Support Transit Tangents and get next week's episode now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/TransitTangents We were SO Excited to finally do an episode like this in our own city! Obviously there was so much more we could have covered, but let us know what you thought, and where you'd like us to go next!
Mr. Tangents, you forgot to mention the added entertainment-utility value provided by the colorful personalities emoting while riding public transit. Or, you may consider that priceless...
Thanks for visiting us here in Austin. The bus network is great if you live on the route and are a University of Texas student.Nowadays if you live on the main 801 and 803 express routes it works very well. It's ok if you live in the center city and hibernate during the summer. However, if you try and take an east-west cross-town route at any time you will suffer and suffer.
Thanks for watching! We actually live here, but talk about transit all over! More Austin content coming again next week actually! If you're interested, here is a playlist with all of our "Austin related episodes" for lack of a better term 😅 th-cam.com/play/PLa4ROsu5cZAKnL1ZLarFyWr5vgDFFxPH6.html&si=8qo7iGJ6oQryYRgI
Looking forward to the future of Austin! I’ve taken the rail from Howard into downtown. Then took buses to the library. Most pleasant experience, 10/10 better than driving.
As a San Diego county resident, that SINGLE train car for your "light rail" is so freaking weird. It has the sleek look of the light rail system here, but with tables on it like you would find in a proper train. It gives gadgetbahn vibes considering so few people seem to use it with awful park-n-ride stations. We have a similar "Coaster" train with low ridership, but it's a typical commuter train with 4 cars and 1-2 hr frequency.
I truly miss Austin. Although there has been a lot of improvements to transit within the city, there is so much more than can be accomplished. Keep up the great work on the vids guys🤘🏼👍🏼
Thanks for watching! Definitely a lot of room for improvement, but the city, Cap Metro and others are seemingly working hard to make it happen. Excited to see what the city look like in 10 years or so! -Louis
From the first episode I've watched I liked it and it's at the top of my favorite channels now. As one of those who say you should have local transit to get around before you build a rail line I want to clarify what, at least, I mean. Rail connections between cities is extremely important and if possible all transit systems should be built at the same time but when you have to prioritize than local transit is more important as it's the one most people use on a daily bases and you can clearly see it in ridership numbers. It's also more important for low income people and is essential in finding a job, good jobs and education which is why it should be the first priority. Regional/suburban is second, but should be accompanied by local transit to get to the stations in the region and than intercity trains , with regular trains before high speed ones, unless you cover get the budget for HSR. This coincide with the level of ridership you'll get for the investment. Also, local systems needs to be more than decent as even if you can get around if the frequency and quality is such that very few will want to use it than the train line itself will also suffer from low ridership which will make it difficult to get funding for more train lines (as "no one uses the existing lines"). It's hard to do when you're so behind but is necessary but it's essential to do it right instead of looking for shortcuts, which is tempting, as you might end up back where you started.
I'd love to see you guys do this same experiment in my city of Atlanta. As much as everyone totally blast Atlanta for it's lack of good public transportation and walkability watching this video really makes me appreciate Atlanta for how many great attractions you can get to and enjoy in Atlanta without a car. And there is really great access to the airport via Marta rail. At the end of the day alot of Atlantans have a disdain for public transit that won't allow them to use it even in situations where it would be coinvent.
Atlanta is 100% on our list. Hopefully we make it happen in the first half of 2025. It's a matter of time, and my wallet lol. But I'd love to do Atlanta. I've also never been outside of the airport there. Thanks for watching. -Louis
They really are! Only showed a few short clips of the hike and bike towards the end as we were mostly carrying dead camera batteries, but they are soooo nice. Especially the boardwalk sections like we show at 27:55. To their credit, city govt is doing a lot for bike infrastructure here, and it seems like much more to come. Can't wait to see what it looks like in 5 or 10 years if we stay on this trajectory. Thanks for watching! -Louis
I don't have a car and I get around Austin primarily through bike, bus and sometimes the light rail. If you live downtown, in East Austin, or near S. Congress or S. Lamar, getting around with CapMetro is definitely manageable if you mostly stick to those areas. With regards to the light rail, IMO there are some misses which I think hurt its ridership. The hours for one, are primarily commuter oriented, which make it less convenient for me to be downtown after work. Also, the Crestview station and the Domain station both require you to cross very busy streets to get to nearby popular destinations, sadly to support parking lots and prioritize car traffic over livability of the area itself. The Domain station is quite a walk - especially in the summer - if you're looking to get to/from the shops. The train should just drop you right in the middle of the shopping area or right next to the residences (same goes for Crestview station to a lesser degree since you have to cross Lamar or Airport to get to the Asian market). That miss alone probably deters many people from riding it to/from the Domain. It clearly wasn't too well thought out because it's also a bit too far from the Q2 stadium - which is why they had to build the McKalla station too. I'm hoping there's some development around Domain and Crestview stations to make it feel safer and more convenient. The downtown station is also a bit of a miss since it doesn't connect to Republic Square, but hopefully the downtown light rail stop for Project Connect somehow connects it all later. Also, I've noticed lately that the light rail seems to be running on Sundays. I haven't needed it yet, but if so, that would make it a lot more useful. I've checked online but haven't found any confirmation from CapMetro about it. Overall I've managed to survive and only used rideshare apps a handful of times in the past few years. I think using the bike paths help a lot (though routes do need to be expanded and made safer - I've seen many parents bringing their kids along on cargo bikes in some areas where I thought to myself it's still a little too risky). So Austin obviously has some options to get around safely without a car but I'm glad that there is a clear demand to expand and improve those options, seemingly with popular support and support from the city officials. Not everyone has the ability to ride a bike or bear the extreme heat during the summer. Thanks for publicizing that it is possible to get around the city without a car because just today there was a major deadly car wreck on I-35. As a growing city we have the opportunity to make it safer for everyone traveling and also for our environment and quality of life.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Definitely agree on the red line. It definitely has it's limitations, but over time should improve with more development, and double tracking in more areas. Hopefully over the next few years (and longer) we see increased bus service, as well as Project Connect implementation 🤞I live on N Lamar (near the Triangle) and it's another part of town that's pretty easy to get around with easy access to 801, 803 and other bus routes. Decent bike routes nearby as well. My partner and I got rid of a car when we moved to this part of town (we now share one between the two of us), but mostly e-bike to get around. Thanks for watching! -Louis
Thanks for posting the link to Transit Forward. I'm still having trouble finding any specific info about funding for the Project Connect airport extension though.
Interesting, yeah I didn't realize how close those were. More than anything, I'm just excited to see those new routes get up and running next year! Thanks for watching.
Please consider making a fantasy map of where you would put elevated train tracks at Disney world to connect all the theme parks, water parks, Disney springs shopping area and all the major hotels
This would have been helpful the last time I headed to Austin on the train..... I actually did a good amount of walking and ended up by the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue after enjoying the Austin Public Library
The 30 bus does not see very much use to Zilker outside of events- and even then, during most events, the buses are detoured and don't go through barton springs rd. For example, even the 30 bus does not go to Zilker during ACL, trail of lights, etc. Because they close down barton springs rd. You have to walk from Lamar anyways. They need either an earlier place to turn around so they can run service during events, or to allow buses to travel through. That being said, there are a number of reasons why people don't use the 30 bus. It's super slow, it comes every 30-40 minutes, it stops running too early, and the route is super wonky after it heads down the mopac service road(where buses also get stuck during events). I used to live on Spyglass on the 30 route and I can't tell you how many times I wasn't able to even leave the neighborhood because they just detour and cancel the route so frequently during events at Zilker. I think a better solution might be to extend the new rapid route to Zilker either during certain times/days(perhaps fri-sun) or maybe only during events, with a better turnaround solution(it has to be convenient or people won't use it). There simply isn't enough ridership there for daily high frequency service(which, chicken and egg situation. it could be that the bus is so bad right now, nobody uses it. Or it could be that entire strip of barton springs is full of extremely expensive condos and homes that already have 1-2 cars at home). I am rooting for y 'all, but with Capmetro, it's hope for the best, expect the bare minimum.
Lot's of agreement! I think you are totally right about events and the 30 in Zilker. I also like the idea of the new rapid route only going to Zilker on the weekends. We talked a little bit about the route in a past episode too. I'll link it here: th-cam.com/video/5eaRaLaD5Fw/w-d-xo.htmlsi=k_ms2YkYNBcqhFpO Thanks for watching! -Louis
I think you should come to other cities and do the same thing as you did in this video. It would really show what cities are doing with transit...Atlanta would be a good stop
Lucky for you we have! Atlanta is on our list, but we've done this in Salt Lake City, New Orleans, San Antonio, and now Austin! We have plans to do Houston in the next month or so as well. Here is a playlist with all of them: th-cam.com/play/PLa4ROsu5cZAKVmFlOhVS0_EjDFQEWXyNu.html
Cap Metro needs to consider putting bus routes on freeway frontage roads. I know the one-way setup isn't ideal, but there are a lot of businesses on them, and they are often far from a bus line. For example, I stayed at a Super 8 in 2015, at I-35 and Powell. It was a long walk through a dicey neighborhood to the bus stop on Georgian.
I doubt we see that anytime soon for better or for worse. TXDOT is about to break ground on widening I35 and several businesses along the highway are actually already clearing out for it. Texas has no problem using eminent domain when it comes to highways apparently..... It could be interesting in some areas though! Although I would be concerned for pedestrian safety, as there is a lot of speeding and wild driving on those frontage roads... Thanks for watching!
@@JohnWilson-hc5wq It sort of depends on what direction you are going, but in one direction you would be able to do that, on your way back you would have to cross. If TXDOT takes steps to make it safer for pedestrians with their construction project I think it could make sense. I won't hold my breath that TXDOT is doing that though haha... We'll see though. -Louis
@@TransitTangents Because the frontage roads are one way streets, what I envision is a long loop where the bus goes down one side from the center city to the edge, then crosses the freeway and goes down the other side. Yes, it’s inefficient, but that’s the only way I can see it working, especially since Austin has few over or underpasses….
I remember when Capital Metro ran a few bus lines along the I-35 frontage roads for a short length. One went from downtown to NE Austin (the former 37 line), another went from downtown to Riverside via I-35 crossing the river (the old 26). Man times have changed.
I would do this, since I would save so much money by not having a car and making regular payments and maintenance on it (and if I do I would want to prioritize modding vintage cars to have better fuel mileage so that no one can say I am not trying to minimize my output for the climate change issue. I want to build (riding model) trains and the line so that no freight train can steal priority since unless someone wants to make a competitor and use my tracks, they would need to build entirely new tracks since how I want to set it up in the contract to build and lease out the line to the company wanting to buy exclusive access to it. I still have so much paperwork and understanding I need to do in order to get it established and running, but that would be my ideal career path.
LOUIS IS RIGHT, JENI'S >>>> AMY'S!!!! (Jeni's is from Ohio but.... it's just so good). However, I will forgive Chris because he did get you to finally eat Raising Cane's.
We do have an audio specific audience as well who don't necessarily use TH-cam. Also TH-cam takes a much bigger cut (30%). Not against doing the memberships though. Is that something you'd be interested in? I know it would probably be more convenient when thinking about it. I can chat with Chris about it. Let us know what you think. Thanks for asking and for watching! -Louis
Very fair question. I feel like the term protected gets used very loosely (I'm guilty of it too). Currently the city would consider this to be protected. I fully recognize that this wouldn't stop a car from crashing through, but setups like this really do a lot to slow drivers down, and make the bike lanes more visible. Right now the strategy Austin is using is doing as much "quick build" type stuff like this as fast as possible in as many areas as possible, with the goal of then upgrading them to more permanent (and protected) solutions when larger road construction is required in the area to save on costs. In a budget constrained world, I actually support the approach. It's gotten us a lot more of these quick build setups all around the city. Great question and maybe a topic for a longer episode! I'll mark this one to be discussed in a quick comment response on Patreon as well. -Louis
I wish the Domain would implement itself into the the Bus network, as well as install traffic lights. They say walkable but crossing Domain Dr as a pedestrian is nerve wracking.
The Domain definitely needs some work for sure. It also doesn't connect well at all with the Red Line. Back when they were building the red line the land would have probably been fairly affordable to re route a bit of the tracks to make it more convenient.... Curious to see what the future of that area holds! Thanks for watching. -Louis
It would have been helpful to give the times on your various travel segments. When you say we walked here or there. Or, we biked from here or there, there is no sense of how long it's taking you guys to traverse the city. How long it takes you to get anywhere is critical to whether people will use public transit or not. If it's not efficient or convenient enough, there is little incentive to use it on a regular basis. Thanks.
Totally! I am remembered someone (maybe you) said this on a previous one. I just texted Chris so we remember for next time. Tentatively have dates to do something similar in Houston in November! -Louis
Can't help but notice that literally nobody else was using the cycle lanes. I can bet my kidney it's because of how hot it is. Texan planners need to consider the obvious fact that Texas isn't as cold as other transit friendly Europeas. People aren't gonna use the cycle lanes if there's no shelter from the sun. Wide open cycle paths on scorching hot asphalt with zero shade is just not the answer, sorry 😢.
To be fair, this was at like 1pm on a weekday. There is a counter installed on that street now and it sees high hundreds per day in one direction from what I can remember. It is also no where close to one of the busier bike lanes or paths in the city, although numbers have gone up since they made it safer. Is it hot in the summer? Totally, but especially with e-bikes (Austin has a rebate program on them), its actually not too bad and has been growing in popularity anecdotally at least. Plenty of work to be done still though. Thanks for watching
Austin imo is the perfect e-bike city. Transit works for a lot too. Really its "too hot" for about 2 months. The rest of the year is pretty beautiful. That's a much bigger "nice weather" time frame than most cities.
![ละลาย (LALALYE) - DAOU PITTAYA ต้าห์อู๋ พิทยา [OFFICIAL MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wo6r9TgausI/mqdefault.jpg)
Support Transit Tangents and get next week's episode now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/TransitTangents
We were SO Excited to finally do an episode like this in our own city! Obviously there was so much more we could have covered, but let us know what you thought, and where you'd like us to go next!
Mr. Tangents, you forgot to mention the added entertainment-utility value provided by the colorful personalities emoting while riding public transit. Or, you may consider that priceless...
Thanks for visiting us here in Austin. The bus network is great if you live on the route and are a University of Texas student.Nowadays if you live on the main 801 and 803 express routes it works very well. It's ok if you live in the center city and hibernate during the summer. However, if you try and take an east-west cross-town route at any time you will suffer and suffer.
Thanks for watching! We actually live here, but talk about transit all over! More Austin content coming again next week actually! If you're interested, here is a playlist with all of our "Austin related episodes" for lack of a better term 😅 th-cam.com/play/PLa4ROsu5cZAKnL1ZLarFyWr5vgDFFxPH6.html&si=8qo7iGJ6oQryYRgI
Looking forward to the future of Austin! I’ve taken the rail from Howard into downtown. Then took buses to the library. Most pleasant experience, 10/10 better than driving.
Yes the experience on the red line is great! Austin with a complete Project Connect will be pretty amazing!
As a San Diego county resident, that SINGLE train car for your "light rail" is so freaking weird. It has the sleek look of the light rail system here, but with tables on it like you would find in a proper train. It gives gadgetbahn vibes considering so few people seem to use it with awful park-n-ride stations. We have a similar "Coaster" train with low ridership, but it's a typical commuter train with 4 cars and 1-2 hr frequency.
I truly miss Austin. Although there has been a lot of improvements to transit within the city, there is so much more than can be accomplished. Keep up the great work on the vids guys🤘🏼👍🏼
Thanks for watching! Definitely a lot of room for improvement, but the city, Cap Metro and others are seemingly working hard to make it happen. Excited to see what the city look like in 10 years or so! -Louis
From the first episode I've watched I liked it and it's at the top of my favorite channels now.
As one of those who say you should have local transit to get around before you build a rail line I want to clarify what, at least, I mean.
Rail connections between cities is extremely important and if possible all transit systems should be built at the same time but when you have to prioritize than local transit is more important as it's the one most people use on a daily bases and you can clearly see it in ridership numbers. It's also more important for low income people and is essential in finding a job, good jobs and education which is why it should be the first priority. Regional/suburban is second, but should be accompanied by local transit to get to the stations in the region and than intercity trains , with regular trains before high speed ones, unless you cover get the budget for HSR.
This coincide with the level of ridership you'll get for the investment.
Also, local systems needs to be more than decent as even if you can get around if the frequency and quality is such that very few will want to use it than the train line itself will also suffer from low ridership which will make it difficult to get funding for more train lines (as "no one uses the existing lines").
It's hard to do when you're so behind but is necessary but it's essential to do it right instead of looking for shortcuts, which is tempting, as you might end up back where you started.
Thanks for watching! Appreciate the kind feedback!
I'd love to see you guys do this same experiment in my city of Atlanta. As much as everyone totally blast Atlanta for it's lack of good public transportation and walkability watching this video really makes me appreciate Atlanta for how many great attractions you can get to and enjoy in Atlanta without a car. And there is really great access to the airport via Marta rail. At the end of the day alot of Atlantans have a disdain for public transit that won't allow them to use it even in situations where it would be coinvent.
Atlanta is 100% on our list. Hopefully we make it happen in the first half of 2025. It's a matter of time, and my wallet lol. But I'd love to do Atlanta. I've also never been outside of the airport there. Thanks for watching. -Louis
Wow those biking trails are INCREDIBLE
They really are! Only showed a few short clips of the hike and bike towards the end as we were mostly carrying dead camera batteries, but they are soooo nice. Especially the boardwalk sections like we show at 27:55. To their credit, city govt is doing a lot for bike infrastructure here, and it seems like much more to come. Can't wait to see what it looks like in 5 or 10 years if we stay on this trajectory. Thanks for watching! -Louis
Love the Transit app. Started out using it when I lived in San Antonio, and I use it still in Houston.
I don't have a car and I get around Austin primarily through bike, bus and sometimes the light rail. If you live downtown, in East Austin, or near S. Congress or S. Lamar, getting around with CapMetro is definitely manageable if you mostly stick to those areas.
With regards to the light rail, IMO there are some misses which I think hurt its ridership. The hours for one, are primarily commuter oriented, which make it less convenient for me to be downtown after work. Also, the Crestview station and the Domain station both require you to cross very busy streets to get to nearby popular destinations, sadly to support parking lots and prioritize car traffic over livability of the area itself. The Domain station is quite a walk - especially in the summer - if you're looking to get to/from the shops. The train should just drop you right in the middle of the shopping area or right next to the residences (same goes for Crestview station to a lesser degree since you have to cross Lamar or Airport to get to the Asian market). That miss alone probably deters many people from riding it to/from the Domain. It clearly wasn't too well thought out because it's also a bit too far from the Q2 stadium - which is why they had to build the McKalla station too. I'm hoping there's some development around Domain and Crestview stations to make it feel safer and more convenient. The downtown station is also a bit of a miss since it doesn't connect to Republic Square, but hopefully the downtown light rail stop for Project Connect somehow connects it all later. Also, I've noticed lately that the light rail seems to be running on Sundays. I haven't needed it yet, but if so, that would make it a lot more useful. I've checked online but haven't found any confirmation from CapMetro about it.
Overall I've managed to survive and only used rideshare apps a handful of times in the past few years. I think using the bike paths help a lot (though routes do need to be expanded and made safer - I've seen many parents bringing their kids along on cargo bikes in some areas where I thought to myself it's still a little too risky). So Austin obviously has some options to get around safely without a car but I'm glad that there is a clear demand to expand and improve those options, seemingly with popular support and support from the city officials. Not everyone has the ability to ride a bike or bear the extreme heat during the summer. Thanks for publicizing that it is possible to get around the city without a car because just today there was a major deadly car wreck on I-35. As a growing city we have the opportunity to make it safer for everyone traveling and also for our environment and quality of life.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Definitely agree on the red line. It definitely has it's limitations, but over time should improve with more development, and double tracking in more areas. Hopefully over the next few years (and longer) we see increased bus service, as well as Project Connect implementation 🤞I live on N Lamar (near the Triangle) and it's another part of town that's pretty easy to get around with easy access to 801, 803 and other bus routes. Decent bike routes nearby as well. My partner and I got rid of a car when we moved to this part of town (we now share one between the two of us), but mostly e-bike to get around. Thanks for watching! -Louis
Thanks for posting the link to Transit Forward. I'm still having trouble finding any specific info about funding for the Project Connect airport extension though.
love the show yall
13:57 Jeni's is from Columbus, OH. Definitely do one of these videos here!
I don't know if Chris will let me.... but I'm game for anything that provides more Jeni's. -Louis
Another good idea for the other rapid bus there adding ends at good night ranch. They could easily connect it to south park meadows to the 801.
Interesting, yeah I didn't realize how close those were. More than anything, I'm just excited to see those new routes get up and running next year! Thanks for watching.
Please consider making a fantasy map of where you would put elevated train tracks at Disney world to connect all the theme parks, water parks, Disney springs shopping area and all the major hotels
Additional gondolas on this fictional Disney world map would be cool too😂
Lol- I will mention this to Chris! Thanks for watching! -Louis
This would have been helpful the last time I headed to Austin on the train..... I actually did a good amount of walking and ended up by the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue after enjoying the Austin Public Library
The 30 bus does not see very much use to Zilker outside of events- and even then, during most events, the buses are detoured and don't go through barton springs rd. For example, even the 30 bus does not go to Zilker during ACL, trail of lights, etc. Because they close down barton springs rd. You have to walk from Lamar anyways. They need either an earlier place to turn around so they can run service during events, or to allow buses to travel through.
That being said, there are a number of reasons why people don't use the 30 bus. It's super slow, it comes every 30-40 minutes, it stops running too early, and the route is super wonky after it heads down the mopac service road(where buses also get stuck during events). I used to live on Spyglass on the 30 route and I can't tell you how many times I wasn't able to even leave the neighborhood because they just detour and cancel the route so frequently during events at Zilker.
I think a better solution might be to extend the new rapid route to Zilker either during certain times/days(perhaps fri-sun) or maybe only during events, with a better turnaround solution(it has to be convenient or people won't use it). There simply isn't enough ridership there for daily high frequency service(which, chicken and egg situation. it could be that the bus is so bad right now, nobody uses it. Or it could be that entire strip of barton springs is full of extremely expensive condos and homes that already have 1-2 cars at home).
I am rooting for y 'all, but with Capmetro, it's hope for the best, expect the bare minimum.
Lot's of agreement! I think you are totally right about events and the 30 in Zilker. I also like the idea of the new rapid route only going to Zilker on the weekends. We talked a little bit about the route in a past episode too. I'll link it here: th-cam.com/video/5eaRaLaD5Fw/w-d-xo.htmlsi=k_ms2YkYNBcqhFpO
Thanks for watching! -Louis
merch when? hats especially to protect the scalp when walking around town…
We have talked about it! Stay tuned. I'll bring it up with Chris again this week. -Louis
Welcome to hell, the Austin transit system.
Please let me get out
Its better than San Antionio
I think you should come to other cities and do the same thing as you did in this video. It would really show what cities are doing with transit...Atlanta would be a good stop
Lucky for you we have! Atlanta is on our list, but we've done this in Salt Lake City, New Orleans, San Antonio, and now Austin! We have plans to do Houston in the next month or so as well. Here is a playlist with all of them: th-cam.com/play/PLa4ROsu5cZAKVmFlOhVS0_EjDFQEWXyNu.html
The bus QR scanners suck they frequently take forever to scan and sometimes don’t even end up working
Definitely agree! Lol. Need tap to pay bad.
Cap Metro needs to consider putting bus routes on freeway frontage roads. I know the one-way setup isn't ideal, but there are a lot of businesses on them, and they are often far from a bus line. For example, I stayed at a Super 8 in 2015, at I-35 and Powell. It was a long walk through a dicey neighborhood to the bus stop on Georgian.
I doubt we see that anytime soon for better or for worse. TXDOT is about to break ground on widening I35 and several businesses along the highway are actually already clearing out for it. Texas has no problem using eminent domain when it comes to highways apparently..... It could be interesting in some areas though! Although I would be concerned for pedestrian safety, as there is a lot of speeding and wild driving on those frontage roads... Thanks for watching!
@@TransitTangents Well, the bus stops would be on the same side of the street as the businesses, so crossing traffic shouldn't be an issue.
@@JohnWilson-hc5wq It sort of depends on what direction you are going, but in one direction you would be able to do that, on your way back you would have to cross. If TXDOT takes steps to make it safer for pedestrians with their construction project I think it could make sense. I won't hold my breath that TXDOT is doing that though haha... We'll see though. -Louis
@@TransitTangents Because the frontage roads are one way streets, what I envision is a long loop where the bus goes down one side from the center city to the edge, then crosses the freeway and goes down the other side. Yes, it’s inefficient, but that’s the only way I can see it working, especially since Austin has few over or underpasses….
I remember when Capital Metro ran a few bus lines along the I-35 frontage roads for a short length. One went from downtown to NE Austin (the former 37 line), another went from downtown to Riverside via I-35 crossing the river (the old 26). Man times have changed.
Question, why does it say Chrisjonesatx towards the beginning of the video the first time chris talks.
that's his twitter handle
I would do this, since I would save so much money by not having a car and making regular payments and maintenance on it (and if I do I would want to prioritize modding vintage cars to have better fuel mileage so that no one can say I am not trying to minimize my output for the climate change issue.
I want to build (riding model) trains and the line so that no freight train can steal priority since unless someone wants to make a competitor and use my tracks, they would need to build entirely new tracks since how I want to set it up in the contract to build and lease out the line to the company wanting to buy exclusive access to it. I still have so much paperwork and understanding I need to do in order to get it established and running, but that would be my ideal career path.
LOUIS IS RIGHT, JENI'S >>>> AMY'S!!!! (Jeni's is from Ohio but.... it's just so good). However, I will forgive Chris because he did get you to finally eat Raising Cane's.
May I ask, why Patreon? When are you going to enable YT Memberships.
We do have an audio specific audience as well who don't necessarily use TH-cam. Also TH-cam takes a much bigger cut (30%). Not against doing the memberships though. Is that something you'd be interested in? I know it would probably be more convenient when thinking about it. I can chat with Chris about it. Let us know what you think. Thanks for asking and for watching! -Louis
3:02 why does Austin has the same shape as Algeria 😭😭🙏🏾
11:10 are these protected bike lanes? I thought “protected” meant they were physically shielded from cars encroaching on the bike lane
Very fair question. I feel like the term protected gets used very loosely (I'm guilty of it too). Currently the city would consider this to be protected. I fully recognize that this wouldn't stop a car from crashing through, but setups like this really do a lot to slow drivers down, and make the bike lanes more visible. Right now the strategy Austin is using is doing as much "quick build" type stuff like this as fast as possible in as many areas as possible, with the goal of then upgrading them to more permanent (and protected) solutions when larger road construction is required in the area to save on costs. In a budget constrained world, I actually support the approach. It's gotten us a lot more of these quick build setups all around the city. Great question and maybe a topic for a longer episode! I'll mark this one to be discussed in a quick comment response on Patreon as well. -Louis
I wish the Domain would implement itself into the the Bus network, as well as install traffic lights. They say walkable but crossing Domain Dr as a pedestrian is nerve wracking.
The Domain definitely needs some work for sure. It also doesn't connect well at all with the Red Line. Back when they were building the red line the land would have probably been fairly affordable to re route a bit of the tracks to make it more convenient.... Curious to see what the future of that area holds! Thanks for watching. -Louis
It would have been helpful to give the times on your various travel segments. When you say we walked here or there. Or, we biked from here or there, there is no sense of how long it's taking you guys to traverse the city.
How long it takes you to get anywhere is critical to whether people will use public transit or not. If it's not efficient or convenient enough, there is little incentive to use it on a regular basis. Thanks.
Totally! I am remembered someone (maybe you) said this on a previous one. I just texted Chris so we remember for next time. Tentatively have dates to do something similar in Houston in November! -Louis
Can't help but notice that literally nobody else was using the cycle lanes. I can bet my kidney it's because of how hot it is. Texan planners need to consider the obvious fact that Texas isn't as cold as other transit friendly Europeas. People aren't gonna use the cycle lanes if there's no shelter from the sun. Wide open cycle paths on scorching hot asphalt with zero shade is just not the answer, sorry 😢.
To be fair, this was at like 1pm on a weekday. There is a counter installed on that street now and it sees high hundreds per day in one direction from what I can remember. It is also no where close to one of the busier bike lanes or paths in the city, although numbers have gone up since they made it safer. Is it hot in the summer? Totally, but especially with e-bikes (Austin has a rebate program on them), its actually not too bad and has been growing in popularity anecdotally at least. Plenty of work to be done still though. Thanks for watching
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Austin is too hot, too humid, and too sprawled out.
Austin imo is the perfect e-bike city. Transit works for a lot too. Really its "too hot" for about 2 months. The rest of the year is pretty beautiful. That's a much bigger "nice weather" time frame than most cities.