Quote:
|
Originally Posted by George
A recent report stated a number of millions of gallons of gas are wasted each year in congested traffic, as well as, the loss of billions of man-hours idle in delayed traffic. Emissions are also worse in these conditions.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Tinaa
I'd love to be able to drive to Fort Worth and NOT have to drive thru Austin! The trip from San Antonio to FW would be considerably shorter and safer.
|
I drive from Houston to Fort Worth-Dallas frequently. The worst part of the trip is getting out of Houston. Once past Conroe, I-45 flows very nicely.
And that's the problem with the TTC. It does not address the problem of urban congestion; that's the main source of trouble and it's not caused by through traffic, but local. If you want to address congestion, bypassing the cities won't help anyone but the peolpe on the bypasses, and you can construct those without going to the TTC extreme.
Also, TTC-35 (to use it's new name) does not even give a passing glance at my trip route. There is some talk about adding a connecting route, but going from Houston to Austin (or Waco) to get to FW-D seems counterproductive.
I am, however, very much in favor of high speed rail. As first proposed, this would have been a link basically following I-35 and I-45, with a connector between the two. One of the early ideas involved "ferry cars" so you could put your family car on the train, hop into the coach car, and go. Rapid rail trip, no driving, amenities along the way, plus have your car at the other end.
(Of course, I'd only use it going up. On the drive back, there are the mandatory stops at Russell Stover and Woody's.)