Traffic patterns near Minneapolis??? (Duluth, Bloomington: best cities, transplants, renting) - Minneapolis - St. Paul - Minnesota (MN) -Twin Cities - City-Data Forum

robind · 02-19-2007, 06:33 PM

We're considering moving from Seattle to MN. Before we move or even start sending resumes out we are looking at different ares of the country. Minneapolis seems like a great place - good jobs and lots to do.

A big concern for us is traffic. Seattle traffic is one of the worst in the country. What is Minneapolis traffic like? Specifically we are looking at the suburbs, Eden Prairie, St Louis Park, Hopkins and our jobs would most likely be downtown or areas where there are hi tech jobs.

What is an average rush hour commute from EP or Hopkins to downtown Minneapolis like?

Are there trouble spots to avoid anywhere else?

Thanks!

arvid1985 · 02-19-2007, 08:52 PM

Hopkins & St. Louis Park is the place to live if your gonna drive to work. Hwy 7 all the way into downtown. easy 10-15 minutes! House prices are expensive though and you don't get much for what you pay for them. Eden Prairie has huge delays. I live in Maple Grove and take a express bus down town from the Maple Grove Park & Ride. So as far as which suburb to live in. It don't matter, take a bus. I like the north western part of the "Cities". good schools, lots of stuff to do, and a quicker access to get away on weekends. lol

golfgal · 02-20-2007, 05:31 AM

I have found that the best way to pick a home is once you find your job, figure out what the worst roads are and try to live between them. For example, If you work in Eden Priaire you want to live someplace where you don't have to use 169 or 35W. If you work at the airport you don't want to live west of 35W.

I don't know that most of the high tech jobs would be found in downtown Minneapolis so don't base your decision strictly on that. Also, if you have kids, what kinds of activities do they like? That will make a difference where you want to live as well.

I know that a lot of jobs will say they are in Minneapolis but may infact be in a suburb. Use Google Maps or another map website to check to see where the job is for sure. A job may say it is in Minneapolis, actually be in Maple Grove, you buy a house in Bloomington and you now have an hour commute to work.

robind · 02-20-2007, 09:34 AM

Thanks for the replies. My husband and I would both be working so we are trying to find something that works for us both. Seems like tech jobs aren't all downtown so that is good.

We have a kindergarten age child and she likes dance and swimming. We want to find an area that is family oriented but with restaurants and shopping a reasonable distance away (15 to 20 minutes as an average or closer).

golfgal · 02-20-2007, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robind

Thanks for the replies. My husband and I would both be working so we are trying to find something that works for us both. Seems like tech jobs aren't all downtown so that is good.

We have a kindergarten age child and she likes dance and swimming. We want to find an area that is family oriented but with restaurants and shopping a reasonable distance away (15 to 20 minutes as an average or closer).

If you are in any of the suburbs, shopping and restaurants will be no more then 10 minutes away so that is easy. I would suggest that when you find your jobs, post here where you will be working and people will give you some communities to start your search. The housing market is pretty slow right now with a lot of offerings so finding a house shouldn't be too difficult no matter where you live.

Hoosier · 02-23-2007, 09:47 PM

We lived in Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon for seven years. We regularly traveled up to Seattle. We miss it! I was always petrified when we would enter Seattle limits...the driving was sooo different than Portland. We live in the Minneapolis area now and absolutely love it here!! There are a lot more people of course than Seattle, however the traffic flow works much better than there. Mass transit is fantastic here and works well depending on where you work.

The high tech jobs really seem to be centered on the western suburbs off of 494 area. Plymouth, Minnetonka, Eden Prairie and so forth. If you choose to live in the western suburbs, check your bank account at the door. It's very spendy to live there! I equate spendy as anything more than $400,000. The suburbs are laid out very differently than Seattle. People out here refer to them as rings. From what I understand the inner rings are within the 494 loop. There are definitely some excellent neighborhoods in this section!! I wish we would have understood it better when we move here more than three years ago.

The outer rings, outside the 494 is where we live. We love it because we have a larger yard, bigger house and didn't have to pay as much. We got blessed!! If you worked on the west side of the cities, you could easily live from the northwest to the southwest side of the cities and have a reasonable commute. One of the best maps I've seen is the new one live.maps.com or something like that. It's more up to date than google or the other ones. If you look at a map I drive from Champlin (northwest side next to the Mississipi River...just north of Brooklyn Park) to Bloomington (by the airport and Mall of America) every day. I have to drop kids off and zig zag through Maple Grove. I leave at 6:20 a.m. and am to work by 7:45 at the latest, and this is with dropping kids off and going the round about way. Getting home, that's more of a tough one. Hwy 169 is the worst, Hwy 100 is better and I believe 494 w is the best...but it depends on the time of the rush hour you hit it.

You do know it gets cold here, right? Much colder than Seattle. But you know it's one of those things...trade the rain for the snow. Minnesota is a fantastic place to live...and as much as we miss the west coast, the people here are so much more friendly than out west! There is a lot to do here and you're more centrally located to be able to drive to places around this side of the country. Lot's of waterparks out in this area of the country too!! And amusement parks like Six Flags, Cedar Point and Kings Island! That is one thing I missed so much living out there...we didn't have access to these kinds of things! And if you have family back there...the drive is not super bad. We head through North Dakota and then Montana. We have young kids so I try to take it easy. I can make it to Missoula, MT in 2 1/2 days. Depending on weather you could probably make it to Spokane in three days... we have many potty stops! Feel free to pm me if I can help you further!

robind · 02-24-2007, 12:33 PM

We lived in Denver for over 10 years so snow and cold aren't a problem. In fact we miss it.

Housing in Seattle has climbed! $400,000 buys a 2000 sq ft house way way from any where.

Minneapolis sounds wonderful. I think we'll be coming out there in the next year!

Hoosier · 02-24-2007, 01:54 PM

By us you can get a 2,000 sq ft. house for $250,000 easily. I lived in Denver area for quite awhile and loved it there. I only rented when I lived there though. Lived mostly in Arvada and Lakewood then. Another popular place people like to go out here is up to Duluth (Lake Superior). We haven't been yet, but hope to finally make it up there this summer. Another place that is super fun is the Dells, Wisconsin...about 4 hours from here. Lots of waterpark hotels and fun things to do...it's about an hour north of Madison, Wisconsin.
Before you come you should check into the chamber of commerce to get stuff from the area. When we moved here one of the greatest tools we had was a video made by the local CBS affiliate (WCCO). It was a fantastic features story created for transplants to Minnesota. It was fun to watch in advance and the kids got excited about all the sweet snow activities.

prymel · 02-24-2007, 05:57 PM

Quote:

I would suggest that when you find your jobs, post here where you will be working and people will give you some communities to start your search. The housing market is pretty slow right now with a lot of offerings so finding a house shouldn't be too difficult no matter where you live.

I'm glad I found this thread! My wife and I are moving from San Antonio to the Twin Cities in about a month. I will be working downtown, and I'm assessing where best to live to avoid ghastly commutes.

My first question - for a few months, we may be renting a corporate townhome in Plymouth, and a Mapquest search indicates that MN 55 and 394 E are a combination of options to reach downtown (it says about 15 miles or so). Can anyone comment on what sort of morning and evening commute times are involved?

Second question - where are the best cities/communities to put down roots permanently if one were attempting to keep the avg. morning and afternoon commute times reasonable? Downtown will definitely remain my permanent work location.

Thanks!

golfgal · 02-24-2007, 07:50 PM

Where in downtown? There are severl options--if you want to drive then live on the west side of the cities. If you are open to taking the lightrail, look in the south suburbs, Eagan, Apple Valley, Rosemount, Lakeville or even Mendota Heights. Eagan and Mendota Heights aren't bad commutes to downtown Minneapolis either if you want to drive.