KCPowercat wrote:dnweava wrote:flyingember wrote:If it can be closed for two years then it's just not needed as a road. It's not going to reopen until early 2020.
Sure, it's only WB traffic, but that is sending all KCK bound traffic onto other routes that can be used to prove the capacity needed for EB traffic too.
have you driven around the northloop during rush hour this week? I'm assuming not. It's an F-in nightmare around rush hour right now between all the closures (grand ave, 6th st, KCK viaduct, and Broadway bridge)
This doesn't trump the positives for the neighborhood
My commute from the north, taking I-35 the east side of the loop (both the I-70 WB detour route and SB 169 detour route) is negligibly different. If I take 35 or Burlington depends on the exact traffic of the day, it's most often still quicker to follow the dual detour route.
None of this traffic is new, it's just moved where it appears at and many roads still aren't at capacity.
If you go further north into NKC, N. Oak traffic is maybe 10 cars worse at the same time. It backs up past 32nd St in the morning by 5 or 6 cars where before it backed up almost to 32nd. A light further north is the reason it backs up, there's tons of road capacity but the light at Vivion Rd causes all cars to clump together. You'll have 20 cars clustered together at a light and then 10 blocks of nothing.
The east side of the loop is a hair slower. It's always been bad because of too many people trying to get over two lanes to the left to stay on I-70 while other people are going two lanes to the right to get on 670. Traffic clears up immediately after these two ramps.
US 169 traffic always had a single lane to get onto I-35 SB and traffic would backup all the way to the downtown airport trying to get into downtown. This didn't change with the closures it just moved where it appears, to the north loop.
There's been the same traffic NB for years. Have you driven the west side of the loop in the past ten years? Traffic backs up from Broadway nearly all the way back to 12th St.
You'll frequently find a backup from the HOA Bridge NB lane to get onto I-70 EB in the morning and a long backup to get onto I-35 NB in the afternoon.
On Wednesday US 71 was backed up in all three lanes from I-70 to 22nd St. Meanwhile The Paseo was empty. This is normal too. The Paseo only has traffic at the Indep Ave and I-70 lights. If US 71 is backed up past The Paseo heading NB only a fool won't get off onto The Paseo.
Bad road design is the cause of so many traffic problems and by simplifying the designs we can add capacity without adding lanes.
The US 71 NB issues are caused by Hospital Hill to JoCo traffic all taking the same route on because there's no faster WB road and ramps to SB I-35 and all this traffic needs to change lanes three times to get that direction combined with all 71 NB traffic being funneled into one lane. The traffic is caused by merging. (the only SB 35 access ramps are at 21st which are a practical pain to get to from hospital hill)
670 WB is bad because all 35 SB traffic has to go all the way to the left, move the ramp to the right and keep through traffic on the inside. The traffic is caused by merging.
The 169 problems are entirely caused by being combined with city streets, changing this is part of the new bridge plan.
The east side traffic is caused by too much merging.
The north loop EB traffic is caused by too much merging.