AUSTIN | Transportation Updates

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Austin is not a terrible place for you to live because you have different values and priorities than me.

OK, so Austin is a terrible place for you to live? Then why live here? Stay in San Antonio after you graduate, or find another city that meets your needs. And what exactly are your values and priorities? Driving really fast through the city center to get to the suburbs? I actually wish you would explain these values and priorities here.

I think it's undeniable that cutting freeways through the city center (Riverside, Cesar Chavez, whatever) would irreparably damage the urban fabric of Austin. Agreed with Mike here: the freeways are going to benefit anyone but suburban road warriors. I literally cannot imagine that the residents of Austin would ever go for such a thing. It'll never happen - your time is past. So maybe, since you can't do that, you should more seriously consider transit?

As an aside, part of of the problem, in my opinion, is that TDOT insists that freeways are these monstrous things with access roads. I would have no problem making the rest of the 360 interchanges limited access, without stoplights. At least, I would, pending an environmental study. But TDOT doesn't usually want to do that, at least not to my understanding. They want to build atrocious elevated highways with access roads. That would be disgusting, in my opinion.

I don't think you are so much on the opposite side of the issues from most of us here - plenty of us here would support improvement of interchanges and current roads. But as far as building new freeway in the urban core, that's where we differ.

[PartyLine]

Originally Posted by M1EK

wwmiv, there are very few people in Austin who look at San Antonio and go "I wish we were more like them". FWIW. The only reason Austin has any urban mojo at all is that the freeway monster was tamed here, unlike in other Texas cities.

I love San Antonio and Austin both are great cities and have alot going for them I do admit though there are some things SA has that I wish we had in Austin like the Spurs and the Riverwalk lol

[arbeiter]

breathesgelatin, you have a good point about marginal roads. 360 is already a limited access freeway in two parts (at 2222 and 2244). If they turned 360 into a 'parkway', similar to the Merritt Parkway, the Baltimore-Washington Parkway or portions of the Garden State Parkway, it wouldn't be much different than it is today. They would just have to figure out how to minimize/combine exit corridors in places like Westbank Drive, the Pascal/Westlake Drive area, and up toward Spicewood Springs Road.

Marginal roads are the main reason freeways are seen as so intrusive. Frankly, in terms of purely built up highways, the three most pleasant in my eyes in the state of Texas are Mopac between 2222 and Enfield, the southern portion of the Dallas Toll Road, and 281 south of Basse Road/north of downtown San Antonio. All three completely lack marginal roads of any kind, and the land values/scenery/environment are somewhat stabilized despite being next to a major traffic artery.

Having lived next to a freeway, Interstate 90 in Seattle, which also lacks a marginal road, I can tell you it's not so bad and you're less likely to have blight.

Here are some pictures I took of the immediate area, which features parks and housing right up to the freeway's embankments. See how nice it can be with the right design?



If you look, you can see how well a freeway can integrate in a hilly urban landscape (something Austin definitely has in the 360 area.) We're looking at 10 lanes snaking right into downtown, complete with bus lane and bicycle lanes.





On the above picture, do you see the two windows next to the yellow maple trees? That was my duplex, where I lived for a year, and I could never hear the freeway except if I really tried. I actually loved looking down on all the peaceful cars late at night.

I am not anti-freeway, but there is a way to do it in an urban area, an approach which preserves quality of life and an existing built environment.

[KevinFromTexas]

Those are gorgeous.

[PartyLine]

Nice Seattle is a nice city too much rain for me though lol

[hookem]

And no traffic? Is it always like that?

[arbeiter]

Originally Posted by hookem

And no traffic? Is it always like that?

Since I lived next to I-90 for a year and would have to wait for the bus in the median of I-90 (you can see the bus stop in the aerial shot), I actually had a chance to see the traffic patterns in a variety of situations.

Traffic is frequently heavy - but it almost never slowed to a stop when going out towards Bellevue (this is because after the tunnel, your next stop is 3 miles away in Mercer Island), even during rush hour. Usually there would be a slow crawl at I-90's origin (a mile and a half from the pictures), but by the time you hit the Mt. Baker tunnel, you'd be going 30-40, then probably up to 60 by the time you entered the floating bridge.

Going into Seattle, it would back up occasionally during rush hour, but it was almost NEVER backed up to Rainier Avenue (the road that goes underneath these photos). Once or twice during a particularly bad snowstorm (which only happen as frequently as, say, Oklahoma City or Atlanta), I saw it stopped all the way into the tunnel. Seattle's traffic rarely stops, it's frequently slow though, which doesn't bother me one bit. There is occasionally backed up traffic where I-90 ends going into downtown, especially when there's a Seahawks/Mariners game (as the stadia basically straddle the end lanes of 90 by one block each.)

I checked some of my other I-90 pictures, and none of them seemed to have bad traffic.



(Here's a mile and a half away on the east edge of Seattle, where the tunnel that you see in the previous pictures ends). It was taken around 2:30PM on a Thursday. As you can see, traffic is nearly equal in both directions - a reflection of Bellevue having something like 75,000 workers in its downtown, and of reverse commuters going home to Seattle from Microsoft in Redmond (although most Redmond traffic goes in and out via 512, the northern lake freeway crossing, 3-4 miles north of this picture)



Here's the end of I-90, about 2 miles down the road from the first set of pictures.



There's a truck named Tex!



This is facing directly west, you can again see my duplex if you look hard.



See, I-90 through this corridor is so respectful to the topography and flora that there's even a bicycle/hike trail above the freeway. In many Sunbelt cities, this would be a frontage/marginal road. But in Seattle, it's just the edge to the neighborhood (my old neighborhood).



I took most of my pictures of Seattle in an October-February time frame, hence why they're mostly fall or winter shots.

Anyway, sorry for hijacking the thread, but if Austin really wants to get serious about maintaining its liveability while upgrading infrastructure, it needs to look to other cities who have successfully done the same thing. Seattle is not a bad place to look, considering it has successfully "grown up" while maintaining a high quality of life.

This little tangent has made me a bit nostalgic for my other hometown.

[Scottolini]

Question for M1EK, or anyone else knowledgeable. Why didn't Capital Metro come back to voters in 2004 with a scaled down version of the 2000 light-rail plan. In 2000, the voters were asked to approve a one-billion dollar plus system, and over 50 miles of light-rail. I was looking at the Federal Transit Administration documents, and the Minimum Operable Segment was 14.6 miles, 16 stations, traveling from McNeil Rd. in North Austin into downtown, past the State Office Complex and U.T. This system, if approved would have been a phenomenal starter line. We could have easily expanded the system. It just seems that a scaled back version of what was an amazing 2000 plan, would have been the right choice.

http://www.fta.dot.gov/publications/...ment_2915.html

[M1EK]

Because Mike Krusee made them an offer they couldn't refuse, and because the new leadership at Capital Metro believed more in BRT than in light rail.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by PartyLine

Nice Seattle is a nice city too much rain for me though lol

Actually Seattle only gets roughly 4 inches of rain more than Austin does on average and that is when Austin has an average rainfall year of course. The difference is Seattle gets light rainfall over long periods of time through the year, while Austin of course gets our rainfall usually from heavy downpours with storms and has dry periods in between.

[arbeiter]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

Actually Seattle only gets roughly 4 inches of rain more than Austin does on average and that is when Austin has an average rainfall year of course. The difference is Seattle gets light rainfall over long periods of time through the year, while Austin of course gets our rainfall usually from heavy downpours with storms and has dry periods in between.

Exactly. And even then, Seattle frequently has days where it will rain for half the day and then be dry for half the day. Growing up there and living there recently, it seemed to be a common thing in the early winter to have a morning/early afternoon drizzle, then dry up but remain cloudy through late evening, then rain overnight again. Sometimes the lowest level of aloft air will be so dry that the drizzle almost evaporates by the time it hits you, and you never need an umbrella or see puddles accumulate. Another thing is that people frequently misread cloudy days for rainy days. There are a lot of cloudy but dry days in Seattle that resemble Austin's occasional post-cold-front winter weather, where it's in the 40's/50's and completely grey but also rain free.

And another thing to consider is that from about June 30-September 30, there is virtually no rain at all in Seattle, about 2" for that entire time frame, less than Austin.

Anyway, that's off subject but I just wanted to chime in

[Scottolini]

AUSTIN
Nueces Street set to become 'bicycle boulevard'
Project, still in design, could include periodic obstructions for cars to keep light vehicle traffic from growing.

By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, November 19, 2009

By late spring, the City of Austin plans to turn Nueces Street downtown into a "bicycle boulevard," a two-wheel haven that would have devices to slow down or even discourage car traffic on Nueces between Third Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

http://www.statesman.com/news/conten...119nueces.html

[PartyLine]

Originally Posted by arbeiter

Exactly. And even then, Seattle frequently has days where it will rain for half the day and then be dry for half the day. Growing up there and living there recently, it seemed to be a common thing in the early winter to have a morning/early afternoon drizzle, then dry up but remain cloudy through late evening, then rain overnight again. Sometimes the lowest level of aloft air will be so dry that the drizzle almost evaporates by the time it hits you, and you never need an umbrella or see puddles accumulate. Another thing is that people frequently misread cloudy days for rainy days. There are a lot of cloudy but dry days in Seattle that resemble Austin's occasional post-cold-front winter weather, where it's in the 40's/50's and completely grey but also rain free.

And another thing to consider is that from about June 30-September 30, there is virtually no rain at all in Seattle, about 2" for that entire time frame, less than Austin.

Anyway, that's off subject but I just wanted to chime in

I've only been to Seattle once to visit relatatives but it's a really nice city I just remember it was cold and raining lol

[JoninATX]

I found this interesting that I've been seeing all around downtown http://www.car2go.com/austin/en/

[JoninATX]

Just Join car2go (not sure about a member fee) "This is the 5 steps on there website".
1. Booking.
Pick up the car at a moment's notice or reserve in advance via internet or telephone

2. Get in.
As soon as you hold the car2go member card up to the card reader on the windshield, the vehicle opens.

3. Enter your PIN.
Get in the car and then enter your PIN.

4. Drive off.
Start the car, then simply drive to the destination of your choice. And pay per minute.

5. Park.
Once you arrive at your destination, simply park the car2go. Make sure that you do not leave it in a no-parking zone.
Or you can use one of the many car2go “Designated Park Spots” – a parking space reserved for our vehicles.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by JoninATX

I found this interesting that I've been seeing all around downtown http://www.car2go.com/austin/en/

They have them stationed/parked along West 5th Street. I saw 6 of them there today, plus another one on 2nd Street. They actually have two parked up on the little driveway next to The Monarch. And I'm starting to see more and more of the Smart Cars around town. Just a few minutes after that when we were driving down South First to get home, I saw one turning into a neighborhood. They're definitely catching on here.

[Myomi]

Can anyone here explain the appeal of a SmartCar to me? I don't get why anyone would want to buy them, especially in a area with so much available parking around town. Anyone who does any research before buying a car can clearly see that they don't get that amazingly good gas mileage. I mean it's pretty good (33/41), but not as good as you would expect from a car so small. And they are not cheap. So why would you sacrifice so much to get one? Is there something I am not getting?

[arbeiter]

Originally Posted by Myomi

Can anyone here explain the appeal of a SmartCar to me? I don't get why anyone would want to buy them, especially in a area with so much available parking around town. Anyone who does any research before buying a car can clearly see that they don't get that amazingly good gas mileage. I mean it's pretty good (33/41), but not as good as you would expect from a car so small. And they are not cheap. So why would you sacrifice so much to get one? Is there something I am not getting?

I think it's mostly a status symbol. They make a lot of sense in places like London, New York, the European mainland, Japan, etc. Even there, there's an element of 'status' about them - being a Mercedes product to an extent.

I think they would be less popular if more of the 'superminis' from Europe were imported here, and we had more options to choose from. The VW Polo, the Fiesta, the Skoda Fabia, etc. These cars are still quite well made and stylish, get the same gas mileage (or better), and can seat 4 people reasonably and store tons more.

[nixcity]

^With all the trucks and SUV's here I wouldn't dare drive one here. If it were all about mileage you could do just as well with a hybrid or other models and not risk your life so much.

[arbeiter]

Originally Posted by nixcity

^With all the trucks and SUV's here I wouldn't dare drive one here. If it were all about mileage you could do just as well with a hybrid or other models and not risk your life so much.

I dunno, I drive a Mazda Miata and feel just fine on the road.