AUSTIN | Transportation Updates

[KevinFromTexas]

Do we know yet what the official route(s) is for the subway?

[ahealy]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Do we know yet what the official route(s) is for the subway?

Man....Take in that question for a sec. We have plans for a damn S U B W A Y line in Austin. Someone pinch me! We have come so so far! I am so proud of our planners....now I hope and pray I can be just as proud of our voters in November.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Do we know yet what the official route(s) is for the subway?

This link provides an answer to your question....
https://www.statesman.com/news/20200...aign=statesman

"The most eye-popping feature of Cap Metro’s recommendation is the downtown subway system, which proposes tunnels under Guadalupe Street from Cesar Chavez Street to at least 14th Street; under Fourth Street from Republic Square Park to Trinity Street; and under Trinity Street from Fourth Street to Lady Bird Lake."

The northern most portal being around 14th Street, and the southern most portal being just north of Lady Bird Lake.

For those unfamiliar with Austin, 14th Street is one block south of 15th Street, which runs east to west immediately north of the State Capital complex. So basically, when they state 14th Street they are suggesting the portal will be just south of 15th Street.

I have not laid eyes on the propose maps, so I do not know how they plan to run through "The Strip" yet. Guadalupe is too narrow to fit light rail within, so the light rail line will either have to go around, over, or under there. I'm not sure going under is completely ruled out yet - but that will come at an additional cost if they do.

[freerover]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Do we know yet what the official route(s) is for the subway?

Nope. Sounds like it would start on SOCO just south of riverside and end at 14th for the orange line and from republic square to just south of the convention center for the blue line. That would mean a bridge over the lake for the blue line and a tunnel for the orange line.

[freerover]

This is what it would take to build out in 15 years vs 30:

[KevinFromTexas]

This American-Statesman article is saying the cost to average homeowner would be $300 a year, and would be a property tax increase of 21% to 22%, and that it would have to be approved by voters per state law:

https://www.statesman.com/news/20200...emplate=ampart

Capital Metro has estimated its proposed $9.6 billion transit plan would cost the average Austin homeowner about $300 a year.

The proposed 9- to 10-cent bump to the city of Austin's property tax rate would increase the city tax rate between 21% and 22.5%, a considerable jump that would trigger a tax rate rollback election under state law.

Tax rate could go up between 21% and 22.5%, trigger transit referendum

[freerover]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

This American-Statesman article is saying the cost to average homeowner would be $300 a year, and would be a property tax increase of 21% to 22%, and that it would have to be approved by voters per state law:

https://www.statesman.com/news/20200...emplate=ampart

Argh no. It’s not a property tax increase of 21 to 22%. It’s a city of Austin tax increase of 21 to 22%. There is a major major major difference between the two and the statesman was dumb to phrase it like that. People are going to assume their whole tax bill is going to go up by 20 percent.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by freerover

Argh no. It’s not a property tax increase of 21 to 22%. It’s a city of Austin tax increase of 21 to 22%. There is a major major major difference between the two and the statesman was dumb to phrase it like that. People are going to assume their whole tax bill is going to go up by 20 percent.

I'll agree with that, the largest percentage of property taxes collected is for school districts, not county or city governments within our state.
Never-the-less, $300 more taxes on the average housing property will happen every year.

[ATXboom]

Originally Posted by freerover

Argh no. It’s not a property tax increase of 21 to 22%. It’s a city of Austin tax increase of 21 to 22%. There is a major major major difference between the two and the statesman was dumb to phrase it like that. People are going to assume their whole tax bill is going to go up by 20 percent.

Agree. This is devastating to public perception.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by ATXboom

Agree. This is devastating to public perception.

This is another example of how the news media twists the news they report while reporting the news honesty. They did write the city's property taxes will be rising. What they did not write, to be completely informative, is that the school districts and county property taxes will not.
If anyone thinks all of their property taxes will be rising do not blame the American Statesman because that is not what they wrote. The only way to fix the public's false perception is for the schools to teach civics better. It is not the job of the newspaper to teach civics.

[freerover]

Txdot is set to close the I-35 northbound to US 183 northbound flyover for about 6 months in late summer/early fall. This is the fist time I had seen a time span on the closure.

The flyover will close after the new I-35 SB to US 183 NB and SB flyovers and US 183 NB to I-35 SB flyover opens.

[drummer]

Originally Posted by freerover

Txdot is set to close the I-35 northbound to US 183 northbound flyover for about 6 months in late summer/early fall. This is the fist time I had seen a time span on the closure.

The flyover will close after the new I-35 SB to US 183 NB and SB flyovers and US 183 NB to I-35 SB flyover opens.

Are they replacing that with two lanes, I hope?


Also, here's an idea...while everyone is staying home (or a lot of folks anyway), let's close I-35 entirely and do the rebuild now. Lowest traffic number it will ever see.

[ahealy]

so, quick question here....is rail dead again because of c-virus?

[LiveattheOasis]

Originally Posted by ahealy

so, quick question here....is rail dead again because of c-virus?

Timing for the virus couldn't be worse on that front. Density makes sense across the board until you have a pandemic. Hopefully people can see the bigger picture...

[freerover]

Originally Posted by LiveattheOasis

Timing for the virus couldn't be worse on that front. Density makes sense across the board until you have a pandemic. Hopefully people can see the bigger picture...

I hope not. Better transit can increase affordability if you have reliable trains with their own lanes then you can conceivably live without a car. That is a lot of money you save in gas, maintenance, insurance, etc.

We could cut the proposed tax rate by 2.5 cents if we ax the downtown tunnel but we would be screwing future Austin by building a transit system that could max out in 30 years.

[smith_atx]

I was thinking the best thing to do for now is to delay the vote until 2022. We absolutely need to implement it but since the economy won't be recovered by November, people will not be voting for any big spending items I'm guessing.

[freerover]

Originally Posted by drummer

Are they replacing that with two lanes, I hope?


Also, here's an idea...while everyone is staying home (or a lot of folks anyway), let's close I-35 entirely and do the rebuild now. Lowest traffic number it will ever see.

They are not but you don't want a two lane exit unless there is a place for that lane to go. Mopac N to 183 N is two lanes but one of those lanes exits the highway. Remember, there is a new ramp from 35 SB that is going to join with this ramp.


If you make the exit 2 lanes then you are just going to be causing traffic when those cars have to merge together. There are 3 problems with the current ramp that are all being fixed. First, it's too steep so big trucks slow way down to get up it. Second, it's a sharp exit from the highway mainline which also causes cars to slow down. Third, traffic entering from 290 has to merge through the cars headed for that ramp.

[We vs us]

My fear -- and this also extends to the convention center expansion, IMO -- is that we're ultimately going to spend a crazy amount of money on the pandemic at all levels of government. I don't think that necessarily means we WON'T have additional money for the expansion or for Project Connect, but the perception of spend is going to be pretty huge. Depending on what condition we're in in November, the voting public could be focused entirely on immediate recovery items, rather than investments in the future.

[urbancore]

I can't imagine any government entity asking for a tax increase for anything for quite some time....other than to prevent their bankruptcy.

[atxsnail]

Originally Posted by LiveattheOasis

Timing for the virus couldn't be worse on that front. Density makes sense across the board until you have a pandemic. Hopefully people can see the bigger picture...

Some of the highest density cities in the world have done just fine throughout this pandemic. It's a factor, certainly, in determining the impact but not the most important one.