Is rush hr traffic in MSP really bad here. (Minneapolis: to live in, store)

[makes no sense at all]

Traffic is indeed bad for a metro area of this size during rush hour. It's also bad returning into the area after the weekend (usually Sunday evening).

Evening rush hour seems a bit earlier than other places. It starts at 3:00 and is pretty much over by 6:30.

Outside of these times the traffic isn't bad at all, though.

[lexuses82]

Originally Posted by makes no sense at all

Traffic is indeed bad for a metro area of this size during rush hour. It's also bad returning into the area after the weekend (usually Sunday evening).

Evening rush hour seems a bit earlier than other places. It starts at 3:00 and is pretty much over by 6:30.

Outside of these times the traffic isn't bad at all, though.

Agreed. There are days though that the traffic does not seem too bad but when its bad, its BAD. It should be in the top 10 for traffic. Cities worst than MSP are Chicago, LA, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, SFO.

[ellysbelly]

I don't think it's top 10 bed at all--- NYC, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, all come to mind as cities with both worse traffic and fewer ways to avoid it. That said, MSP is making some large investments to get the public transit infrastructure in place to give commuters more options.

It all boils down to ensuring that you live as reasonably close to where you work to minimizeyour commute-- something that's both easier and more affordable here than in most cities of any size.

[iNviNciBL3]

Originally Posted by WoodburyWoody

The St. Croix bridge (highway 36) is due to open in Fall 2016, which will alleviate things a bit. But traffic in the seven-county metro is only going to increase over the next 25 years, so that looks to be short-lived.

But, I agree. I avoid the 94/494/694 interchange during rush hours. When I do tough, there is often standing traffic closing an entire lane well before the exit ramp on a regular basis. The amount of traffic has increased quite a bit over the past five years, but the real issue is the HORRIBLE merge design that is so freakin' common on Minnesota interstate interchanges - merge lanes need to be more than 100 yards. That really bottle-necks traffic.

Yup, those cloverleaf interchanges.

Milwaukee does have much better freeway interchanges than the Twin Cities

[makes no sense at all]

The twin cities do have a lot of secondary routes which at least make you feel like you are making progress, even if its just as slow overall.

[mr roboto]

At least there are usually multiple ways to get there. From MPLS to Eden Prairie? Take 35W to 494 or 394 to 100 or 169 to 62 or 494 or 394 to 494 etc. You can do this exercise for most commutes.

In Chicago here there's usually only 1 way to get home. If that way is clogged you're screwed. MPLS/StP (inside of the 694/494 circle) has multiple N/S or E/W ramped highways.

[mnlife]

North/south traffic on 494, 169 and 100 is rough right now with construction projects. I would just avoid going north/south!

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Isn't the metro like 35th in overall congestion in America. It's 15th in size, so isn't traffic GOOD in MSP for the size of the city??

[makes no sense at all]

Inrix, which does the rankings, puts MSP at 19th most congested in the USA and Canada, in between Vancouver and San Diego. It's actually ranked worse than Atlanta, Denver, Baltimore and Dallas according to them. I lived in ATL and would say its close to being the same on the freeways, but MSP has more alternate routes. Or at least I knew about MSPs alternate routes.

[Skiluminati]

yes, your Dallas comparison is extremely accurate. I just read an article that said that the twin cities has like the 15th worst traffic in the country. I drive these road everyday and it is like this literally everyday. I wouldn't even blame it on the construction. The fact is--is that you have a lot of people in this area and probably 75% of the people don't live in the city. This metro area covers like 10 counties so you have a lot of people going in a lot of different directions. You have 3 million people on the highway at the same time which means a nightmare. YES, I'm being a bit extreme, but I'm not one for sitting and going bumper to bumper for an hour so it is HORRIBLE to me. I personally avoid the highways during "peak" times at all costs..I'll take my chances with the city streets..Lucky for me though because I live off of Larpenteur, my wife goes to school at the U, and our son goes to daycare at the YWCA abbott location. I work right near downtown so everything we do is virtually 5-10 mile radius. We planned it that way. I couldn't imagine HAVING to take the highway because I lived in one of the outer rings. I couldn't take driving the highway EVERYDAY...