Twin Cities Transportation Issues (store, safety, move)

[Beenhere4ever]

Traffic on highway 169 south of 494 looks terrible tonight. The traffic map is showing speeds of 5mph.

[Jay4Jay]

Originally Posted by RC01

Also, are they doing any work on the 35W 494 interchange? I always hate driving through that one with the stupid wall that it forces you to squeeze through.

In my opinion, that is one of the worst intersections in the Twin Cities. I swear eastbound 494 in Bloomington is always slow, even if its in the heart of rush hour, or 3 pm on a Saturday. With the airport and Mall of America nearby, it's a poor intersection for its location.

[Beenhere4ever]

Latest news about the train crash in Spain says the driver was too engrossed in cell phone use to notice the train's speed was too high for the curve where it derailed. This is a disturbing pattern that has been repeated several times. As I recall both on the east and west coast here in America, drivers have had their phones in use prior to a headon collision. Now this is an argument about trains traveling two directions on the same track. Could be some sections are simply overused reducing the margin of safety. Most of the Blue Line has trains running on separate tracks, which is a safety feature. There are a few crossovers, though. And then there's the matter of design for future light rails. I think these trains should have some safety device built in that fills the cab with deafening noise when trains are far enough apart to put on brakes. Planes have had transponders for years installed for the purpose of sounding when the separation between two planes violates some safety margin. Seems kinda late in the game for trains not to have something like that.

As for the phones. Having one during duty hours should be a firing offense. And cabs where the drivers work should be jammed.

[MPLS_TC]

Originally Posted by Beenhere4ever

Traffic on highway 169 south of 494 looks terrible tonight. The traffic map is showing speeds of 5mph.

Yeah, may be they should build a light rail out that way

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by MPLS_TC

Yeah, may be they should build a light rail out that way

If they're going to go through the bother to do that, they should also pay a bit extra and provide for a line that comes back from there as well.

[Beenhere4ever]

Originally Posted by MPLS_TC

Yeah, may be they should build a light rail out that way

Just stop fixing the roads for the ingrates.

[Beenhere4ever]

I downloaded the 511 app to my Android phone. Not sure if iPhone works better, but I can't imagine doing anything with this while avoiding accidents on a freeway. At work before driving home on a work computer or at home in the morning, yes. But for dynamic changes during either trip, I rate it useless.

Got me to thinking though. The best guide for drivers would use GPS and would speak to the driver. It would tell you of situations ahead before you make the choice of which freeway or street you're going to use. And ideally it would incorporate ALL metro information. This thought came to me driving north on Lexington Ave in St Paul, wondering if the bridge replacement on Hamline was done. Not sure whether St Paul Public Works feeds all its traffic interruptions to MNDOT or not.

I could imagine a dedicated radio channel which plays music or ads or PSAs with breakins for problems as they occur. On a drive to or from work, the driver could put that frequency on the radio and get up to the minute info on things to avoid OR just grin and bear. Not everything can be detoured, but I've thought all my driving life I'd love to know why suddenly a line of traffic goes from 50 to 10.

The state of Minnesota or the Metro Council could sponsor this frequency. And maybe people wanting to go into radio could staff most positions, thereby combining job training with improved driving information.

I also thought "what about bicyclists and transit riders" . Well, they won't be playing a car radio, but most could have a device allowing them access. I just bought an AM/FM radio for storm preparedness. And all my MP3 devices tune FM at least. So if the news included info of use to transit customers and bicyclists, then they could be kept abreast of travel conditions.

511 is a great idea, but it is clearly a work in progress. Heck, the radio frequency might be 511.

The more I dig, the more I learn. MNDOT.GOV has this page that allows you to enable notifications on your phone. I have to study it and try it. See what it actually offers:https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169887#

Oops, MNDOT transferred me to Twitter to do the necessary phone change.

[golfgal]

The GPS on my Android shows where traffic back ups are in real time--it uses Google maps....but honestly, it's pretty easy in the TC to route around traffic hot spots if you take a few minutes to look at a map of the TC and have some alternate routes in mind....

[Beenhere4ever]

At the start, I agree, that can be done. But the traffic situation is ever changing. It takes a split second to close two lanes on a major artery. That's why I think maybe the Twitter mobile feed MIGHT be a big part of an answer. Not having tried it, I can only speculate. And I still like the idea of student-run MNDOT radio station. In fact, KBEM once did traffic in the afternoon. According to this document they do still do traffic reports at 6 and 3. I think all day might make more sense since now congestion goes from sunup to sundown. http://jazz88.mpls.k12.mn.us/uploads...pring_2013.pdf

[Beenhere4ever]

To illustrate what I said: https://twitter.com/mndottraffic