Long 1-2 mile backup on 565 Leading into RedStone Arsenal? "what the heck" ???

[the_huntsville]

yet again..........more stoppages this morning around 8:15am on 4/20/2009


What are they consistently doing at those gates, to cause a 2mile backup.......?

[DvlsAdvc8]

Everytime I read stuff like this it makes me happy to be in Huntsville. People complain about 2 mile backups! Woo hoo! In VA/DC, it wasn't uncommon for I66 to be backed up for a good 15+ miles.

[mm42]

I don't buy Gate 1 construction and Gate 8 closure as explanations.

Gate 1 was backed up for a couple of weeks last fall. Since then it has been pretty normal and the construction was complete as of last Monday. It's hard to believe this has been causing backups at Gate 9.

Gate 8 had a tiny traffic flow to begin with (zero wait time), and Gate 10 is so close I expect the Gate 8 overflow is going in there. Gate 10 has not been worse than normal lately and it would be a lot easier to overwhelm than Gate 9.

My theory is that almost all the relocations recently have been settling in Madison, and they all go in through Gate 9. This also explains the awful rush hour traffic I encountered last week heading for a 6PM track meet at Bob Jones HS. I felt like I was back in Atlanta.

[HB2HSV]

Originally Posted by DvlsAdvc8

Everytime I read stuff like this it makes me happy to be in Huntsville. People complain about 2 mile backups! Woo hoo! In VA/DC, it wasn't uncommon for I66 to be backed up for a good 15+ miles.

LOL... same with southern california. A 25 mile one-way commute can easily turn into a 2-hour long back-up bumper-to-bumper drive, esp. for a Friday afternoon

[Huntsville_secede]

Originally Posted by DvlsAdvc8

Everytime I read stuff like this it makes me happy to be in Huntsville. People complain about 2 mile backups! Woo hoo! In VA/DC, it wasn't uncommon for I66 to be backed up for a good 15+ miles.

Yeah but it's all relative because VA/DC has 5 million+ people and Huntsville has not even 400,000. I think people have a right to complain if the traffic is too much for its size you just don't expect too much traffic in small cities. Is the traffic too much for its size here, depends on the area there are bottlenecks a lot of the people live in newly constructed areas out in Madison/Harvest with narrow two lane roads so it takes a while to travel out there. 565 is fine mostly everywhere due to sufficient vision in making it wide enough to account for future growth you can't ask for more than an expressway that's 4, 5, and 6 lanes wide on one side in some areas. Now 565 west of county line road going towards Decatur and 565/72 east of Oakwood are problem areas that can be improved. Roads like Winchester and 53 are roads that are really bad traffic areas that should have been widened decades ago. Overall I think the traffic flow in Huntsville is good for its size but it has been getting increasingly worse over the years and for somehow who has lived here a while and is used to a certain amount of traffic it can seem bad and of concern to them. One thing is for sure if more road funding and improvements aren't sent this way Huntsville will have horrible traffic for its size in the future due to the population surge that has been occurring as of late.

[DvlsAdvc8]

Don't get me wrong, anyone has the right to complain or opine about anything... I'm not criticizing the view.

I drive over Monte Sano every morning, so I get to have a nice small-town backup there through the medical district... but relative to the time I spent in traffic in NOVA, I'll take it and like it.

However, one reason we decided to move to Huntsville as opposed to Madison - despite Huntsville's higher taxes - was that Huntsville's roads seemed to be sufficient in most areas whereas Madison's (and points west/northwest) roadways seemed horribly inadequate.

[bluemorpho]

I can vouch for the awful commute to and from RSA from Madison. Right now, we are in temporary apts. about 11 miles from RSA. Leaving for work at 6:00 a.m., it takes me about 20 minutes in the morning, but coming home (even getting off earlier than some at 4:00 p.m.) I have yet to make it home in less than 45 minutes.

As for the extra backups last week at RSA, it was the annual huge LOGSA conference, so there were hundreds of out of state attendees to add to the mix. That happens every year.

I've lived in Maryland, D.C., and Virginia, and honestly this traffic here seems worse to me. The big problems getting to Madison are the bottlenecks leaving Gate 9 and the traffic on Hwy 72. Only two lanes are open leaving Gate 9. There should be at least six to accommodate the traffic.

I'm constantly encountering traffic backed up through the red lights on Hwy 72, so even when the light changes, the lanes going crosswise can't move. Lights are not synchronized, which adds to the problem.

I think this is a simple case of an area growing too quickly and the roads have not kept pace. If you think it's bad now, wait until next year when thousands more BRAC transfers come in.

After experiencing Hwy 72 day in and out, I think we are going to cross off Madison and any other areas that would make us deal with this snarled nightmare for years to come. Even if they decide to add lanes, can you imagine the fun of only one lane in each direction for months while they do the construction? No thanks!

[caution]

This is kind of silly, IMHO.

Traffic here is light considering the percentage of people who must enter and exit Redstone daily.

To complain without bothering to read the news about what is going on and why they are doing it is rather odd.

More than a few times, various news releases were run explaining that gates wil be closed one at a time for an upgrade to various systems. This is so they can eventually install an automated system, similar to a fast pass lane you'd find on a toll-way. This will take time.

To compare any traffic here to NOVA or MD or DC or LA or Houston or Atlanta is silly.

If it's a problem, leave the house 10 minutes earlier until they get all the gate upgrades in place, or refuse to read the various newsletters all the Redstone offices put out, fail to plan accordingly and complain about HSV/Madison traffic on the internet. Your call.

DC is still has job openings if we all want to move back and sit in real traffic.