9.28.17:
Still working on the problem of learning this city. In Houston, they have a company called Key Maps. Before all of this high tech stuff came along, you would use it to look up addresses for places, and find the place you are looking for with that map. I still have an old Houston key map from back then, and it is rather tattered. It reminded me of this resource, so I looked up an equivalent for Austin. Don't see one.
There's plenty of that high-tech stuff around. I can tell you this about high-tech: it is good for certain things, but it is definitely not fool-proof. The last time I worked in Austin, their turn-by-turn instructions left a great deal to be desired.
Austin may turn out to be a very, very interesting place. I may even begin liking the place.
One rider compared Houston to Austin in terms of its freeways, traffic, and public transportation. He says Houston is better. Frankly, I like Austin's train system much better than Houston. Houston's train system is stupid. Austin has their train system stopping at park and rides. There is only one route, and it is heavy rail system, which appears to be built on top of the existing rail system. This to me seems smart. You use what's there, not build something completely incompatible with what is already there, like Houston did.
However, Austin's freeway and toll roads leave much, much to be desired. The traffic on them is awful. Houston has the reputation for traffic, and yes, it can be bad. But Austin is ridiculously bad. Houston is working on it, though. They want to tear up Pierce Elevated in Downtown Houston. Why? I suspect it is make Houston's traffic much worse so that people will get out of their cars.
Why not work with what is there? Again, people do not want solutions. They just want the continual warfare. We can do better.
the original post follows:
Well, the way things are headed, I may have to work again. If I am to work for Uber, I need to know this city a lot better.
Not any good solutions for this. Anything I do costs money, yet I am limited in what I can make.
The money part isn't very good. Is it worth it? May not have a choice.
Dang. Lemme change the subject.
Anyway, for the last few weekends, I went to Austin to drive the streets a bit. These jaunts tell me if I can handle being behind the wheel for very long. Trouble with this set up here is that it is an hour and fifteen minute commute--- each way. That's not as bad as Houston from here, but it is definitely a strain. May be fun at the start, but it doesn't last. By the time I get to town, I am feeling like coming home.
Interesting layout to this town. You can get the country feel next to the big city. You're driving around seemingly in the middle of nowhere, then there's the town.
So much for the exploration part.
That is all.
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