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Originally Posted by DruidCity
I know some of you hate roads, but with all of this "world-class growth," what can be done to improve Austin's infrastructure to handle the growth ?
From San Marcos, I've found that it often takes as long to travel 25 miles north to Austin as it does to travel 50 miles south to San Antonio.
San Antonio is also a large, fast-growing city, but somehow I never see the traffic jammed up like I do so often on Austin's stretch of I-35.
What is I-35 going to be like when you host world-class events like Formula One ?
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I went to San Antonio a few times this month, I-35 around Selma/Schertz is just as bad and 410 gets bad. The people complain about Austin traffic I guess have never been stuck in traffic in Dallas or Houston.
Quote:
Originally Posted by electricron
Congrats to Austin.
Too bad Fort Worth already has two NASCAR and one Izod Indy Car racing events, because that just leaves one Formula 1 event per year.
NASCAR isn't expanding anymore, there's already new oval tracks waiting inline for a new Nascar event. it's possible Izod Indy Car may provide a second event for the Austin track to strengthen its appeal in Texas. I'm not so sure F1 would allow that.
There are road courses all over America available for testing new technologies already, a new one really isn't needed.
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There is only one FIA sanctioned track in the US, Indy. Nascar ovals are overbuilt as the wait for race dates shows. There is a shortage of tracks that can hold these type of events in this part of the country as most of the tracks are country club style tracks or older tracks, neither were designed to handle these type of events. Road courses can handle all sorts of events and for the track to be profitable they would have to have other high profile events along with a bunch of regional events.
A FIA sanctioned track where F1 race could become the premiere facility in the country and attract the events that don't come to this part of the country because the proper facilities don't exist. I could see an ALMS race signing on quickly, they have nothing between Miller (Salt Lake City) and Barber (Birmingham, Alabama) since the Houston event folded due to the IRL/Champ Car merger, it was a crappy parking lot race anyway. World Superbike has hinted at wanting a second race in the US, MotoGP is another possibility.
I have heard there are large foreign investors behind this proposal, which if true is better than trying to get a financial company to invest in something like this. As far as the time frame many of the recent tracks have been built in about 18 months. Much of what is done is the track and necessary facilities are built and more amenities are built after the first race.
I consider myself hopeful that it will come through, I consider myself "cautiously optimistic" that it will.