In defense of a much-maligned highway

Interstate 35 is the road that everyone loves to hate, but what if you don't have the luxury to hate it? An ode to this streaming service that quietly gets the job done.

The privilege of hating Interstate 35 hit me back in 2016.

I’d been in Austin for a decade, following the advice to “avoid 35 at all times" and dreading any time I had to go to “the other side.”

But this was a year when I was thinking intensely about the blindspots that my own white privilege had given me. I was spending a lot of time on the east side, and it was nearly impossible to drive to there without taking I-35.

In 2019, I met Frank, who lived in North Austin. I was surprised that “the bad highway” was often the one with the least traffic, so I started to get to know I-35 in a new way.

Fast forward five years, and now I live in North Austin and take I-35 almost every day.

The first year we were here, my son took the bus in the mornings, crawling into that big yellow submarine at 6:30 a.m. in the darkness of the night before to get to his old school in South Austin.

This year, we’re trying something new in order to get an extra hour of sleep, which means I’m spending even more time on my favorite thoroughfare. It takes about 25 minutes to get to school and about 20 minutes to get home, with about 8 minutes of bumper-to-bumper traffic heading south.

This gives me lots of time to appreciate all the other cars and trucks carrying people making their own commutes.

I see landscape trucks and house cleaning cars and semi-trucks carrying refrigerated goods that keep us fed.

I see the skyline downtown changing just a little bit every day.

I read traffic signs that warn me about upcoming construction delays and meetings about the planned changes to this critical artery in the state’s transportation network.

Over the past few weeks, the last of the businesses along I-35 have closed to make way for a $4.5 billion expansion that will take years to complete. There’s a meeting on Saturday at Canopy in East Austin hosted by Future 35, a “community-centered initiative” to sink parts of the highway.

I’m not thrilled about the idea of the lanes getting a foot narrower, and I think it’s interesting the “cap-and-stitch” idea of lowering the road and building green space on top. I’m sure it’ll be a nightmare while it’s being constructed, but more park space downtown certainly can’t hurt.

I’m keenly aware of how I-35 was built on East Avenue and acted as an official way to bifurcate the city into “white” and “not-white.” And how East Austin’s gentrification has continued to hurt communities of colors.

Which is why all the complaints about I-35 have started to annoy me.

Now, when I hear people complain about I-35, I hear their unawareness of just how critical this highway is for so. many. people.

Sure, fewer people are driving into offices these days, but I-35 connects Austin to the more-affordable suburbs of Kyle, Buda, Hutto, Round Rock, and Pflugerville, where you’ll find many people who can’t afford to hate a highway that makes their lives possible.