Question for all the Minneapolis Players...

[sucka]

Totally non-poker related...

My wife and I are going to be in town on 11/19-23 on a house hunting trip gracefully financed by the company I'm going to work for up there.

My office is right off of 494 and 100 at 8400 Normandale Blvd.

I was in town in October for a couple days interviewing, but didn't have the chance to really drive around town (nor did I want to) to get a handle on the traffic situation. Unfortunately, after checking out this link:

http://www.dot.state.mn.us/tmc/traff.../mapindex.html

I was able to look at a few cameras and saw enough to see that the traffic on 494 right by my office is likely the worst on the south side of town. Great.

That said - it looks like I should probably look for a place SW of Bloomington - perhaps in Shakopee, Chaska, Chanhassen?? All of those places have nice townhomes/homes for sale/rent/lease at very affordable prices.

Unfortunately, those cameras don't go outside the loop so I was hoping someone might be able to give me the scoop on possible traffic issues in the SW area - particularly places to avoid. It looks like I'm going to end up with at least a 15 mile commute from any of those locations. I was sure hoping to get closer...

On that note - if anyone knows someone who specializes in renting townhomes/condos in the SW area - hook a bruta up!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, etc... I'd like to make the 4 days I'm on the ground there as productive as possible so that I can at least get one night in over at Canterbury! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[whiskeytown]

all traffic in Mpls is boned....in fact, quite frankly, the whole goddamn town sucks for traffic - get used to it - In fact, I know of foreign transportation officials who have been brought to this town to see exactly what NOT to do with their city.

494 and 100 (the whole SW metro) is pretty brutal, but there is some major road construction going on right now between 100 and 169 on 494 (I have to cut over early to go to Canterbury, as I live on 100 - ) - could have been part of it - personally, I'd look north of it rather then south, as virtually all rush hr. heads into Mpls. in the morning and out in the evening.

near Canterbury is getting some overpasses put in, so it'll have fewer stoplights, and I would NOT set yourself up in any way that you have to drive hwy 62 -

it's a brutal town for driving...not Chicago or NY or LA, but lots of stop and go - about the only easy road is 94E which has 4 lanes, two of which go into the tunnel and two of which break off. -

but I don't live down there....Bob T may be able to help you out more -

RB

[sucka]

Thanks for the response, Whiskey. You definitely sound tired of Minneapolis. When's that Vegas trip? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

I live in Austin, TX and I challenge just about any city out there to have a more inferior freeway infrastructure than this place. There are 1 million + here in the greater Austin area and this city has no loop - there's not even a major freeway that runs east and west through the city. I-35 runs right through downtown and likely handles 70% of the population on any given day. It's a total nightmare down here. I have a ~19 mile commute, nearly all on highway and it regularly takes me almost an hour to get to and from work - and that's on a sunny day with no wrecks. It's out of control here - with about 1,000 more Californian's moving here every day...

One commonality with Austin and MPS is that they both have rivers (and in MPS case - a ton of lakes) that run through the city. This of course means bridges which are much more expensive than roads so in general you have fewer routes in and out of the city to the suburbs. Nearly every city I've seen that has this topographical feature has some serious highway issues.

So, when the snow starts coming down - in general, how does it affect the commute time? If today it took you 30 minutes to get to work - when the snow hits - does it double that?

I would imagine that the DOT is pretty responsive to getting/keeping the roads relatively clear but in an effort to guage my potential commute time - that would be an interesting factoid.

Anyone that lives SW and commutes to/through Bloomington's input would be greatly appreciated...

[banditbdl]

You need to just except the fact that with your offices location you are pretty much boned wherever you live as far as traffic goes. 100, 169, 494 are all terrible, although I would say 494 especially, the less East/West you have to do the better.

Snow does make traffic go considerably slower, but don't totally freak out about it. We get much less snow than people realize, really only on the neighborhood of 40 inches a year. It just looks like more because it never melts once its hit the ground.

[whiskeytown]

the first snowfall or two it almost doubles/triples the commute - after that it lightens up a bit to normal, and if they're smart, and they have any doubt (like Coleman did in St. Paul) - you plow even in doubt.

People get used to it, and yah, we have one hell of a plow system, but the cutbacks last yr. sorta took it down a notch in efficency. budgets and all - but up here, a failure to invest in the roads would result in so much lost productivity it's not funny.

Going SW, you will have a river/wetlands problem - I forget which body of water the bridges have to cross tho...

I tell ya, being only 10 min. from work and working from pm - 7am really is a boon - I can't imagine paying less for an apt. but adding 30 min. to my drive - but that's just me.

BTW, salt will kill your car...any classic autos you have...leave off the road in winter -

yes...I need vegas, and when I go, I'll take our slowly expanding light rail line to the airport....very important. - no parking fees.

RB

[elwoodblues]

One thing to keep in mind is that the SW metro will be a pretty large growth area. This can be very good for property values, but not so good for traffic. The problem I have with Chaska/Shakopee is the major arteries getting to the cities kind of suck.

I lived in Burnsville for a while and you might consider looking there. The nice thing about Burnsville is it is located right where the major northern arteries to both Minneapolis and St. Paul converge. Thus, it is easy/quick to get just about anywhere from Burnsville (or Lakeville to a lesser degree.)

[WDC]

Sucka,

I live in Minneapolis and work downtown so I do not fight the traffic as much as most. I don't usually get on any of the freeways at rush hour unless I am trying to get back from court or down to Canterbury. That said, traffic where you are sucks and will continue to suck. Based on whete you are I would indeed look west and south. You should also try Bloomington and Eden Prairie because you may be able to avoid the freeway altogether. If you work past 6pm you will usually miss the worst of it anyway.

Good luck with you're search.

[sucka]

Thanks - I guess I'm just going to have to deal with the 494 mess, although I've been looking at some alternate routes in and out of town. I guess I'm just going to have to drive them when I'm down there one morning and see how it goes. I was sure hoping that I'd get a little traffic relief as I didn't think too many places (minus the few obvious ones) could be worse than what I deal with now. Oh well...

Thanks so much for the good advice - keep it coming!

[Vaughn]

Hey Sucka,

I work at the very next intersection off Bush Lake Road. I have confined myself to my nice townhouse in Bloomington behind the MallOfAmerica. It is centrally located to everything you would need South of downtown (including the local cardroom), and the only traffic issues I run into are at the crush of 494/100 or France (because of the ongoing construction) or on the crosstown which I use to connect to 35W and get downtown when I feel like livin' on the edge. (Nothin; like putting a little danger in your life to get the blood pumping. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]) Anyway, an eastern Bloomington location will make your commute much more managable.

Hope to meet you around,

Vaughn