It doesn't help that the suburbs only have 1 particular road too Cedar Park/Leander US 183 Round Rock/Georgetown + Buda and Kyle I-35 Del Valle/Bastrop Hwy 71 Manor/Elgin N 290 Dripping Springs/Oak Hill the damned South 290
I'm from Omaha and we don't love highways as much as the South because we have many walkable neighborhoods. We even plan on taking down part of i480, and turning into a boulevard so that our neighborhoods are better connected. Everytime I have to go to Kansas City, Tulsa and Dallas; it's so stress inducing to drive in those cities
17:34 well I know a place in Texas that this guy completely ignored aka El Paso because if there’s an accident on there you’re gonna have to take the 2-4 lane suburb roads
It’s crazy how big Houston is. The fact that both the cities of Oakland & San Francisco can fit comfortably inside beltway 8 is wild to me. I’m a native Houstonian and it blows my mind.
Blows my mind that Harris County alone is bigger than the state of Rhode Island. And that Houston Metro area encompasses all of Harris plus massive parts of multiple surrounding counties
@@mattryan7124Even though I have lived in Houston numerous times since 1998, I finally left Houston last August 2022; hopefully for the last time ever. It was taking me about an hour and a half to drive 15 miles when I got off work, so I quit my Houston job and left Texas. It used to be decent back in 1998. Quality of life in Houston is miserable in my lived in opinion. I do miss HEB and El Rancho markets, tho I don't miss 40+ cars trying to get into the parking lots of each on a Saturday morning 😄
So true though to be fair, I’m from 2nd ward and never leave the inner loop honestly so most of it is just there lol. Remember when Kingwood got annexed? We tried to warn them to incorporate. Now we’re what, almost 700 square miles? Too much 😭😂
@@LightoftheMoonHEB! I missed it so much in college when I was in NYC. Where did you move to? Hope you’re enjoying your new home. Thinking about moving sometimes but I find myself back in Houston 😂
I live in San Antonio, and to highlight how bad I-35 can be, I was driving home from Little Rock, and as I was approaching DFW I checked my phone and it recommended continuing west past DFW on I-20 to US-281 and take that all the way to SA. This was an additional 80ish miles and it was still going to get me home 45 minutes sooner. 281 was very smooth sailing the whole way and super enjoyable, felt like an old fashioned American road trip driving through all those small towns.
It’s like going to/from LA. I’m in central California, and when there’s an accident or traffic on the main part to LA, it’s actually better to loop around towards Las Vegas/Arizona, then back to LA. More miles but it’s less time. I’ve been stuck on the grapevine when it literally took me an hour and a half to travel a mile 😮 that’s why if I don’t have to go to LA, I won’t!
I'm also in San Antonio. I'm not in a part of town where I normally have to take I-35, but my family is coming from El Paso this Thanksgiving to pick me up and take me to the Cowboys game that my mom wants to see. I should tell them to take US 281-the more traffic from construction in northern San Antonio in general that I can get them to avoid, the better (I personally hate North Loop 1604, and Bandera Rd. can get bad, too).
@@StrangerCoug once you get past Austin 35 to Dallas isn't bad at all. I would take 35 to 130 in Buda to by pass Austin. 130 takes you to Georgetown and you can get back onto 35 from there to Dallas. 130 is a toll road but it's a lot less stressful to drive and you get to see the Tesla Factory on your way up.
I live in Houston and have travelled to Austin and DFW more times than I can count. It is no surprise that you concluded Austin has the worst traffic. My friends and I were talking about this just last week. However, I think Dallas traffic is much worse than Houston traffic. It doesn’t matter which roads I took or the times I drove, but I am always sitting in traffic up there.
I feel like Dallas traffic used to be a lot better than Houston, but lately with the huge population increase the infrastructure just can't maintain this many people.
Houston traffic is definitely worse than Dallas (grew up in Houston and live in Dallas now) except for certain pinch points like the downtown interchange and the DNT or 635 at rush hour. But the DFW road network is so much harder to navigate than Houston's; my parents nearly always get lost when they come to visit.
It's very location dependant. North Dallas sucks, as does the interchange around downtown. Certain intersections are also extremely pinched because the intersection designers have no idea how to manage lanes (more lanes does NOT always equal more throughput)
I agree with your rankings 100%. San Antonio metro is still a little bit bigger than ATX metro, yet traffic is almost non existent in San Antonio. Dallas has trains and many highways. Austin has neither. The Texas Capitol has one main highway, and no trains.
It is mainly because people in Austin don’t know how to drive. People in that city love driving 55 in the left lane on I-35 when they can just do that on the frontage roads.
Actually, we do have commuter rail in Austin. But we’ve only had it since 2010, and so it’s not very comprehensive yet. It just covers a few key spots in the city, and a few key suburbs. In fact, the only major Texas city that has no urban rail at all (be it commuter rail, light rail, or trams) is San Antonio. Granted, San Antonio sounds like it doesn’t have as big of a need for rail transit as Austin does, given that San Antonio has much less traffic than Austin, owing to the fact that San Antonio has a much more comprehensive *road* network than Austin.
As someone who grew up in Austin, I was always told that Houston had the worst traffic when I was a kid. But since moving out of Austin back in 2013, I never realized how bad traffic was in Austin. Even the major arterials get traffic jammed during rush hour, with Wells Branch Parkway in North Austin being a notable example. I also think Seattle (where I live now) and Austin share a-lot of parallels in terms of their traffic congestion.
Well Houston is in a constant state of construction one if not all of those major roadways for lengthening, widening, and repair. So it’s always adapting. I didn’t see anything remotely like that in Austin while I lived there 4 years
Our bypass highway system is WAY behind the population explosion. We don't have a single full bypass loop, and we need like three of them. I have my secret shortcuts through various neighborhoods, but it's still slow going. They're slowly adding tollways and some extra lanes along 183, but the population is outgaining the construction.
True. The Austin population has tripled since 1980. Back in the day Austin was a cute lil city/small town. Now it’s insanely populated but the elected officials seem to neither want any non tolled roads with over 2-3 lanes or a transit system. That capital metro was a bust
great job, you absolutely nailed it 100% !!! i live in texas and drive for a living (most all lower 48 states). in texas, feeder roads are your best friend when traffic is congested. BUT, you have to know the exits where you can hop off the frwy to bypass traffic (without red lights) and hop back on; i keep a journal...
Meanwhile I don't have a single toll road in my entire state lol. Unless you count the national parks, but even those are free if you get in before 8 a.m.
@@piglet7943 well duh lol, it's #2 and trends show it surpassing California, so it'll be #1, literally no state will be as economic as Texas, it's funny with such a large economy, they still need to toll you 🙃.
@@Nightshade-dh9fm will I will tell you one thing. Just in case you weren’t aware. The states will impose taxes in order for them to collect revenue. Some states do it in the form or sales tax. Some in the form or property tax and others in the form of state income tax. Others like Texas receive revenue from the toll road tax but every state rises revenue in different ways but they will ALL tax. You’re state is no different and I hope you don’t believe otherwise. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@piglet7943 I get why there are taxes but toll taxes are supposed to pay for the road, I just don't get why you need that when gas tax is already supposed to do that, seems like double taxation to me. Texas has no income tax, but has sales tax 6-8%, property tax avg .55%, and tolls everywhere, no thanks. My state has a very low income tax, the highest bracket is only 6 percent, my business on paper operates at a loss, so I actually pay no income tax, I have no tolls taxing me, I have below average property tax and I have no sales tax. Texas has a massive economy, it should pull plenty of revenue from property taxes, sales taxes, and gas taxes, but yet they feel the need to toll the hell out of everything. If your not careful, you might just be the next California.
@@nach8888 There's really no "right" way to become a chaser. For someone who may have no formal background in meteorology I would recommend reaching out to your local National Weather Service office and ask them if they provide storm spotter training during the winter/early spring. It takes years of going out there and learning what works and what doesn't work. Also depends on where you live as well. Some places are NOT good places to chase at all.
A buddy of mine lives in Austin. The Mopac is basically the way that all the locals take to get around the I-35 traffic. He would appreciate it if all the newbies and tourists stay on I-35.
I often look at traffic maps during rush hour and measure the time between two points to figure out the average speed on the congested freeways, and I’ve noticed many times it recommends taking that road
That’s certainly an idea, the worst part is the historically segregated and redlined neighborhoods are all along 35, primarily east of it, so those who are able to work from home are even less likely to live along 35 north of, say, 51st
I have lived in the Austin area for quite a long time. For the last 8 years I have used Waze, 4 years living in Round Rock and the last 4 in Leander. Quite a few people in Austin use Waze so it is usually pretty accurate. Unless something terrible has happened Mopac has almost never been the fastest route, It always says 183 or I-35 is the fastest. It isn't good getting off 183 or I-35 to go into downtown. It is mostly only beneficial if you live near Mopac or work at a place right off Mopac.
I haven't lived in Austin for a long time, but when I was there, I found MOPAC to be pretty useless. Depends on where you live, I guess. I was in Hyde Park and went downtown or South most of the time. You'd have to drive quite a way on surface streets just to get to MOPAC. Guadelupe and Lamar crawled but were still faster. There are no East/West freeways there, which is fine, but there aren't many good East/West streets, either. They really need mass transit. I moved from there in 2007 and things were already getting pretty bad. Now it's just insane. And you'd think it's the kind of town that would support rail, but...yeah.
I’ve lived in Austin for 52 years, the entire City of Austin has bad traffic. It doesn’t matter where you’re at now. People have moved here like crazy. I built a house for $200,000. Now it’s worth $1 million in 9 years.
I lived in Dallas for 15 years and I’ve lived in Austin for about 2 now. Austin is by far the worst traffic I’ve ever experienced. It’s a really cool city and has great walkability
Hey Mike! I work at an engineering firm in Conroe, which is in the northern part of the wider Houston area. I work specifically in CAD design, so a lot of my work is dedicated to designing water retention ponds, sanitary/storm/water networks, land development, etc. While I can agree that the looseness of Houston's zoning codes can cause issues in come places, in many newer developments I have worked on recently this has started opening up new possibilities for land owners and how they integrate new housing with existing or developing communities. Small commercial districts (restaurants, local grocery stores, business rental space, etc.) are often being added in the land directly next to the frontage access roads, while the community itself it a bit further in along a main road. This reduces the issue of distance needed to travel to access services or venues. Also, I can 100% assure you that Texas is starting to crack down on the floodwater issue. I wont say that development of land in floodplains has stopped, because it hasn't, but more and more strict measures are beginning to fall in place concerning retention pond construction and the overall capacity of storm networks. We still have a long way to go, but it is getting better. Houston is continuing to spread outwards, particularly to the north, and the sheer number of people that have begun to move to the state has prompted an unprecedented wave of residential and commercial development. The area where I grew up was always very rural, but once construction of the Grand Parkway where it connects to 59 was finished it's like the place turned into a concrete jungle overnight! The expansion is forcing smaller cities and townships, as well as Houston itself, to get things in shape! I won't say it's all good, as I have my own feelings about the sprawling Houston footprint, but it is what it is. Houston also has plans for a massive overhaul of the highway where it cuts through the middle of downtown (where it passes by Minute Maid Park), and Houston also has a major railway project to connect to Dallas on the horizon.
@huh4tofpv384 Less busy recently since residential land development is slowing down. It's mostly utility and public works stuff at the momen, though that will keep us going for the foreseeable future. Shenandoah and the Woodlands keep us plenty busy usually, and the population boom is creating problems everywhere. The scramble for sanitary, storm, and water utility expansion is bringing business from new counties and municipalities.
Anytime I drive on I-35 through Texas, I always try to go during night since it is almost completely clear of traffic through most of the way. During the day, all of I-35 from DFW to San Antonio is quite tedious to drive with how much traffic there is along the entire way. You can literally fly through Texas at night.
This is what I do. I make the drive from Denver to south texas near Victoria often and I try to time it right. The whole drive is smooth sailing but once you hit 35 in ft worth its hell all the way down to Austin. Gotta go at night
I just avoid freeways during rush hours. If I have to drive during the rush, I'll look for a longer route (that may include stop lights) because you avoid long traffic jams (idling in traffic wears cars out much faster.. and cars aren't cheap)
Yea I drove from SA to Austin for a concert at around 4:30 and made it to the venue at like almost 8:00, when I went home that night at midnight I swear it only took me ~40minutes.
Coming from a trucker, you nailed this video. I frequently drive Dallas to Laredo. I usually take the 130 toll to avoid Austin regardless of the time of day. It’s smooth a free of traffic but I have to pay $60 one way for the toll to bypass the city. Still better than the traffic or the unsafe drivers going thru the middle of Austin. You nailed it as far as the other cities as well. Keep these vids coming!
Kinda shocked you actually take the toll around Austin. That was the selling point, but then the company that owns the toll roads priced trucks per axel with no discount for transportation companies. There’s hardly ever any trucks taking the tolls to avoid going through Austin, because of how they priced trucks so much more than cars.
The worst traffic I ever drove was Laredo to Dallas the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It normally 7 hours with stops at West. once I hit downtown San Antonio. it was bumper to bumper all the way to Dallas. 35 miles an hour taking 13 hours. Imagine 3 major University all ending their Fall semesters with their students heading home for the holidays.
When we lived in Waco back in the 90s, we often went to San Antonio. The best route was to go west from Waco on US 84 to Evant and take US 281 south, bypassing Austin completely. GPS will tell you that's a lot more miles and a little more time, but the traffic in Austin was so unpredictable (or so predictably bad) even 30 years ago, that it was worth the detour. Besides, there's some really nice scenery out that way.
Yea. Tho as someone who regularly goes from San Antonio to Killeen via 281 I’ll say it’s a lot better scenery if you head west fro Burnet to llano and take 16 to i10. And come in that way. It may add a bit more miles and time but the drive is soooooo worth it.
That is true one accident on 35 can back you out about a couple hours depending how bad it gets and whether the road is closed closed or trickling on one lane and this was the old 35 when it was 4 lanes wide and narrow shoulders between Waco and Austin.
I grew up in Southern California, but have lived in Texas in both Austin and Houston for some time now (not simultaneously). The one thing about the Houston road system that drives me batty is the lack of consistency. Sometimes, a frontage road has a left lane that forces you back on to the freeway, sometimes it doesn't. That same lane, at the traffic light, could force you to merge right by ending just after that light. The lane you use to get on to the freeway could also be a new lane, or maybe it happens to be a merge, just at this one onramp. This lack of consistency means one cannot predict the safest course of action in an area they are not too familiar with, so increases the likelihood of accidents. That doesn't even touch on the strange way there seem to be schools on every major road used as a thoroughfare, or the odd stop sign on that same major street when it crosses a county line. Quirky is an understatement.
Hwy 130 is worth every penny to bypass Austin from San Antonio to DFW. You forgot to mention it's an 85mph speed limit for most of it and was built by a Spanish company like a race track with wider lanes and easy, swooping curves. Miles of nothing to look at (except for the new Tesla factory) as you avoid Austin gridlock. The only waiting in lines is when you stop off at any of the Lockhart BBQ joints for the best smoked brisket anywhere.
Honestly, widening I35 in Austin probably won't fix the congestion. Just gotta look at the 20-lane monstrosity that is the 401 through Toronto for a good indication of why.
Toronto and Austin seem to suffer from the same issue having only one major highway for commuters to use with an under utilized parallel toll highway. Widening probably won't help, better solution I think for both cities would be a new highway entirely to spread the load like other cities mentioned in the video.
This is one of those rare videos where I agree 100% with the narrator's conclusions about traffic in TX cities. I live in TX and have gone to all these cities multiple times. I would've drawn the same conclusion.
San Antonio has some big projects that are happening. I know you talked about the interchanges on i35 which they are now making a double decker though the city. 1604 is also has a lot construction happening that will revamp a lot of old infrastructure. 281 North is almost done with the project that they are doing. I know a lot of different projects are in the works for the SA area.
You nailed it great job. I lived in Houston 30 yrs and now plano for 14 yrs and been to all the major Texas cities. I think Sam Rayburn toll road in DFW is unique. It connects McKinney to DFW airport that is neither Dallas nor Fort Worth are near it.
We currently live in Texas and have been here for almost ten years. We’ve been to all of the big 4, numerous times, and lived in the Austin metro area for 6 years and San Antonio for the last three. I think your assessment is SPOT ON! People call San Antonio the smallest big city. At least for Texas, because it is big in population. But like you said, it’s one of the quickest to get around. So many more alternatives than Austin. And I love how you explained why Austin as such gridlock traffic. I always felt like there were no alternative routes there and the ones there were would cost you extra with tolls. Forcing you to want to take the congested non-tolls.
This was a perfect analysis of Texas traffic. I grew up and still live in Austin. Texas needs the type of rail transport we see in well developed Asian and European countries.
Those don't work in big sprawling cities. They only work in cities where everybody lives on top of each other. If you want that then move to Chicago, Boston, San Francisco or NYC.
Very accurate assessment of the traffic situation. Houston is bad. It takes at least two hours to get from south Houston to huntsville. The area is one giant sea of concrete chain restaurants, discount shopping strips, car dealers and billboards. I45 in the rural areas is as congested as in the city due to underbuilding. In thr rurals, we hit capacity collapse often.
Good assessment. I've lived in both Dallas (50 years) and Houston (25) and the lack of alternative routes make Houston a nightmare. That coupled with developments with usually have only one way in and out makes getting around in Htown no fun.
Hello fellow Houstonian! This is kinda true for east/west routes for sure. But what I do love is the hardy toll road parallel to 45. When coming back from Dallas, it’s a lifesaver! Houston messed up with the westpark tollway though I’ll give you that lol! Hope you’re enjoying the cool front 😊
😂🤣😂🤣 no way man. I can’t believe this. Min 13:51 I’m sitting in traffic in the Infiniti g35. You thought it was bad back then. You should see now. I saw the view of the city of Austin in the video, and thought, “the building in the front is already finished, and there’s like 10 buildings missing. And why isn’t there like 20 cranes in the shot.” But I can agree with your video. 😂
I35 from San Antonio to Austin is under construction to have an expressway above it. San Antonio has expanded drastically, even in the past five years, making the traffic much more congested than previously. I live outside of Houston and it’s 20 miles through horrific traffic to get anywhere in the city.
Native Austinite here and yup... Austin is horrible for traffic. Love the city otherwise, but in terms of traffic, it's a nightmare. I live in Round Rock (just north of Austin) and I must say that commuting down to ACC at Highland is painful, especially when my class gets out at 5:40. its about 25-30 minutes down, and closer to forty back, sometime 35.
I enjoy your analysis of the Texas freeways and other places you have been. I hope you are able to make it to the Metro Phoenix area in the future. Would love to see your opinion of the freeway network out here.
First off, I have to agree with your rankings 100%! Having been to all four areas, it’s clear that Austin’s setup is nothing like you find elsewhere in the state. We were just in Austin and San Antonio a couple of weeks ago and the only snag in the SA area was (you guessed it) I-35 between the northeast suburbs and New Braunfels - and it was no fun going northward to Austin either. We stayed just off the MoPac, which was never bad however. That said, your description of the traffic patterns around Austin were spot on. Not to mention that the hill country starts just west of Austin, attracting a lot of high end housing development and people who will fight new freeway corridors in that area. I’d be shocked if I live to see Toll 45 ever complete that west side loop.
You should see Mopac in the mornings. I commute most of the length and 25 minutes without traffic can be 30 minutes some days, 70 minutes on others especially if UT is in session
I have lived in Austin since 1971 and have seem it go from 300 thousand to what it is now. You are exactly right the idea that if you don't build it they won't come but it didn't work. During the 80's the thought was to keep the city small and then came Dell Computers and Austin became a tech hub and it grew like crazy. The upper deck on I35 that is in the downtown section should have been extended all the way to Slaughter during the mid 80's for people going thru Austin and not going downtown. The traffic on I35 only get to move normally around 1AM.
Was driving back home to Denton from DFW airport the other day and took the George Bush to 35 North. The ramp onto 35 North is so high for the first time ever I got vertigo while driving and had to take some deep breaths. It is insane how high that exit is.
Try it on a motorcycle. Things like that never bother me... however, that bothered me -- a lot -- because, unlike in a car that will just hit the barrier and skid to a stop, someone on a bike is just going right over the edge.
Some of the interchange ramps in DFW are getting ridiculously high. If you've ever used the Tarrant Express lanes for SH 121 South/SH 183 West and you've taken the exit ramp to IH-820 South, be careful. The ramp is so high that you can see downtown Fort Worth and Downtown Dallas. Actually insane
Thank you Mileage Mike for saying the Katy freeway is free flowing more than it isn’t. Before the expansion, “rush hour” was 7am to 8pm LOL. Now it’s not even that bad until about 3:30ish. Went to high school on the west side. Do not miss old I10 at all!
Here’s what people who complain about freeway widening in Houston don’t get (cuz they ain’t even houstonians but 🤷🏿♀️) in the 90’s, I10 was 3 lanes each way. Aside from local traffic, it was a nightmare for truckers! Downtown to the beltway was over an hour without question. Goods must keep flowing just like commuters in town. Would we have been able to grow the energy Corridor or any western development had we left it alone? Stop complaining y’all and be grateful they aren’t TOLLING us for it. it’s free. Austin ain’t building anything and what’s there is gonna cost you. Salute from East Downtown Houston!
@gjenkins1660 as someone who lives in Arlington, there's some days where there's a major concert in AT&T stadium that ends at the exact same time as a rangers game, so there's occasionally rush hour traffic on 360, i20, and i30 that just appears on Saturdays at 10pm
I've lived in the Greater Houston area the vast majority of my 54 years. 30 years ago I marveled at the roadways of DFW. So many large roads, driving forever, but not getting there anytime soon. (it was the days off 55 mph speed limits) I was in Fort Worth a few weeks ago. Holy Shit! It's no longer a "deserted" dusty town. (granted we went through there on a Friday of a holiday weekend that didn't help)
Yes!! I go through there when I travel sometimes. Traffic is always backed up. Especially in the Fredericksburg area which is halfway between Richmond and Washington DC.
I clapped for joy when you mentioned Dallas' arterials being able to accommodate a protected bike lane! I've thought this for years, and there's an example on Columbia (b/w Gaston & Beacon) of it being implemented and working well. I've been a delivery driver/courier in DFW for over a decade, and you're spot on about what the traffic here is: horrendous at junctions (anyone actually ever cruised thru going from 75N to 635W??) but otherwise a lot more free-flowing; at off peak hours you get to see what it would be like if it had reasonable traffic all the time, it's so quick. I'd add: the closer you are to the city center of Dallas the easier it is to take/find an alternate route.
But Dallas is an oven, I went there in early spring and was very uncomfortable with the muggy hot weather. I'll take 4 seasons rather than deal with a perpetual oven.
I moved from Austin to Atlanta at the beginning of the year. I don’t miss the lack of freeways. In order to get around with minimal traffic, I’d regularly spend about $250 per month in tolls, but even the toll roads backup during peak hours.
I visited Texas by road for the first time for 8 days in March. Houston is just crazy. I don’t know if “awful” is the right word; the way the exits are arranged, and the sheer craziness of the drivers, I easily say Houston was the most miserable I’ve personally ever experienced.
The worst part of Houston traffic is the sheer distance between areas. Phoenix and L.A. are the only city sprawls that can compare that I'm familiar with.
@@98slime86 So, getting on, unfamiliar with the area, having to merge onto these 4 lane wide highways, loaded with traffic, then, realizing quickly that your exit is all the way on the left, and you’re on the right? Tell me that isn’t jarring.
@@metallikat05 thats why you know your exit before you get on the highway 😂 you dont hop on and wait for navigation to tell you click the directions and read the stepbt step ahead of time especially if you know you dont knew the area and that isnt often only exits onto other highways are on the left so you most
Totally agree. I moved a few miles out of Austin to avoid the traffic in I35 and I hardly ever venture into I35 anymore. I use secondary roads for the most part. I avoid I35 like the plague.
I have lived in both Austin and Houston and driven extensively in Dallas, and largely agree with this. But Dallas is the most annoying to drive in due to how they will design exchanges. If you are on I-35 passing through Dallas, at one point downtown you will have to "perform a switcheroo" with all the traffic on an intersecting highway. If you're headed north on I35 for example, all the traffic has to exit right while at the same time the highway that's merging with you (from the right of course) has to get in the far left lanes to continue on their path. It's braindead, and I've never not seen that cluster f flowing smoothly.
Houstonian here.... I agree that Austin is the worst. TxDOT seems to have one school of thought... lay down more concrete and pray. I don't know if the engineers will ever think out of the box. Even the Park and Ride system has gotten worse in the last 15 years.
I’m not surprised Austin is #1, I definitely noticed a weeks ago that I-35 is the only interstate in the metro. Most midsize cities like Austin or even smaller would average at least 2 interstate highways. Nashville which has been growing like Austin has 5, while Kansas City has 7.
Orlando metropolitan area only has one interstate (Interstate 4). All the other limited access highways in the Orlando metropolitan area are tolled state roads. Granted I-4 is wider than I-35 from the north end of tourist area to the north suburbs in Seminole County. -Florida resident who lives east of the Orlando metropolitan area on the space coast of Florida
@@PopLightBrown , when I said seven, I included the 435, 470, and 635 since they are in the metro and have the interstate designation. I 35 is the only interstate designation in Austin.
Downtown San Antonio and the 1604 loop have had extensive construction in the past couple of years which makes traveling this way a real pain. My interest is in New Braunfels, so I take the turnout at Boerne and take River Road (Texas Hwy 46).
I moved to Austin back in '04. At that time I would leave at 5:15 am to make it to work by 6:00am. Nearly 20 years later that same trip needs you leaving at 4:10am. And that's with more highways and wider highways. It's been constant building these last 20 years. My wife being in real estate says that there are about 40families moving into the area everyday. That's about 100 new vehicles coming to Austin each and every day for the last 20 years. I'm moving back to California where there's lighter traffic. :) And everyone thinks Tesla is huge, just 15 minutes down the street, Samsung is building something 4X larger than Tesla. Oh boy, more people. What you're finding is that the suburbs are getting everything you need so you stay out of DT.
The freeway mixmaster in downtown dallas, tx is quite an engineering marvel!! We do have many alternate routes around the major texas cities; it's just a lot of people hence the bad a$$ traffic!! I live in the greater houston, tx metro, YES WE DRIVE BAD AS HECK!! Even the TX HWY 99/Grand Parkway Tollway/Outer Tollway in the greater houston, tx metro is growing; many formally open fields & areas now have either businesses or housing on them off of that Grand Parkway Tollway now!!
same, lived in Houston for 15 years and wanted to get out because of the hurricanes and pollution so we took a weekend trip to check out Austin and that was all I needed to see. Horrible traffic, loads of homeless people, and unaffordable housing. We ended up moving to Nashville a couple years ago since it has a similar vibe to Austin but way more charm and more affordable suburbs. Traffic sucks now but it has a ways to go to reach Austin’s level of congestion
The hype: 1) jobs for the IT professionals. Oracle corporation Dell Apple Campus AMD. Industry: Computer Hardware Development. ... Amazon. Industry: Internet and Web Services. ... Apple. Industry: Computer Hardware Development. ... Dell. Industry: Information Technology Support Services. ... Meta Platforms (Facebook) ... Google. ... IBM. ... Intel Corporation. Other professionals Boring Co (Pflugerville) And a lot more 2) second reason Austin is inundated: Lots of Californians who can’t afford California’s living costs anymore move to Texas. Austin is rather a democratic city (especially when compared to Dallas or Houston). And that demystifies the reason why Austin has the worst traffic of all cities in Tx, and in the last few years drug addicts and homeless started to appear all over the city.
I don’t think newcomers to Houston even realize how blessed we are. I’ve lived in jersey. You know how much we’d have LOVED 2 extra free lanes added? When I come back from Austin on weekends and there’s traffic on I10 with everyone else coming home, I can pay $1 to shift to the Katy toll lanes all the way to 610. I do it when there’s accidents too. We have it good here y’all. Have you seen Austin’s mopac expressway? YIKES LOL
Born and raised in the H town, so I know what you’re talking about especially on southwest freeway at 610 loop. That eventually led to the construction of the needed Westpark toll road In the late 90s early 2000s.
So right! 610 loop at Westheimer is probably the most gridlock in the city. Policemen are there to direct the traffic at certain times which helps a little.
I've been in every major city in the states. Texas manages traffic much better than most other states. I grew up in SoCal and live in Seattle. It's a breath of fresh air to get back to Dallas/FW area.
This is correct. I lived in San Antonio for years, and Austin always had worst traffic. I live outside of Houston now and Austin is still worst. It's their own fault. The people of Austin consistently voted down highway construction in the city.
11:03 Ah, that beautiful Neo-Gothic style tower in downtown Houston. It’s just across the street from Jones Hall (Houston Symphony) and I’ve always loved looking up at it when I attended concerts. Very unique modern architecture.
I travelled a lot for work when I lived in Texas, and I've been to almost every single major and semi-major city in it, oddly enough except for Houston and Midland/Odessa. I'll take your word on Houston, because I cannot possibly imagine a worse city in Texas than Austin. Was coming back from a job in San Antonio (I lived in DFW for 10 years), and it was past 8pm. Traffic was so congested on I-35 that I looked for an alternate route on my GPS which had me taking an auxiliary route all the way AROUND the metroplex, and it still saved me 30 minutes of waiting. Austin traffic was awful, and the drivers were on another level of dumb.
I love how you brought up the arterials in dallas especially. Being from Houston which doesn’t have those, I love taking sides roads here when the freeways backup.
Incredibly well done. You nailed it many times over. I live in northwest Houston (practically Tomball or Cypress), and your line about Houston travel being exhausting is painfully accurate. It's just brutal. Everywhere takes a long time via car, and most of the time you'll opt to pay a toll. My only real goal in life is to get out of here, sell my car, and live in a walkable (hopefully European) city. 😀
I know that part of town. There are zero major highways in that area that aren't at least partial toll roads, unless you live far enough west to use 290. And until they finished upgrading it, 290 was THE worst highway to get around in the city.
The flip side of Houston's lack of zoning is that it creates neighborhoods. In Montrose and some other areas, you have places where you can walk to grocery stores, restaurants, etc. And honestly, when you look at it closely, Houston resembles many other cities that DO have zoning. The problem with zoning it that it limits development to rich, powerful people, who can always force through exceptions. At least in Houston people can start a business wherever they want without having to bribe anybody.
@@joethomas2354 There are a few areas in Houston where one could live moderately well without requiring a car. You'd be limited to those neighborhoods as traveling elsewhere would prove difficult due to the weak public transit options, but your daily life would likely be fine for walking and perhaps biking. Houston does have unique zoning laws, or sometimes, the lack thereof. Houston doesn't quite allow people to start a business wherever they want. For example they must always meet the requirements for parking. An individual would not be able to buy a house in a suburb and convert it to a corner store or bar. Compare these limitations to other countries such as Japan where citizens can work directly from their homes selling goods and services. Another issue could be the same rich and powerful opening industrial or commercial buildings adjacent to residential areas much to the chagrin of the residents already living there. We're seeing more of this as wooded plots are bulldozed for strip centers. The zoning is a two-edged sword.
nah. 130 for life. I use it when going from killeen to san antonio and its a breeze but those commercial trucks need to stay off or drive faster than only 75
We are having issues for water in Georgetown, must north of Round Rock. The area is exploding and we don’t have the infrastructure to handle it here. I used to love Georgetown, now we want out of here. Traffic has gotten horrible for what once was a small town.
The part about Dallas-Fort Worth reminded me of something: I kind of wish they'd built an I-35W/I-35E split through Kansas City, with W going through KCK and E going through KCMO. There's not an obvious way to split it based on how the highways were built, but it would just be fun to have three "twin citiy" metros all connected by the same interstate with the only suffixes left on the entire system.
They kinda have that with I-635 but they need to change the number. This probably won’t happen because they eliminated most suffixes in the past and made them beltways. 35W and 35E are among the only ones left.
You are the second RUclipsr I’ve seen to have a clip driving through the US75/Renner Road intersection that I drive every day for my internship here!! 8:28
I’ve lived in all of them and can confidently say that they ALL have horrible traffic. Texas’s 5th major metro, El Paso, also has horrible traffic and usually took me a little over an hour to get from one side of the city to the other due to the mountains in the middle of the city.
OMG at 9:53 that's 59/69 and I know that so well, because I live near that area. OMG its crazy to see so many familiar highways, toll roads and streets from Houston/Greater Houston area.
Austin NEEDS proper ways to get into downtown without driving. While Dart in Dallas has a lot of faults, it is very useful in getting to downtown, and kinda acts as proof of the Downs-Thomson paradox, where Dart's travel times usually matches that of traveling on the non toll highways, since whenever traffic does get bad in downtown, dart's ridership absorbs some of that damage. (while Dart's ridership isn't exactly high, most its ridership will be dumped in the downtown loop, and that would make a difference.)
Dallas native here. Although traffic gets VERY bad along many of our freeways at rush it is nowhere near as bad as Houston and Austin at said time. Like you said, what DFW does better is dispersion. You’ll notice the metro isn’t similar to SA and Hou with their “circle” frwy shape and is more north focused. This does have its own flaws but the way they’ve planned the freeways is pretty good.
I love love love your videos and traffic analysis! I cannot wait until you expand into the West! I’d personally love to hear your take on my favorite American metro area: Phoenix, Arizona. And then of course there’s the city that’s arguably the home of the freeway, Los Angeles. You’ve definitely got a great channel and it will definitely be spark of great conversations between me and my wife, who is a traffic engineer herself.
At 15:30 you show one of the biggest contributors to Austin's traffic problem: bike lanes - everywhere. They (city govt) take existing four lane roads and dedicate two to bike lanes, leaving only one lane in each direction for cars, while the bike lanes for the most part go unused.
We live in Houston in North Montrose about 1.5 miles from Downtown. Lots of parks and restaurants in the area within walking distance. We have a 2015 VW with 9,000 miles. No need to drive.
The weather channel show's "heavy rescue 401" highway!! 3 am traffic, that's about as bad as it gets right there!! That basically means that nobody really sleeps up there!! I hear that new york city is like that here in america!!
Definitely agree with these rankings. If you love your car, Texas is probably more your speed (no pun intended). If you love urbanism, then Texas probably isn’t for you. Dallas by far is the best in Texas for public transportation but there are still large areas of transit deserts across the DFW metroplex. Transit expansion is also severely limited by the many suburban cities that just don’t want it. Houston is primarily bus-based and is planning to add more BRT but it will need a longer rail line if it seriously wants to have a better transit system. Neither city is really an urbanist paradise. Austin probably has the most potential due to the fact that it is the most compact but it’s just not building fast enough. It needs some long range transit plans soon because it’s traffic is #1 in the state. Texas could also benefit from intercity rail between its cities. Texas central is a great idea but opposition is slowing it down, the line needs to go from Frisco to Galveston (not DT Dallas to NW Houston) to maximize its potential. It also needs to have a DFW - SA branch and a SA - Houston branch in the works to help combat congestion between the cities.
I think a lot of the suburbs(especially as they keep getting bigger) are opening up to dart connection, especially in North and east Dallas. To the west there's been basically no progress, but TRE at least exists and with arlington densifying and the entertainment districts in both Arlington and grand prairie growing I could definitely see dart having a rapid expansion west in the near future, even if it's just bus lines. As for the high speed rail, honestly I think they need to focus on just hitting downtown Dallas by a major dart rail station, have a stop in some of the larger towns between Dallas and Houston, and a stop in downtown Houston, with plans to later expand it to Frisco and Galveston. Making the project any bigger than it already is will tempt fate too much and make it even more likely to be delayed or canceled. As long as the unitial corridor goes well, the plan is to make it a backwards L shape, completing the triangle with a corridor from SA through Austin to dfw in the distant future. Honestly, I'm just glad the big cities are trying to make a high speed rail line in a conservative state so that the political side of the public transit debate can be kind of reduced.
FACTS!!!! Texas traffic is horrible, but your order is off as a SA resident I wish our traffic was actually the lightest. Sorry but Austin doesn’t have as many traffic jams as us. Hell they only have one actually highway they jam up. We jam up N loop 1604, Hwy 281, I-10, 410 and 35 consistently even on the weekends. Austin’s one jam on 35 is avoidable.
Lived in DFW my whole life and you were right about the arterial roads. Almost everyone I know and everything I do is 30-50 min away from me in Frisco, and taking these roads is usually a solid route. It's also nice that if you are running late, there's plenty of tollways to get everywhere and save 15 minutes. All you gotta do is reeeaaally love driving (and have hours of podcasts/music to listen to) and you'd love it here 🙄
Great video. Looking forward to more Texas highway discussion videos. Honestly, the future of new highway capacity is tolled in Texas and in a lot of cities in the US. For example they are building the first express lanes here in the KC metro along the Overland Parkway US-69 corridor. It is a heavily traveled corridor for those who live deep south in Overland Park to get to I-35 and I-435. People will just have to suck it up and pay the tolls if you choose to live the car-centric lifestyle, especially in desirable areas that are gaining population. In terms of Texas itself, I would say your ranking is accurate. Obviously I-35 in Austin is notorious and tops the list. One of the fastest growing metros in the country with infrastructure decades behind, people really need to know what they are getting into if they decide to move there. In terms of Dallas vs. Houston traffic, as you said Dallas is overall more condensed. I think their freeways are generally more "refined" and build more strategically than Houston. An example would be the LBJ Texpress Lanes. Houston's approach is basically widen until the cows come home or just build another road from scratch. Then San Antonio is just a distant 4th to no one's surprise. I also like your comment about how arterial roads should never be more than 6 lanes across. The closest thing here is Metcalf Avenue, the "main street" of Johnson County.
Having lived in Austin for 3 years, it's always wild with traffic. Even trying to get to school in West Austin was back up for a long while. I do hate driving through Downtown Austin, I used to take SR130 to get to San Antonio and Corpus Christi. Since I moved to New England, going through Boston and NYC is gonna be wild, but I'll get used to it
my grandparents always tell me how much they hate houston’s traffic when they visit because they’re from waco. it’s funny because it’s normal to me because it’s really all i’ve ever driven in. it’s kinda like a prepare for the worst hope for the best situation when learning to drive in houston.
Upon moving to Houston some 42 years ago from a small LA town, the rush hour traffic was the worst. And while it’s still not ideal, a little planning and use of GPS and toll roads have substantially improved life in this vast, diverse and complex city.
I recently went to San Antonio and the roads are really bad, you can’t see how many lanes there are and everyone around you is confused too, but traffic wise, it wasn’t that bad. Nowhere nearly as bad as Austin
The street infrastructure in Austin is also very bad. They are no consistent grids. Austin has many dead-end streets. Streets are off set. Everything is poorly planned and designed. Many of the interchanges are also not complete. To go from 183 to 35, for example, you have to go through red lights. There is really no excuse for Austin traffic being as bad as it is.
There is an 8 lane arterial (45 MPH speed limit) in Raleigh, NC. Capital Blvd. from I-440 to the split of US 1 and US 401. Absolutely deadly for pedestrians.
As a truck driver for over 20 years, I’ve been to every city in this country outside of Hawaii. The worst traffic in the country used to be the Washington DC Beltway. Houston has overtaken in over the past 10ish years
There is a huge arterial roadway in the Tampa metro with SR-60 from I-75 to Kings Blvd in Brandon. 4 lanes each direction jumping as high as 9 lanes for turning in some spots
When I worked in Dallas, I often used the arterial streets. I had to go from the east to Irving Blvd. on the west side to work as a otr driver for Yellow Freight System. At rush hour I'd get off I-30, @ Miller Rd. Go south to Military,then west to Irving Blvd. Avoiding downtown all together. I'd never used the toll roads, I'm of the gerneration that believes all highways should be free! As far as I'm concerned I-635 from the high 5 to Loop 12 doesn't exist! The artieriials running paralell to the north & south of it are always preferable & are free. Somtimes its so backed up I avoid the bulk if the city altogether running I-20 around the south side or US 380 on the north.When going to an event downtown, I park at Rowlett, the far eastern terminus of the Dart, & get off @ Victory Center station. Only a couple bucks, & no parking to worry about. Dallas is changing at such a pace, one has to live there to keep up with traffic issues. Always look as far ahead as you can, be ready to get off at any exit, ( so long as your not in a semi with doubles trailers) keep you sense of direction, & worm your way through the surface streets. Getting to DFW can be difficult. Departures often are at rush hour. Coming up 360 from the south or 124 from the north is often preferable than staying on I- 30 from downtown.Once you learn the city, its not so bad. But despite that you'll spend lots if time in backups, and/or bumper to bumper, side by side traffic going 90 mph, then suddenly come to an abrupt slowing to 20, or just stop!
In the western cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson and even Salt Lake City to some extent, their local arterials are all pretty much a grid network. In Phoenix almost all of these “major arterials” are located a mile apart and all have six lanes of travel (for the most part). People there refer to them as “min freeways” as people can travel quite fast between the stop lights. They pretty much had to design them this way because for many years they did not want to expand their freeway system and basically didn’t have one for a city of their size.
As a Texan who has lived in every one of these cities, you got it right. Austin is the worst, hands down, because I-35 is the only road.
It doesn't help that the suburbs only have 1 particular road too
Cedar Park/Leander US 183
Round Rock/Georgetown + Buda and Kyle I-35
Del Valle/Bastrop Hwy 71
Manor/Elgin N 290
Dripping Springs/Oak Hill the damned South 290
I concur. Been there, seen that!
exactly! as a driver in Austin, I hate that every major suburb here only has one way in and out. @@edman813
Especially during acl
Ngl it’s similar to Orlando with I-4 no other routes
All of them.
Lol a fair point
I'm from Omaha and we don't love highways as much as the South because we have many walkable neighborhoods. We even plan on taking down part of i480, and turning into a boulevard so that our neighborhoods are better connected.
Everytime I have to go to Kansas City, Tulsa and Dallas; it's so stress inducing to drive in those cities
San Antonio traffic isn’t bad at all imo. I say that though as someone who lived in Chicago and Atlanta before so my view is warped
17:34 well I know a place in Texas that this guy completely ignored aka El Paso because if there’s an accident on there you’re gonna have to take the 2-4 lane suburb roads
@@Joshua429We don’t consider El Paso Texas🤣
It’s crazy how big Houston is. The fact that both the cities of Oakland & San Francisco can fit comfortably inside beltway 8 is wild to me. I’m a native Houstonian and it blows my mind.
Blows my mind that Harris County alone is bigger than the state of Rhode Island. And that Houston Metro area encompasses all of Harris plus massive parts of multiple surrounding counties
@@mattryan7124 You know what they say? Everything's bigger in Texas!
@@mattryan7124Even though I have lived in Houston numerous times since 1998, I finally left Houston last August 2022; hopefully for the last time ever. It was taking me about an hour and a half to drive 15 miles when I got off work, so I quit my Houston job and left Texas. It used to be decent back in 1998. Quality of life in Houston is miserable in my lived in opinion. I do miss HEB and El Rancho markets, tho I don't miss 40+ cars trying to get into the parking lots of each on a Saturday morning 😄
So true though to be fair, I’m from 2nd ward and never leave the inner loop honestly so most of it is just there lol. Remember when Kingwood got annexed? We tried to warn them to incorporate. Now we’re what, almost 700 square miles? Too much 😭😂
@@LightoftheMoonHEB! I missed it so much in college when I was in NYC. Where did you move to? Hope you’re enjoying your new home. Thinking about moving sometimes but I find myself back in Houston 😂
I live in San Antonio, and to highlight how bad I-35 can be, I was driving home from Little Rock, and as I was approaching DFW I checked my phone and it recommended continuing west past DFW on I-20 to US-281 and take that all the way to SA. This was an additional 80ish miles and it was still going to get me home 45 minutes sooner.
281 was very smooth sailing the whole way and super enjoyable, felt like an old fashioned American road trip driving through all those small towns.
I live in San Antonio too but my family is in DFW....using 281 during the holidays to avoid the 35 rush is like the best Texas travel hack!
It’s like going to/from LA. I’m in central California, and when there’s an accident or traffic on the main part to LA, it’s actually better to loop around towards Las Vegas/Arizona, then back to LA. More miles but it’s less time. I’ve been stuck on the grapevine when it literally took me an hour and a half to travel a mile 😮 that’s why if I don’t have to go to LA, I won’t!
Love 281, it is a rather pleasant drive. I am glad they are finishing the construction going into Bulverde from San Antonio.
I'm also in San Antonio. I'm not in a part of town where I normally have to take I-35, but my family is coming from El Paso this Thanksgiving to pick me up and take me to the Cowboys game that my mom wants to see. I should tell them to take US 281-the more traffic from construction in northern San Antonio in general that I can get them to avoid, the better (I personally hate North Loop 1604, and Bandera Rd. can get bad, too).
@@StrangerCoug once you get past Austin 35 to Dallas isn't bad at all. I would take 35 to 130 in Buda to by pass Austin. 130 takes you to Georgetown and you can get back onto 35 from there to Dallas. 130 is a toll road but it's a lot less stressful to drive and you get to see the Tesla Factory on your way up.
I live in Houston and have travelled to Austin and DFW more times than I can count. It is no surprise that you concluded Austin has the worst traffic. My friends and I were talking about this just last week. However, I think Dallas traffic is much worse than Houston traffic. It doesn’t matter which roads I took or the times I drove, but I am always sitting in traffic up there.
I feel like Dallas traffic used to be a lot better than Houston, but lately with the huge population increase the infrastructure just can't maintain this many people.
Houston traffic is definitely worse than Dallas (grew up in Houston and live in Dallas now) except for certain pinch points like the downtown interchange and the DNT or 635 at rush hour. But the DFW road network is so much harder to navigate than Houston's; my parents nearly always get lost when they come to visit.
It's very location dependant. North Dallas sucks, as does the interchange around downtown. Certain intersections are also extremely pinched because the intersection designers have no idea how to manage lanes (more lanes does NOT always equal more throughput)
I agree with your rankings 100%.
San Antonio metro is still a little bit bigger than ATX metro, yet traffic is almost non existent in San Antonio.
Dallas has trains and many highways. Austin has neither.
The Texas Capitol has one main highway, and no trains.
Austin does have Capital MetroRail, but not near the amount of rail transit miles DFW has.
It is mainly because people in Austin don’t know how to drive. People in that city love driving 55 in the left lane on I-35 when they can just do that on the frontage roads.
Actually, we do have commuter rail in Austin. But we’ve only had it since 2010, and so it’s not very comprehensive yet. It just covers a few key spots in the city, and a few key suburbs. In fact, the only major Texas city that has no urban rail at all (be it commuter rail, light rail, or trams) is San Antonio. Granted, San Antonio sounds like it doesn’t have as big of a need for rail transit as Austin does, given that San Antonio has much less traffic than Austin, owing to the fact that San Antonio has a much more comprehensive *road* network than Austin.
@@mikemclean5815SA has a need for rail, every TX city does. They just don’t know it yet.
I agree also, and comparing population, DFW has 3 times more people with less traffic than Austin
As someone who grew up in Austin, I was always told that Houston had the worst traffic when I was a kid. But since moving out of Austin back in 2013, I never realized how bad traffic was in Austin. Even the major arterials get traffic jammed during rush hour, with Wells Branch Parkway in North Austin being a notable example. I also think Seattle (where I live now) and Austin share a-lot of parallels in terms of their traffic congestion.
It’s way worse now than 2013
Well Houston is in a constant state of construction one if not all of those major roadways for lengthening, widening, and repair. So it’s always adapting.
I didn’t see anything remotely like that in Austin while I lived there 4 years
Our bypass highway system is WAY behind the population explosion. We don't have a single full bypass loop, and we need like three of them. I have my secret shortcuts through various neighborhoods, but it's still slow going. They're slowly adding tollways and some extra lanes along 183, but the population is outgaining the construction.
I lived in North Austin in 2008. It was bad then. I can't imagine what is like now.
True. The Austin population has tripled since 1980. Back in the day Austin was a cute lil city/small town. Now it’s insanely populated but the elected officials seem to neither want any non tolled roads with over 2-3 lanes or a transit system. That capital metro was a bust
great job, you absolutely nailed it 100% !!! i live in texas and drive for a living (most all lower 48 states). in texas, feeder roads are your best friend when traffic is congested. BUT, you have to know the exits where you can hop off the frwy to bypass traffic (without red lights) and hop back on; i keep a journal...
I agree with your list. Don't forget that San Antonio is the only Texas metro now that does NOT have any toll roads!
Meanwhile I don't have a single toll road in my entire state lol. Unless you count the national parks, but even those are free if you get in before 8 a.m.
@@Nightshade-dh9fmyou’re state isn’t as prosperous as Texas I can guarantee you that and I don’t even know what state you’re from. 😂😂😂
@@piglet7943 well duh lol, it's #2 and trends show it surpassing California, so it'll be #1, literally no state will be as economic as Texas, it's funny with such a large economy, they still need to toll you 🙃.
@@Nightshade-dh9fm will I will tell you one thing. Just in case you weren’t aware. The states will impose taxes in order for them to collect revenue. Some states do it in the form or sales tax. Some in the form or property tax and others in the form of state income tax. Others like Texas receive revenue from the toll road tax but every state rises revenue in different ways but they will ALL tax. You’re state is no different and I hope you don’t believe otherwise. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@piglet7943 I get why there are taxes but toll taxes are supposed to pay for the road, I just don't get why you need that when gas tax is already supposed to do that, seems like double taxation to me. Texas has no income tax, but has sales tax 6-8%, property tax avg .55%, and tolls everywhere, no thanks.
My state has a very low income tax, the highest bracket is only 6 percent, my business on paper operates at a loss, so I actually pay no income tax, I have no tolls taxing me, I have below average property tax and I have no sales tax.
Texas has a massive economy, it should pull plenty of revenue from property taxes, sales taxes, and gas taxes, but yet they feel the need to toll the hell out of everything. If your not careful, you might just be the next California.
I'm a storm chaser. I was chasing in the Austin area back in March of 2022......NEVER AGAIN!!!! That traffic STILL gives me nightmares.
how does someone become a storm chaser im honestly curious ?
@@nach8888 There's really no "right" way to become a chaser. For someone who may have no formal background in meteorology I would recommend reaching out to your local National Weather Service office and ask them if they provide storm spotter training during the winter/early spring. It takes years of going out there and learning what works and what doesn't work. Also depends on where you live as well. Some places are NOT good places to chase at all.
I was working from home while a tornado hit a mile away lmao. Was traffic bad?
I’d imagine chasing in cities is much tougher
@@highway2heaven91 it is. 10/10 don’t recommend AT ALL! Even in traditional tornado alley
A buddy of mine lives in Austin. The Mopac is basically the way that all the locals take to get around the I-35 traffic. He would appreciate it if all the newbies and tourists stay on I-35.
I often look at traffic maps during rush hour and measure the time between two points to figure out the average speed on the congested freeways, and I’ve noticed many times it recommends taking that road
US-183 is nice too but it is a troll road….
That’s certainly an idea, the worst part is the historically segregated and redlined neighborhoods are all along 35, primarily east of it, so those who are able to work from home are even less likely to live along 35 north of, say, 51st
I have lived in the Austin area for quite a long time. For the last 8 years I have used Waze, 4 years living in Round Rock and the last 4 in Leander. Quite a few people in Austin use Waze so it is usually pretty accurate. Unless something terrible has happened Mopac has almost never been the fastest route, It always says 183 or I-35 is the fastest. It isn't good getting off 183 or I-35 to go into downtown. It is mostly only beneficial if you live near Mopac or work at a place right off Mopac.
I haven't lived in Austin for a long time, but when I was there, I found MOPAC to be pretty useless. Depends on where you live, I guess. I was in Hyde Park and went downtown or South most of the time. You'd have to drive quite a way on surface streets just to get to MOPAC. Guadelupe and Lamar crawled but were still faster.
There are no East/West freeways there, which is fine, but there aren't many good East/West streets, either.
They really need mass transit. I moved from there in 2007 and things were already getting pretty bad. Now it's just insane. And you'd think it's the kind of town that would support rail, but...yeah.
As a native Houstonian, I have to say, you forget to take in account the fact so many here just can't drive. I drove 48 hours one day in Houston.
Literally every city says that people in thier city can't drive
They can drive if you can get them off of their GD cell phones.
@@kevingray8616 That's the definition of being a bad driver
I live in the Austin area. You are spot on. Austin traffic absolutely SUCKS!
I’ve lived in Austin for 52 years, the entire City of Austin has bad traffic. It doesn’t matter where you’re at now. People have moved here like crazy. I built a house for $200,000. Now it’s worth $1 million in 9 years.
I lived in Dallas for 15 years and I’ve lived in Austin for about 2 now. Austin is by far the worst traffic I’ve ever experienced. It’s a really cool city and has great walkability
Hey Mike! I work at an engineering firm in Conroe, which is in the northern part of the wider Houston area. I work specifically in CAD design, so a lot of my work is dedicated to designing water retention ponds, sanitary/storm/water networks, land development, etc. While I can agree that the looseness of Houston's zoning codes can cause issues in come places, in many newer developments I have worked on recently this has started opening up new possibilities for land owners and how they integrate new housing with existing or developing communities. Small commercial districts (restaurants, local grocery stores, business rental space, etc.) are often being added in the land directly next to the frontage access roads, while the community itself it a bit further in along a main road. This reduces the issue of distance needed to travel to access services or venues.
Also, I can 100% assure you that Texas is starting to crack down on the floodwater issue. I wont say that development of land in floodplains has stopped, because it hasn't, but more and more strict measures are beginning to fall in place concerning retention pond construction and the overall capacity of storm networks. We still have a long way to go, but it is getting better. Houston is continuing to spread outwards, particularly to the north, and the sheer number of people that have begun to move to the state has prompted an unprecedented wave of residential and commercial development. The area where I grew up was always very rural, but once construction of the Grand Parkway where it connects to 59 was finished it's like the place turned into a concrete jungle overnight! The expansion is forcing smaller cities and townships, as well as Houston itself, to get things in shape! I won't say it's all good, as I have my own feelings about the sprawling Houston footprint, but it is what it is. Houston also has plans for a massive overhaul of the highway where it cuts through the middle of downtown (where it passes by Minute Maid Park), and Houston also has a major railway project to connect to Dallas on the horizon.
I'm in the woodlands.. mail carrier. I'm sure you stay busy in Montgomery County
@huh4tofpv384 Less busy recently since residential land development is slowing down. It's mostly utility and public works stuff at the momen, though that will keep us going for the foreseeable future. Shenandoah and the Woodlands keep us plenty busy usually, and the population boom is creating problems everywhere. The scramble for sanitary, storm, and water utility expansion is bringing business from new counties and municipalities.
Insurance needs to stop being subsidized by taxpayers under the NFIP. It's too bad the 2012 reforms didn't stick and force people out of the city.
The problem in Texas is Millennials and Houston!
Anytime I drive on I-35 through Texas, I always try to go during night since it is almost completely clear of traffic through most of the way. During the day, all of I-35 from DFW to San Antonio is quite tedious to drive with how much traffic there is along the entire way. You can literally fly through Texas at night.
This is what I do. I make the drive from Denver to south texas near Victoria often and I try to time it right. The whole drive is smooth sailing but once you hit 35 in ft worth its hell all the way down to Austin. Gotta go at night
Same I drive between Dallas and San Antonio alot but only go at night
I just avoid freeways during rush hours. If I have to drive during the rush, I'll look for a longer route (that may include stop lights) because you avoid long traffic jams (idling in traffic wears cars out much faster.. and cars aren't cheap)
Watch out for the deer at night; I see a lot of car parts and deer parts on the side of the road nearly every morning.
Yea I drove from SA to Austin for a concert at around 4:30 and made it to the venue at like almost 8:00, when I went home that night at midnight I swear it only took me ~40minutes.
Coming from a trucker, you nailed this video. I frequently drive Dallas to Laredo. I usually take the 130 toll to avoid Austin regardless of the time of day. It’s smooth a free of traffic but I have to pay $60 one way for the toll to bypass the city. Still better than the traffic or the unsafe drivers going thru the middle of Austin. You nailed it as far as the other cities as well. Keep these vids coming!
Kinda shocked you actually take the toll around Austin. That was the selling point, but then the company that owns the toll roads priced trucks per axel with no discount for transportation companies. There’s hardly ever any trucks taking the tolls to avoid going through Austin, because of how they priced trucks so much more than cars.
Exactly you can avoid Austin’s traffic you can’t do that in the other cities. So he didn’t mail it on the order.
The worst traffic I ever drove was Laredo to Dallas the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It normally 7 hours with stops at West. once I hit downtown San Antonio. it was bumper to bumper all the way to Dallas. 35 miles an hour taking 13 hours. Imagine 3 major University all ending their Fall semesters with their students heading home for the holidays.
damn 60 dollars thats insane
Couldn't agree more
When we lived in Waco back in the 90s, we often went to San Antonio. The best route was to go west from Waco on US 84 to Evant and take US 281 south, bypassing Austin completely. GPS will tell you that's a lot more miles and a little more time, but the traffic in Austin was so unpredictable (or so predictably bad) even 30 years ago, that it was worth the detour. Besides, there's some really nice scenery out that way.
Yea. Tho as someone who regularly goes from San Antonio to Killeen via 281 I’ll say it’s a lot better scenery if you head west fro
Burnet to llano and take 16 to i10. And come in that way. It may add a bit more miles and time but the drive is soooooo worth it.
you can also bypass Austin by going through Lago Vista it's absolutely beautiful scenery over there
That is true one accident on 35 can back you out about a couple hours depending how bad it gets and whether the road is closed closed or trickling on one lane and this was the old 35 when it was 4 lanes wide and narrow shoulders between Waco and Austin.
Shhh 281 is still a secret, dont tell anyone or it'll get clogged up with Californians just like Austin.
I grew up in Southern California, but have lived in Texas in both Austin and Houston for some time now (not simultaneously). The one thing about the Houston road system that drives me batty is the lack of consistency. Sometimes, a frontage road has a left lane that forces you back on to the freeway, sometimes it doesn't. That same lane, at the traffic light, could force you to merge right by ending just after that light. The lane you use to get on to the freeway could also be a new lane, or maybe it happens to be a merge, just at this one onramp. This lack of consistency means one cannot predict the safest course of action in an area they are not too familiar with, so increases the likelihood of accidents. That doesn't even touch on the strange way there seem to be schools on every major road used as a thoroughfare, or the odd stop sign on that same major street when it crosses a county line. Quirky is an understatement.
Hwy 130 is worth every penny to bypass Austin from San Antonio to DFW. You forgot to mention it's an 85mph speed limit for most of it and was built by a Spanish company like a race track with wider lanes and easy, swooping curves. Miles of nothing to look at (except for the new Tesla factory) as you avoid Austin gridlock. The only waiting in lines is when you stop off at any of the Lockhart BBQ joints for the best smoked brisket anywhere.
I cruised 110mph and was getting passed by semis and a cop
Nah facts tho..as a truck driver I don't even think about it anymore. I'm just like screw it pay the toll
@adminbird a semi going more than 110?
The worst part of traffic in Texas cities is the lack of any meaningful alternatives to driving.
The irony that nearly everyone in Texas doesn’t have the freedom to choose how they get around because of the government and lobbying companies.
DART
@@AB365_Official which is notoriously bad
@@bjorkfan9290 better than nothing tbh
I would love to see Texas implement Switzerland style public transportation and Chinese style high speed rail for long distance.
Honestly, widening I35 in Austin probably won't fix the congestion. Just gotta look at the 20-lane monstrosity that is the 401 through Toronto for a good indication of why.
The 6ix 🔛🔝💀
And the ridiculous amount of time that TxDOT takes to do these projects actually screws up traffic more than it helps!
20 lanes😱
A new lane will fix it in the short term but they’ll have to invest in transit and build more mixed-use development in the long term.
Toronto and Austin seem to suffer from the same issue having only one major highway for commuters to use with an under utilized parallel toll highway. Widening probably won't help, better solution I think for both cities would be a new highway entirely to spread the load like other cities mentioned in the video.
This is one of those rare videos where I agree 100% with the narrator's conclusions about traffic in TX cities. I live in TX and have gone to all these cities multiple times. I would've drawn the same conclusion.
San Antonio has some big projects that are happening. I know you talked about the interchanges on i35 which they are now making a double decker though the city. 1604 is also has a lot construction happening that will revamp a lot of old infrastructure. 281 North is almost done with the project that they are doing. I know a lot of different projects are in the works for the SA area.
You nailed it great job. I lived in Houston 30 yrs and now plano for 14 yrs and been to all the major Texas cities. I think Sam Rayburn toll road in DFW is unique. It connects McKinney to DFW airport that is neither Dallas nor Fort Worth are near it.
We currently live in Texas and have been here for almost ten years. We’ve been to all of the big 4, numerous times, and lived in the Austin metro area for 6 years and San Antonio for the last three. I think your assessment is SPOT ON! People call San Antonio the smallest big city. At least for Texas, because it is big in population. But like you said, it’s one of the quickest to get around. So many more alternatives than Austin. And I love how you explained why Austin as such gridlock traffic. I always felt like there were no alternative routes there and the ones there were would cost you extra with tolls. Forcing you to want to take the congested non-tolls.
Traffic congestion; one of the main reasons why I left Austin as a whole. This is after spending the majority of my childhood there growing up.
This was a perfect analysis of Texas traffic. I grew up and still live in Austin. Texas needs the type of rail transport we see in well developed Asian and European countries.
Those don't work in big sprawling cities. They only work in cities where everybody lives on top of each other. If you want that then move to Chicago, Boston, San Francisco or NYC.
Right now the construction on I-35 south of Austin towards Buda makes the road bumper to bumper from 7am to 3am.
Very accurate assessment of the traffic situation. Houston is bad. It takes at least two hours to get from south Houston to huntsville. The area is one giant sea of concrete chain restaurants, discount shopping strips, car dealers and billboards. I45 in the rural areas is as congested as in the city due to underbuilding. In thr rurals, we hit capacity collapse often.
I have lived in Austin, Houston, and Dallas and you are RIGHT ON !!
Good assessment. I've lived in both Dallas (50 years) and Houston (25) and the lack of alternative routes make Houston a nightmare. That coupled with developments with usually have only one way in and out makes getting around in Htown no fun.
Hello fellow Houstonian! This is kinda true for east/west routes for sure. But what I do love is the hardy toll road parallel to 45. When coming back from Dallas, it’s a lifesaver! Houston messed up with the westpark tollway though I’ll give you that lol! Hope you’re enjoying the cool front 😊
😂🤣😂🤣 no way man. I can’t believe this. Min 13:51 I’m sitting in traffic in the Infiniti g35. You thought it was bad back then. You should see now. I saw the view of the city of Austin in the video, and thought, “the building in the front is already finished, and there’s like 10 buildings missing. And why isn’t there like 20 cranes in the shot.” But I can agree with your video. 😂
I35 from San Antonio to Austin is under construction to have an expressway above it. San Antonio has expanded drastically, even in the past five years, making the traffic much more congested than previously. I live outside of Houston and it’s 20 miles through horrific traffic to get anywhere in the city.
Native Austinite here and yup... Austin is horrible for traffic. Love the city otherwise, but in terms of traffic, it's a nightmare. I live in Round Rock (just north of Austin) and I must say that commuting down to ACC at Highland is painful, especially when my class gets out at 5:40. its about 25-30 minutes down, and closer to forty back, sometime 35.
I enjoy your analysis of the Texas freeways and other places you have been. I hope you are able to make it to the Metro Phoenix area in the future. Would love to see your opinion of the freeway network out here.
Definitely. Hoping to get out there sometime in 2024
As a former resident of Houston and currently live in Austin, you are spot on concerning traffic! Thanks for the most enjoyable video!
First off, I have to agree with your rankings 100%! Having been to all four areas, it’s clear that Austin’s setup is nothing like you find elsewhere in the state. We were just in Austin and San Antonio a couple of weeks ago and the only snag in the SA area was (you guessed it) I-35 between the northeast suburbs and New Braunfels - and it was no fun going northward to Austin either. We stayed just off the MoPac, which was never bad however. That said, your description of the traffic patterns around Austin were spot on. Not to mention that the hill country starts just west of Austin, attracting a lot of high end housing development and people who will fight new freeway corridors in that area. I’d be shocked if I live to see Toll 45 ever complete that west side loop.
You should see Mopac in the mornings. I commute most of the length and 25 minutes without traffic can be 30 minutes some days, 70 minutes on others especially if UT is in session
Yeah, even in freeway lovin’ Texas they still struggle with NIMBYism.
@@highway2heaven91 Particularly in Austin.
The hill country actually starts more out SW by Uvalde and goes north and ends in the De leon-Dublin area
@@Potato_pigeon I think he meant the eastern extent of the Hill Country.
I have lived in Austin since 1971 and have seem it go from 300 thousand to what it is now. You are exactly right the idea that if you don't build it they won't come but it didn't work. During the 80's the thought was to keep the city small and then came Dell Computers and Austin became a tech hub and it grew like crazy. The upper deck on I35 that is in the downtown section should have been extended all the way to Slaughter during the mid 80's for people going thru Austin and not going downtown. The traffic on I35 only get to move normally around 1AM.
Thanks for the history!
Was driving back home to Denton from DFW airport the other day and took the George Bush to 35 North. The ramp onto 35 North is so high for the first time ever I got vertigo while driving and had to take some deep breaths. It is insane how high that exit is.
And waiting at the bottom right before 121 is a long line of cars
So true about the height of ramps. I take the PGBT to 35-E north ramp once a week and I avoid looking down to the sides for fear of that same vertigo
Try it on a motorcycle. Things like that never bother me... however, that bothered me -- a lot -- because, unlike in a car that will just hit the barrier and skid to a stop, someone on a bike is just going right over the edge.
Some of the interchange ramps in DFW are getting ridiculously high. If you've ever used the Tarrant Express lanes for SH 121 South/SH 183 West and you've taken the exit ramp to IH-820 South, be careful. The ramp is so high that you can see downtown Fort Worth and Downtown Dallas. Actually insane
Thank you Mileage Mike for saying the Katy freeway is free flowing more than it isn’t. Before the expansion, “rush hour” was 7am to 8pm LOL. Now it’s not even that bad until about 3:30ish. Went to high school on the west side. Do not miss old I10 at all!
Here’s what people who complain about freeway widening in Houston don’t get (cuz they ain’t even houstonians but 🤷🏿♀️) in the 90’s, I10 was 3 lanes each way. Aside from local traffic, it was a nightmare for truckers! Downtown to the beltway was over an hour without question. Goods must keep flowing just like commuters in town. Would we have been able to grow the energy Corridor or any western development had we left it alone? Stop complaining y’all and be grateful they aren’t TOLLING us for it. it’s free. Austin ain’t building anything and what’s there is gonna cost you. Salute from East Downtown Houston!
"Dallas-Fort Worth area has an absolutely massive roadway network."
That statement is so accurate 🤣
and it's STILL jam packed at 1pm sometimes I don't get it
@gjenkins1660 as someone who lives in Arlington, there's some days where there's a major concert in AT&T stadium that ends at the exact same time as a rangers game, so there's occasionally rush hour traffic on 360, i20, and i30 that just appears on Saturdays at 10pm
I've lived in the Greater Houston area the vast majority of my 54 years. 30 years ago I marveled at the roadways of DFW. So many large roads, driving forever, but not getting there anytime soon. (it was the days off 55 mph speed limits) I was in Fort Worth a few weeks ago. Holy Shit! It's no longer a "deserted" dusty town. (granted we went through there on a Friday of a holiday weekend that didn't help)
@@gjenkins1660 hell, I've seen it jam packed at 1 AM due to construction. No joke!
You should do a video on I-95 between Richmond and DC next. The traffic is a nightmare through there.
Yes!! I go through there when I travel sometimes. Traffic is always backed up. Especially in the Fredericksburg area which is halfway between Richmond and Washington DC.
95 from DC to Baltimore is no picnic either
I love his voice, I could listen him talk all day
I clapped for joy when you mentioned Dallas' arterials being able to accommodate a protected bike lane! I've thought this for years, and there's an example on Columbia (b/w Gaston & Beacon) of it being implemented and working well.
I've been a delivery driver/courier in DFW for over a decade, and you're spot on about what the traffic here is: horrendous at junctions (anyone actually ever cruised thru going from 75N to 635W??) but otherwise a lot more free-flowing; at off peak hours you get to see what it would be like if it had reasonable traffic all the time, it's so quick.
I'd add: the closer you are to the city center of Dallas the easier it is to take/find an alternate route.
But Dallas is an oven, I went there in early spring and was very uncomfortable with the muggy hot weather. I'll take 4 seasons rather than deal with a perpetual oven.
@@Electrodexify If your going to move to Texas, be prepared to deal with heat waves every summer from June to August!
@@ElectrodexifyAnd Dallas is actually the coolest of the major metros in Texas.
I moved from Austin to Atlanta at the beginning of the year. I don’t miss the lack of freeways. In order to get around with minimal traffic, I’d regularly spend about $250 per month in tolls, but even the toll roads backup during peak hours.
TX-DOT is getting greedy with their toll roads.
I visited Texas by road for the first time for 8 days in March. Houston is just crazy. I don’t know if “awful” is the right word; the way the exits are arranged, and the sheer craziness of the drivers, I easily say Houston was the most miserable I’ve personally ever experienced.
The worst part of Houston traffic is the sheer distance between areas. Phoenix and L.A. are the only city sprawls that can compare that I'm familiar with.
You've never driven in Boston, then.
I understand the drivers but the exits are your complaint? 🤣 really just read the signs 😂
@@98slime86 So, getting on, unfamiliar with the area, having to merge onto these 4 lane wide highways, loaded with traffic, then, realizing quickly that your exit is all the way on the left, and you’re on the right? Tell me that isn’t jarring.
@@metallikat05 thats why you know your exit before you get on the highway 😂 you dont hop on and wait for navigation to tell you click the directions and read the stepbt step ahead of time especially if you know you dont knew the area and that isnt often only exits onto other highways are on the left so you most
Totally agree. I moved a few miles out of Austin to avoid the traffic in I35 and I hardly ever venture into I35 anymore. I use secondary roads for the most part. I avoid I35 like the plague.
I have lived in both Austin and Houston and driven extensively in Dallas, and largely agree with this. But Dallas is the most annoying to drive in due to how they will design exchanges. If you are on I-35 passing through Dallas, at one point downtown you will have to "perform a switcheroo" with all the traffic on an intersecting highway. If you're headed north on I35 for example, all the traffic has to exit right while at the same time the highway that's merging with you (from the right of course) has to get in the far left lanes to continue on their path. It's braindead, and I've never not seen that cluster f flowing smoothly.
Houstonian here.... I agree that Austin is the worst. TxDOT seems to have one school of thought... lay down more concrete and pray. I don't know if the engineers will ever think out of the box. Even the Park and Ride system has gotten worse in the last 15 years.
I’m not surprised Austin is #1, I definitely noticed a weeks ago that I-35 is the only interstate in the metro. Most midsize cities like Austin or even smaller would average at least 2 interstate highways. Nashville which has been growing like Austin has 5, while Kansas City has 7.
Orlando metropolitan area only has one interstate (Interstate 4). All the other limited access highways in the Orlando metropolitan area are tolled state roads. Granted I-4 is wider than I-35 from the north end of tourist area to the north suburbs in Seminole County.
-Florida resident who lives east of the Orlando metropolitan area on the space coast of Florida
KC only has four main interstates: 29, 35 49 and 70, plus four auxiliaries.
@@PopLightBrown , when I said seven, I included the 435, 470, and 635 since they are in the metro and have the interstate designation. I 35 is the only interstate designation in Austin.
Technically Nashville has 3 main interstates, i40, i24 and i65
Not surprise at Austin.
Was bad 15 years ago when I went to UT, and Austin metro area population only doubled since then.
Downtown San Antonio and the 1604 loop have had extensive construction in the past couple of years which makes traveling this way a real pain. My interest is in New Braunfels, so I take the turnout at Boerne and take River Road (Texas Hwy 46).
I moved to Austin back in '04. At that time I would leave at 5:15 am to make it to work by 6:00am. Nearly 20 years later that same trip needs you leaving at 4:10am. And that's with more highways and wider highways. It's been constant building these last 20 years. My wife being in real estate says that there are about 40families moving into the area everyday. That's about 100 new vehicles coming to Austin each and every day for the last 20 years. I'm moving back to California where there's lighter traffic. :)
And everyone thinks Tesla is huge, just 15 minutes down the street, Samsung is building something 4X larger than Tesla. Oh boy, more people.
What you're finding is that the suburbs are getting everything you need so you stay out of DT.
Lighter traffic in California 😂 that’s a good one!
This video makes me appreciate my Corpus traffic.
The freeway mixmaster in downtown dallas, tx is quite an engineering marvel!! We do have many alternate routes around the major texas cities; it's just a lot of people hence the bad a$$ traffic!! I live in the greater houston, tx metro, YES WE DRIVE BAD AS HECK!! Even the TX HWY 99/Grand Parkway Tollway/Outer Tollway in the greater houston, tx metro is growing; many formally open fields & areas now have either businesses or housing on them off of that Grand Parkway Tollway now!!
Very good, unbiased, and factual video.
Never understood the hype for Austin. Traffic completely ruins the city.
you would have to live downtown for it to be worth it
I don't think it's just traffic that ruins Austin, but it's certainly a large part
same, lived in Houston for 15 years and wanted to get out because of the hurricanes and pollution so we took a weekend trip to check out Austin and that was all I needed to see. Horrible traffic, loads of homeless people, and unaffordable housing. We ended up moving to Nashville a couple years ago since it has a similar vibe to Austin but way more charm and more affordable suburbs. Traffic sucks now but it has a ways to go to reach Austin’s level of congestion
The hype:
1) jobs for the IT professionals.
Oracle corporation
Dell
Apple Campus
AMD. Industry: Computer Hardware Development. ...
Amazon. Industry: Internet and Web Services. ...
Apple. Industry: Computer Hardware Development. ...
Dell. Industry: Information Technology Support Services. ...
Meta Platforms (Facebook) ...
Google. ...
IBM. ...
Intel Corporation.
Other professionals
Boring Co (Pflugerville)
And a lot more
2) second reason
Austin is inundated: Lots of Californians who can’t afford California’s living costs anymore move to Texas. Austin is rather a democratic city (especially when compared to Dallas or Houston).
And that demystifies the reason why Austin has the worst traffic of all cities in Tx, and in the last few years drug addicts and homeless started to appear all over the city.
I don’t think newcomers to Houston even realize how blessed we are. I’ve lived in jersey. You know how much we’d have LOVED 2 extra free lanes added? When I come back from Austin on weekends and there’s traffic on I10 with everyone else coming home, I can pay $1 to shift to the Katy toll lanes all the way to 610. I do it when there’s accidents too. We have it good here y’all. Have you seen Austin’s mopac expressway? YIKES LOL
Surprised you didn’t mention 610 at the galleria. Constant gridlock and construction for as long as I can remember.
Born and raised in the H town, so I know what you’re talking about especially on southwest freeway at 610 loop. That eventually led to the construction of the needed Westpark toll road In the late 90s early 2000s.
Yeah since uptown is basically a mini downtown, you'll get the commuter traffic as well.
So right! 610 loop at Westheimer is probably the most gridlock in the city. Policemen are there to direct the traffic at certain times which helps a little.
I've been in every major city in the states. Texas manages traffic much better than most other states. I grew up in SoCal and live in Seattle. It's a breath of fresh air to get back to Dallas/FW area.
This is correct. I lived in San Antonio for years, and Austin always had worst traffic. I live outside of Houston now and Austin is still worst. It's their own fault. The people of Austin consistently voted down highway construction in the city.
11:03 Ah, that beautiful Neo-Gothic style tower in downtown Houston. It’s just across the street from Jones Hall (Houston Symphony) and I’ve always loved looking up at it when I attended concerts. Very unique modern architecture.
I travelled a lot for work when I lived in Texas, and I've been to almost every single major and semi-major city in it, oddly enough except for Houston and Midland/Odessa. I'll take your word on Houston, because I cannot possibly imagine a worse city in Texas than Austin. Was coming back from a job in San Antonio (I lived in DFW for 10 years), and it was past 8pm. Traffic was so congested on I-35 that I looked for an alternate route on my GPS which had me taking an auxiliary route all the way AROUND the metroplex, and it still saved me 30 minutes of waiting. Austin traffic was awful, and the drivers were on another level of dumb.
Too many liberals.
I love how you brought up the arterials in dallas especially. Being from Houston which doesn’t have those, I love taking sides roads here when the freeways backup.
Incredibly well done. You nailed it many times over. I live in northwest Houston (practically Tomball or Cypress), and your line about Houston travel being exhausting is painfully accurate. It's just brutal. Everywhere takes a long time via car, and most of the time you'll opt to pay a toll. My only real goal in life is to get out of here, sell my car, and live in a walkable (hopefully European) city. 😀
I know that part of town. There are zero major highways in that area that aren't at least partial toll roads, unless you live far enough west to use 290. And until they finished upgrading it, 290 was THE worst highway to get around in the city.
The flip side of Houston's lack of zoning is that it creates neighborhoods. In Montrose and some other areas, you have places where you can walk to grocery stores, restaurants, etc. And honestly, when you look at it closely, Houston resembles many other cities that DO have zoning. The problem with zoning it that it limits development to rich, powerful people, who can always force through exceptions. At least in Houston people can start a business wherever they want without having to bribe anybody.
@@joethomas2354 There are a few areas in Houston where one could live moderately well without requiring a car. You'd be limited to those neighborhoods as traveling elsewhere would prove difficult due to the weak public transit options, but your daily life would likely be fine for walking and perhaps biking.
Houston does have unique zoning laws, or sometimes, the lack thereof. Houston doesn't quite allow people to start a business wherever they want. For example they must always meet the requirements for parking. An individual would not be able to buy a house in a suburb and convert it to a corner store or bar. Compare these limitations to other countries such as Japan where citizens can work directly from their homes selling goods and services. Another issue could be the same rich and powerful opening industrial or commercial buildings adjacent to residential areas much to the chagrin of the residents already living there. We're seeing more of this as wooded plots are bulldozed for strip centers. The zoning is a two-edged sword.
@@justabaldguy An excellent response. Thank you.
nah. 130 for life. I use it when going from killeen to san antonio and its a breeze but those commercial trucks need to stay off or drive faster than only 75
We are having issues for water in Georgetown, must north of Round Rock. The area is exploding and we don’t have the infrastructure to handle it here. I used to love Georgetown, now we want out of here. Traffic has gotten horrible for what once was a small town.
The part about Dallas-Fort Worth reminded me of something: I kind of wish they'd built an I-35W/I-35E split through Kansas City, with W going through KCK and E going through KCMO. There's not an obvious way to split it based on how the highways were built, but it would just be fun to have three "twin citiy" metros all connected by the same interstate with the only suffixes left on the entire system.
They kinda have that with I-635 but they need to change the number. This probably won’t happen because they eliminated most suffixes in the past and made them beltways. 35W and 35E are among the only ones left.
Yeah I-635 already serves that function and is free flowing almost all the time.
How about I-69W, I-69C, and I-69E - all in Texas!?
Kck and kcmo are the same city… Dallas and ft worth are 30 miles apart
It's the same way in Minneapolis-St. Paul with I-35W going through Minneapolis and I-35E through St. Paul.
You are the second RUclipsr I’ve seen to have a clip driving through the US75/Renner Road intersection that I drive every day for my internship here!! 8:28
I’ve lived in all of them and can confidently say that they ALL have horrible traffic. Texas’s 5th major metro, El Paso, also has horrible traffic and usually took me a little over an hour to get from one side of the city to the other due to the mountains in the middle of the city.
OMG at 9:53 that's 59/69 and I know that so well, because I live near that area. OMG its crazy to see so many familiar highways, toll roads and streets from Houston/Greater Houston area.
Austin NEEDS proper ways to get into downtown without driving. While Dart in Dallas has a lot of faults, it is very useful in getting to downtown, and kinda acts as proof of the Downs-Thomson paradox, where Dart's travel times usually matches that of traveling on the non toll highways, since whenever traffic does get bad in downtown, dart's ridership absorbs some of that damage. (while Dart's ridership isn't exactly high, most its ridership will be dumped in the downtown loop, and that would make a difference.)
Do one on Toronto Canada with the 401 running through it.
Dallas native here. Although traffic gets VERY bad along many of our freeways at rush it is nowhere near as bad as Houston and Austin at said time. Like you said, what DFW does better is dispersion. You’ll notice the metro isn’t similar to SA and Hou with their “circle” frwy shape and is more north focused. This does have its own flaws but the way they’ve planned the freeways is pretty good.
Austin has less highways
5:39 as someone who grew up in Garland, I couldn't agree more.
I love love love your videos and traffic analysis! I cannot wait until you expand into the West! I’d personally love to hear your take on my favorite American metro area: Phoenix, Arizona. And then of course there’s the city that’s arguably the home of the freeway, Los Angeles. You’ve definitely got a great channel and it will definitely be spark of great conversations between me and my wife, who is a traffic engineer herself.
At 15:30 you show one of the biggest contributors to Austin's traffic problem: bike lanes - everywhere. They (city govt) take existing four lane roads and dedicate two to bike lanes, leaving only one lane in each direction for cars, while the bike lanes for the most part go unused.
I love the bike lanes,but there aren’t nearly enough of them. Seriously.
i love driving on the texas highways at night calms my nerves
Best times, most of the bad driving fools are still sleeping 😴 💤!!
We live in Houston in North Montrose about 1.5 miles from Downtown. Lots of parks and restaurants in the area within walking distance. We have a 2015 VW with 9,000 miles. No need to drive.
I hope you visit Ontario. I would love to hear your experiences with Highway 401. The only place where you can hit traffic at 3am.
NYC too... Cross Bronx is ALWAYS clogged!!!
Planning to head out there this fall.
At least Toronto has better transit than anywhere in Texas. It’s more urban too.
The weather channel show's "heavy rescue 401" highway!! 3 am traffic, that's about as bad as it gets right there!! That basically means that nobody really sleeps up there!! I hear that new york city is like that here in america!!
Yeah, the QEW is MAD CRAZY.
Couldn’t agree more. Such a well done video. Keep it up my friend.
Definitely agree with these rankings. If you love your car, Texas is probably more your speed (no pun intended). If you love urbanism, then Texas probably isn’t for you. Dallas by far is the best in Texas for public transportation but there are still large areas of transit deserts across the DFW metroplex. Transit expansion is also severely limited by the many suburban cities that just don’t want it. Houston is primarily bus-based and is planning to add more BRT but it will need a longer rail line if it seriously wants to have a better transit system. Neither city is really an urbanist paradise. Austin probably has the most potential due to the fact that it is the most compact but it’s just not building fast enough. It needs some long range transit plans soon because it’s traffic is #1 in the state.
Texas could also benefit from intercity rail between its cities. Texas central is a great idea but opposition is slowing it down, the line needs to go from Frisco to Galveston (not DT Dallas to NW Houston) to maximize its potential. It also needs to have a DFW - SA branch and a SA - Houston branch in the works to help combat congestion between the cities.
I think a lot of the suburbs(especially as they keep getting bigger) are opening up to dart connection, especially in North and east Dallas. To the west there's been basically no progress, but TRE at least exists and with arlington densifying and the entertainment districts in both Arlington and grand prairie growing I could definitely see dart having a rapid expansion west in the near future, even if it's just bus lines.
As for the high speed rail, honestly I think they need to focus on just hitting downtown Dallas by a major dart rail station, have a stop in some of the larger towns between Dallas and Houston, and a stop in downtown Houston, with plans to later expand it to Frisco and Galveston. Making the project any bigger than it already is will tempt fate too much and make it even more likely to be delayed or canceled. As long as the unitial corridor goes well, the plan is to make it a backwards L shape, completing the triangle with a corridor from SA through Austin to dfw in the distant future. Honestly, I'm just glad the big cities are trying to make a high speed rail line in a conservative state so that the political side of the public transit debate can be kind of reduced.
FACTS!!!! Texas traffic is horrible, but your order is off as a SA resident I wish our traffic was actually the lightest. Sorry but Austin doesn’t have as many traffic jams as us. Hell they only have one actually highway they jam up. We jam up N loop 1604, Hwy 281, I-10, 410 and 35 consistently even on the weekends. Austin’s one jam on 35 is avoidable.
100% agree with your assessment
Lived in DFW my whole life and you were right about the arterial roads. Almost everyone I know and everything I do is 30-50 min away from me in Frisco, and taking these roads is usually a solid route. It's also nice that if you are running late, there's plenty of tollways to get everywhere and save 15 minutes.
All you gotta do is reeeaaally love driving (and have hours of podcasts/music to listen to) and you'd love it here 🙄
Great video. Looking forward to more Texas highway discussion videos. Honestly, the future of new highway capacity is tolled in Texas and in a lot of cities in the US. For example they are building the first express lanes here in the KC metro along the Overland Parkway US-69 corridor. It is a heavily traveled corridor for those who live deep south in Overland Park to get to I-35 and I-435. People will just have to suck it up and pay the tolls if you choose to live the car-centric lifestyle, especially in desirable areas that are gaining population.
In terms of Texas itself, I would say your ranking is accurate. Obviously I-35 in Austin is notorious and tops the list. One of the fastest growing metros in the country with infrastructure decades behind, people really need to know what they are getting into if they decide to move there. In terms of Dallas vs. Houston traffic, as you said Dallas is overall more condensed. I think their freeways are generally more "refined" and build more strategically than Houston. An example would be the LBJ Texpress Lanes. Houston's approach is basically widen until the cows come home or just build another road from scratch. Then San Antonio is just a distant 4th to no one's surprise.
I also like your comment about how arterial roads should never be more than 6 lanes across. The closest thing here is Metcalf Avenue, the "main street" of Johnson County.
Having lived in all 4 cities I can say you nailed it in this video.
Having lived in Austin for 3 years, it's always wild with traffic. Even trying to get to school in West Austin was back up for a long while. I do hate driving through Downtown Austin, I used to take SR130 to get to San Antonio and Corpus Christi.
Since I moved to New England, going through Boston and NYC is gonna be wild, but I'll get used to it
i used to live in NYC and the views while sitting in traffic were worth it lmao
you can sit on the train that runs from Boston to NYC. In NYC you can have subway boston you have metro
my grandparents always tell me how much they hate houston’s traffic when they visit because they’re from waco. it’s funny because it’s normal to me because it’s really all i’ve ever driven in. it’s kinda like a prepare for the worst hope for the best situation when learning to drive in houston.
Upon moving to Houston some 42 years ago from a small LA town, the rush hour traffic was the worst. And while it’s still not ideal, a little planning and use of GPS and toll roads have substantially improved life in this vast, diverse and complex city.
I recently went to San Antonio and the roads are really bad, you can’t see how many lanes there are and everyone around you is confused too, but traffic wise, it wasn’t that bad. Nowhere nearly as bad as Austin
The street infrastructure in Austin is also very bad. They are no consistent grids. Austin has many dead-end streets. Streets are off set. Everything is poorly planned and designed.
Many of the interchanges are also not complete. To go from 183 to 35, for example, you have to go through red lights.
There is really no excuse for Austin traffic being as bad as it is.
Mileage Mike, you give excellent analyses!
There is an 8 lane arterial (45 MPH speed limit) in Raleigh, NC. Capital Blvd. from I-440 to the split of US 1 and US 401. Absolutely deadly for pedestrians.
Capital Blvd gives me nightmares everytime I drive through it
Yes, the raleigh/durham & winston-salem/greensboro metro's both have legendarily bad traffic!! Charlotte is rough too!!
Yeah hopefully Raleigh will build a commuter rail
As a truck driver for over 20 years, I’ve been to every city in this country outside of Hawaii. The worst traffic in the country used to be the Washington DC Beltway. Houston has overtaken in over the past 10ish years
If all the out of state people could stop MOVING TO TEXAS we wouldn’t have these problems
Don't California my Texas is the battle cry.
@@johntracy72EXACTLY,
and rightfully SO 😊
Texans also have babies, you know? The population is going to grow anyway.
It was bad even before people started to move to Texas.
There is a huge arterial roadway in the Tampa metro with SR-60 from I-75 to Kings Blvd in Brandon. 4 lanes each direction jumping as high as 9 lanes for turning in some spots
Also Bruce B Downs from Bearrs all the way to County Line Road.
When I worked in Dallas, I often used the arterial streets. I had to go from the east to Irving Blvd. on the west side to work as a otr driver for Yellow Freight System. At rush hour I'd get off I-30, @ Miller Rd. Go south to Military,then west to Irving Blvd. Avoiding downtown all together. I'd never used the toll roads, I'm of the gerneration that believes all highways should be free! As far as I'm concerned I-635 from the high 5 to Loop 12 doesn't exist! The artieriials running paralell to the north & south of it are always preferable & are free. Somtimes its so backed up I avoid the bulk if the city altogether running I-20 around the south side or US 380 on the north.When going to an event downtown, I park at Rowlett, the far eastern terminus of the Dart, & get off @ Victory Center station. Only a couple bucks, & no parking to worry about. Dallas is changing at such a pace, one has to live there to keep up with traffic issues. Always look as far ahead as you can, be ready to get off at any exit, ( so long as your not in a semi with doubles trailers) keep you sense of direction, & worm your way through the surface streets. Getting to DFW can be difficult. Departures often are at rush hour. Coming up 360 from the south or 124 from the north is often preferable than staying on I- 30 from downtown.Once you learn the city, its not so bad. But despite that you'll spend lots if time in backups, and/or bumper to bumper, side by side traffic going 90 mph, then suddenly come to an abrupt slowing to 20, or just stop!
I don't think Miller road crosses I30. It dose cross I635 a few miles north of I30 but doesn't cross I30 that I'm aware of. Correct me if I'm wrong.
In the western cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson and even Salt Lake City to some extent, their local arterials are all pretty much a grid network. In Phoenix almost all of these “major arterials” are located a mile apart and all have six lanes of travel (for the most part). People there refer to them as “min freeways” as people can travel quite fast between the stop lights. They pretty much had to design them this way because for many years they did not want to expand their freeway system and basically didn’t have one for a city of their size.