Need help with finding the best non-highway route (Minneapolis, Arlington: home, university)

[xz2y]

How can I get from SW Minneapolis (58th and Upton, between Xerxes and Penn) to dinkytown (corner of 15th and University SE) without taking 35W or 94? Is it possible to drive this route on city streets at rush hour and still do it in decent time?

Someone was telling me to try Park and Portland (for the north and south routes). Are these safe streets after dark? Portland is pretty bad re: crime.

Thanks for your help.

[Minnehahapolitan]

You could try 50th/Minnehaha Parkway to Cedar and take that in over the 10th Ave. Bridge. The area around Little Earth is rough, but I can't think of too many areas that I wouldn't drive through with my doors locked (unless you drive a Cadillac).

[xz2y]

Thanks, I"ll try that route and see if it works better than the congestion on 36W and 94.

[Thegonagle]

Use one-ways (especially Park) to your advantage; the city coordinates the traffic signals for a "wave of greens" on one-ways whenever possible.

The traffic light system is set for different timing programs during different times of the day, so you won't make all the same green lights at, say, 7 AM as 10 PM, but they still try to give traffic as good a wave as possible on the busiest streets.

Re: Cedar. Extra distance and the fact that it's a two way make it slower than Park. But park dumps you directly into downtown, so it kinda depends. one thing to try would be Park into downtown, take a right on 4th street, follow that across the Washington Ave bridge, exit on E River Rd, take a right at the bottom of the ramp, and either keep going straight until you run into 14th Ave SE at University, or take a right on Arlington, and left on Pleasant until you run into 15 Ave SE at University.

Edit: Re: Crime... Um, you'll be in your car; there's not much to worry about. I mean, there are several carjackings per day, but safety in numbers, right? Just kidding about the carjackings. I haven't heard about one over there in, oh, years?

[JenLee]

I do a lot of cross-town driving, and rely on 26th and 28th streets to get across south Minneapolis to Hiawatha; then I pick up East Franklin Ave. and cross the river on the Franklin Ave. Bridge. You can pick up either East River road there (going north) or go straight and get on Univ. Ave that way.

The other way would be Minnehaha Parkway and cross the river on the Ford Parkway bridge.

I've found Cedar Ave. to be a lot slower than it used to be; I was on it on Friday and it seemed to take forever during PM rush hour to go 14 blocks south.

[Slig]

I was going to suggest taking Penn north to 50th, taking that until it turns into Minnehaha Pkwy and continuing on it east to Cedar Ave where you can get all the way up to the west bank and take the Washington bridge over to east bank. JenLee is right that Cedar has moderate to heavy traffic during rush hours. I don't think it would be horrible if you picked it up at Minnehaha Pkwy, but it will be pretty slow and steady the whole way, it will slow down quite a bit around Franklin Ave and the 94 on ramps. If you saved any time taking this route compared to the freeway it would be very slight.

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by Slig

I was going to suggest taking Penn north to 50th, taking that until it turns into Minnehaha Pkwy and continuing on it east to Cedar Ave where you can get all the way up to the west bank and take the Washington bridge over to east bank. JenLee is right that Cedar has moderate to heavy traffic during rush hours. I don't think it would be horrible if you picked it up at Minnehaha Pkwy, but it will be pretty slow and steady the whole way, it will slow down quite a bit around Franklin Ave and the 94 on ramps. If you saved any time taking this route compared to the freeway it would be very slight.

I used to live near 54th and France, and I have tried about every possible route from there to downtown.

My conclusion was this. Check 35W traffic on the way over the bridge. If it is completely stacked and not moving, use park ave. Otherwise 35W is considerably faster even in moderate to heavy traffic.

35W traffic north of 62 is typically not bad. There are limited on ramps between there and downtown, plus they more or less turned off meters at 54th and 46th.

When they get 46th and 50th bridges back on line, plus the extra lane, it will be a very nice.

[JenLee]

I use this site when I can check the traffic online before leaving home each day: Mn/DOT Traveler Information; it updates about every 5 minutes 24/7.

If I'm in the car, I use Jazz88 (88.5 on the FM dial) which gives traffic on the 8's -traffic updates every 10 minutes-- to help me plan the fastest way to get around the Cities. I usually don't take one single route all of the time but rather adjust my route according to the traffic each day. Of course, I still get stuck in traffic at times (such as when there is an accident directly in front of me); but I really do avoid some of the really bad traffic jams this way.