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Google maps says downtown Austin to Giga Texas is 17 miles, 24 minutes. I don't know what traffic is like in Austin but I imagine it's not nearly as bad as the

Google maps says downtown Austin to Giga Texas is 17 miles, 24 minutes. I don't know what traffic is like in Austin but I imagine it's not nearly as bad as the bay area. I think a 25-30 min commute is pretty reasonable and most people would happily take that for much cheaper housing. The big difference is that in Austin you have the option to commute a bit for much cheaper housing. But in the bay area you could be commuting over an hour each way and the houses will still be over $1 million.

deleted 5y ago
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adamvalve 5y ago
People have been pouring in to Austin for years and Austin has done nothing in terms of infrastructure. Traffic is a nightmare.
bradknowles 5y ago
I lived and worked for six months in the Cupertino area for a contract job at Apple. My wife and I moved to Austin in 2006. Traffic in Austin is weird. There are some places where it’s literally the worst in the nation — I-35 is the most congested interstate in the nation, and the most congested part of I-35 starts just above Austin and ends just south of Austin. I-35 is more or less congested pretty much around the clock. But if you live closer in, and you’re traveling further out, then you can go counter flow, and it might not be too bad, depending on where you start and where you end. I can say the same is true for Cupertino. My commute there started on Stevens Creek Road, where it crossed 280 and went west on Stephen’s Creek Road and ended when I got to Bubb Road, just east of where Stevens Creek Road crossed 85. If you can carefully pick your starting and ending points, the commute isn’t so bad. But I was a contractor. I was getting paid way more than the employees. At the time my contract was up, I calculated that if they were going to offer me a job, they’d have to offer me at least $250k per year plus bonuses and stock, just to let me keep renting that same one bedroom apartment. And nobody but executives were making that kind of money at that time. Meanwhile, my wife stayed here in Austin, with our cats and our house, and we were still making house payments as well — and my 1BR apartment out there cost way more than our 4BR house here. Getting back to the traffic here in Austin, 360 can be a parking lot if you’re going the wrong direction at the wrong time. So can Mopac. And both are still better than I-35. And that’s really it for major north-south commuting options. The 130 toll road on the far eastern sides of town just isn’t an option for most people. As fast as it is, it would take far too long to get over there, go north or south by however much you need, and get back, compared to just staying on the parking lot you’re already on. So, the key will be to choose housing that is close to the office, so that you can avoid most of the commute in the first place. And housing costs is one area in which Austin fortunately still can’t compare to the Bay Area. As much as I hate how much housing costs have gone up and that my wife and I are now effectively locked into our house because we can’t find a place we could afford to buy within a 200 mile radius for what we would get for this house, our housing costs are still way, way below that in the Bay Area. And yes, we still hate all the jokers coming in from California who are gladly dropping millions of bucks to buy up houses that just a few years ago were only worth a few hundred thousand. Thanks for visiting, but Austin is full. Yankee go home, please.
- pb7 5y ago
  Nice of you to come to California to get some big paychecks before taking them back to Austin to outbid your neighbors then complain about others doing the same. You seem like a real principled guy. Don’t come back.
- pcwalton 5y ago
  > And yes, we still hate all the jokers coming in from California who are gladly dropping millions of bucks to buy up houses that just a few years ago were only worth a few hundred thousand. > Thanks for visiting, but Austin is full. Yankee go home, please. This NIMBY mentality is why Austin is rapidly catching up to California in housing prices. The advantage is not going to last long at this rate. (And before you start, I'm like 4th generation native Texan.)
  - hellbannedguy 5y ago
    I have a weird feeling the Yankees won't be there long. I feel it's just a matter of time before Musk moves the factory to Mexico along with everything else except the white collar jobs. Right now--a move just doesn't feel right, but I bet he is itching to move the manual labor south. He has a bunch of competition comming up real quick, and Elon is not planning on running for office, so why not sell out to cheap labor? (I don't agree with that last sentance, but so many wealthy Americans do.) He will stay two years at most. (I don't know if he got any tax payer incentives. That might play a part?) I wouldn't be surprised if Tesla hasen't bought up large chunks of Mexican land already.
scoofy 5y ago
Traffic in Austin is insane. Legit insane. Definitely comparable to the Bay Area if not worse. And there is absolutely no transit alternative comparable to BART. There is a morning and evening train, but it's really only effective if you live and work exactly on the stops.
- Bellamy 5y ago
  Does anyone even consider taking a bike? If you visit Amsterdam or Copenhagen, you know what I mean. The happiness of the people, clear streets and less noice is something you can't explain, but it's better what you can imagine.
  - frumper 5y ago
    It's quite hot in Texas. Just a quick look up, the daily average summer low in Austin is higher than Copenhagen's daily high.
- muglug 5y ago
  What a great candidate for the Boring Company! He'll build a new tunnel for Teslas to drive through!
  - reaperducer 5y ago
    He's already in talks to build a new Tesla tunnel in San Antonio.
- bgentry 5y ago
  I lived in CA my whole life, including the last 10 years in the Bay Area, before moving to Austin a year ago. I can’t for the life of me understand what you’re talking about. I-35 is bad, that’s about it. The freeways around the rest of Austin are still moving even around rush hour. None of those hold a candle to the Bay Bridge on a Friday afternoon, not even remotely close to as bad.
  - scoofy 5y ago
shiftpgdn 5y ago
Central Austin corridor (35) is radically worse than anything in the bay.
- deleted 5y ago
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bravetraveler 5y ago
If you ever do come visit Austin, learn to love I-35. It's a weird mix of nascar and bumper cars, but also rolling parking lot. Edit: It's the main way you'll go North/South here. Often times I'll double the commute taking side streets just to avoid 35 - depends on the day/time/personal interest in sport driving.
jen20 5y ago
> 17 miles, 24 minutes This is genuinely hilarious. Perhaps this is true at midnight, or during the early days of the pandemic. 17 miles in Austin is well over an hour at peak commuting times.

deleted 5y ago

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adamvalve 5y ago

People have been pouring in to Austin for years and Austin has done nothing in terms of infrastructure. Traffic is a nightmare.

bradknowles 5y ago

I lived and worked for six months in the Cupertino area for a contract job at Apple. My wife and I moved to Austin in 2006. Traffic in Austin is weird. There are some places where it’s literally the worst in the nation — I-35 is the most congested interstate in the nation, and the most congested part of I-35 starts just above Austin and ends just south of Austin. I-35 is more or less congested pretty much around the clock. But if you live closer in, and you’re traveling further out, then you can go counter flow, and it might not be too bad, depending on where you start and where you end. I can say the same is true for Cupertino. My commute there started on Stevens Creek Road, where it crossed 280 and went west on Stephen’s Creek Road and ended when I got to Bubb Road, just east of where Stevens Creek Road crossed 85. If you can carefully pick your starting and ending points, the commute isn’t so bad. But I was a contractor. I was getting paid way more than the employees. At the time my contract was up, I calculated that if they were going to offer me a job, they’d have to offer me at least $250k per year plus bonuses and stock, just to let me keep renting that same one bedroom apartment. And nobody but executives were making that kind of money at that time. Meanwhile, my wife stayed here in Austin, with our cats and our house, and we were still making house payments as well — and my 1BR apartment out there cost way more than our 4BR house here. Getting back to the traffic here in Austin, 360 can be a parking lot if you’re going the wrong direction at the wrong time. So can Mopac. And both are still better than I-35. And that’s really it for major north-south commuting options. The 130 toll road on the far eastern sides of town just isn’t an option for most people. As fast as it is, it would take far too long to get over there, go north or south by however much you need, and get back, compared to just staying on the parking lot you’re already on. So, the key will be to choose housing that is close to the office, so that you can avoid most of the commute in the first place. And housing costs is one area in which Austin fortunately still can’t compare to the Bay Area. As much as I hate how much housing costs have gone up and that my wife and I are now effectively locked into our house because we can’t find a place we could afford to buy within a 200 mile radius for what we would get for this house, our housing costs are still way, way below that in the Bay Area. And yes, we still hate all the jokers coming in from California who are gladly dropping millions of bucks to buy up houses that just a few years ago were only worth a few hundred thousand. Thanks for visiting, but Austin is full. Yankee go home, please.

pb7 5y ago
Nice of you to come to California to get some big paychecks before taking them back to Austin to outbid your neighbors then complain about others doing the same. You seem like a real principled guy. Don’t come back.
pcwalton 5y ago
> And yes, we still hate all the jokers coming in from California who are gladly dropping millions of bucks to buy up houses that just a few years ago were only worth a few hundred thousand. > Thanks for visiting, but Austin is full. Yankee go home, please. This NIMBY mentality is why Austin is rapidly catching up to California in housing prices. The advantage is not going to last long at this rate. (And before you start, I'm like 4th generation native Texan.)
- hellbannedguy 5y ago
  I have a weird feeling the Yankees won't be there long. I feel it's just a matter of time before Musk moves the factory to Mexico along with everything else except the white collar jobs. Right now--a move just doesn't feel right, but I bet he is itching to move the manual labor south. He has a bunch of competition comming up real quick, and Elon is not planning on running for office, so why not sell out to cheap labor? (I don't agree with that last sentance, but so many wealthy Americans do.) He will stay two years at most. (I don't know if he got any tax payer incentives. That might play a part?) I wouldn't be surprised if Tesla hasen't bought up large chunks of Mexican land already.

scoofy 5y ago

Traffic in Austin is insane. Legit insane. Definitely comparable to the Bay Area if not worse. And there is absolutely no transit alternative comparable to BART. There is a morning and evening train, but it's really only effective if you live and work exactly on the stops.

Bellamy 5y ago
Does anyone even consider taking a bike? If you visit Amsterdam or Copenhagen, you know what I mean. The happiness of the people, clear streets and less noice is something you can't explain, but it's better what you can imagine.
- frumper 5y ago
  It's quite hot in Texas. Just a quick look up, the daily average summer low in Austin is higher than Copenhagen's daily high.
muglug 5y ago
What a great candidate for the Boring Company! He'll build a new tunnel for Teslas to drive through!
- reaperducer 5y ago
  He's already in talks to build a new Tesla tunnel in San Antonio.
bgentry 5y ago
I lived in CA my whole life, including the last 10 years in the Bay Area, before moving to Austin a year ago. I can’t for the life of me understand what you’re talking about. I-35 is bad, that’s about it. The freeways around the rest of Austin are still moving even around rush hour. None of those hold a candle to the Bay Bridge on a Friday afternoon, not even remotely close to as bad.
- scoofy 5y ago

shiftpgdn 5y ago

Central Austin corridor (35) is radically worse than anything in the bay.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

bravetraveler 5y ago

If you ever do come visit Austin, learn to love I-35. It's a weird mix of nascar and bumper cars, but also rolling parking lot. Edit: It's the main way you'll go North/South here. Often times I'll double the commute taking side streets just to avoid 35 - depends on the day/time/personal interest in sport driving.

jen20 5y ago

> 17 miles, 24 minutes This is genuinely hilarious. Perhaps this is true at midnight, or during the early days of the pandemic. 17 miles in Austin is well over an hour at peak commuting times.