The traffic argument is so infuriating. When will American journalism, and Americans at large, realize the very simple truth: no large city in the US will ever exist without traffic, without a fundamental shift from our car-centric culture and development to transit-oriented?
this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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Yeah, I hear you, but what if we add another 7 lane highway that cuts right through the center? I think that would solve the issue
-random US city response, probably
random US city response, probably
Not random. You just described Houston, Texas.
Atlanta as well. The frustrating thing is that Atlanta has MARTA, but the state refuses to fund it and MARTA's answer for everything is to divert funds away from rail to bus lines. But then the degraded rail service means more people drive than ride trains, thereby increasing gridlock, which causes bus service to suffer. So then MARTA diverts funds away from rail to bus lines...
Can't be Houston, he said 7 lane highway not pothole ridden, Mad Max hellscape
not just any rando city, literally Austin https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/2/27/a-75-billion-boondoggle-advances-in-austin
what if we add another 7 lane highway that cuts right through the center?
That's hard to do now since we've run out of affluent African-American neighborhoods to build them through.
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It is not possible to explain the horribleness that is Austin road planning and the complete and utter lack of available transit. Exhibit 1 https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/2/27/a-75-billion-boondoggle-advances-in-austin
Just consider what it must mean for an average Californian to say traffic is bad. These aren't people coming from rural Montana complaining about city traffic.
Even that headline image is Jesus Christ. Temporally closed ramp onto a packed full outer road from a freeway that's sitting squarely in the E rating. (Can't move without major effort)
I feel like for $7.5 billion they could build a city wide monorail system with tons of stops. Charge a few bucks a ride and it pays for itself. Or make it totally free and see what happens when your city suddenly has total freedom of movement. Bet it would have huge economic benefits for everyone. (So of course it'll never happen.)
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It's not all or nothing. Most people are willing to deal with a 30 or 40 minute commute If they're not already working from home. The reason people point out LA in Austin is because they are significantly worse than other cities like Atlanta Philly and Baltimore.
significantly worse than other cities like Atlanta Philly and Baltimore
Wait. Atlanta resident here. There are cities worse than us?
You have bad traffic but your average commute times are actually kind of nominal. The MARTA could be better You're like right on that line where you have bad traffic but your public transportation hasn't been made effective yet.
You should check out San Francisco's problems. Half their commuters are coming ovary major bridge from Oakland or elsewhere in California and the city itself is a peninsula so everyone's squeezed coming up from the south. And the bart is hands down awful
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To be fair, Austin has to be not far behind LA as some of the worst. Everything in Texas is made for cars only basically.
There's traffic in NYC and Chicago. As long as there are roads people will drive. There will always be traffic. Public transit only affects how bad the traffic will be and limit growth of the city.
You are so close to understanding ... as long as there are roads ... there will be traffic ...
The solution isn't build more roads and enable car culture more, the solution is to stop catering to cars and build less roads. Instead build more public transit. Literally stop catering to cars, make cars less viable as a transportation method by limiting how much space is available to them. Cities can work just fine without cars.
Cities can work fine without cars if they have viable alternatives
I know you mentioned this but it bears repeating, because so many of the "fuck cars" people don't bother to prioritize investing in alternatives, just making driving more miserable.
If you make car commutes twice as long but offer trains, you get more people on trains.
If you make car commutes twice as long but don't offer any alternatives, you just have the same people sitting in cars for twice as long.
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I will never understand why anyone trusted Texas, how blind can you be
The majority of my friends leaving Austin have done so because of state politics. It's hard to feel safe when you're queer in Texas.
Yup. I know three separate people who basically got the fuck out the moment the abortion bill was passed.
"Where ambition goes to die" has been an unofficial motto here in Austin for decades. We're too busy enjoying our lives to be bothered overworking ourselves. Guys like this dude have been trying hard to ruin the vibe recently, and he's welcome to return from whence he came so we can keep chilling
Lived there for a decade. Moved to NC this past July. Getting out of the state was the best thing I could have done.
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He is right about it being scorching hot tho. It’s starting to feel like I’m living in Palm Springs.
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I’ve never lived in Austin but it was very underwhelming to visit. It’s hard to fathom why people would choose to live there over CA. Just look at the quality of life metrics. And it’s not even affordable to live there.
Good BBQ though.
Food - that’s it IMO
And music maybe
This is the best summary I could come up with:
During the pandemic, Austin became a hot spot for remote workers and coastal tech employees who were in search of more space, favorable tax laws, and a lower cost of living.
Once you peel back the boldface names who moved to the city and the corporate announcements about flashy new headquarters, the reality of day-to-day living and working in Austin's tech scene leaves a lot to be desired, according to those Insider spoke with.
"If I was a 22-year-old founder starting something I'd go to Silicon Valley because it's going to increase your odds of success," Gurley said, adding that it is easy for people to get distracted in Austin because they might be having too much fun and not focusing on building their businesses.
He listed off a few of his displeasures with Austin, including a bad public-transportation system that led to awful traffic, subpar museums, and general overcrowding that makes it hard for any spontaneous activities — they must be booked far in advance, he said.
Sheharyar Bokhari, a senior economist with Redfin, previously told Insider that Austin is experiencing whiplash after several years of robust buyer demand and price growth.
Stuck in Austin until interest rates or coastal housing prices fall, Chang has spent the summer scrolling through Instagram, envying the friends he left behind in California.
The original article contains 1,672 words, the summary contains 220 words. Saved 87%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Actual headline: "One guy regrets moving to Austin."
Journalism I guess. Would you say that he 'slammed' Austin?
There's good journalism out there. None of it is published in Business Insider though. Not sure why we're posting these kinds of links on Lemmy
Insider spoke to six workers in tech who recently left Austin or are trying to relocate ...
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Doesn't like Austin because it's too fun? Sorry but poor excuse to not like a cool city. Very few activities need a reservation or to plan ahead.
Does being in Silicon Valley actually increase a startup founders chance for success? Start a fully remote company.
I assume being in Silicon Valley means you are around other tech startups and people in the tech industry. Half of being a startup is getting industry connections and getting your name in the paper.
Silicon Valley is where all the VCs are. They make a lot of their funding decisions based on whether they like hanging around with a founder or not. You're more likely to get money out of them if you're fun to drink beers with than if you have a great business plan.
A friend of mine in that area gets a ton of networking done in person, visiting mixers held by Google and Meta, etc. It hasn't worked for her mostly because she's... kinda bad at good ideas, but damn she's good at getting free tech interns and knowing a guy who knows a guy with endless wealth who will at least hear your pitch deck.
I'd say that would tip the scales for a tech startup over a remote one, although location alone isn't going to earn you those tech innovation bucks.
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Their idea of a “tech worker” is an angel investor
Pay walled article.
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