30 min to airport and Golden Valley (Minneapolis, Eagan: high school, to live, fence)

[golfgal]

Another thing to consider is that if you have kids and you both live 30+ minutes from work and the kids get sick, etc. it takes forever to get them from school, etc. It would be better to have one person work close to home for that reason-so whom ever has the most flexible job, live closer to that job and have the other parent commute.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Not to say you shouldn't consider Apple Valley, but I myself definitely wouldn't want to be the one stuck commuting from Apple Valley to Golden Valley every day, not fun.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Slig

Not to say you shouldn't consider Apple Valley, but I myself definitely wouldn't want to be the one stuck commuting from Apple Valley to Golden Valley every day, not fun.

How would you know, you have never done it.

If you have to commute, Cedar Ave is one of the easiest commutes in the cities. Yes, there are a lot of cars but there are also minimal on ramps and traffic moves at or above speed limit 90% of the time-way better then any other road in the metro. The only times we EVER had problems on Cedar is if there was a bad snowstorm and one time where there was some debris on the road that backed up traffic-in 4 years of driving that route. What backs up 494 so badly is that there is an on ramp about every 1/4 mile around 35 and no real acceleration lanes to make merging easy. That is another reason why the Crosstown moves better (minus current construction) then 494.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by golfgal

How would you know, you have never done it.

If you have to commute, Cedar Ave is one of the easiest commutes in the cities. Yes, there are a lot of cars but there are also minimal on ramps and traffic moves at or above speed limit 90% of the time-way better then any other road in the metro. The only times we EVER had problems on Cedar is if there was a bad snowstorm and one time where there was some debris on the road that backed up traffic-in 4 years of driving that route. What backs up 494 so badly is that there is an on ramp about every 1/4 mile around 35 and no real acceleration lanes to make merging easy. That is another reason why the Crosstown moves better (minus current construction) then 494.

I know traffic patterns in those areas of the cities and have driven on enough of those roads during various hours enough to know that it would be an ugly commute. I don't think too many people would disagree with me either.

Cedar isn't the problem either, the problem is everything between Cedar and 62 and Golden Valley and the fact that you're going where everybody else is trying to go in the morning and the afternoon.

[Camden Northsider]

Cedar has a ton of stop lights and can get congested. Even if its not congested, assuming you don't hop on 62 it will bring the OP to the wrong end of downtown/Minneapolis and they'll then have to battle traffic to get through the 94/394 to 100 into GV in rush hour, which is congested regardless of the direction you're going.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by Camden Northsider

Cedar has a ton of stop lights and can get congested. Even if its not congested, assuming you don't hop on 62 it will bring the OP to the wrong end of downtown/Minneapolis and they'll then have to battle traffic to get through the 94/394 to 100 into GV in rush hour, which is congested regardless of the direction you're going.

Yeah, it would be completely illogical to stay on Cedar Ave once you get to 62...you'd end up having to take 62 eastbound to either 35W or Hwy 100. I have yet to see how 62 will function post-construction but I'd be really surprised if it still wasn't overly congested. Depending on the day 35W and Hwy 100 can vary from steadily moving to bumper to bumper deadlock. Regardless, it'd be a cluster to try and get to Golden Valley from there during rush hour.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Camden Northsider

Cedar has a ton of stop lights and can get congested. Even if its not congested, assuming you don't hop on 62 it will bring the OP to the wrong end of downtown/Minneapolis and they'll then have to battle traffic to get through the 94/394 to 100 into GV in rush hour, which is congested regardless of the direction you're going.

There are no stoplights between Apple Valley and the Crosstown on Cedar .

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by golfgal

There are no stoplights between Apple Valley and the Crosstown on Cedar .

Correct, I think Camden was talking about Cedar Ave north of Crosstown.

[uptown_urbanist]

I admit, I'm not a driver (although I usually do the navigation and we have a storage unit in Golden Valley) and I don't do the commute from that side of the city to Golden Valley, but what would be the preferred route from Apple Valley to Golden Valley once you hit the Crosstown at Cedar? The obvious route would be then 35W or 62 to 100, and even if the route up until that point is smooth and fast it will probably slow down at that point. You could continue to take Cedar in towards downtown, but then you'd have to go in and out of downtown to get there (which I have done, with people who don't like freeways), and it takes a long time -- both on city streets and on freeways -- even during the middle of the day. Maybe the new and improved Crosstown will work really well, but I wouldn't buy a place making that assumption. We take 62 to 100 to get to our storage unit now (from our place in SW Mpls), and while it's well within the 30 minutes, especially within non-rush hour, I wouldn't want to add on another significant stretch of distance on 62 if trying to make that commute during peak hours.

[Camden Northsider]

You're a long ways from GV at the intersection of Cedar/62 (you're not even into the S/SE stretches of Mpls on your way to a W/NW suburb)- how is getting there considered an "end" when most people would agree that this is where a lot of the madness begins?