Traffic/Construction Bright Spots
Some people’s commutes are about to get easier. News8Austin and others are reporting that the 45th street construction that started a little over a year ago is complete. The entire length of 45th from Mopac to Airport Blvd got some new sidewalks and water/wastewater lines. It was completed a month early and funded by a 1998 bond issuance, something to keep in mind when the bond elections come up this November. The Chronicle has details and opinions about what’ll be included in that package.
I also saw last week that the work on 183 between I-35 and Springdale/290 is nearly completed and expected to open by the end of the month, a welcome relief for me as the diversion onto the service road and the light at Cameron Road adds at least 10 minutes to my morning commute. The stretch of 183 between I-35 and Ben White is to become a toll road once more improvements are made. I’m unsure of the timeline on that, but now that I said toll road, this post is sure to get some comments. Toll road, toll road, toll road.
ewww. I hope the tolling part is a ways off.
I hope the tolling part _is_ soon – we ought to be tolling expensive roads like this all over the place. There’s no way to manage demand other than through pricing – somehow we think the Soviets were bad for managing scarcity via rationing or long lines, but we think we’re fine and dandy for doing the same thing with “road space”.
(and I don’t buy the ‘double taxation’ argument. I pay that damn gas tax all day long but rarely drive on roads which actually get that money – so I’m getting double-taxed more than y’all are).
The no-doubt p h e n t e r m i n e-weary metroblogging folks have successfully hidden trackback from me and/or destroyed it altogether, so here’s the link to my barely-related yes-you-succeeded-in-pushing-my-button crackplog on the subject:
http://mdahmus.monkeysystems.com/blog/archives/000313.html
Yes, I AM E Z.
I don’t think we (Austin Metblog and Metroblogging as a whole) ever allowed trackbacks, M1EK.
Not my decision. You’re right, it’s more of a spam thing than a not wanting to allow legitimate cross-site linking. Another case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. You can thank all of the spamming motherf*ckers for ruining trackbacks along with e-mail and whatever other useful collaboration/discussion tools appear in the future. I can’t wait for VOIP spam. Yay!