Austin Tops for RNs

Austin ranks among America's best cities for registered nurses

Four Texas cities are tops for nurses — Austin ranks No. 7.

If you're a registered nurse living in Austin, you've chosen one the best cities for your profession. Austin-based SpareFoot recently released a list of the 10 best U.S. cities for registered nurses, which shows Texas is a prime destination.

The site teamed up with Indeed to find the 10 metro areas with the most job listings for registered nurses as well as the average salaries for those positions in each city. SpareFoot also aggregated the median rent and home prices based on 2013 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. The site then ranked each metro area based on these metrics, giving twice as much weight to job availability.

Austin, which ranks No. 7 on the list, ranks seventh for both share of jobs and salaries. The Capital City has 8.4 percent of the nursing jobs among the top 10 cities. Nurses in Austin earn an average salary of $65,000. Austin ranks sixth for both salary as percentage of home price (33.9 percent) and rent as a percentage of income (18.2 percent).

Houston ranks first in every category, leading SpareFoot to say the city is "hands-down the best metro area for registered nurses." The Houston metro has the largest share of nursing jobs, 14.6 percent. The city also offers the highest average salary for registered nurses ($78,000) as well a low median home price ($141,400) and median annual rent ($10,728).

Dallas comes in at No. 3, with registered nurses making an average salary of $71,000 and a median home price of $150,000. Additionally, San Antonio ranks No. 5, with an average salary of $62,000 and a median home price of $131,100.

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Self-driving Roller Coaster

More self-driving cars expected to roll out in Austin for 2025

Photo courtesy of Waymo via KVUE

Various brands offering self-driving cars are on-and-off in Austin.

Expect to see more self-driving rideshare vehicles, also known as robotaxis, on Austin roads next year.

Robotaxi company Waymo, which you may have already seen on Austin's roads, is partnering with Uber. At some point next year, customers will be able to use the Uber app to call a self-driving ride.

Austin-based company Avride is in the testing phase and plans to roll out its robotaxis next year.

Currently, Volkswagen ADMT and Amazon's Zoox are in the testing phase in Austin, while Hyundai's Motional is in the mapping phase.

Last year, robotaxi company Cruise paused operations in Austin after the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the company's permits to operate driverless vehicles in the state. And last week, General Motors said it would no longer fund the company because of the time and resources needed.

This way of getting around has come with its safety concerns and issues. The city is tracking those concerns. According to the Transportation Department, the problems span from blocking the roads and parking in front of people's homes for weeks with lights beaming through their windows, to actual wrecks.

Since July 2023, robotaxis have been involved in 75 incidents. Only 21 of those incidents happened in 2024. It's important to note that Cruise has not been operating in Austin this year.

Since July 2023, driverless rideshare vehicles have been involved in 22 near collisions, eight collisions and seven instances where driverless taxis ignored directions from the Austin Police Department (APD).

According to the data, at least four of those Austin police incidents happened in recent months. The issues varied from driving through police checkpoints, to malfunctioning and getting stuck at an APD road closure near pedestrians, causing safety concerns.

A Waymo spokesperson said their vehicles have gesture recognition capabilities, which they've been training APD officers on using.

As the report shows, sometimes it does not work and Waymo said it is working to improve that. The spokesperson said that as of just last week, Waymo's First Responder Program has been independently verified by TÜV SÜD, making Waymo the first autonomous vehicle (AV) company to receive third-party validation for our emergency response protocols. They also said the data to date indicates the Waymo Driver is already reducing traffic injuries and fatalities in the places where the company currently operates.

Read the full story and watch the video at KVUE.com.

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