Austin Traffic
Just on the heels of “The Old Give and Take”, here I am talking about traffic in the city of Austin. Yes, I did give up some quiet, low traffic roads for what we have here in Austin….but the fact that I’m right now riding in October with warm temperatures is enough to make me super happy. Plus, it’s all about adventure anyway, right?
But seriously….is it just me or have the streets of Austin become insanely busier over the past few years? For some reason, I don’t remember them being quite like this in the past.
One thing that I have always complimented the Austin infrastructure on is how well the traffic flows. Sure, the red lights seem to last for hours…but once you get a green, you’re good to go for a very long time. What happened? It doesn’t seem to flow that well any longer.
There really is no avoiding it in a car, but I have been looking into ways to minimize it while on my bike. When I ride, I like to go non-stop….I’m not a fan of having to stop for traffic, lights, or anything else. I did a 3 hour ride last week, and with all the stops I had to make it ended up being a 3:20 ride…..crazy. So as often as I can, I’m going to find me some good old country roads where I can be free to pedal on forever. Hey all you Austin riders…..any advice? Can you steer me in the right direction for good non-traffic rides?
Sure I’ll continue on with the usual bike routes around here (incredible cycling, even with the stops), but I’ll also be searching out some quieter spots as often as I can.
I feel your pain with traffic issues. In Atlanta, the philosophy of traffic engineers seems to be “If traffic is flowing too smoothly, something needs to be changed.” I honestly think that at least 90% of our traffic issues in the city could be solved by appropriate red light timing and actually using sensors on lights. Nothing drives me crazier than sitting forever at a red light when no traffic is passing on the cross street! However, the timing of all the lights seems to change on a weekly or even daily basis. Traffic will flow very smoothly one day, then the next the lights are suddenly all out of sync and you have to stop at every single block. And with somewhere between 30-40 red lights on my usual route, that can really add up!
Welcome to Austin! You can’t really ride without lots of stopping IN Austin, but Pflugerville, Round Rock, Parmer north of 1431, and the Longhorn 70.3 course (the race is this weekend! woohoo!!!) are all nice rides with very little traffic.
Welcome to Austin Darryl! Fun isn’t it?
We need to crank your bicycle advocacy into full gear so we can convert more of the drivers in to cyclists.
Darryl