Everyone who has been to Austin, and
tried to get from North Austin to South Austin or the other way round
during rush hour has experienced the trouble of traffic. In 2009,
Austin was ranked the third worst city concerning traffic in the
U.S.. Back then, even New York drivers were better off than the ones
in Austin. In the same statistic, Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston
follow close behind. Even Corpus Christi and El Paso made it into the
top 14 list. Obviously Austin isn't the only city in Texas with a
traffic problem. It seems to span across the state.
Austin is smaller than the two cities
that have worse traffic (Los Angeles and Washington). But here we get
to one of the problems Austin has: it has grown a lot in the past one
and a half decades. And it is expanding even more. Austin is one of
the fastest growing cities in the US. It is expanding faster than the
network of travel is expanding. But is the question how we got to the
traffic problem, or how we get out of it? It is definitely more
helpful for people to find a way out of it.
All these troubles considered, a
solution has to be found.
I-35 was extended to four lanes in
downtown and north of it. However, traffic is still bad. A
possibility could be to extend I-35 below the ground. But this isn't
a solution that would help traffic any time soon, since that project
would take years and worsen the traffic during the time of
construction.
Expanding the train system could be
considered as well. The plans for it would have to be made very
carefully though. The train system in Austin wouldn't work as the one
in New York or major European cities such as London and Paris, since
the area that needs to be covered, is way bigger but needs more
stops. The system of busses would have to be adjusted to train or
subway stops, so that the two systems could work together well. To
realize plans like this, the area would have to be found to add
tracks to the city. People would have to give up their land to let
the city use it, which most people of course wouldn't like to do.
Another possibility to consider would
be a car-free zone downtown. People who work downtown would either
commute there with trains, and only drive their cars to the train
stations, or park close to downtown. If they parked close to
downtown, parking possibilities would have to be built for them.
Everyone who commutes over the river,
knows that crossing it is one of the worst parts of the traffic
hazard. Getting over the few bridges can take a tremendous amount of
time during rush hour. The only solution to that would be less cars
or more bridges.
All these are only ideas that should
have been considered when the city started growing rapidly. But
nobody seemed to have made a real plan. Any solution will need
construction, and construction needs time, whether bridges, highways
or railway systems are extended. So when are the plans for this
finally ready to be made real? One thing is clear: the traffic
situation in Austin won't change any time soon. They waited way to
long for a change to happen.
