What the fuck is wrong with you, Austin?

[Samson's Wig 3194]

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

There are two good bagel shops within a stone's throw of the Starbucks on Far West.  She should just go there.

Oh, I know. 

[Samson's Wig 3194]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Seriously.  Going to Starbuck's for a bagel is like going to Subway for pizza.

Agreed.  I don't get it.  She's 11.  We've failed as parents.

[texasdago 7585]

58 minutes ago, Native Horn said:

That was not in January 2023 though.

Correct... poster said, "A nice downtick, but 2021 actually ended with the most of any of those years as we came out of COVID. "

[Deej 76956]

3 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

There are two good bagel shops within a stone's throw of the Starbucks on Far West.

Shocking

[jimmyjazz 46242]

10 minutes ago, Deej said:

Shocking

One could probably hit both of them with a stale bagel thrown from the J.

[Covri 6253]

4 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

Agreed.  I don't get it.  She's 11.  We've failed as parents.

Buy her some frozen Lenders brand bagels she can make anytime at home. I’m sure they are similar quality/texture.

[Modessit 5606]

Buy her some frozen Lenders brand bagels she can make anytime at home. I’m sure they are similar quality/texture.

Better yet, buy them but don't tell her. Make one, stick it in a Starbucks bag and tell her you stopped and got her one.

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

4 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

Agreed.  I don't get it.  She's 11.  We've failed as parents.

Naw, sometimes at 11, they just derive comfort from that one thing. Our kids didn't get to eat out much but they each had that one treat or place that was just theirs. Since I was usually the one carting them around everywhere, sometimes I'd ask my husband to do those kinds of visits so that they could have a little time together.

But there is a definite hierarchy in bagel quality.

 

[jimmyjazz 46242]

Believe it or not, at least in Austin (and specifically the Mesa Drive store), Randalls house-made bagels rock.  They crush HEB's lame-ass versions.

[Deej 76956]

HEB cares more about tortillas.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11821]

10 minutes ago, Deej said:

HEB cares more about tortillas.

And that’s fair.

[jimmyjazz 46242]

7 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

And that’s fair.

Risky move in that neighborhood.

[Steel Shank 9432]

South Austin >> North Austin

[Seger78 258]

7 hours ago, crash_davis said:

February says hold my beer. Shooting at a Super 8 in the middle of the night? Drugs absolutely had nothing to do with it.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/police-investigating-homicide-in-south-austin-motel/

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Austin police said they are investigating a deadly shooting at a south Austin motel as a homicide early Thursday morning.

Police said one adult is dead at the Super 8 Motel on the southbound Service Road of Interstate 35 just south of U.S. Highway 290.

Somebody's evening didn't go so well

[texasdago 7585]

4 hours ago, Steel Shank said:

South Austin >> North Austin

Obviously 

[InkaUtexas 26175]

5 hours ago, Deej said:

HEB cares more about tortillas.

So do I. Unless you are in NYC ain't eating bagels.

[South Austin 52632]

10 hours ago, Steel Shank said:

South Austin >> errbody

Fixed

[Mittens 8312]

On 11/8/2023 at 4:37 PM, blacklab said:

Holy shit WFT on barton springs. Haven't been that way in a while, and now the only way to Mopac from the river to 70/290 is one fucking lane in each direction?

Made a round trip and used it twice. Hundreds of cars, traffic backed up eastbound, and I saw one dude on a bike between mopac and lamar. This was around 10-11am. I can't imagine how bad it is during rush hour.

 

[Steamboat1874 4086]

I am pretty sure the drivers are not giving that a warm welcome.

[Deej 76956]

At some point, they'll just close all roads to cars. 

[BurntEyes 6038]

9 minutes ago, Deej said:

At some point, they'll just close all roads to cars. 

Meg thinks that's a good idea.

[Samson's Wig 3194]

The bicycle lobby is the number one thing about Austin that fucking sucks, and that's saying something.  These unused lanes all over town are so completely stupid, and on the rare occasion you see someone using them, it's a goober in spandex getting exercise, not a commuter.  We shouldn't be subsidizing workouts for middle-aged assholes too embarrassed by their slight frame to step foot in a real gym, especially at the expense of functional roadways.  If I thought for a second that large numbers of people would commute via bike in this town, I'd be all for it, but they won't and they never will.  There are plenty of great cities in climates that make commuting via bicycle a reasonable option.  Austin is not one of them.

I don't know how the morons got control of everything, but it's like living in a bizarro world here sometimes. That news story about Barton Springs is hilarious.   They couldn't even find someone on a bicycle using the new lane for their b-roll, so they had to create a photo op with Meg Merrit, Austin resident and "transportation expert," just to show someone actually using a bicycle on this stupid fucking waste of money.  We're a clown show.

[PvilleStang 2922]

4 hours ago, Mittens said:

 

I freaking HATE that change.  I love how they're doing it to prevent speeding.  "We've forced everyone to follow that one assclown that texts and drives 10 under the limit."  The bike cucks can eat a bag 'o Stoops'.

[sidis 9832]

Everyone that was involved with the Barton springs to one lane each way decision should be shot to the fucking moon and forced into involuntary slavery for the benefit of creating spiked dildos to fuck their own asses with. Stupid fucking idiots. 

[Serak The Preparer 3434]

On 2/1/2024 at 8:41 AM, Samson's Wig said:

Absolutely. No need to involve anyone else.  DM me your address and we can chat about it.

No need to hop over to SSS, I got some footage from the Starbucks and ID'ed his license plate.

That license plate is like a rash all over the computer. The car belongs to a known traffic menace. His name is @Eastwood.  He's got a record a mile long.  And he's a Teacher. The address? 1060 West Addison.

[Bozo_Casanova 26579]

3 hours ago, sidis said:

Everyone that was involved with the Barton springs to one lane each way decision should be shot to the fucking moon and forced into involuntary slavery for the benefit of creating spiked dildos to fuck their own asses with. Stupid fucking idiots. 

Sure. Other than the fact that it made the street a ton safer, didn’t make traffic any worse, and made the people who use the road happy yall have a great point about removing a lane from Barton Springs.

but I’ll admit it makes the “everything was better in 19XX” crowd mad and the view from Leander is pretty bleak. Yall should call Todd and Donn and cry more.

Edited February 3 by Bozo_Casanova

[sidis 9832]

8 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Sure. Other than the fact that it made the street a ton safer, didn’t make traffic any worse, and made the people who use the road happy yall have a great point about removing a lane from Barton Springs.

but I’ll admit it makes the “everything was better in 19XX” crowd mad and the view from Leander is pretty bleak. Yall should call Todd and Donn and cry more.

I use the road virtually every day and live less than half a mile from it. Traffic is many orders of magnitude worse, I am a lot less happy using it, everyone I know that uses it with any frequency fucking rage hates it, it backs traffic up all the way from azie morton through the park to the mopac service road routinely, and I suspect you have no actual empirical basis to say it Is any safer yet given we are merely six months into this idiotic experiment.  Or maybe you think a tower.net blog entry saying they saw a twitter post one time is actual data satisfying an event study comparison.  

I don’t know who Todd and Donn are I don’t understand the Leander or 19xx red herrings other than to say they are ineffective and unpersuasive. 

[South Austin 52632]

Why the fuck can’t Austin make a straight fucking line on the road with all these mobility improvements?

[Bozo_Casanova 26579]

28 minutes ago, sidis said:

I use the road virtually every day and live less than half a mile from it. Traffic is many orders of magnitude worse, I am a lot less happy using it, everyone I know that uses it with any frequency fucking rage hates it, it backs traffic up all the way from azie morton through the park to the mopac service road routinely, and I suspect you have no actual empirical basis to say it Is any safer yet given we are merely six months into this idiotic experiment.  Or maybe you think a tower.net blog entry saying they saw a twitter post one time is actual data satisfying an event study comparison.  

I don’t know who Todd and Donn are I don’t understand the Leander or 19xx red herrings other than to say they are ineffective and unpersuasive. 

I was drunk when I posted that and regret nothing.

that said, I’d like to see a real traffic study, because everyone I know over there says it’s about the same traffic wise and it seems silly to say congestion is anything like “an order of magnitude worse” since that’s not how traffic impacts from lane reductions on a road like that work.
as for experience, when I use it Im either walking or on a bicycle (not cycling, just cruising around) and from that side it’s 1000x better.

Edited February 3 by Bozo_Casanova

[Bozo_Casanova 26579]

27 minutes ago, South Austin said:

Why the fuck can’t Austin make a straight fucking line on the road with all these mobility improvements?

Because most of Austin’s post-war grid was designed with the express intention of discouraging travel between neighborhoods and incorporated federal guidelines to ensure STRICT separation between commercial and residential land uses and funnel cars onto a relatively small number of arterial roads and major highways*. 
in other words the grid was designed to be inefficient brittle and it worked! Absent about a half trillion of right-of-way acquisitions and rebuilding on a scale of Haussman’s renovation of Paris, it can’t make straight lines out of loops and spirals.
 

 

* Not hyperbole. That’s what they meant to do. Austin is not unique in that respect, just an exceptional example due to our growth trajectory over the last 75 years.

Edited February 3 by Bozo_Casanova

[HenryJames 66189]

9 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Sure. Other than the fact that it made the street a ton safer, didn’t make traffic any worse, and made the people who use the road happy yall have a great point about removing a lane from Barton Springs.

but I’ll admit it makes the “everything was better in 19XX” crowd mad and the view from Leander is pretty bleak. Yall should call Todd and Donn and cry more.

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET TO PIZZA NIZZA NOW?!?!

[sidis 9832]

20 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I was drunk when I posted that and regret nothing.

that said, I’d like to see a real traffic study, because everyone I know over there says it’s about the same traffic wise and it seems silly to say congestion is anything like “an order of magnitude worse” since that’s not how traffic impacts from lane reductions on a road like that work.
as for experience, when I use it Im either walking or on a bicycle (not cycling, just cruising around) and from that side it’s 1000x better.

The congestion I am referring to is the traffic upstream of the bottleneck eastbound. Everyone going into azie Morton getting funneled into one lane…people in the right lane pretending they don’t know it is coming and forcing a merge and fucking everything up like it is an exit lane on mopac. The congestion is through the park back to mopac upstream of azie. And it is fucking awful. I will acknowledge that westbound from lamar is not nearly as bad and I think a reasonable compromise is achievable to have two lanes eastbound and one west and give the ped/bikes a comfortably wide area on the north side of the road (which is where everyone wants to be anyway) that unburdens the light at A.M. eastbound and gives non vehicular mobility increased safety and a better experience. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26579]

5 minutes ago, sidis said:

The congestion I am referring to is the traffic upstream of the bottleneck eastbound. Everyone going into azie Morton getting funneled into one lane…people in the right lane pretending they don’t know it is coming and forcing a merge and fucking everything up like it is an exit lane on mopac. The congestion is through the park back to mopac upstream of azie. And it is fucking awful. I will acknowledge that westbound from lamar is not nearly as bad and I think a reasonable compromise is achievable to have two lanes eastbound and one west and give the ped/bikes a comfortably wide area on the north side of the road (which is where everyone wants to be anyway) that unburdens the light at A.M. eastbound and gives non vehicular mobility increased safety and a better experience. 

I can see that. Another major improvement they could make to throughput would be to replace all the controlled intersections between MoPac and Lamar with traffic circles and build a roundabout at Lamar and Barton Springs. Basically peak speed comes down, but throughput goes way, way up and congestion gets smoothed out by eliminating backups at timed stops.
And BTW traffic engineers know this, and it’s cheaper than most of the alternatives, but the political blowback would be too intense and nobody wants to take it on. 

Edited February 3 by Bozo_Casanova

[sidis 9832]

While I would welcome some new roundabout overlords throughout the city including all along Barton springs, it would require a driver reeducation program to teach people what to do. Putting one at Barton and Lamar would resemble the clusterfuck of throngs of tourists trying to navigate the arc de triomphe roundabout. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26579]

20 minutes ago, sidis said:

While I would welcome some new roundabout overlords throughout the city including all along Barton springs, it would require a driver reeducation program to teach people what to do. Putting one at Barton and Lamar would resemble the clusterfuck of throngs of tourists trying to navigate the arc de triomphe roundabout. 

People think that, but Ironically, it doesn’t turn out to be an obstacle. Take the roundabout at 51st and the SB I35 access road. Because of the location, a huge percentage of the people going through that intersection at any given moment are unfamiliar with it.
Despite this, It’s the *most* successful traffic improvement in Austin in the last 25 years- it eliminated a major cause of congestion and a daily afternoon traffic jam, increased the throughput of the intersection while simultaneously making it safe and easier for pedestrians, and decreased the number of accidents overall and virtually *eliminated* injury accidents at that location. People figure it out and problems are rare.

That intersection was something like a worst case scenario, so putting a roundabout there was like testing a pain medication on a terminal patient. Barton Springs and Lamar would be a better candidate to succeed. 

Edited February 3 by Bozo_Casanova

[South Austin 52632]

52 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Because most of Austin’s post-war grid was designed with the express intention of discouraging travel between neighborhoods and incorporated federal guidelines to ensure STRICT separation between commercial and residential land uses and funnel cars onto a relatively small number of arterial roads and major highways*. 
in other words the grid was designed to be inefficient brittle and it worked! Absent about a half trillion of right-of-way acquisitions and rebuilding on a scale of Haussman’s renovation of Paris, it can’t make straight lines out of loops and spirals.
 

 

* Not hyperbole. That’s what they meant to do. Austin is not unique in that respect, just an exceptional example due to our growth trajectory over the last 75 years.

 

[Samson's Wig 3194]

13 hours ago, Serak The Preparer said:

No need to hop over to SSS, I got some footage from the Starbucks and ID'ed his license plate.

That license plate is like a rash all over the computer. The car belongs to a known traffic menace. His name is @Eastwood.  He's got a record a mile long.  And he's a Teacher. The address? 1060 West Addison.

As a former Chicago resident, I recognize that address well.  If that's where he can be found, he's okay in my book.

[Samson's Wig 3194]

10 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Sure. Other than the fact that it . . . didn’t make traffic any worse

[Guest]

Drove by the hotel on Mopac near Wells Branch that the city bought years ago to house the homeless. Completely boarded up. Total waste of money. Meanwhile, seeing more tents creep closer to the neighborhood. Gee, why is Austin losing so many families in AISD?

[Gale Snoats 243]

The lane narrowing on 31st and shoal creek right by the school is the stupidest fucking thing in the history of the world. Between the new super wide bike lanes and walk lane and the cars parked on the road it’s basically one lane that cars going opposite directions are left to fight over. Turned a peaceful little street into thunder dome every weekday morning. I would be livid if I lived on that street.

[Pig Bellmont 8741]

On 2/1/2024 at 12:29 PM, FirstTimeCaller said:

And eating a bagel is like eating a shoe. Y'all are supposed to be Texans. Act like it, damnit

Maybe bagels in Texas. They’re better in other places 

[Samson's Wig 3194]

4 minutes ago, Gale Snoats said:

The lane narrowing on 31st and shoal creek right by the school is the stupidest fucking thing in the history of the world. Between the new super wide bike lanes and walk lane and the cars parked on the road it’s basically one lane that cars going opposite directions are left to fight over. Turned a peaceful little street into thunder dome every weekday morning. I would be livid if I lived on that street.

The ideologues are happy, and that's what matters most.  

How ugly these unused bike lanes make neighborhoods is an overlooked aspect of this foolish practice.  In addition to being much more difficult for vehicles Shoal Creek and similar streets are now an awful eyesore, all at the expense of those who actually live there and for the benefit of almost no one.   The folks who own houses on that street are lucky to live in such an insane housing market, as that crap would make your home almost worthless in most places.  Even here, it's going to put you at a relative disadvantage when selling.   

[MAUFRAIS 6642]

Gee, why is Austin losing so many families in AISD?

Not enough yet. Maroons stuck getting their asses kicked in 6A for another 2 years.

Would much rather see them get their asses kicked a little less severely in 5A.

[Modessit 5606]

People think that, but Ironically, it doesn’t turn out to be an obstacle. Take the roundabout at 51st and the SB I35 access road. Because of the location, a huge percentage of the people going through that intersection at any given moment are unfamiliar with it.
Despite this, It’s the *most* successful traffic improvement in Austin in the last 25 years- it eliminated a major cause of congestion and a daily afternoon traffic jam, increased the throughput of the intersection while simultaneously making it safe and easier for pedestrians, and decreased the number of accidents overall and virtually *eliminated* injury accidents at that location. People figure it out and problems are rare.
That intersection was something like a worst case scenario, so putting a roundabout there was like testing a pain medication on a terminal patient. Barton Springs and Lamar would be a better candidate to succeed. 

The roundabout at 35/51st is the biggest clusteruck to get through because it is/was a 3-way stop. That means that westbound traffic never has to stop and yield unless some moron going eastbound is doing a u-turn. Southbound frontage road traffic backs up a lot during certain times of the day because the westbound traffic never seems to stop. Roundabouts should only be used at 4-way stops.

[Eastwood 4394]

15 hours ago, Serak The Preparer said:

No need to hop over to SSS, I got some footage from the Starbucks and ID'ed his license plate.

That license plate is like a rash all over the computer. The car belongs to a known traffic menace. His name is @Eastwood.  He's got a record a mile long.  And he's a Teacher. The address? 1060 West Addison.

Close. But I'm not Catholic.

[MAUFRAIS 6642]

The roundabout at 35/51st is the biggest clusteruck to get through because it is/was a 3-way stop. That means that westbound traffic never has to stop and yield unless some moron going eastbound is doing a u-turn. Southbound frontage road traffic backs up a lot during certain times of the day because the westbound traffic never seems to stop. Roundabouts should only be used at 4-way stops.

Sounds like it works great for the stepford citizens to get over to real austin so no wonder that dude likes it.

I don’t know because I don’t go over there ever, although I do like the carousel lounge.

[Bozo_Casanova 26579]

8 minutes ago, MAUFRAIS said:

Sounds like it works great for the stepford citizens to get over to real austin so no wonder that dude likes it.

I don’t know because I don’t go over there ever, although I do like the carousel lounge.

Right. The stepford citizens like me who live there and drive through it everyday. Glad you like slumming it in my part of town though. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26579]

53 minutes ago, Modessit said:

The roundabout at 35/51st is the biggest clusteruck to get through because it is/was a 3-way stop. That means that westbound traffic never has to stop and yield unless some moron going eastbound is doing a u-turn. Southbound frontage road traffic backs up a lot during certain times of the day because the westbound traffic never seems to stop. Roundabouts should only be used at 4-way stops.

The location is less than ideal, and yet the project is a success by every metric- less traffic, fewer injury accidents and handles more cars faster. 
on the other hand it hurts feelings, I guess. Old men who don’t use it much hate change so there’s that.

Edited February 3 by Bozo_Casanova

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

The location is less than ideal, and yet the project is a success by every metric- less traffic, fewer injury accidents and handles more cars faster. 
on the other hand it hurts feelings, I guess. Old men who don’t use it much hate change so there’s that.

Source? I love roundabouts, but that one is a mess. I'd be surprised if there are fewer accidents simply because it confuses the hell out of people.

The diverging diamond stuff they put in at Parmer/35 is similar in that regard. It's supposed to be better but it's wildly confusing. Drove through there the other day and there was a major wreck in the middle of it and I can't blame people if it's because they got confused.

Edited February 3 by FirstTimeCaller

[Guest]