No more complaining about Twin Cities Traffic (Cottage Grove, Anoka: live in, law)

[Cruz Azul Guy]

I admit that I was guilty of chronic complaints about traffic here. This was something I honestly believed until spending a week in Los Angeles. Dear God, you can't even compare the two. I commuted from Anaheim to Van Nuys. This is the distance equivalent of driving from Anoka to Cottage Grove, or 41.5 miles. Driving from Anoka to Cottage Grove takes about 50 minutes, or on the worst possible rush hour traffic day maybe an hour and a half. Driving from Anaheim to Van Nuys takes almost 3 hours in rush hour traffic. There are probably 5 or 6 different freeways you can take to get there and they are all deadlock, 6 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic. Even the carpool lanes are deadlock. When I got back into town I drove around on 94 and hwy 10 wondering where everybody was. IT IS EMPTY HERE IN COMPARISON. So next time you want to complain about traffic, be grateful you aren't in an overpopulated freeway littered wasteland like SoCal.

Sidenote: I actually liked it alot there, although the horrendous traffic was impossible to overlook.

[mdwstrnkid]

The traffic in the Twin Cities is nothing compared to many other large cities. I live in San Francisco now and have made the drive up to the City from the San Jose area many time, which is roughly a 45 mile drive. If you drive it during the middle of rush hour, you can expect that it will take at least a couple of hours, if not more. Even the drive from the city limits of San Francisco to the downtown exits on US 101 (about 3 miles away) can take 20-25 minutes if the commute is bad.

[prairiestate]

Apparently you've never driven down to Chicago! Though on most roads it's only 3 or 4 lanes of bumper to bumper gridlock.

[MplsTodd]

I've also had a few bad experiences with LA traffic, but I think its mostly due to the sheer volume of cars. The drivers on a whole are pretty good. I've always been impressed with the California tradition of stopping for a pedestrian in (or even out of) a crosswalk. That's one tradition we should work on here in Minnesota!

[JenLee]

Originally Posted by MplsTodd

I've always been impressed with the California tradition of stopping for a pedestrian in (or even out of) a crosswalk. That's one tradition we should work on here in Minnesota!

Actually, it's the LAW here!

And, yes, we DO have to work on it more. I also think that MN pedestrians have to learn how to use crosswalks too.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

That was another observation, as a whole California drivers are WAY better than Minnesota drivers. Take merging for instance. In California when 2 lanes goes to one the cars neatly file through left, right, left, right like a deck of cards. In Minnesota all the cars crowd in the lane being merged into and do whatever they can to not let cars from the other lane in. My driving as a whole was much more stress free because of these little differences.

[Thegonagle]

Originally Posted by MplsTodd

I've also had a few bad experiences with LA traffic, but I think its mostly due to the sheer volume of cars. The drivers on a whole are pretty good. I've always been impressed with the California tradition of stopping for a pedestrian in (or even out of) a crosswalk. That's one tradition we should work on here in Minnesota!

Pedestrians need to work on a few things, too, for instance:

If you must cross a busy street in the middle of the block, hurry up! You DO NOT have right of way there.

If you must cross against the don't walk signal, again, hurry the ! Once again, you DO NOT have right of way during that time.

Learn to PUSH THE BUTTON. At many intersections equipped with a pedestrian button, you will not get a walk signal as the light goes through its sequence. For example, at Washington and 6th Ave N, the signal will change to green for cars to cross Washington every 90 seconds or so, but only for about 10 seconds (the don't walk sign remains lit). Pushing the button tells the intersection controller to extend the green time to about 25 seconds next cycle, and activates the walk sign, which gives a pedestrian adequate time to cross the six lanes.

At some, if the button is not pushed, the light will never change at all if a car doesn't drive up. (Ex. Washington and 3rd Ave N.)

And at some, the light NEVER changes if you don't push the button. (Ex. Hennepin Ave S and 2nd St.)

Careless pedestrians need to also realize that the same law giving them right of way in a crosswalk when the walk signal is lit also protects drivers who hit a pedestrian if the pedestrian begins to cross and the driver isn't able to react in time (the suicidal pedestrian clause).

So please, push the damn button, and wait your turn, or failing that, please wait for an adequate break in traffic, and HURRY THE F--- UP!

[knke0402]

California drivers are great.

They drive fast and manuever great. People in MN are idiots on the road way.

Didnt anyone get taught how to MERGE onto freeways. Thats what entrance ramps are for. You should hit the end of the entrance ramp goign 72. Same goes for Exit ramps, thats why they are there to slow down. Dont hit the brakes in the right lane and slow down until you hit the exit ramp. you should enter the exit ramp going 72. Thats why you have brakes.

[WannaBeinBoston]

MN drivers in general are horrendous. I've lived here for 15 years and not a day goes by that I don't see an accident about to occur on my drive to work but for the grace of God. Drivers here drive like they are either loss, confused, or they're just plain stupid. Don't get me started on tailgating either...OMG...you could be out on the road with noone around you, and someone will come up and ride your tail. Talk about passive aggressive, when you honk or flip them off, they don't make eye contact and are really coy.

[WannaBeinBoston]

Oh yeah, I now know why so many people drive Volvos. I always thought that it was the scandanavian based population but in fact, it's to protect themselves from one another.

Volvo for Life!