Austin rated fourth among gridlock cities
A listing published this week by Forbes ranked Austin No. 4 among the “10 U.S. Cities with the Worst Gridlock,” noting residents spend an average of 41 hours a year stuck in traffic. Austin came in behind Los Angeles, Honolulu and San Francisco.
The article notes many of the worst traffic cities, particularly Austin, had high employment rates and job growth — which had the downside of putting more commuters on the roads.
Mayor Lee Leffingwell, who made a pitch for urban rail in last week’s State of the City address, issued a statement saying the traffic issue “frustrates just about all of us.”
“The listing brings me to again assert that our traffic crisis threatens to undermine everything we have accomplished and everything we can accomplish,” he said. “I hope folks will join me in working toward solutions, like increasing transportation options and serious consideration of an urban rail system through central Austin, so that we can be more efficient at work, spend more time enjoying our families, and enjoy the city we love.”
A program aimed at reducing emergency room visits by people who are frequent callers to Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services will expand with the help of $226,839 from Central Health.
The Central Health board authorized its staff Wednesday night to negotiate a contract for that amount with EMS to expand the Community Health Paramedic Program. The project is expected to serve 100 low-income residents with short-term care and assistance. The money also will be used to hire a paramedic who will visit people in the community and buy a vehicle and equipment for those visits, according to information provided by Central Health.
Based on how well the program does, it would be eligible for matching federal money under the 1115 Medicaid waiver, a program expected to save Medicaid dollars. Medicaid is a federal-state program that provides health care coverage to the needy.
T.S. Eliot famously wrote that April is the “cruelest month,” but the Pflugerville Public Library appears to disagree.
The library will celebrate the national poetry month by hosting a poetry writing contest for adults. All contestants will get their poems posted on library walls. Three winners will get Barnes & Noble gift cards.
Pflugerville announced the contest in rhyming verse, but contestants aren’t obligated to stick to any type of poetry.
“All kinds of poetry are welcome, whether you submit a limerick, haiku, or open paraphrase,” a city statement said. “Your poetry can rhyme if you’d like, so submit your poetry in any way.”
The deadline is March 31, and the contest is open to those over 18. Entry forms and additional information are available at the checkout desk of the Pflugerville Public Library at 1008 W. Pfluger St. over the weekend at Hewlett-Packard.
The three-member teams faced off against 30 high school squads from across the state writing original programs designed to solve 21 mathematical, logical reasoning and computationally challenging problems.
“Unlike our typical UIL Computer Science competitions, HP CodeWars — Austin is a hands-on, three-hour marathon of team programming and problem solving,” said Westwood computer science adviser Jeff Mickel in a statement.
Westwood students Salil Deshpande, Young Wang and Shawn Wu took first place in the competition’s advanced division, while Sameer Bibikar, Batu Ozsaracoglu and Avilash Rath won third in the novice category.
Westwood High School senior Steven Chen was named a finalist in the 2014 Intel Science Talent Search, landing a $1,000 award for himself and the school.
Chen will join 40 high school seniors from across the nation as a finalist in the competition, which gives talented young scientists a chance to present original research to nationally recognized professional scientists.
Chen developed a model for studying the behavior of supercooled fluids, which remain in a liquid state despite being cooled below their freezing points.
The 40 finalists are convening in Washington, D.C., through Wednesday to compete for a $100,000 grand prize.