Good Morning, Oppo

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 12/20/2019 at 09:06 • Filed to: good morning oppo

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TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 12/20/2019 at 09:13

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You’re in Houston today?

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 12/20/2019 at 09:15

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No, but the same applies to Austin. This just came across my wife’s IG.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > TheRealBicycleBuck 12/20/2019 at 09:17

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And he’ll get to Houston later today.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 12/20/2019 at 09:19

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A guy I work with lives in New Braunfels and his daughter is transferring from Texas State to UT. He’s not looking forward to it.

San Antonio traffic over the Thanksgiving break was worse than Houston, at least in terms of congestion and traffic flow . The unique thing about Houston is that it can be bumper-to-bumper and still flowing at 80 mph.

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 12/20/2019 at 09:30

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My experience living in Houston in the early 90s was that even when the traffic was terrible there was another way to go. With Austin and SA being so north-south oriented, alternate routes are extremely limited. There was a time when you could drive to SA from Austin and expect the traffic to thin out around Kyle or Buda. Now, it’s bumper-to-bumper the whole way. Just too damned many people moving to Texas.

ETA: Back in the early 90s, there was also open road and open land between Houston and Katy. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > ttyymmnn 12/20/2019 at 09:40

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It’s okay, it’s everyday that it can take two hours to get from Los Angeles to Los Angeles no problem. Hell there are places for sure that without even adding traffic in its over an hour while still being in LA. Make it County of Los Angeles and you could probably hit over 4 or 5 hours with traffic. 

Textured Soy Protein > ttyymmnn 12/20/2019 at 09:44

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Today is my first date-aversary which even though I’m married we still acknowledge. We’re going to this fancy restaurant in downtown DC that we’ve been meaning to go to for a while.

Last night my wife and I were talking about getting downtown during rush hour to decide   whether we wanted to drive or take the subway.  I mentioned the 13 mile drive from our house in the burbs would be a good hour or so in traffic. She was like, “this is how I know I’m not from here because sitting in traffic for an hour to go to dinner sounds fucking ridiculous.”

We’re taking the subway.

Ash78, voting early and often > TheRealBicycleBuck 12/20/2019 at 09:47

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Pretty much sounds like Atlanta, which for us is probably a rough analog for Houston if you’re in BR. Whenever I consider going there, it’s all about WHERE in the metro area something is. I can reach the ATL metro in about 90 minutes, but I don’t get through it for over 3 hours.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 12/20/2019 at 09:47

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The future of Texas is a giant urban triangle from San Antonio to Dallas to Houston. It already has a lot of momentum and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Ash78, voting early and often 12/20/2019 at 09:52

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I’ve heard that.

Baton Rouge traffic is awful too. The big problem is the lack of alternate routes. I-10 is it, no matter if you are traveling East, West, or South to New Orleans. The Mississippi River bridge plays a big role in that. They really screwed up on lane management, especially for eastbound traffic. in order to appease one of the local neighborhoods, they added an off-ramp. The end result is that all eastbound through traffic is squeezed down to a single lane. 

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > TheRealBicycleBuck 12/20/2019 at 09:57

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The unique   terrifying   thing about Houston is that it can be bumper-to-bumper and still flowing at 80 mph.

Come on down and experience US-90 where the speed limit is 55 but during rush hour its just a solid mass of cars doing 80+.

And when there’ s inevitably an accident the cops block off all but one lane; making what is normally a 5 min trip take 45 mins to an hou r over 4 miles.

ttyymmnn > Textured Soy Protein 12/20/2019 at 10:01

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Our first date anniversary was October 24, 1986. We got married four years later.

I routinely have to drive from north Austin to downtown for rehearsals. The 14-mile drive often takes one solid hour. If I have a rehearsal that starts at 7:00, I leave at 5:15. I would rather get there 45-60 minutes early than risk being late. It drives me crazy to use the Waze and sit there watching my arrival time tick later and later. 

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 12/20/2019 at 10:04

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In other words, road construction will continue in perpetuum . I wonder if Zach ry is a publicly traded company. If so, I should buy some stock.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 12/20/2019 at 10:08

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My house to work in Baton Rouge is 12.5 miles. On a Sunday, it’s a 20 minute drive. During rush hour, it’s at least 45 minutes, usually an hour.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Textured Soy Protein 12/20/2019 at 10:31

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I really enjoy living in a place where a 13 mike drive takes about 13 minutes.

If I drove an hour to go to dinner I’d also be 60 miles away, in Duluth/Superior. 

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > TheRealBicycleBuck 12/20/2019 at 10:32

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Sounds like a good place high speed rail! 

Roundbadge > Textured Soy Protein 12/20/2019 at 10:57

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We also celebrate our first-date anniversary.  10/4/03.  We’re still not married, so it’s as close to an anniversary as we have.

WRXforScience > ttyymmnn 12/20/2019 at 10:57

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My favorite Houston traffic story happened once while I was leaving Houston about 3 years ago . I had gone down to Houston to visit my old college roommate who was working for NASA, while I was down for the weekend we did an autox, played some golf, and had a good time. When I left, Interstate 45 was closed (the only way from south of Houston to Dallas where I was headed).

The sign literally just said: “Interstate Closed”, there were no instructions for a detour and no hope given.

To the East was the Gulf of Mexico, to the West there were no roads that went anywhere other than the suburbs and no way to loop back north. I was stuck, the sign was late enough that I was committed and there weren’t any other options anyway.

At one point traffic was inch in front of a mall, a couple of cars back I saw the doors of one of the other trapped cars open up and 3-4 men in tuxedos jumped out and walked from the service road to the mall. It looked like they were headed to a rehearsal dinner at one of the restaurants in the mall complex (free standing ones between the mall and the service road). I surmised that they were on their way there before getting stuck in traffic hell and had run out of time to wait it out, the restaurants were within sight and the farthest wasn’t more than half a mile away. The hapless driver was stuck with the car, the next entry to the mall was over a quarter mile ahead and at our pace that took us more than a full hour to reach. I’m not sure that he exited, I lost sight of the car as our lanes inched along.

I had my sat nav and phone and I was looking for alternate routes, I even tried one or two but they were all the same: choked with traffic and all circling back to the closed interstate. I was beyond frustrated, I had time to go through all the emotions and ended up like everyone else in quiet resignation that this was now our shared fate, maybe we’d all just have to adapt to forever living in a mass of cars inching forward. Perhaps we’d develop into a new type of community or civilization, learn to adapt to our new reality, and abandon whatever lives we formerly had in the Before. The only solace I had was that there were a group of motorcycles who were stuck with me, they’d drive off from time to time trying to use their extra mobility to find some way out of the morass, but inevitably they would return and I would know that there were no better alternates.

Usually the trip from Dallas to Houston takes 4-6hrs, that trip took me 14hrs. I spent more time trying to get ac ross Houston than it should have taken to drive back and forth to Dallas.

Austin has terrible traffic too, but they usually don’t have an excuse for it. When it rains there everyone on the interstate just stops, like they think if they keep driving their cars will melt or something. When my sister lived in Austin I told her that I was not going to visit, I went once for her college graduation and once for her wedding (which technically wasn’t in Austin, just close by).

I’ve been back to Houston a couple of times and while there have been delays, none have been as bad. No memorials were erected and no lessons were learned, the great Interstate closure is bound to be repeated and once more traffic tragedy will unfold. I can only hope that you and I are not there when it does.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > WRXforScience 12/20/2019 at 12:20

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That sounds like some sort of near-eternal damnation.

I've only been stuck in traffic badly a few times, but nothing that bad.

Textured Soy Protein > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 12/20/2019 at 12:32

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Yes yes but I get to live in the vicinity of this:

WRXforScience > BaconSandwich is tasty. 12/20/2019 at 12:37

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It certainly felt like one of the circles of hell, that’s pretty much the worst traffic I’ve experienced. It’s part of my personal mythology  now, so at least there’s that.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Textured Soy Protein 12/20/2019 at 13:25

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Your cheese puffs are no match for my cheese curds

facw > WRXforScience 12/20/2019 at 14:03

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Don’t let Texans try to tell you that service roads are great because they mean highway closures are easy to deal with...

Of course when I left NYC it took like 10 hours to make the three hour drive to Boston. No particular reason just traffic, being less agile than normal because I was driving a (small) u-haul, and more frequent gas stops because the u- haul came nearly empty and I didn’t want to finish with a nearly full tank if the traffic ever dissipated.

Textured Soy Protein > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 12/20/2019 at 14:03

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Yes this is true. People here are only vaguely aware of the existence of cheese curds. 

facw > ttyymmnn 12/20/2019 at 14:06

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You can thank Austin for nearly ignoring (if not being actively hostile to) public transit for decades. The commuter rail is something I guess, but they need several more lines to have any chance of stuff not being totally snarled.

ttyymmnn > facw 12/20/2019 at 15:20

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Yup. There is one line of train that runs north/south, but it is so limited in size and scope as to be almost worthless. My wife takes an express bus to work though, and it’s really convenient. Texans just love their cars and trucks, and nobody wants to take transit. Hence, our roads just get worse and worse.

facw > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 12/20/2019 at 15:27

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There’s a planned privately funded high-speed rail between Dallas/Ft. Worth and Houston. I think if they are successful they’d like to continue on to San Antonio. Obviously Dallas to San Antonio via Austin would make sense as well, but there seems to be less enthusiasm for that. And Houston to Austin might not support the traffic, though they are badly under-connected in general, there’s not even an interstate there.

There is a freight line (with limited Amtrak service) right through the heart of Austin that desperately needs to be re-purposed for passengers, whether commuter or intercity, but you’d have to build a bypass to keep Union Pacific happy (there is room e ast of Austin to do that).  

MrSnrub > ttyymmnn 12/20/2019 at 15:43

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Driving from Austin to Houston with a cold  was exhausting yesterday. Can we build a damn limited-access highway between the largest city in Texas and the capital of Texas please? I’m sick of the damn stoplights

ttyymmnn > MrSnrub 12/20/2019 at 16:21

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If they do that, it will almost certainly be a toll road. So I’d rather have the occasional lights. There are fewer now than there were 20 years ago.

ttyymmnn > WRXforScience 12/21/2019 at 11:14

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no hope given

Abandon hope all ye who enter. I lived a few years in Houston in the early 90s, before satnav and smart phones. Hell, before cell phones. For a gigging musician, a Key Map was an absolute necessity. The thing about Houston v Austin is that in Houston, barring a cataclysmic shutdown, there was always another way to go. In Austin, you are just screwed. If I have a 7:00 rehearsal downtown, I allow 1:45 to get there. And I allow 2 if it’s raining.