The big difference is that in Austin you have the option to commute a bit for much cheaper housing. But in the bay area you could be commuting over an hour each way and the houses will still be over $1 million.
And there is absolutely no transit alternative comparable to BART. There is a morning and evening train, but it's really only effective if you live and work exactly on the stops.
I-35 is bad, that’s about it. The freeways around the rest of Austin are still moving even around rush hour. None of those hold a candle to the Bay Bridge on a Friday afternoon, not even remotely close to as bad.
Yet, so many do, don't they?
:)
Where I live, roads, ramps, exits are more integrated into surroundings.
According to this, Austin Texas is #10 on this chart.
#1, LA
#2, NYC
#3, San Fran
#4, San Jose (near San Fran)
#5, Seattle
#6, Miami
#7, DC
#8, Chicago
#9, Honolulu
#10, Austin
Not because I know anything about Texas or California, or about traffic as a field, but because any data set - especially a list - can be used to present an argument and then be refuted due to "this detail". I see this on HN a lot and I believe that it has made me much less likely to be misled by someone toting data.
Austin has essentially nothing, the train they built is legitimately the dumbest, cheapest option that was offered at the time, though they are building dense housing along it now. People often choose which side of the river to live on because of traffic. You're simply not going to convince me that Austin isn't one of the worst cities to commute in, because unless you want to bike in 100ºF heat, you literally have no choice but to engage in it, especially if you have to cross the river.
East-West commuting is much easier. The wise strategy is to live East/West of town, not North/South.
If you dare go Eastside; or, worse, need to go from like Renton to Totem Lake; or Redmond to somewhere that isn't the the center of Bellevue, you're just never going to get there in a reasonable amount of time.
Renton to Totem Lake in particular is planned for 2024-25. https://www.soundtransit.org/system-expansion/i-405-brt
Also, Renton to Totem Lake should only be one connection given a weird sound transit airport route (590?) from West Seattle to Bellevue that goes through Renton.
I don't know about the Bay Area, maybe they are better because of reliable transit, but Austin is nowhere near the So. Cal area when it comes to traffic.
Source: while working as a transport planning consultant, I had a private client in Austin. He flew our team around the city in a helicopter, saying "see all this traffic? It's insane!". I'd just flown in from New Delhi. By the standards I was accustomed to, I didn't see any traffic at all.
Certainly Austin does have a need for much better public transit -- and if being upset about traffic is a catalyst for making that investment, then that's great! -- but in that respect it's no different to most other major metropolitan centers in the US.
If you visit Amsterdam or Copenhagen, you know what I mean. The happiness of the people, clear streets and less noice is something you can't explain, but it's better what you can imagine.
Employees at corporate HQ's tend to want to have houses in the burbs. They tend to be in there 30s and up as well. There is no shortage of suburban real estate in the vicinity of the gigafactory. A minority of employees will live in downtown Austin and hate their life due to the horrific commute out of there.
It's a weird mix of nascar and bumper cars, but also rolling parking lot.
Edit: It's the main way you'll go North/South here. Often times I'll double the commute taking side streets just to avoid 35 - depends on the day/time/personal interest in sport driving.
This is genuinely hilarious. Perhaps this is true at midnight, or during the early days of the pandemic. 17 miles in Austin is well over an hour at peak commuting times.
> Thanks for visiting, but Austin is full. Yankee go home, please.
This NIMBY mentality is why Austin is rapidly catching up to California in housing prices. The advantage is not going to last long at this rate.
(And before you start, I'm like 4th generation native Texan.)
FWIW I haven't been in Austin, just Dallas
But geographically speaking, Austin is pretty awful. I35 is basically the in/out for all of the commuters from the north and south. There are some tollroads but Austin has had trouble getting people to use them because they were so expensive. They even raised the speed limit to 85 as an incentive and still enough folks wouldn't pay the astronomical rates! Now, for people making software engineer salaries, they could afford it, but they likely won't be enough to continue investment in the needed timeframe.
Apple, Tesla, etc, so many huge names are moving to Austin and the city just wasn't built for it. They have enough room to make stuff happen, but construction takes money and political will. Austin is a blue city, but we all know money leans red, especially when it comes to increased taxes to pay for city projects. Can you imagine the amount of money that would need to be spent to imminent domain a subdivision for a new freeway? I can see the speculative investment purchases already! Hold them up in lawsuits for a few years while the housing prices get pumped to kingdom come.
Now, I live up the road in quaint little ole Dallas, so what do I know? I've watched the price of housing increase by 30% in a couple years. It's absolutely insane. Lucky for DFW, it has had more of a focus on transportation development across the entire metroplex a lot longer than Austin, so even during rush hour you can get all the way into downtown from the far suburbs in an hour. Granted, this is also made possible by an insane amount of investment in toll roads, but they've been strategically built through the wealthiest neighborhoods, forcing residents to take them just to leave home. (Obviously not required, but the city knew they had money to burn.)
DFW also has the second(?) largest airport in the US, processing an insane amount of cargo and thus we have highways to match. DFW boasts 4 professional sports teams, a major backbone of financial services, a thriving entertainment scene, and still plenty of room to expand.
DFW still lacks around public transportation, but if you are willing to pony up the cash for a place in the city, it's certainly possible to commute in a reasonable amount of time. You will absolutely need a car still for weekend activities unless you want to ride a bus for 3 hours one way.
Californian's, if you're going to move to Texas, go fill up Austin first before I buy a house next year, but then when you realize it's too crowded down there, you can come visit the state fair (going on now)!
;)
I know Fremont is suburban, but it's a well incorporated suburb to both SF, Oakland and San Jose. 78725 is on the opposite side of Austin from most of the fancy neighborhoods.