Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My goal here is to gauge traffic in Phoenix vs what I know of traffic in the Twin Cities area. I live in Duluth (virtually no rush hour here at all), but I've been to the cities many times. I try like heck to avoid driving during rush hour, but it often can't be helped, so I suck it up and do it. I'm sure if I lived there I would get used to it, but it's not my favorite.
I visited Phoenix for a few days once, but didn't have a chance to get out and about during rush hour. Mid-day the freeways seem very manageable, but of course if you live and work there, driving only during low traffic times is not an option.
I tried watching traffic cams to compare the areas, but both areas look much the same during rush hour. So I'm wondering, if anyone has experience with both places....
1. Are the roads in both places equally packed during rush hour, and do they feel the same, or does one feel worse than the other?
2. For some reason, traffic fatalities are MUCH higher in Phoenix than in the whole twin cities metro area. With the extreme winter weather and heavy traffic in the cities, I would have expected a different result, so I'm wondering what is it about Phoenix that makes traffic fatalities so high? They aren't dealing with snow and ice, but there must be something?
3. In either place, is it difficult to find a nice place (average middle class, safe and affordable) to live close to where the good-paying (average middle-class) jobs are to minimize the commute as much as possible?
Traffic is heaver in the Twin Cities metro than in the Phoenix metro. Here's a link that has traffic data on lots of metros. Just make sure you suggest the country tab instead of global. INRIX National Traffic Scorecard
Minneapolis currently ranks 17th worst in the country with an average 22.5 hours for the past 12 months while Phoenix ranks 39th with an average of 12.4 hours wasted in congestion.
Traffic is heaver in the Twin Cities metro than in the Phoenix metro. Here's a link that has traffic data on lots of metros. Just make sure you suggest the country tab instead of global. INRIX National Traffic Scorecard
Minneapolis currently ranks 17th worst in the country with an average 22.5 hours for the past 12 months while Phoenix ranks 39th with an average of 12.4 hours wasted in congestion.
Phoneix has worst traffic, hell their was nobody on the roads during rush hour in Minneapolis.
it really depends on where you are going, what you do, etc.
There are spots in both cities that are very congested and spots that move a little better ..... the twin cities have a more substantial network of highways, but they aren't as big and nice as the ones in phoenix .... in phoenix you don't have weather to worry about, although I have been slowed down due to sun glare
Phoenix is much larger and the jobs are overall more spread out .... I would say by and large you could cover 20 miles faster in Phoenix than you could in the Cities ... but you would have less chance of doing that in the Cities than in Phoenix ..... that type of radius from downtown mpls would put you in Anoka to the north, well out of st. paul and a good 5 miles past maplewood to the east, apple valley to the south, well past minnetonka plymoth or maple grove .... most people coming into Mpls to work are coming from a lot closer than that, but they may have more frequent congestion along the way
I can definitely say that everytime I go back to the cities I appreciate driving in Phoenix a bit more
As for fatalities ..... a lot can go into that goes well beyond traffic congestion and weather
Last edited by Finger Laker; 04-24-2013 at 06:24 PM..
You all have melted away my last fear about Phoenix! Traffic was the one thing I was still hesitant about, but this really does make me feel like it will be very manageable. Thank you for the replies, and RC01 thank you very much for the link - that was very helpful to get an idea of how things stand!
You all have melted away my last fear about Phoenix! Traffic was the one thing I was still hesitant about, but this really does make me feel like it will be very manageable. Thank you for the replies, and RC01 thank you very much for the link - that was very helpful to get an idea of how things stand!
It is manageable and it's a very easy city to get around ......... it's basically one giant grid, occasionally interupted by a large building, airport, mountain or river (with water or otherwise)
point "0" is in downtown .... N/S doesn't come into play as much as E/W does.
From Central Ave you have Streets that get largers as you go east and major intersections/exits are on even numbers ..... as you go west the Avenues get larger and major intersections are typically odd numbers
There are some breaks to the convention, some areas that have mini grids within their city that will share some of the same names, etc ..... however, on the whole if you know that convention you'll have a general idea where you are .... may take a week or so to get comfortable with it, but very easy once you know about it
Public transport isn't so good here and it seems like about everything you need on a daily basis is at least 5 minutes away but not more than 15 minutes away
Don't marry yourself to an area until you have a job .... if your industry has a cluster of companies on one side of the metro, probably not best to settle on the opposite side (even if that is where you company is located) - try to find something that will be convenient to where you are, but not prohibitive if you want to change to different company
Commutes can add up really fast - just because the metro is really vast .... if you can arrange a way to avoid the major bottlenecks, reverse commute, etc it's a breeze ..... even if you hit them it's manageable
In our household I take the bullet on the commute .... my wife works real close to home and I commute 24 miles (about 45 minutes) .... If I were single I could pick plenty of good places that would keep my commute within 20 minutes despite working in an area where I wouldn't live
Plenty of good housing options all over the metro ..... as you get closer to moving or if you have general Phoenix questions swing on up to the Phoenix forum
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
