Long-distance Texan Commuters!
 

Hi everyone,

I'm a graduate student in University of Texas at Austin. I'm reserching a topic related to interregional commuting in Texas, e.g. having family/partner in Austin and working in Houston.

Anyone here is doing, or considering doing, or did such commuting, or knows someone else who has such situation??

Many many thanks!!!!!

Misty

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

There are probably plenty of people like that here (I do something similar, but between IL and NY), but you are not quite clear on what you mean by "commuting". Are you looking for daily trips, going home for weekends, etc.?

a large number of people commute from the baltimore area down to the dc area daily. others commute from outer northern va to dc. particularly blue collar employees. neither commute is of texas sized mileage, but each takes 2 hrs each way in rush hour. i think austin-houston can be done in 2 hrs or less, even though i have never had the good fortune to make that trip.

When I lived in Austin I had a contract with a company in Houston and commuted from AUS - HOU for 6 years. I generally went down Monday morning and came back Wednesday or Thursday night, two or three weeks a month. I met many people on the WN flights who commuted from Austin to Houston every day.

If you had made the trip, you would know that Austin to Houston is 150 - 160 miles, depending on where you're leaving from and going to. I've done it in 2 1/2 hours outside of rush hour, but the drive generally takes 3 hours or more, depending on traffic. I've never done it in 2 hours or less.

Please follow as the thread moves to our Travel->South forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

Thank everyone so much for replying my post!
I'm having difficulty in finding cases.

When I say "commuting", I mean daily if the distance between work and home allows, or it can also be "weekly commuting", i.e. live in a rent place near work for several day and go back to home weekly.

Please please let me know your opinion and case! Thanks a lot!!!!!

My little sister lives outside New Braunfels ("Country Place") and commutes weekly to Houston (Town House), where she practices law.

I have someone in my Houston office with her house and family near Austin. She normally does the "weekly" commute. She does pay on a shared apt in Houston also. I know some others. What are your questions?

As an aside, I have done Houston to Austin in just at 2 hours.
I prefer the IH-10 to TX-71 route (or southern route) versus the US-290 route (northern route). Less stops on 10/71 and I am normally going to south or central Austin from south or central Houston. If I am doing Woodlands or RoundRock type of drives I'll go north. North seems to have more stops and traffic overall IMO.

Are you in the Geography Dept? I did my undergrad there and we had some grad students doing similar studies. Just curious. This was a long time ago LOL.

Ciao,
FH

I would suggest you post your question on this forum:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/austin/

You will probably receive several responses.

I know many people who have commuted from Fort Worth to Dallas for years. More recently, we are running into a lot of people who commute from Dallas to Fort Worth because of job growth in one vs. the other.

The distance between the two downtowns is only 36 miles but it can easily be an hour or more between them at many times of the day. The Trinity Railway Express has picked up many daily commuters in both directions.

Several of my teammates have an even greater commute from DFW area suburbs to downtown Fort Worth. My business partner drives over an hour without traffic from the far northern DFW suburbs to downtown Fort Worth. When we moved our office, we commissioned a real estate study and it would have been possible for some of us to have had up to a two hour commute depending which business area of DFW we relocated our business to just because of all the sprawl.

Long time ago? For me, it was a minor in Geography graduating in January, '62. I suspect that the department may have changed as much as have the world's maps in the interim. Then there's my daughter, the one with a degree in Economic Geography from Aggieland. Tough row to hoe, given only one atlas and two TXDoT maps, all pretty well marked up with crayons.

What's the difference between a poor Freshman and a 'well-to-do" one at A&M? The poor one buys the single row 8 pack of Crayolas at the bookstore. Rich kids buy the big 3 row boxes.

Thanks everybody!
 

Hi

I've been out of the country for three weeks and didn't get chance to check post.

Thanks a lot for everyone's responses and suggestions!

FlyingHoustonian, I'm in community and regional planning department in Architecture School.

carraher, I'm looking for more forums to post my question. Thank you very much for the link!

Welcome and appreciate more responses!