2012 Metro Freeway Congestion. Source: Metro Freeway System 2012 Congestion Report
MnDOT publishes an annual congestion report, showing congestion on freeways in the greater Twin Cities area. MnDOT defines congestion as segments where speeds are below 45 MPH.
N.B. The proximate supply-side cause of the congestion may be downstream bottlenecks, so this map is reflecting the effect, not necessarily the cause. The demand-side cause of the congestion is more vehicles than the supply can accommodate in a given time.
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Time for more dynamic pricing on metro freeways!
Interesting that most congestion seems to be happening into downtown and on crosstowns/ring roads. Evening rush hour for people working in a downtown look like they would be a breeze
Love this data! But those are ugly maps! Is this data public? Would be interesting to grab it and overlay it with other factors temporally.
The data is public, see http://www.dot.state.mn.us/tmc/trafficinfo/developers.html
A theory I’ve long had is that the addition of outside-the-beltway freeways like 169 (south), 212, 610, 101 (north), and the new 36 bridge actually compound this problem. Those freeways entice people to live further out, and their outside-the-beltway trip times are great (except for crossing the MN river). But it brings more users into the already-congested urban freeways inside the beltway.
So, in essence, new exurban freeways can actually make trip times and congestion worse for urban and close-in suburban commuters where a majority (or all) of their freeway miles are within the beltway.
Funny, because on Friday Brendan posted the equivalent map of Twin Cities transit routes that are 7 hours a day:
http://3kpnuxym9k04c8ilz2quku1czd.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/WkdyRidership09.jpg
So cry me a freakin river MnDot.
Er, that attempt at smarm was foiled by omission. It should read “map of Twin Cities transit routes that are 7 hours a day”
MnDot can still cry me a river.
Ugh, and smarm is definitely not the word I should have used. Where’s that guy who encourages everyone to ignore the comments section?
Please ignore the comments section.