TX 130

TX 130 was crowded last night. Relatively so, anyway. It was still "set it on 75 and go", but I actually had to change lanes a couple of times.

I was on the toll road for the same reason many others were there, I suspect: there were two accidents blocking lanes of I-35. But even with tie-ups on the free route, it was still Sunday-morning traffic on the tollway. I'm not sure of the reasons, but i think these may be among them:

• TX-130 doesn't go anywwhere. It starts just west of Manor and ends just north of Georgetown. It passes way east of Austin, Pflugerville, Round Rock and Georgetown. They only town it goes through is Hutto, which, while growing, is not a major population center. When the road is extended south to TX-71 east of the airport, there will be more reason to take it.


• The geography is wrong for freight trucks. If you're coming south on I-35 and heading for Houston, and you have a Tx-Tag, TX-130 is a time-saver and probably well worth the toll. But if you're headed south on I-35 at Georgetown and bound for Houston, you're probably lost. If you had started north of Salado, you had shorter and faster routes available. And there's almost nothing between Salado and Georgetown. When the road is extended to Sequin, at least it will take some of the traffic headed for San Antonio and the Valley.


• It can be slower than I-35 if you don't have a Tx-Tag. Pulling over to pay (and you have to do it twice between manor and Georgetown) is a nuisance, and I can't see anyone doing it twice.


• The toll seems high. It's $2.70 from Manor to I-35. That's more than 10 cents per mile, OK for days when I-35 is bad, but every day? That's 13.50 a week and over $700 per year.


• RIght now, it's a hassle to get on the tollway. Just for example, from Sematech in south Austin you have two main choices to go where I live:
  
  
  
  • Drive east on Oltorf and get on I-35
  
  
  • Take Montopolis north; get on US-183 (which can be tricky in traffic); exit east on MLK; take the second left onto Decker Lane; turn right at US-290; get on the TX-130 frontage road and wait a long time at the Parmer Lane intersection; and you're on your way: Bob's your uncle.
  
  
  
  

So there are reasons to think that TX-130 will remain lightly-travelled for some time to come. I'll enjoy it when I decide to spring for the luxury.