Dear Editor,
I need to weigh in on the Austin rail system [“
Proposition 1,” News, Oct. 17]. I have voted for rail in the past. I will vote no this time.
Anyone driving in from Bastrop, Manor, Pflugerville/Round Rock, Cedar Park, Dripping Springs, and Onion Creek knows the traffic problems. More people are moving to the suburbs. Building inner-city density has not made it affordable to live in Austin.
Austin should emulate the system in London, England. The pattern of the routes is what is important. It would be like a bicycle wheel. You would come into the city from the suburbs. You have concentric circles as you approach the center. There is a station at each juncture. You could transfer to a loop route at any station. You could go anywhere in the city. We would use buses to transfer at the stations now. We could build an elevated system when we have the funding. An elevated system is the least disruptive to traffic.
This system makes sense.