Any of you Austinite readers know exactly what this headline is talking about. Austin traffic is the worst. I can’t even begin to count the amount of times a week I complain about having to commute to Austin. Between construction on I-35, the inevitable delays on Mopac, and the excessive amount of people moving to Austin, attempting to travel in and out of Austin is about as pleasing as using a dial-up Internet connection. (Some things you should just have figured out by now…)
According to today’s infographic, you should allow at least 10 minutes of extra time on top of your average commute if you’re traveling within Austin. When compared to the average large US city’s traffic delays (6 minutes), that’s horrendous. It’s not just time you’re wasting in traffic, though. Texas A&M’s Transporation Institute found the average Austin commuter lost $930 out-of-pocket, wasted 20 gallons of fuel, and released 400 excess pounds of CO2 pollution into the atmosphere in 2011. Pretty pricey tag for such an annoyance, huh?
But wait! It’s going to be okay! This infographic shows by “using better traffic operations” – an extremely ambiguous and undefinable phrase – Austin residents should have saved 848,000 gallons of fuel and 2 million hours of delay in 2012. In other words, traffic problems should have decreased. But they didn’t, and have only continued to worsen. If you read the fine print on today’s optimistic infographic, Texas A&M’s Transportation Institute admits, “Austin’s traffic challenges have grown along with its population. While the region has taken productive steps to deal with worsening congestion, our traffic problem continues to affect our daily way of life.” In other words, we’re screwed and Godspeed. Our next step? Wait for the invention of flying cars.
ViaÂ