Austin traffic

I prefer 281 south any time over 35

 

It's a nice and somewhat peaceful drive. The 10-20 miles north of the San Antonio airport can be miserable at times. But it's anywhere from 35 to 75 more miles depending on how you're trying to deviate and from/to where. I enjoy it when I have time on a load and OOR miles won't be too much of an issue, but you're rarely going to save time running 281 outside of major crashes closing key sections of I-35 for significant time.

That said, spring break weekends, big game days in Dallas and/or Austin and/or Waco, Thanksgiving and Christmas travel days ... these can certainly make 281 a worthwhile option.

 

Staying off 35 is easy and time comes fast. Read a map. Screw 35. Ive said before from DFW to the Alamo, no need for the big road.

 

For all its problems, 35 [between Austin and Hillsboro] is much better today then it was only 3 years ago. Won't be long before it'll all be 3-lane. I'm not up to speed on what they're talking about regarding Austin upgrades.

 

Awhile back they had a crack induced idea of running 35 underground all the way thru downtown -

 

Whataburger got a good plug in at the expense of Notre Dame.

 

Last time and the only time I drove through Dallas to Laredo, when it was raining, really hard. The construction roads were narrow and weirdly hilly, and white. So the roads were extreamly hard to see, very tight, and plus they were flooded. I got sucked in some kind of a flooded hole and bounced from there like a ball. I thought I was going to die that day