RTA members and partners,
This week I have had the opportunity to participate in the third annual intercity visit of one of our RTA Leadership Team members, the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce. We are in Austin, and we are having the opportunity to gain visibility into economic development projects, university collaboration initiatives, and some elements of the mobility network in central Texas.
Austin continues to be a fast-growing region and is always a worthy competitor to the Research Triangle. Both of our metropolitan areas have flagship universities, state capitals, business-friendly environments, attractive climates, and welcoming residents. Our I-40 is their I-35, and both experience rush hour congestion. Central Texas has more than twice the number of miles of toll roads that we have. Neither region has a ferry system.
Austin has more than 2.5x the number of downtown employees as Downtown Raleigh (131k v 48k). In fact, the number of employees in downtown Austin is roughly equal to the number of employees in Downtown Raleigh, Downtown Durham, and all of Research Triangle Park. This means that the travel patterns, needs, and solutions are going to be different between the two regions. Our area will continue to be increasingly dispersed, which means our multimodal system of multiple freeways, turnpike freeways, and FAST (freeway, arterial, street, and tactical) transit will continue to need to reflect this.
One thing Austin has that we do not, or at least not yet, is autonomous taxi services: Waymo vehicles were plentiful. I attempted to order one but you cannot actually request one in Austin; instead, you can request an Uber, set your autonomous settings to be open to autonomous, and then request an Uber under one of a few classifications that a Waymo would qualify for. I tried this, and ended up with a (human driven) Tesla. It was still convenient, but my Waymo findings will have to wait.
Let’s get moving
Joe
