Louisville Traffic (Lexington, Frankfort, Lyndon: construction, taxes, living in)

[sonicrulestwo]

I have been in the Louisville metro area now for about 8 years. I am still amazed at how complacent folks are with the roadways. It seems odd that I do not hear people complaining about design and current shape of roads. Specifically, the 65 NB & 65 SB interchange with the 264 EB & 264 WB (Watterson). The same for the 64 EB & 64 WB & 264 EB & 264 WB (Watterson) interchange. I understand the Kennedy bridge construction and its' ramifications, but at least there is work being done to solve it. Don't get me started on 265 (Snyder). Down the road (no pun intended), I bet 265 (Lee Hamilton) in Indiana will be having serious congestion, too. So my question is - do folks even care about traffic??? The condition of the roads (dips, potholes, lack of lane markers/painting)?

[johnsonkk]

I used to have the same line of thinking but then I moved to DC-northern Virginia. In this area, 15 miles can take 25 min or 90 min. EVERY day, the traffic sign for 20 miles reads 40 minutes to as high as 90 minutes. Sometimes it's turned off to stop depression for those in traffic. People here takes buses like crazy and ride trains and subways as a necessity, not just to save gas or money. The interstates are paved at night so during the day, the roads have lines on them with rocks flying everywhere. There are roads that have more potholes than Market st (downtown by Slugger field). Checking for traffic on your phone is essential. Traffic that is a standstill often doesn't make it to the traffic reports on the radio. Finally, the toll road is almost done on I95 and they are saying it will be $24 each way during rush hour.

[censusdata]

People do complain but the reality is KY state gov's main purpose is to promote Central KY and give politicians in rural KY pork projects to get votes using tax dollars taken from the Louisville Metro Area. No urban county in America gets less back from the state than it puts in more than Jefferson Co, and the surrounding counties also get way less back than they put in. How the state's second most populous county (Fayette) gets more from Frankfort than it puts in is amazing / alarming. If you live in Louisville you just accept that there's no answer short of disbanding from the state of KY, which will never happen.

I'm not a Louisville native and actually have long time roots in the most rural parts of KY, including living there for a time. Cities should pay more taxes than they get back, but at a similar rate to what similar cities and states do. Successful states prop up there largest city to bring in more total revenue and thus help the entire state. Georgia, Indiana, Tennessee, etc are more successful states that have tons of projects in the states' largest cities. In KY the goal is to punish people living in Louisville and to prop up Lexington as the state's true city.

[EricOldTime]

Everytime I've driven in Louisville, I've been suprised at how "little" traffic their actually seems to be....

[tomocox]

The Watterson X-way (I-264) has been a mess since it's first shovel of dirt was turned in the early 1950's. The major overhaul of the 80's & 90's did a lot, but since then the traffic just became overwhelming. The location of the airport doesn't help with the options traffic planners have. To fix that intersection would require nearly the same money as Boston's big dig, and it's just not that chronic yet.

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by johnsonkk

I used to have the same line of thinking but then I moved to DC-northern Virginia. In this area, 15 miles can take 25 min or 90 min. EVERY day, the traffic sign for 20 miles reads 40 minutes to as high as 90 minutes. Sometimes it's turned off to stop depression for those in traffic. People here takes buses like crazy and ride trains and subways as a necessity, not just to save gas or money. The interstates are paved at night so during the day, the roads have lines on them with rocks flying everywhere. There are roads that have more potholes than Market st (downtown by Slugger field). Checking for traffic on your phone is essential. Traffic that is a standstill often doesn't make it to the traffic reports on the radio. Finally, the toll road is almost done on I95 and they are saying it will be $24 each way during rush hour.

I will cosign this as someone who moved back to NoVA from Louisville in 2012. Louisville traffic is a lot less murderous than most bigger cities.

[MissingIndiana]

It's mostly just during the rush hours that things seem backed up, even heading into downtown as well as outward bound. 264 seems busy all the time. I can see things getting a lot more congested on the Indiana side when the east end bridge is done and the extra traffic is flowing around that way.

[Msradell]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is the lack of any discussion even about widening I-64 from the Waterson through downtown! That's probably the biggest bottleneck in the area and there's not even any discussion about it. I know it's been said that the tunnels are the problem but I'm sure that could be overcome with some creative thinking.

Otherwise, I agree with the other posters who say that Louisville traffic really isn't that bad!

[McDougal66]

Originally Posted by tomocox

The Watterson X-way (I-264) has been a mess since it's first shovel of dirt was turned in the early 1950's. The major overhaul of the 80's & 90's did a lot, but since then the traffic just became overwhelming. The location of the airport doesn't help with the options traffic planners have. To fix that intersection would require nearly the same money as Boston's big dig, and it's just not that chronic yet.

I agree the traffic has become much worse. We can "thank" the overdevelopment that's been rampant in areas outside the Watterson. At 5pm on a weekday, one can pretty easily get through downtown. Try that at 5pm in St Matthews, or even Lyndon. It's gridlocked with cars going outside the Watterson. If this overdevelopment without restrictions and poor planning continue at this alarming pace, expect it to get far worse.

At the same time, it's really easy to forget the broader picture. I was in Atlanta 2 weeks ago, and drove both I 75 through and I 285 around the city. It's absolute madness. 8-9 lanes of craziness both ways. I actually found it easier driving into the NYC area. So in that respect, Louisville's dillemma seems minor.

[Dayton Sux]

Traffic...& drivers...are worse here now than I can remember. Louisville drivers have always been fairly quick, but they were also skillful and mostly polite (good "traffic manners").

That has changed. More speeding, more recklessness, worse driving skills (like lane hogging, cutting people off, risky left turners. And the congestion has increased, too...probably to be expected...(the usual bottlenecks have become worse) but the just plain reckless and excessive speed driving is a new wrinkle here, compared to times past.