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Despite Cleveland being a larger city and metro area I still feel like it has less traffic congestion than here in Pittsburgh. Come to think of it I have never experienced abnormally congested traffic in/around Cleveland during all of my visits there (even pre-pandemic).
Then you haven't traveled in/around Cleveland from 3:00-6:30p:
- on I-480, esp around the i-77 cloverleaf interchange
- in/around University Circle, esp: a) along Euclid between Uptown and E. 105 (a traveling parking lot), b) up/down Cedar Hill
- Chagrin Blvd east of Warrensville and esp East of I-271 (traveling parking lot)
- W.25 in around Market Sq most evenings, all-day Saturday
- Shoreway/-I-90 to the Rte 2 split near the Euclid-Wickliffe border.
- I-71 south during rush hour Esp near the Airport, I-480 interchange
- anywhere in the Flats on Friday and Sat nights, (total gridlock)
- ditto, the Warehouse District
... and these are just some that come to mind. There are many others... It's a popular, widespread myth from non-Clevelanders that Cleveland has zero traffic jams, ever (not saying you said this, but many people do).
San Diego is a peach to drive (relative to its size) granted if there’s an accident north of Carlsbad on the I-5 your sol.
Baltimore is bad because you have all the DC traffic coming northbound and Philly, NYC traffic coming southbound. The I-70 exchange, 95 & 295 are parking lots during rush-hour
Speaking of DC… The beltway is the literal 7th circle of hell. I’ve only experienced worse traffic in LA & NYC. It’s that bad.
Not from my experience, at least when I was living there. Maybe the Trolley expansions helped. In fact I remember one time about 20 years ago when SD actually passed LA to have the worst traffic in the US. The North County suburbs were the worst (I-5 and 15), as well as I-5 south of Downtown, and also most of 805, and occasionally I-8 by SDSU, La Mesa, and El Cajon.
Not from my experience, at least when I was living there. Maybe the Trolley expansions helped. In fact I remember one time about 20 years ago when SD actually passed LA to have the worst traffic in the US. The North County suburbs were the worst (I-5 and 15), as well as I-5 south of Downtown, and also most of 805, and occasionally I-8 by SDSU, La Mesa, and El Cajon.
I live downtown and take the trolly to work 9/10 times so it helps.
I-5 & 15 can definitely get bad for sure, but it's imho a rarity rather than the norm and if you do get stuck it's maybe 10-15 minutes top. I'm originally from the east coast and lived in the DC-Baltimore area so pretty much anything is an improvement traffic wise. I can't count how many times I got stuck in 45min-2hr parking lots on I-95, 295 or the Capital Beltway
Then you haven't traveled in/around Cleveland from 3:00-6:30p:
- on I-480, esp around the i-77 cloverleaf interchange
- in/around University Circle, esp: a) along Euclid between Uptown and E. 105 (a traveling parking lot), b) up/down Cedar Hill
- Chagrin Blvd east of Warrensville and esp East of I-271 (traveling parking lot)
- W.25 in around Market Sq most evenings, all-day Saturday
- Shoreway/-I-90 to the Rte 2 split near the Euclid-Wickliffe border.
- I-71 south during rush hour Esp near the Airport, I-480 interchange
- anywhere in the Flats on Friday and Sat nights, (total gridlock)
- ditto, the Warehouse District
... and these are just some that come to mind. There are many others... It's a popular, widespread myth from non-Clevelanders that Cleveland has zero traffic jams, ever (not saying you said this, but many people do).
Every city has traffic, but I agree with 100 percent with SteelCityRising that Cleveland is a breeze compared to most cities. It also helps that metro Cleveland has three major E-W highways (I-80/I-90/I-480) and three major N-S ones (I-71/I-77/I-271 ... and even Route 8 is built to interstate grade now between I-271 and Akron) on top of the freeway cut-throughs (Jennings Freeway connecting 480 to the I-71/I-90 merger); I-490 (I-77 to I-90); and the Shoreway. The Lakeland Freeway helps relieve from I-90 in Lake County.
Plus, having I-80 (the turnpike) acting basically as a bypass for all long-distance travel between NYC/Philadelphia/Baltimore/DC to Chicago (and west) and vice-versa, is a huge reliever (especially truck traffic). The only long-distance travel that goes through downtown Cleveland would be from Western/Upstate NY and New England via I-90. Then Cleveland is the northern terminus for both I-71 and I-77, so neither act as a bypass for through traffic the ways that that they are in other cities along those highways.
Akron is actually, IMO, worse than Cleveland right now for highway traffic (local street traffic is much better, however). Granted, part of that is because Akron has been a seemingly never-ending construction mess for about 6-7 years now (Why?? No, clue outside that ODOT had to spend hundreds of millions somewhere), but driving through Cleveland, IMO, is easier than Akron. It doesn't seem to matter what time of the day, I-76/I-77 between the Kenmore Loop and the central interchange is almost always a parking lot. So is Route 8 for a couple miles in both directions from the Cuyahoga River bridge to Arlington Road. The only spot in Cleveland where I 100 percent know is going to suck is when crossing the Valley View bridge at I-480/I-77.
To me, the fact the highways are usually at least slowly flowing even during rush hour is the one positive thing of having all these highways/freeways (now even the opportunity corridor acts as a low-speed freeway between I-77 and University Circle).
I'd also say, in this instance, Cleveland being one of the better cities for highway commuting (having rail also helps in this regard) is a positive thing, not a negative. After all, who wants to sit on a highway for 30-plus minutes to get a couple miles down the road?
Every city has traffic, but I agree with 100 percent with SteelCityRising that Cleveland is a breeze compared to most cities. It also helps that metro Cleveland has three major E-W highways (I-80/I-90/I-480) and three major N-S ones (I-71/I-77/I-271 ... and even Route 8 is built to interstate grade now between I-271 and Akron) on top of the freeway cut-throughs (Jennings Freeway connecting 480 to the I-71/I-90 merger); I-490 (I-77 to I-90); and the Shoreway. The Lakeland Freeway helps relieve from I-90 in Lake County.
Plus, having I-80 (the turnpike) acting basically as a bypass for all long-distance travel between NYC/Philadelphia/Baltimore/DC to Chicago (and west) and vice-versa, is a huge reliever (especially truck traffic). The only long-distance travel that goes through downtown Cleveland would be from Western/Upstate NY and New England via I-90. Then Cleveland is the northern terminus for both I-71 and I-77, so neither act as a bypass for through traffic the ways that that they are in other cities along those highways.
Akron is actually, IMO, worse than Cleveland right now for highway traffic (local street traffic is much better, however). Granted, part of that is because Akron has been a seemingly never-ending construction mess for about 6-7 years now (Why?? No, clue outside that ODOT had to spend hundreds of millions somewhere), but driving through Cleveland, IMO, is easier than Akron. It doesn't seem to matter what time of the day, I-76/I-77 between the Kenmore Loop and the central interchange is almost always a parking lot. So is Route 8 for a couple miles in both directions from the Cuyahoga River bridge to Arlington Road. The only spot in Cleveland where I 100 percent know is going to suck is when crossing the Valley View bridge at I-480/I-77.
To me, the fact the highways are usually at least slowly flowing even during rush hour is the one positive thing of having all these highways/freeways (now even the opportunity corridor acts as a low-speed freeway between I-77 and University Circle).
I'd also say, in this instance, Cleveland being one of the better cities for highway commuting (having rail also helps in this regard) is a positive thing, not a negative. After all, who wants to sit on a highway for 30-plus minutes to get a couple miles down the road?
I disagree. Are you saying Cleveland has light-to-zero traffic in those locations I listed? I lived and worked in Greater Cleveland in recent years, and as recently as the last 2 weeks, I encountered much of that.
Also, the idea isn't just that Cleveland is great for having such light traffic, it's the premise that Cleveland is 'dead,'... nobody lives there and nobody wants to go there, and here's the evidence. I think RTA, esp the Rapid, gives Cleveland a nice balance of transportation alternatives given the city's size, but still, there is traffic and traffic jams.
Yeah...not sure which part of Houston that OP visited. West Loop between 59 and I-10 is basically congested from 7am to 11pm. West Beltway? 3pm to 8pm. And let's not even get started on Gulf Freeway even after endless construction, or I-10 West which has LA style traffic (6 lanes each direction of bumper to bumper traffic).
Houston traffic makes even Austin traffic during rush hour looks good.
For another larger metro, add Indy to the list - Yes, I-465 NE can get somewhat congested but there was never much gridlock traffic there. Ok, things are a little bit messy recently but once the North Split construction is complete, that would take the pressure off I-465. And whenever they get to rebuilding that I-465/I-69NE interchange things will be even better.
The last time I went through Houston in September it took us about 2 hours coming through on I-10 from Baton Rouge. From Baytown to 610 was stop and go grinding to a complete stop at times. So glad when we made it to 290. Was smooth sailing to Temple from there.
Houston is terrible, when I travel through there I try to leave at certain times to avoid bumper to bumper traffic, but I almost always seem to hit it. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to live in Houston and deal with that traffic daily.
For as big as San Antonio is it’s very easy to get around, and yes Austin is terrible when it comes to traffic.
OKC has been a breeze to go through the few times I’ve driven around there. Cleveland seemed easy to drive in, I had no traffic problems there.
Detroit Michigan. For a large metro its traffic is not as bad as some others its size. I guess it’s huge car culture translated into the early in building of good interstate system capable of handling the traffic volume of a car dependent city. Compared to fast growing southern metros it is easy to get around. Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville are traffic nightmares.
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