Most Congested Freeway (Texas)

[jgb191]

Nobody mentioned San Antonio....the I-410/I-35 multiplex is in dire need of expansion and modernization.  They have been working on practically the entire northern half of I-410, including adding two new massive four-level stack interchanges.  The I-10 northwest freeway has been expanded between downtown and the 410 and effectively erasing the ditch in the central median.

[timhomer2009]

I-35 in Austin, I-35E in Dallas, and US 59 (soon to be I-69) in Houston.

[Chris]

100 Most Congested Roadway Segments in Texas

http://apps.dot.state.tx.us/apps/rider56/list.htm

[BigMattFromTexas]

San Angelo I said my city doesn't get congested, I was wrong I have noticed a pretty large increase in traffic here on Houston Harte Expswy, Sherwood Wy(Business 67), and Bryant Blvd(US 87).

San Antonio Last time i was in San Antonio I(me and my mom) it took about an hour to get about six miles, at least it felt like an hour, It was when they were redoing the west bound side of I-10, then it took anouther 30 minutes to get about five miles, on I-410 while they were building bridges, and what-not.

DFW Last time I was in D/FW I didn't get in any traffic, until I got onto some town but it was friday night.

Austin Last time i was in Austin, there was alot of congestin, the time before that i was there for about four days and on I-35 they shut down all of the lanes except the left shoulder and the far left lane, so everyone had to get over from about four lanes at 70mph to two lanes at 20mph, bad times.

[Marc]

San Antonio Last time i was in San Antonio I(me and my mom) it took about an hour to get about six miles, at least it felt like an hour, It was when they were redoing the west bound side of I-10, then it took anouther 30 minutes to get about five miles, on I-410 while they were building bridges, and what-not.

They have since completed that section of I-10. It's MUCH nicer than it was before. All concrete design. Took them long enough to do it though.

[BigMattFromTexas]

Quote from: BigMatt on September 09, 2009, 09:13:47 PM
San Antonio Last time i was in San Antonio I(me and my mom) it took about an hour to get about six miles, at least it felt like an hour, It was when they were redoing the west bound side of I-10, then it took anouther 30 minutes to get about five miles, on I-410 while they were building bridges, and what-not.

They have since completed that section of I-10. It's MUCH nicer than it was before. All concrete design. Took them long enough to do it though.

Oh good!
BigMatt

[Chris]

http://www.dot.state.tx.us/apps/statewide_mapping/StatewidePlanningMap.html

US 69 isn't the busiest freeway in Texas anymore, I-45 has overtaken that position.

2008 AADT:

US 69 just west of I-610 = 330,000
I-45 just north of I-610 = 335,000

US 69 dropped from 337,000 to 330,000 from 2007 to 2008, while I-45 increased from 326,000 to 335,000 AADT. Those are massive figures. Only a few freeways outside the Los Angeles area reach over 300,000 AADT.

I-610 saw a huge increase between I-10 and US 69 on the west side of town, from 226,000 to 279,000. Were there roadworks here during 2007? Such year-on-year increases are barely autonomous growth...

[Marc]

I-45 is in desperate need of improvements all the way from I-610 south, through downtown, to AT LEAST I-610 north. Nothing but old inadequate freeway-to-freeway interchanges and narrow lanes with little to no merging space.

What Houston really needs is some sort of a rapid mass-transit system because widening the freeways only is a short term solution (Katy Freeway only had about eight months of congestion-free conditions before it started to have traffic again). Regardless though, I'm sure most of the bridges and structures along the Gulf and North freeways inside of I-610 are not as structurally sound as they used to be. Even tough it's been widened over the years, you can tell they just added onto the original structures (looks tacky from underneath). Most other cities of Houston's magnitude have a rapid transit system, why doesn't Houston?

[Chris]

Rapid transit system would mostly substitute the existing (huge) bus network. Houston's bus system has a significant ridership (600,000). However, I doubt if it would really relieve the freeways. There isn't as much competition between cars and public transport as they usually propagate. Public transport appeals to a limited audience. Houston is not New York 

[mightyace]

Rapid transit system would mostly substitute the existing (huge) bus network. Houston's bus system has a significant ridership (600,000). However, I doubt if it would really relieve the freeways. There isn't as much competition between cars and public transport as they usually propagate. Public transport appeals to a limited audience. Houston is not New York 

Houston is planning a massive expansion of its fledgling light rail network.

See http://www.ridemetro.org/News/Releases/2008/06262008.aspx

However, Chris is probably right about the effect or lack thereof that it will have on Houston traffic.

[Chris]

Dallas also has a new busiest freeway.

In 2007, I-35E between Spur 366 and the DNT was the busiest freeway at 276,000 AADT.
In 2008, the US 75 between Spur 366 and Haskell Avenue increased to 299,000 AADT (change: +24%)

The entire US 75 corridor up until Allen saw a 30,000 AADT increase over 2007.