http://shine.yahoo.com/event/financiallyfit/traffic-pain-10-cities-with-the-worst-commutes-2444341/ 4. Houston: $1,322 (58 hours/52 gallons)
Where's Austin? I assumed that it had to be ranked far worse than Houston, based on some of the comments I've read here over the years.
That's probably more about the drivers than the traffic. There are some morons up here. I work in Westlake and live in Central Austin, and it never takes me more than 20 minutes even in the worst of traffic.
Found it. Top 10 Cities for Drunk Driving Violations, according to Insurance.com: 1. San Diego, CA 2. San Jose, CA 3. Charlotte, N.C. 4. Phoenix, AZ 5. Columbus, Ohio 6. Indianapolis, Ind. 7. Los Angeles, CA 8. San Francisco, CA 9. Austin, TX 10. Jacksonville, FLA
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It's good to live in River Oaks, folks. Short commute + luxury = win. The only time I even get onto a freeway is when I have to head to the airport.
I work acros the street from the Sears Tower in downtown Chicago (#1 on the list). My daily commute is as follows: - Walk from apartment to train station (1 minute). - Wait for train to arrive (1.5 minutes). - Take train 6 stops into downtown (11 minutes). - Walk from train station to the office (8 minutes). Total commute: 21.5 minutes (each way). Total cost: $86 (pre-tax)/month. No car insurance, no car payments, no gas. :grin:
And there are just as many comments refuting that notion. Aside from normal rush hour traffic, Austin is a breeze to get around. Anyway, to answer the question, they ranked Austin #19 ($882 - 39 hours / 32 gallons) which is appears to be a big improvement over than their 2005 #9 ranking ($1534 - 52 hours / 42 gallos).
Thanks! I looked at the info and couldn't quite figure it out. As for Austin's traffic, I've lived there for 30 years, so yes, it's a breeze to get around compared to Houston. It's also far, far smaller, which helps. Sadly, much bigger than it was when I started coming here in the mid-'60's, when it was nirvana.
I've spent time in both places --> Austin traffic is maddening. Worse than Houston. We have 20 lane freeways in Houston and have made infrastructure improvements. Austin is woefully behind. Instead they built a complete laughingstock of a rail line.
lol traffic can be bad in some places, but it's so compact so even if traffic is slow, you aren't traveling far like you are in htown
From like 71 to the merging of the upper and lower levels past dk is a consistent traffic jam almost 24 hrs a day. It's not a bad commute after that though.
I've also heard that the stretch of road where the upper and lower lanes merge is the deadliest in the world. The same stretch that I was complaining about traffic, prolly cuz the traffic is always caused by accidents. Rubbernecking is really bad here.
