes - it was envisioned as a toll road. And since the population densities are greater in this area than in the SH 130 catchment area, it is likely to have correspondingly greater volumes.

[atx1626]

and it didn't go through anyone's "front yard".

Historic Aerials disagrees with you.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by atx1626

Historic Aerials disagrees with you.

Well, since it was never built, I doubt seriously you have a picture of it.

Lakeway has a proposed elevated toll road plan, which isn't that much different from the cancelled 1985 plan.