Why do people complain about traffic? (live, move, rated)

[Squeamish]

Whether or not you experience bad traffic in the TC depends entirely on which highway you are traveling on and when. I commute north on 280 and 35w and it is always flowing speed limit if not faster even in the height of rush hour. My old commute went through the Lowry tunnel, which is always backed up and is one of the worst bottlenecks in the metro, but even there I was always through it in a matter of minutes. Today I drove most of the way through the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens, and traffic was crawling about 75% of the time even though it's a sunday. There's no comparison between NYC and the TC. People in most major cities will complain about traffic. In reality there's a wide difference in the severity between different cities but people probably all complain just as much because their baseline is the city they live in. That said, the TC probably has about average traffic for a city of its size. Some are better, some are worse. It may be a bit on the bad side, but not by much.

[Radical_Car]

I remember when my Grandfather was in Missoula, MT for a weekend when I was young. He said people there complained about traffic non stop. Go figure

I been in rush hour traffic in Chicago, I can't ever complain about traffic here again.

[pete6032]

Originally Posted by MPLS_TC

Often times the traffic flows well even at the height of rush hour.. I recently spent time in milwaukee for a month and are traffic is only slightly worse then theirs although we are larger. Even if you hit a slow spot it usually does not last long. Do people exaggerate are traffic here? It seems that for are population, traffic moves really well..

Traffic in Milwaukee is a dream compared to the Twin Cities.

[MPLS_TC]

Originally Posted by pete6032

Traffic in Milwaukee is a dream compared to the Twin Cities.

I disagree

[xandrex]

Originally Posted by golfgal

The only time I have ever run into "bad" traffic anywhere in the metro was a few years ago, construction on 94 on the north side of the metro, 3 lanes going down to 1 lane going north, on a Friday afternoon, in the summer...45 minutes to go 4 miles....

Traffic in the metro is annoying at times but generally fairly manageable and almost never do you actually have to stop and sit in traffic that is not moving at all and when you do, it's for a couple minutes. At worst, you are slowing down to 30 or 40 mph in a 60 mph zone in "bad" traffic here.

Traffic can get a lot worse than going 30 or 40 in a 60. 169 during rush hour is an absolute nightmare. I got caught in it once when I was driving from Mankato to Duluth. The speed ranged from about 0-15 mph from Shakopee to 694. There were a few bursts up to about 30, but those were few and far between.

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by xandrex

Traffic can get a lot worse than going 30 or 40 in a 60. 169 during rush hour is an absolute nightmare. I got caught in it once when I was driving from Mankato to Duluth. The speed ranged from about 0-15 mph from Shakopee to 694. There were a few bursts up to about 30, but those were few and far between.

Exactly, and most commuters in the Twin Cities probably don't commute 30 miles or more each way, like they would in places like Chicago or LA. Traffic in the TC's is as bad or worse than all of its relative-sized counterparts, with the exception of Seattle and San Diego, which are hemmed in by mountains and the ocean (and in one case, the Mexican border).

[iNviNciBL3]

Originally Posted by pete6032

Traffic in Milwaukee is a dream compared to the Twin Cities.

Their is ALOT more car accidents in Milwaukee than here, its crazy.

[yoyoma02]

I live in LA and trust me, the traffic here is BAD and much worse than the TC.

However, I would say Twin Cities traffic bothers me more. With all of the bad weather, construction, pot holes, poorly timed lights, etc... there is no reason for a city the size of Minneapolis to have nearly the amount of traffic it does. MNDot is a joke.

[pete6032]

Originally Posted by MPLS_TC

I disagree

Which parts of traffic in Milwaukee are worse? I've found that the roads in Milwaukee are laid out much more rationally than in the Twin Cities (aside from downtown MKE, that is still confusing).

[turkeyjerky]

My issue with the traffic here is that it simply does not need to be as bad as it is. The lights downtown are ill-timed so that you hit every single one (even late at night when you're one of like 4 cars on the streets), people drive too slow and clog single lanes on major surface streets like hennepin or lake, and the traffic suddenly stops for no reason whatsoever on highways (see: the curve on 94 just west of the river; I cannot understand why traffic comes to a sudden stop, before starting up again, everyday during rush hour).

There's no way a city this size should have traffic as bad as it does. It boggles the mind and is a continual frustration.

I mean, how about the lights on hiawatha, where you get random times when the green light is just skipped--how the f!ck does that happen?