How does the commute in the Twin Cities compare to other metro areas?
Construction season has arrived, potentially adding several minutes to your daily drive to work.
So, how bad is the commute in the Twin Cities? Good Question.
Based on the metrics WCCO found, "not bad" feels like a fair description.
According to a census survey, the average morning commute time in the Twin Cities is 24.1 minutes. That's the shortest time out of the 30 largest U.S. metropolitan areas.
The nationwide average (33.8) is almost 10 minutes longer.
How did the Twin Cities earn the top spot? A handful of local transportation experts weighed in.
"What you find is that we do a number of things very well," Amy Vennewitz, the Met Council's director of metro transportation planning, said.
She touted the county and city streets alongside the freeways that offer different routes. Also, expanded public transit, E-Z Pass lanes and affordable housing across the region.
"And it offers people choice in their housing locations and most particularly, to be able to live near where they work," Vennewitz said.
And where they work isn't always in the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
"There's a lot of kind of suburban to suburban commuter trips with a lot of major employers that are more on that outer ring, and so there's probably a lot of folks that maybe don't even really hit the interstate system," Brian Kary, who handles traffic operations for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, said.
Kary also noted the ramp meters, which control the pace of vehicles entering highways.
"And so it gives kind of smoother traffic flows, helps decrease those delays, decrease that congestion," he said.
Since 24 minutes is the average, many may gripe that their drive to work is much longer. So, which areas in the Twin Cities have the worst congestion?
MnDOT tracks congestion based on when traffic flow drops below 45 miles per hour.
In the morning, that happens most often along Interstate 94, especially at the Lowry Hill Tunnel near downtown Minneapolis.
Interstate 35W is another chokepoint near downtown.
Highway 62 passing through Edina and Bloomington is known for long backups as well.
Severe congestion is an important metric for influencing future road projects, but so too is a lack of predictability in commute times.
"What people are looking for is often certainty in their travel times and if their travel times are extremely variable, they can't plan for their commutes," Jonathan Ehrlich with the Met Council said.
Until the next project improves your commute, how can you do so right now?
First, use 511 or GPS consistently to find the quickest route each day. You can also see what public transit options are available near you and be flexible with when you leave home.
"Sometimes just even leaving a half an hour earlier, half an hour later can make a pretty significant difference in maybe what your overall travel time is," Kary said.
MnDOT and the Met Council say that adding E-Z Pass lanes to existing roads can be better at relieving congestion than building new lanes.