Austin drivers have been promised relief on both MoPac and I-35 for years while construction crawls and commutes get worse. Which project has caused more daily misery?
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Add your commentI commute from Pflugerville and I-35 is not a road it is a punishment. A spiritual punishment for choices I made in a previous life.
mopac express lane was supposed to fix things. it fixed nothing except giving people a way to spend $8 to move 2 mph instead of sitting still for free
TxDOT has been 'expanding' i35 through austin since i was in middle school. I am 38.
I-35 expansion will displace hundreds of businesses and homes in the most diverse part of the city and TxDOT's answer to every concern is basically 'trust us.' I'm not trusting them.
everyone acts like adding lanes solves congestion. induced demand is a real and documented phenomenon. we literally have research on this. more lanes = more cars = same or worse traffic. every time.
Hot take: both projects are symptoms. The real disease is that Austin approved 20 years of density without building transit first. The roads were never going to be enough.
The construction on North Lamar where it feeds onto MoPac has been going on for so long I genuinely cannot remember what it looked like before. I think there was a Wendy's? Or a field? I have lost the memory.
^ okay professor, so what do we do? not build anything? some of us can't afford to live near work because of the same housing costs you people also complain about.
My commute from South Lamar to the Domain is 45 minutes. It is 12 miles. This is not a traffic problem this is a crisis.
Anyone else notice the 'estimated completion' signs quietly change dates when no one's watching? It's like they're updating it in the middle of the night hoping we won't notice.
The I-35 cap and stitch idea is actually brilliant urban design and if it works it'll be the best thing to happen to East Austin in 60 years. But that's a big 'if' and a longer 'when.'
Both projects serve cars over people. Until Austin builds the subway system the city's size actually requires, we're rearranging deck chairs.
I drove MoPac every day for 11 years. Then I started taking the 801 MetroRapid. My commute is now reading time. I am a convert and an evangelist.
I moved here from Houston. MoPac is nothing. Try the 610 loop at 5pm and then come talk to me about traffic.
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