People who complain about the traffic here haven't driven in Houston I guess, it's not even comparable.
Austin traffic is nothing and folks always want to act like 15 or 20 minutes to get across town is torture or something...
Interesting, you and I live pretty close to one another. I'm seconds away from the corner of Kirby and Westheimer. I also rarely use the freeway except to get to IAH or when driving to Austin for occasional work (I insist on driving instead of flying because I love taking out my nicer toys and driving them fast on 71). I commute to downtown so about 10 minutes by car or twice that on bicycle.