Mea culpa, I was unclear in my post as one lister poiinted out. Perhaps this will help some. WMarks, Central
The county calls the "rush hour" 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. I add that there are mini-rushes at 9, 10, & 11 p.m. and bar rushes at midnight, 1, and 2 am., meaning a sudden rush of cars for about 20 min. to half an hour.
Is "9" 9am or 9pm? Since you qualify 11 as pm, I'm assuming you mean 9am. I suspect you probably mean 9pm and perhaps that's why I've not experience the problems. However, I'll relate what happened today.
Today I had to drive into work a little later than usual. I took advantage of the situation to perform another experiment. I timed my travel eastbound on Lake from Lyndale to Hiawatha. I started out at 9:10am and was very careful to travel at the posted speed of 30mph.
I was surprised at how well the lights are timed for this speed. This did break down at Chicago so the lights are not as well timed as those on 26th and 28th, which I think has been the majority opinion expressed on the list.
At Chicago I counted vehicles. There were eight cars waiting with me eastbound and a bus pulled up right when the light changed, so I'll call it nine. There was one car headed westbound turning onto southbound Chicago.
Ten cars total during what most people would call the rush hour period and what WM calls a mini-rush period. There were zero backups at or near Chicago.
I arrived at Hiawatha at 9:17am. Seven minutes. Not bad at all!
I disagree with WM's definition of congestion as more than five vehicles stopped at a light. By that definition I was in a congested area. Of course, if you average the traffic over the two directions, I was below the cogestion level, but right on the edge. Either way, I don't think this is the way anyone else defines congestion. My off-the-cuff working definition goes something like this: if I am waiting at a light and get through on the next change, then there is no congestion. If I have to wait an extra change then I am experiencing moderate congestion. More than one change and it's heavy congestion. Lake/Lagoon and Hennepin is very heavily congested around 5pm by this definition and I think that agrees with the experience of most people.
Now, if I misunderstood WM and he means that the mini rushes only happen at night (9pm, 10pm, etc.) then there is something else going on. My guess would be that this is traffic into Uptown but perhaps there are other destinations as well (I'm new to the area). If that's the case then simple routing onto 26th and 28th should help a lot. And I live between 26th and 28th, so I am aware of the effects this would have. Between the three roads traffic should keep moving very well.
I don't think we should destroy business and pedestrian access for such a small window of time. If it was coinsistent heavy congestion throughout the day then perhaps I might consider change on Lake (and would strongly lobby for traffic management over widening) but I just can't see how five lanes is going to help when there are four already. Three plus a turn lane should be sufficient if anything needs to be done at all.
David Greene Lowry Hill East
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