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.
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.
Yet, so many do, don't they?
:)
Where I live, roads, ramps, exits are more integrated into surroundings.
According to this, Austin Texas is #10 on this chart.
#1, LA
#2, NYC
#3, San Fran
#4, San Jose (near San Fran)
#5, Seattle
#6, Miami
#7, DC
#8, Chicago
#9, Honolulu
#10, Austin
Not because I know anything about Texas or California, or about traffic as a field, but because any data set - especially a list - can be used to present an argument and then be refuted due to "this detail". I see this on HN a lot and I believe that it has made me much less likely to be misled by someone toting data.
Austin has essentially nothing, the train they built is legitimately the dumbest, cheapest option that was offered at the time, though they are building dense housing along it now. People often choose which side of the river to live on because of traffic. You're simply not going to convince me that Austin isn't one of the worst cities to commute in, because unless you want to bike in 100ºF heat, you literally have no choice but to engage in it, especially if you have to cross the river.
East-West commuting is much easier. The wise strategy is to live East/West of town, not North/South.
I don't know about the Bay Area, maybe they are better because of reliable transit, but Austin is nowhere near the So. Cal area when it comes to traffic.
Source: while working as a transport planning consultant, I had a private client in Austin. He flew our team around the city in a helicopter, saying "see all this traffic? It's insane!". I'd just flown in from New Delhi. By the standards I was accustomed to, I didn't see any traffic at all.
Certainly Austin does have a need for much better public transit -- and if being upset about traffic is a catalyst for making that investment, then that's great! -- but in that respect it's no different to most other major metropolitan centers in the US.
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.
Employees at corporate HQ's tend to want to have houses in the burbs. They tend to be in there 30s and up as well. There is no shortage of suburban real estate in the vicinity of the gigafactory. A minority of employees will live in downtown Austin and hate their life due to the horrific commute out of there.