Personal experience commuting from Lawrence to KC or Topeka? (Lenexa: neighborhood, college)

[miss anthrope]

Anyone ever commute to Topeka via road bike (during nice weather only)? Contemplating move from Colorado (we love) to KS (I grew up in the midwest, and while I loved it, I'll have to admit I'm dreading the winters and humid summers, I've gotten spoiled: no bother flaming me, we're actually looking forward to the thunderstorms, etc, I know there are pro's and con's of every place on earth). If I'm going to have to commute (a new concept to me) figured might as well get some exercise while doing it. Looked like route 40 might be an option, are the shoulders bike friendly? or is that suicide?

[2005hawk]

No one has metioned this, but "the travelers" should know that there are many people who live in Lawrence and commute to KC or Topeka in vanpools. There are several that I know of. Some go directly to specific major employers. Thats an option.

[Prple]

Mapquest says 41 minutes (40 miles) from Lawrence to Kansas City (MO side). Does that seem about right? How much time should be tacked onto that with traffic?
Thanks!

[cp1969]

People drive like lunatics on K10. I don't commute on that route but travel it a lot. I have seen people who must be doing 90 or 100mph on that road. Also saw a road rage incident involving an ice cream truck.

How do you have road rage when you're wearing a bow tie and driving an ice cream truck?? It's like being an angry clown or something.

[tinkmom3]

Hey, don't take the sun thing for granted. I drove from Topeka to KC for several years and it was torture on the eyes both coming and going. My work hours were 8ish to 5 ish and we would hit it both ways.

[luzianne]

I commuted for a year between KC and Lawrence. No big deal. 45 minute drive from my house to campus and most of it the traffic is not bad at all; 435 is the only part that is ever bad traffic and that's only if you are traveling at morning or evening rush hour. More than traffic, I was worried in the mornings/evenings about a deer darting out in front of me on 10 Highway. I would often see deer that have been hit and there are warning signs that deer cross there, and I did see deer occasionally, but lucikly one never ran in front of me.

My daughter now commutes from Lawrence to KU Med. She takes I-70 so takes a different route than I did when I was commuting, as I was going to Johnson County. I think it takes her less time on I-70 than it took me on K-10 and she says the traffic really is not bad at all, which surprised me. I thought on I-70 it would be.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by cp1969

How do you have road rage when you're wearing a bow tie and driving an ice cream truck?? It's like being an angry clown or something.

Don't know why, but when I read that an image of Newman (on Seinfeld) popped into my head.

[kcmo]

I'm a transportation planner/engineer so I know the traffic characteristics of metro KC very well.

Traffic between Lawrence and metro KC is not bad, but there are some problem areas and those problems areas are getting bad in a hurry.

First off, there is almost no traffic on the Kansas side of I-70. Even during rush hour, you will be lucky if you have to tap your brakes all the way into downtown KCMO. KCK is just not very built up and doesn’t have a lot of people So if you commute to Downtown KCMO from Lawrence, you won’t have a problem at all. There is less traffic in KCK’s portion of I-70 than in rural MO stretches of I-70 and I-70 on the MO side of the metro is crowded nearly all day long with daily rush hour gridlock. Half the people that use 70 in KCK are from JOCO because it's a less crowded option to 35 and other routes.

Every freeway into downtown KCMO is crowded except 70/670 from the west. It's sort of bizarre really.

K-10 between Lawrence and KC can be a different story. Most of the time, it’s not bad at all, but the morning rush can get real bad as you approach the 435 loop EB. Westbound in the evenings coming out of the metro area can also really bog down. K-10 carries more traffic than I-70 does (on the KS side).

So it would depend on what part of the metro you are going to, but a lot of people commute between KC and Lawrence and from what I have heard, they don’t complain any more than those coming in from Blue Springs, Lee’s Summit and Olathe mostly because I-70 is so wide open. It can easily take longer to get downtown from Blue Springs or Lee's Summit than Lawrence during the morning rush. I would say on average it would take longer, even though it's 20 miles shorter.

As far as the commute between Topeka & Lawrence, I know less about this corridor, but from everything I have studied or been told, there is very little, if any congestion between the two areas. I-70 is even six lanes wide much of the way which is just overkill for a highway that might carry 40k a day. But the KS turnpike has a lot of money.

So basically It’s not really too bad. I drive to Lawrence quite a bit and usually take K-10 because that route if far more developed than I-70. I need things to look at when I drive in rural areas. But like I said, it gets clogged quite often around Lackman / I-35 etc, but nothing like other nasty commutes in the metro like from Lee’s Summit to Lenexa and back.

[Kcking1985]

Thats why its easy & quick 4 gang bangers 2 pop of in Lawrence. I defiently would consider Lawrence a Inner City even though its a city in general with a popualtion over 88,000. Lawrence is around 45min from the Killa City & thats the MO side... So theres no problem getting backup or whatever down here. Everything & anything good or bad, will or has happened here. Thats a fact. Don't cross that line!!!

[gatorchick]

I did the commute from Lawrence to KC for a while and its not bad. It was typically around 45 minutes and I can't remember there ever being traffic. Had we stayed in KS we would have bought a house in Lawrence - IMO that commute is a small price to pay to live there.