How bad is traffic?? (Kansas City, Independence: live in, stats, airport)

[ajohnson56]

Hi, its me again. I was wondering how bad is traffic in ALL the highways/freeways leading in and out of KC, downtown at all directions? North, South, East and West. Also the Bruce r Watkins expy is that a paid toll? Trying to get a feel for the time I will be driving, if I live anywhere from 15-25 away, still not sure where I will be locating at.

[northbound74]

Kansas City has the traffic problems of a city a fraction of it's size. If you're coming from just about any other large city, you'll be surprised, if not amazed, how little problems there are with traffic.

It has the most freeway miles per capita of any city. Traffic jams are virtually non-existent. There are some thoroughfares that can get a little thick. I don't know that one freeway is worse than the other, but I-35 in Johnson County is crowded during rush hour, as is the southern leg of 435 in both Johnson and Jackson Counties. I-70 through Independence can be pretty busy. Crossing the river bridges around downtown can get crowded as well.
KC is laid out in a grid pattern for the most part, so when there is a backup, alternate routes are easy to find.

[ajohnson56]

Thank you for your reply, very informative

[TinaMcG]

Originally Posted by northbound74

Kansas City has the traffic problems of a city a fraction of it's size. If you're coming from just about any other large city, you'll be surprised, if not amazed, how little problems there are with traffic..

LOLOL, midday traffic in Chicago is worse than what passes for rush hour traffic in the KC metro, and the speed limits here are a lot higher. I have to drive about 10-15 miles to get just about anywhere I need to go, and it takes me less time than travelling just a few miles back in suburban Chicago.

What I have noticed here, though, is a difference in the way the highways are designed and marked. I'm still trying to get used to the right lane suddenly turning into an exit ramp, which happens in a lot of places.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by northbound74

Kansas City has the traffic problems of a city a fraction of it's size. If you're coming from just about any other large city, you'll be surprised, if not amazed, how little problems there are with traffic.

It has the most freeway miles per capita of any city. Traffic jams are virtually non-existent. There are some thoroughfares that can get a little thick. I don't know that one freeway is worse than the other, but I-35 in Johnson County is crowded during rush hour, as is the southern leg of 435 in both Johnson and Jackson Counties. I-70 through Independence can be pretty busy. Crossing the river bridges around downtown can get crowded as well.
KC is laid out in a grid pattern for the most part, so when there is a backup, alternate routes are easy to find.

Bingo. If you've spent time sitting in traffic in any large metro area, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised. The traffic is practically nonexistent, even at its worst.

[kcmo]

Although, I do agree, KC traffic is minimal compared to most big cities, there are parts of KC that do rival many other large metros.

Just don't live in Lee's Summit and work in Olathe, that's a nasty commute across the south side of the metro.

But, yea, for the most part, KC doesn't have traffic.

What is does have is the WORST big city drivers in the nation. People will not get off the cell phones, get up to speed when merging onto freeways, drive slow in the left lanes, unable to use dual turn lanes (wasting capacity) etc..

That's what causes 90% of the traffic that KC does have. Stupid, slow, totally oblivious drivers that should stay on the surface streets.

I have never seen so many people that have no idea how to drive in a bigger city in one place.

[TabulaRasa]

Yeah, worth pointing out that my traffic comments refer ONLY to driving in KC itself...not the suburban metro. I don't do the drive to or from Johnson County, Independence, Lee's Summit,the Northland, etc. with anything resembling frequency, so I can't comment on that.

My only complaint about driving since moving to KC is that, for reasons uncomprehensible, none of you seem to know anything about driving on ice. Some of the least safe driving I've ever seen when this city gets slick.

[kcmo]

Well, I will sum up traffic in the metro. I'm a traffic planner, this is what I do .

Suburbs - City:

The drive into the city from the west is the best. Traffic from KCK and western JoCo is almost non-existent. You can drive into Downtown on EB I-70 and never hit the brakes for weeks or months at a time. The only real problems are how 670 narrows down to one lane as you enter the Downtown Loop. Leaving is even more wide open, but access to WB 70 from downtown is tricky.

The drive into the city from I-35 can get nasty, but most of the time it's about a 10-15 minute delay, if that. It can get very busy, but it's manageable and really not that bad compared to most big cities. Expect the worst traffic to be between 69 and 635. 35 is busy in both directions in this stretch due to the Northland/JoCo commute, which I will get to later.

The drive into the city from the east is very similar to I-35. 70 WB in the morning backs up pretty bad in Independence between 470 and 435, but it's typically only about a 10-15 minute delay. Evening traffic on 70 is typically much worse with traffic typically delayed more like 15-30 minutes. Traffic is backed up from just east of Downtown to about Lee's Summit Road on a regular basis. I-70 needs to be an 8 lane freeway through KC on the MO side. In the summer on thursdays and fridays, 70 EB can take an hour to get to Blue Springs due to lake traffic.

The south suburbs have good access via 71 which is not bad and could be better if it were not for the signals on the lower east side. If you are coming in from the far south suburbs like Grandview, Belton etc, than you can expect delays of 10-15 minutes. Again, the evening rush can be worse. SB traffic can get pretty slow through the Triangle and it can be a real mess south of Grandview where 71 narrows to 2 lanes each way and Belton Raymore has only one exit, although another is being built. Same deal with lake traffic in the summer.

The Northland has an easy commute for the most part. Delays typically are no more than ten minutes. The main reason is due to so many choices. If you live in the Northland, you have at least six highways to cross the river. The most congested is 35 coming into Downtown from Liberty. But much of that will go away when the new bridge over the river opens in a couple of years. Platte County residents can take 29 to 635, 169, 69, 9 or 35 and they have little congestion.

Suburb-Suburb:

As I mentioned before, the south side of metro KC can get pretty messy. There is a mass commute from the south and east Missouri suburbs to the Kansas suburbs everyday.

If you live at 470 and Lakewood and commute to 435 and Antioch, or worse, Lenexa or Olathe, you can experience regular traffic jams along 435/470 that rival any major city. The entire corridor of 435 from Lackman to 470 near Colbern is just packed every morning and every night and one little slow down can easily create a 40-50 minute delay. It gets even worse in the summer as all the people from Kansas and the rest of the metro head to the lakes via 71 and 50.

If you live in the south burbs and commute to the Kansas burbs, then you can expect minor delays, but still 10-15 minutes.

If you live in the south burbs (ks or mo) and commute to the northland or visa versa, you can expect a long and sometimes stressful drive around the city, but if you choose your routes well, you should be able to avoid any major delays, although some of those commutes might take you through downtown and that could get messy.

If you live in Olathe, daily traffic can be pretty bad on the interstates and the surface streets.

Overall, it’s not bad, but KC does have a decent amount of traffic. I have driven in every major city and traffic in KC is really pretty similar to most, except the very large cities like Chicago or the large coastal cities.

The reason KC is listed as the least congested city is because the city has so many freeway miles. But half of our freeways are way under capacity ,WAY under. I-435 from 70 in KCK to 35 in Liberty via the airport area is barely used for example. Same thing with most of 70 and 635 in KCK. That’s a lot of highway miles throwing off the stats.

435 on the south side (KS)


70 morning rush from east burbs

[kcmo]

Here is a video I made a while back:


YouTube - High speed drive from Downtown KC to suburbs

[JackieB23]

Originally Posted by kcmo

What is does have is the WORST big city drivers in the nation. People will not get off the cell phones, get up to speed when merging onto freeways, drive slow in the left lanes, unable to use dual turn lanes (wasting capacity) etc..

I have to respectfully disagree.

Having lived in KC, STL, Memphis, DC, and now Las Vegas... KC's drivers were on average better than any of those other places (and I lived there longer than in any other city).

Memphis in particular was horrible - people would *stop* at the end of ramps going on to highways instead of yielding. People would drive 5-10 miles under the limit in the passing lane next to somebody going 10-12 miles under the limit in the right hand driving lane on a two-lane highway. They would talk on cell phones and veer off onto the shoulders, incoming traffic and across lanes, they'd pull out right in front of you... I'm amazed I got out of there without a major accident.

STL, DC and LV have far more *aggressive* drivers than KC drivers, who in my experience tended to be more laid back and accomodating. Perhaps it's a function of the much larger traffic problems those metros have compared to KC?