Fuck you , Austin traffic

"Chairman Kaga" (mike-mckinnon)
12/23/2013 at 15:47 • Filed to: None

It's Christmas vacation week, so traffic is light and the kids are home with my wife. No need to slog with the CRV, so I wheeled out the Alfa, let her warm up gently, then pounded to work on the relative ghostly highways.

At lunch I needed to make a trip to the pack and ship down on Slaughter. No traffic leaving downtown.

Coming home. Dear God. According to Waze it was an 8 car pile-up. Commenters on the AM radio stations news blog said it was one of those "Oh God, I was going somewhere but I can't remember... Oh, THERE'S my exit, and I have plenty of room (8 feet) to cross 4 lanes of traffic to make it. Nice." CRASH.

My car was panting by the time I cleared it. This is every day here. We have two main north-south thoroughfares, and there are constant accidents on both. Consequently it can frequently take an hour or more to drive less than 8 miles. I hate it. And it's only getting worse.

The traffic is so bad, and it's traffic I can't avoid, that I want to move. It's just infuriating.

Rant over.

Poor car... Three weeks back on the road and it's subjected that THAT.

DISCUSSION (17)

André - Volvo4Life > Chairman Kaga
12/23/2013 at 15:56

Pics of the Alfa!!!!

PatBateman > Chairman Kaga
12/23/2013 at 16:00

In the early '90s, during the dot-com boom, Yankees and Californians started moving in with ferocious abandon. They chose places like Lakeway, Round Rock, Buda/Kyle, and Westlake Hills for living quarters. Noticing the boom in the outlying areas, the Austin city counsel decided on a "responsible" tactic to get people to move closer to downtown: never do improvements to MOPAC or IH-35.

"You want to work in Austin? Fine! You must either live close to avoid traffic or get accustomed to 2 hour commutes each way." In their infinite wisdom, they made life hell for you now.

Chairman Kaga > André - Volvo4Life
12/23/2013 at 16:10

Kinja'd!!!

Chairman Kaga > PatBateman
12/23/2013 at 16:19

Austin is the 11th largest city in the US. As of this year it had the 9th worst traffic. Within 10 years, we could be the 7th or 8th largest city, but with the 3rd or 4th worst traffic. The commute from North Austin to South Austin, approximately 12 miles, could take more than two hours at any time of the day. Basically, there will no longer be any difference between rush hour and traditionally off-peak hours.

PatBateman > Chairman Kaga
12/23/2013 at 16:36

Yup!!

Imagine a world where people would rather drive in Houston during rush hour than in Austin at 2pm.

Icemanmaybeirunoutofthetalents > Chairman Kaga
12/23/2013 at 16:37

There just aren't enough roads N-S to carry al the commuter traffic daily. 2 lane mopac is pitifully small when you consider some other cities have 4-lane freeways within the city. Its still a small city with too many people too quickly without enough roads. Also, fuck the idiot drivers.

davedave1111 > Chairman Kaga
12/23/2013 at 17:26

OK, I know it's Texas and 'Mmerica, but seriously, why the fuck does anyone put up with that? Why aren't people at least demanding adequate roads if they're going to insist on everyone driving everywhere?

Chairman Kaga > davedave1111
12/23/2013 at 17:38

There's massive suburban flight in Austin. People are being priced out of living in the city and are moving to surrounding counties where the tax rates are lower (my property tax bill is almost $5,000 and increasing every year), which only compounds the problem. I honestly believe Austin is only a few years from a full fledge middle-class crisis. We're importing people from all over the country to work for Apple, IBM, AMD, Samsung, etc. complete with the requisite upper class salaries. They're coming from places with high cost of living and insane traffic so to them, it's perfectly normal. For the moment, all development is being driven by those people and developers, while long time residents either have to improve their station and get the income to move into the main business district, or leave entirely. My wife and I are discussing the latter option on a regular basis, my recent promotion and raise notwithstanding.

davedave1111 > Chairman Kaga
12/23/2013 at 17:48

I understand the reasons for the increase in traffic, but that's not really what I'm asking. I just don't understand why people accept the commute times, rather than demanding better transport links of one kind or another.

Chairman Kaga > davedave1111
12/23/2013 at 17:52

Because Texas.

Chairman Kaga > davedave1111
12/23/2013 at 17:54

Seriously, the opposition to "socialist" public transportation is furious and vigorous. And what I'm saying is that there are many of us who are gradually falling off the spectrum of acceptable inconvenience to continue living in a big city, such that we will likely soon abandon this place for somewhere with a higher quality of life.

ttyymmnn > Icemanmaybeirunoutofthetalents
12/23/2013 at 17:55

Most of MoPac is three lanes, but there are some major choke points, on either side of the river (lake) where through traffic drops to two lanes. They're going to add a fourth lane for much of, but it will be a "managed" lane—toll lane—which will be achieved by making the existing lanes narrower. It's going to be a phantom solution. Unless the city and Metro make a serious, concerted effort to improve public transit, this situation will only get worse.

I live north, and getting downtown for a 7:30 rehearsal on a weeknight means leaving home at 5:45. If the train went anywhere near a useful place downtown, I'd ride it. But it stops at the convention center only, and transferring to a bus is a drag. The train doesn't go anywhere near UT either, which is unconscionable. Nor does it go to the airport. Why bother having a train??

davedave1111 > Chairman Kaga
12/23/2013 at 18:16

But like I said, it doesn't have to be public transport. It could be whacking great roads, or smaller personal vehicles in special lanes, or whatever. But how the fuck can it be nothing except sitting in traffic for four hours a day?

BrianRad > Chairman Kaga
12/23/2013 at 19:30

I lived in Austin for 6 years ('97 - 2003). I bought my house in South Austin and it was great as long as you avoided I-35 & MoPac. ha,ha.ha...

Clown Shoe Pilot > Chairman Kaga
12/23/2013 at 20:08

Agreed.

Today I had to go downtown to work on clearing out from the downtown office. We moved everyone out to the race track last week and now I'm tearing out the last pieces of network crap from the downtown office.

Anyway, I had to drive out of downtown with EVERYONE ELSE IN AUSTIN and it fucking sucked. Even on days where the traffic doesn't suck too bad, it still sucks.

I'm glad I live south and can normally just take the toll road all the way to the track.

Chairman Kaga > Clown Shoe Pilot
12/23/2013 at 22:47

I'd give anything to work somewhere I didn't have to deal with both MoPac and I35. If I'm taking the girls to daycare, which is most mornings, I can avoid MoPac and cut through from out place at Slaughter and MoPac down Brodie to Westgate, etc. but it's that goddamn stretch of I35 from Ben White to Cesar Chavez (my office) that slays me every morning. It can take 20 minutes to go less than 5 miles. And it's crazy traffic. Not a slow crawl, but manic sprints to keep someone from taking your spot, and slamming brakes to shame someone for not letting you merge, or riding a bumper to get the car ahead to speed up because you failed to move over and now you're going to kiss your exit. It's a recipe for disaster. Every. Single. Morning. I hate it. I just got a promotion and a big raise, and I'm still thinking about how to get out of this situation. Ugh Just... ugh.

Chairman Kaga > Clown Shoe Pilot
12/23/2013 at 22:47