AUSTIN | Transportation Updates

[JAM]

Originally Posted by H2O

https://www.kut.org/transportation/2021-...es-on-proposals-to-shrink-i-35-footprint

The article points to Rethink35. Neat idea, but can't get my head wrapped around it. I've tried, really tried. I keep reverberating back to how selfish it is. No one allowed in my city sort of thing. Let see:

it shutdown downtown tourism,
doesn't allow people from small towns south of Austin to pass thru Austin to get to say, N. Lamar.
shuts down a Federally paid for interstate
makes it harder to get in and out of Austin for commuters - you know, like places where the trains and buses dont run
pushes traffic over to Mopac, creating a disaster over there
current design is racist. give me a break.
Oh, and comparing it to San Fran - haven't studied that, but have a hunch the comparison is apples and oranges. nice try tho... lost me at racists

I don't know, I could go on, but just can't see it - as much as how cool it would be. They know it, sounds like a bunch of guys who want to be politicians to me. They know it won't work. Hey, Lets call it racist, that will get us a political following...... Maybe they could go get engineering degrees and try again.

In the end, the burying of I-35 is about as close to nirvana as we could get. Cars are here to stay. When they become an integrated autonomous driving force in the next 10 - 20 years, a lot of these traffic issues will be alleviated.

[chinchaaa]

Originally Posted by JAM

lost me at racists

boo hoo

[chinchaaa]

Originally Posted by JAM

The article points to Rethink35. Neat idea, but can't get my head wrapped around it. I've tried, really tried. I keep reverberating back to how selfish it is. No one allowed in my city sort of thing. Let see:

it shutdown downtown tourism,
doesn't allow people from small towns south of Austin to pass thru Austin to get to say, N. Lamar.
shuts down a Federally paid for interstate
makes it harder to get in and out of Austin for commuters - you know, like places where the trains and buses dont run
pushes traffic over to Mopac, creating a disaster over there
current design is racist. give me a break.
Oh, and comparing it to San Fran - haven't studied that, but have a hunch the comparison is apples and oranges. nice try tho... lost me at racists

I don't know, I could go on, but just can't see it - as much as how cool it would be. They know it, sounds like a bunch of guys who want to be politicians to me. They know it won't work. Hey, Lets call it racist, that will get us a political following...... Maybe they could go get engineering degrees and try again.

In the end, the burying of I-35 is about as close to nirvana as we could get. Cars are here to stay. When they become an integrated autonomous driving force in the next 10 - 20 years, a lot of these traffic issues will be alleviated.

you're also missing the point. why should a person living in downtown or downtown adjacent care about the commute of someone who lives in Kyle? why should our quality of life be decreased because someone lives far away from their office?

we should have built that Lone Star Rail Line between SA and Austin with stops in several cities and called it a day.

[StoOgE]

Originally Posted by JAM

current design is racist. give me a break.

I mean, its not wrong though. I mean, it was literally used hand-in-hand with redlining and in many cases was intentional design to segregate minority communities from the rest of cities.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3797364#

In either case, I do agree. Burry and capping I35 is our best bet. The other proposal is a non-starter as it would wreak havoc on inter and intrastate travel which is expressly against the mandate of TXdot.

I mean, I think the federal highway system was designed horrifically and never should have been used near the urban core of cities in the first place, but it happened and we are frankly lucky that Austin isn't ringed in elevated freeways like half the country.

I would prefer we burry I-35 all the way to airport blvd, but will live with whatever we wind up with.

[paul78701]

Originally Posted by JAM

The article points to Rethink35. Neat idea, but can't get my head wrapped around it. I've tried, really tried. I keep reverberating back to how selfish it is. No one allowed in my city sort of thing. Let see:

it shutdown downtown tourism,
doesn't allow people from small towns south of Austin to pass thru Austin to get to say, N. Lamar.
shuts down a Federally paid for interstate
makes it harder to get in and out of Austin for commuters - you know, like places where the trains and buses dont run
pushes traffic over to Mopac, creating a disaster over there
current design is racist. give me a break.
Oh, and comparing it to San Fran - haven't studied that, but have a hunch the comparison is apples and oranges. nice try tho... lost me at racists

I don't know, I could go on, but just can't see it - as much as how cool it would be. They know it, sounds like a bunch of guys who want to be politicians to me. They know it won't work. Hey, Lets call it racist, that will get us a political following...... Maybe they could go get engineering degrees and try again.

In the end, the burying of I-35 is about as close to nirvana as we could get. Cars are here to stay. When they become an integrated autonomous driving force in the next 10 - 20 years, a lot of these traffic issues will be alleviated.

It's hard for me to see how the Rethink35 plan is at all workable. Unless I'm missing something, it seems completely unrealistic to basically remove the interstate in it's entirety.

I'm sure that there would be some issues to iron out, but the Reconnect Austin and the Downtown Austin Alliance proposals look workable. They probably should have gotten more consideration by TxDOT. They don't seem all that interested in that though.

[StoOgE]

https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/20...dments-could-be-the-path-to-more-trails/

Some news about new trails in the city.

[enragedcamel]

Originally Posted by chinchaaa

you're also missing the point. why should a person living in downtown or downtown adjacent care about the commute of someone who lives in Kyle? why should our quality of life be decreased because someone lives far away from their office?

The obvious answer is that that person may be living in Kyle because they aren't able to afford the skyrocketing cost of housing in Austin proper. And that's not their fault.

[JAM]

Originally Posted by enragedcamel

The obvious answer is that that person may be living in Kyle because they aren't able to afford the skyrocketing cost of housing in Austin proper. And that's not their fault.

Bingo. And they won't be getting public transport anytime soon. And we need them as part of the workforce. desperately.

[JAM]

Originally Posted by paul78701

It's hard for me to see how the Rethink35 plan is at all workable. Unless I'm missing something, it seems completely unrealistic to basically remove the interstate in it's entirety.

I'm sure that there would be some issues to iron out, but the Reconnect Austin and the Downtown Austin Alliance proposals look workable. They probably should have gotten more consideration by TxDOT. They don't seem all that interested in that though.

At a bare minimum, put ample pedestrian bridges over top. dress them up with trees and sidewalks. Take the Rethink35 plan and make 2 lanes, sidewalks/scooter + bike lanes.

why is it so important to get the other side of the freeway on foot anyway? who are the people who really care? Who is the customer? bikes and scooters definitely have a longer range available to them. pedestrians are good for a mile in general, that is probably max range. probably more like 1/4 mile. everyone else is not so ambitious and will take four wheels with a/c.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by JAM

why is it so important to get the other side of the freeway on foot anyway? who are the people who really care? Who is the customer? bikes and scooters definitely have a longer range available to them. pedestrians are good for a mile in general, that is probably max range. probably more like 1/4 mile. everyone else is not so ambitious and will take four wheels with a/c.

We literally have people dying attempting the crossing, every year.

If there's so much need to cross that people do it even in the absence of a safe crossing, think how often it occurs where it's encouraged.

[JAM]

Originally Posted by Novacek

We literally have people dying attempting the crossing, every year.

If there's so much need to cross that people do it even in the absence of a safe crossing, think how often it occurs where it's encouraged.

OK..... back to my question. Who are the customers? (That is a fancy way of saying who has a need, etc......) If you don't know who your customers are, you can't provide what they want/need.

[drummer]

For folks who want to get involved in the much-needed fix of the mess that is 620 in NW Austin, KXAN mentions a public virtual forum:

https://www.kxan.com/traffic/txdot-seeks...sed-intersection-improvements-on-rm-620/

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by JAM

OK..... back to my question. Who are the customers? (That is a fancy way of saying who has a need, etc......) If you don't know who your customers are, you can't provide what they want/need.

Your customers are hopefully the people who start biking and walking to work as the city continues to densify.

I mean, we've abandoned that area to panhandlers and insane traffic and unmitigated Texas sunlight. Of course it's awful and uninviting to other folks.

Underlying the pie-in-the-skyness of Rethink-35 is a real and important fact -- stitching the city back together -- over, around, and through the highway -- is important for making our city inviting for transportation modes other than the car.

TXDOT's customers are clearly commuters and interstate truck drivers. And those are legitimate consitituencies, IMO. But they're not the ONLY constituencies. It's fallen to the city, unfortunately to represent those folks who TXDOT isn't building for.

[JAM]

Originally Posted by We vs us

Your customers are hopefully the people who start biking and walking to work as the city continues to densify.

I'm guilty of not knowing the current stats, but here are some rough estimates. Walkable I've been told is 1/4 mile. after that, too hot, too far, etc, etc.....

124,800 primary jobs in downtown. 12,000 people who live DT (not all work downtown). So you have 110,000 who still need to get to downtown via rail or car. Bus takes forever but some do it. 4000 by rail. Still leaves 106,000 people on a daily basis to figure out if they can be converted to customers to cross those I-35 pedestrian bridges. Or is there only a potential of 20,000 customers?

If you don't know your customer, you can't serve them. Number one rule in biz! Come on guys, give TxDOT a compelling reason to build it......

[chinchaaa]

Originally Posted by JAM

I'm guilty of not knowing the current stats, but here are some rough estimates. Walkable I've been told is 1/4 mile. after that, too hot, too far, etc, etc.....

124,800 primary jobs in downtown. 12,000 people who live DT (not all work downtown). So you have 110,000 who still need to get to downtown via rail or car. Bus takes forever but some do it. 4000 by rail. Still leaves 106,000 people on a daily basis to figure out if they can be converted to customers to cross those I-35 pedestrian bridges. Or is there only a potential of 20,000 customers?

If you don't know your customer, you can't serve them. Number one rule in biz! Come on guys, give TxDOT a compelling reason to build it......

why are you so against this? I really don't get it. it's an obvious improvement over the Mad Max wasteland that we currently call 35.

[JAM]

Originally Posted by chinchaaa

why are you so against this? I really don't get it. it's an obvious improvement over the Mad Max wasteland that we currently call 35.

Please point out where I said I'm against this - Lord, everyone doesn't come here to argue, back to the bickering thread! I will be a beneficiaries of it. Build it! Just trying to understand who the customer is. There are lots of people here who have spent countless hours studying this, debating and pontificating it. I would think they have an answer.

[valhalla]

To me, the refusal by TX DOT to bury the highway all the way to airport blvd is the most infuriating part. But I'm not self-destructive like some critics. I'll take a partially buried (if widened highway) over what we have now.

[JollyvilleJ-Rad]

And worth pointing out endlessly, TxDOT pledged to go "no higher and no wider" and lied to our faces for years trying to build public support only to pull the rug out and propose to destroy far more of the eastside at the split. They promised to build this project in a way where it would help to repair some of the divisions it originally created in the community, even if it was building to accommodate future improvements from the city. They demanded massive cuts in our CAMPO plan for other much needed projects around the city in the promise we would get a semblance of what we were asking for. Yes, alts 2 and 3 still allow for some future caps and stitches, but not nearly what had long been talked about. And the new "going wider" part is appalling. Maybe they stick with the added 5th St. connection, but at this rate I'm half expecting TxDOT's final proposal to double the ROW through the entire city and eliminate all cross streets with new flyover ramps into skyscraper parking garages.

[JollyvilleJ-Rad]

Obviously there must be changes and improvements, but to bait and switch such a unified voice of the local people, city council, community and business groups is madness. To backtrack on everything they've told us is deplorable. Most of us were willing to live with option 1, and now everyone seems to be on some level from unsatisfied to mortified.

[wwmiv]

Can you please stop hyperventilating and engaging in extreme hyperbole? Please. For the love of God.