AUSTIN | Transportation Updates

[M1EK]

Originally Posted by electricron

Any additional rail should require another vote, including the streetcar plans the city has developed.

Most of the criticisms of CapMetro can be blamed on office holding politicians running the board, imho. By the time they finish earmarking CapMetro funds for their own government capital projects, like day care centers, there isn't any funds left for CapMetro's transit capital projects.

Which is the main reason they have built the Red Line on as tight a budget possible, and why they are having difficulties getting it into service, imho.

As usual with Austin, you have no clue what you're talking about.

If Cap Metro had their way, they'd be spending their funds on yet another commuter rail line (to Elgin) - and contributing jack squat but happy-talk to the urban rail line which is now foundering on the back-burner. Then, when nobody who didn't ride the bus before gets on the train because people with jobs don't actually like shuttle-buses, they'll throw up their hands and say Austin wasn't ready for rail.

[M1EK]

Originally Posted by arbeiter

You mean to tell me there are almost as many people in Wilco Austin as in Travis County Austin? That seems impossible. That would mean that the area off Parmer/McNeil and north of Anderson Mill Road (roughly) equals 300,000+...

There are only a relative handful of people in "Wilco Austin". Your suspicion was correct.

[Scottolini]

The latest number I had heard was about 15,000. So about 2% of Austin's population is in Williamson County.

[SecretAgentMan]

[QUOTE=electricron;4188352]

Most of the criticisms of CapMetro can be blamed on office holding politicians running the board, imho. By the time they finish earmarking CapMetro funds for their own government capital projects, like day care centers, there isn't any funds left for CapMetro's transit capital projects.

/QUOTE]

The day care center was for Cap Metro employees - as legitimate an expense as salary increases or better health insurance.

[Jdawgboy]

I think the entire board of Cap Metro should be sacked and replaced.

[austin242]

Personally I would like to know where the most ridership in the city is because Im willing to bet it is not in north-west austin.

[M1EK]

NW Austin is a focus because of the availability of CM-owned track and ROW that could have run light rail trains through a bunch of suburban park-and-rides in bedroom communities and then transitioned into street-running rail straight down Lamar, Guadalupe, and Congress right past most of the residential and employment density in the city. If CM had not already owned the northwesterly rail line, it might not have been so obvious, but this is the same formula for success that was used by just about every other good light rail start in the country.

There's no similar confluence of stuff on the south side - CM doesn't own a rail corridor and the UPRR doesn't want to play along; there's not any major employers or residential density along that line; even South Congress still isn't as dense as Hyde Park/Triangle area much less West Campus and there are relatively few jobs within walking distance compared to even Lamar/Guadalupe north of UT.

[M1EK]

Capital Metro reserves down to effective minimum.

My reaction

[arbeiter]

Actually, Northwest Austin is probably a big share of the 'vocal' Cap Metro riders. The North 183 Express bus is what transit looks like on, say, a Sound Transit (suburban Seattle) bus - it's full of professionals and students. That bus works well, even if it's just an hourly affair. It's the only 'express corridor' that works right now.

Leander, for example, is the single suburb of Austin that has what might be considered a transit friendly outlook. You could easily bicycle from a cheap starter house to the Leander park and ride, and have reasonable connectivity to downtown until 10:40PM. That's why the MetroRail seems silly, it's attempting to mirror one of the few pre-existing successful suburban/express lines.

I've known people for years who take the "LX" (as the bus used to be called), but Oak Hill, Pflugerville, or any other suburban area of town doesn't quite have that connectivity.

[paulsjv]

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/133172.html

A key rationale for devolution is that the funding approach developed to build the Interstate system is now obsolete. That approach transfers large sums from larger and fast-growing states to smaller and slower-growing states. And states like Texas end up subsidizing other states. That is exactly backwards of what a real user-fee system would do—which is to generate and spend large sums in the places with huge problems of congestion and insufficient highway capacity. A side benefit of devolution would be the elimination of tons of pork, as members of Congress would no longer be able to earmark pet projects that are political winners but economic losers.

Then there's this.

The downside is that the Interstate system is critically important to interstate commerce, and the federal government has a constitutional responsibility to ensure that states do not erect barriers to interstate commerce....But this doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition. Congress could enact standards for the Interstate system as a condition of approving devolution—things like nationally inter-operable electronic toll collection, pavement quality, bridge clearance heights, etc.—that states would be required to adhere to.

Thoughts?

[TXLove]

Question????

Is it me or does it seem as if Austin lacks the signage needed on its major highways telling people where downtown Austin is located? I asked this question because I work in the hotel industry and it involves giving directions over the phone! I have people who come here from all over and they mention how our expressways lack the signage telling them where downtown is or what direction it is in! Is there a reason for this? Anybody?

[hookem]

Originally Posted by TXLove

Question????

Is it me or does it seem as if Austin lacks the signage needed on its major highways telling people where downtown Austin is located? I asked this question because I work in the hotel industry and it involves giving directions over the phone! I have people who come here from all over and they mention how our expressways lack the signage telling them where downtown is or what direction it is in! Is there a reason for this? Anybody?

My guess is that it's because we are still relatively small, there are so few highways in this town, and they don't all converge near downtown. So getting off at downtown from either Mopac or I-35 is still a very simple and obvious concept. In cities like Dallas or Houston, the "Downtown" exits or "Downtown Destinations" signs are needed and very useful because of all the highway intersections that are in the vicinity of downtown. It's not intuitive where to get off otherwise.

[KevinFromTexas]

^When all else fails, I just look for skyscrapers and head in that direction. lol

[arbeiter]

So who among us on SSP are daily or very close to daily Capital Metro passengers?

I am a daily Cap Metro passenger, for better or worse. I am starting to compile my good/bad list now that I've ridden it daily for a few months now.

So far, just speaking off the top of my head:

the pros are:

- the wi-fi on express buses is lovely!
- the buses run pretty close to schedule
- bus drivers are not very picky about exact fare
- transfer points tend to line up
- the overall cost is very cheap, almost too cheap considering how UT students keep the farebox from being too jangly with coins.

the cons are:

- unless you use the 1 or a handful of other buses, you are at the whim of a fairly infrequent schedule (hourly frequencies after rush hour are common unless you take a 1, 10, 3, etc.)

- if you travel east/west (except from East Austin to downtown), you have to prepare to be a second-class transit citizen. Even the Chicon/Exposition Loop is not adequate; I have found myself just riding the loop around because of the A/C, knowing I'd see the same bus in 20 minutes if I stayed put.

- some of the most important and busy routes have ridiculous hairpins, unnecessary detours, or circuituous paths as part of their daily routine.

Here is one that are really annoying:

- the biggest timewaster/annoyance is Route 3 (Manchaca/Burnet), in several different areas. The first inconsistency is that the Northcross Boulevard stop is only southbound, not northbound, so if you happen to be heading northbound, you'll always have to cross Burnet and walk through those parking lots. The second is how the bus goes from Medical Parkway over to Guadalupe via 38th, only to veer somewhat westward again down Rio Grande/Nueces. It seems like this bus should go down West Avenue or something, that way it hits Central Market and connects with West Campus. The third is the abrupt turn left at the Travis County Jail in order to head down Colorado, then right in the middle of the Warehouse District's busiest pedestrian scramble, over to the 2nd street district, then finally down San Antonio over to Cesar Chavez, then the u-turn up Sandra Muraida to South Lamar.
The fourth is coming northbound through downtown; instead of going up Colorado or a street west of Congress, it goes all the way over to Brazos!!!


- The Night Owl buses tend to have a better route than the routes they are replacing; i.e. the night bus that goes down south lamar and doesn't turn off Manchaca, but instead keeps on going down towards Westgate.

- Other than the Pavilion Express and the 183 Express, there seem to be no express buses that run outside of rush hour.

[Jdawgboy]

Wait a sec did they change the 484 bus rout to go to westgate? I use that bus because it takes me to Manchaca where I need to get off if they change the bus rought I wont be able to take the bus downtown and home again. I will double check. Usually what it does is it does go by Manchaca on Lamar then will turn by the Ann Richards School for girls (formaly Porter Middle school which I used to attend years and years ago.) Go down Victory Drive to 290/71 then it turns left and goes to Manchaca and from there goes down Manchaca to William Cannon. If they change that rout I will not be happy at all.

Also as far as signs saying downtown and such over the freeways, what is the point of that sign on Mopac heading north from the southside and right when you reach the river theres a sign there saying Downtown, Next right. Duh obviously it would be since you can see downtown right there. It seems odd to see that IMO, when anybody who looks around can see downtown is to the right and you would get off at Cesar Chaves or 5th. I agree with Kevin just look for the highrises, one thing is clear Austin only has highrises in its downtown unlike the other Texas cities which do have clusters of highrises in other areas, not just in their downtowns.

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by arbeiter

So who among us on SSP are daily or very close to daily Capital Metro passengers?

I am a daily Cap Metro passenger, for better or worse. I am starting to compile my good/bad list now that I've ridden it daily for a few months now.

So far, just speaking off the top of my head:

the pros are:

- the wi-fi on express buses is lovely!
- the buses run pretty close to schedule
- bus drivers are not very picky about exact fare
- transfer points tend to line up
- the overall cost is very cheap, almost too cheap considering how UT students keep the farebox from being too jangly with coins.

the cons are:

- unless you use the 1 or a handful of other buses, you are at the whim of a fairly infrequent schedule (hourly frequencies after rush hour are common unless you take a 1, 10, 3, etc.)

- if you travel east/west (except from East Austin to downtown), you have to prepare to be a second-class transit citizen. Even the Chicon/Exposition Loop is not adequate; I have found myself just riding the loop around because of the A/C, knowing I'd see the same bus in 20 minutes if I stayed put.

- some of the most important and busy routes have ridiculous hairpins, unnecessary detours, or circuituous paths as part of their daily routine.

Here is one that are really annoying:

- the biggest timewaster/annoyance is Route 3 (Manchaca/Burnet), in several different areas. The first inconsistency is that the Northcross Boulevard stop is only southbound, not northbound, so if you happen to be heading northbound, you'll always have to cross Burnet and walk through those parking lots. The second is how the bus goes from Medical Parkway over to Guadalupe via 38th, only to veer somewhat westward again down Rio Grande/Nueces. It seems like this bus should go down West Avenue or something, that way it hits Central Market and connects with West Campus. The third is the abrupt turn left at the Travis County Jail in order to head down Colorado, then right in the middle of the Warehouse District's busiest pedestrian scramble, over to the 2nd street district, then finally down San Antonio over to Cesar Chavez, then the u-turn up Sandra Muraida to South Lamar.
The fourth is coming northbound through downtown; instead of going up Colorado or a street west of Congress, it goes all the way over to Brazos!!!


- The Night Owl buses tend to have a better route than the routes they are replacing; i.e. the night bus that goes down south lamar and doesn't turn off Manchaca, but instead keeps on going down towards Westgate.

- Other than the Pavilion Express and the 183 Express, there seem to be no express buses that run outside of rush hour.

My first year in Austin I did not have a car and was a daily Cap Metro rider. I agree with most of your points, particularly about traveling east/west... I remember riding the Chicon/Exposition loop around myself.

I was lucky, though, to live on the Manor Rd route, so I had pretty good service generally. At the time, though, it annoyed me that that route didn't go straight to campus (it turned south on Red River & I presume it still does). There was at one time a critical mass of professors/grad students on the Manor corridor who wanted to get a UT shuttle farther down Manor. I don't think anything ever came of that.

[PartyLine]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

Wait a sec did they change the 484 bus rout to go to westgate? I use that bus because it takes me to Manchaca where I need to get off if they change the bus rought I wont be able to take the bus downtown and home again. I will double check. Usually what it does is it does go by Manchaca on Lamar then will turn by the Ann Richards School for girls (formaly Porter Middle school which I used to attend years and years ago.) Go down Victory Drive to 290/71 then it turns left and goes to Manchaca and from there goes down Manchaca to William Cannon. If they change that rout I will not be happy at all.

Also as far as signs saying downtown and such over the freeways, what is the point of that sign on Mopac heading north from the southside and right when you reach the river theres a sign there saying Downtown, Next right. Duh obviously it would be since you can see downtown right there. It seems odd to see that IMO, when anybody who looks around can see downtown is to the right and you would get off at Cesar Chaves or 5th. I agree with Kevin just look for the highrises, one thing is clear Austin only has highrises in its downtown unlike the other Texas cities which do have clusters of highrises in other areas, not just in their downtowns.

Fort Worth doesn't have highrises any where except it's downtown lol

[KevinFromTexas]

It has a few. Actually pretty close to the same number Austin does.

[Myomi]

Originally Posted by arbeiter

It looks great, but does anyone want to hang out that close to the double decks of IH-35? And I think this is a secret ploy to prevent expansion of 35 for the next 100 years!

I was actually thinking about this the other day. I know we have all kinds of different opinions on this forum about highways, and I am totally behind any effort to build mass transit infrustructure. But, to me at least, it seems clear that I35 will need to be expanded at some point in the near future. This seemed like a golden opportunity for the city to at least buy the land next to the highway to so that they could have it available in the future. Now there is going to be some very dense development there. The St. David's construction seems right next to the highway, and the rest of it seems a lot closer than the renderings make them appear. What are your guys' thoughts on this? Something will eventually have to be done. Ideally (for me at least) is light rail down the interstate (that would feed into a downtown network) and expanded capacity of the roadway...but there is obviously no room for that now.

[priller]

I don't think I-35 will ever be expanded through downtown Austin. Too enormously expensive. It would probably be cheaper to build high-speed rail connecting Dallas-Austin-SA and a complete light-rail system in Austin combined than it would be to expand I-35 in any substantial way.