And the happiest city in America is...

[GSG]

The worst part of driving in Lincoln are the dumb one lane main streets like 27th from Hwy 2 to O street. Makes no sense that it's a one lane all the way through. I get the fact that the neighborhoods on either side of 27th make it impossible to build into a two lane street. But it's still frustrating.

 

Other than the traffic, and snow removal (it sucks) Lincoln is a nice town and I had alot of fun growing up here.

 

What is this "snow removal" you speak of?

[rawhide]

You guys ain't seen nuthin'

[knapplc]

You guys ain't seen nuthin'

If you're talking about traffic, I have. I worked on Market Street in San Francisco, and commuted there from Los Altos. I know traffic. No, Lincoln's traffic isn't big-city traffic. But that doesn't mean it isn't bad. It's just bad in different ways.

[ADS]

The worst part of driving in Lincoln are the dumb one lane main streets like 27th from Hwy 2 to O street. Makes no sense that it's a one lane all the way through. I get the fact that the neighborhoods on either side of 27th make it impossible to build into a two lane street. But it's still frustrating.

 

Other than the traffic, and snow removal (it sucks) Lincoln is a nice town and I had alot of fun growing up here.

 

What is this "snow removal" you speak of?

It's something Lincoln doesn't do very well.

[GSG]

The worst part of driving in Lincoln are the dumb one lane main streets like 27th from Hwy 2 to O street. Makes no sense that it's a one lane all the way through. I get the fact that the neighborhoods on either side of 27th make it impossible to build into a two lane street. But it's still frustrating.

 

Other than the traffic, and snow removal (it sucks) Lincoln is a nice town and I had alot of fun growing up here.

 

What is this "snow removal" you speak of?

It's something Lincoln doesn't do very well.

 

A couple years ago, we had a new employee from the East coast somewhere. She was freaking out during the winter because we don't have any snow removal. She got stuck about 10 times just pulling into the parking lot one morning!

[B1G Red]

Mayor of Lincoln on the news took credit for making it the happiest city by personally delivering toilet paper to portapots that were out. They probably interviewed the people in the portapots.

[4skers89]

You guys ain't seen nuthin'

If you're talking about traffic, I have. I worked on Market Street in San Francisco, and commuted there from Los Altos. I know traffic. No, Lincoln's traffic isn't big-city traffic. But that doesn't mean it isn't bad. It's just bad in different ways.

Heck of a commute. I used to live in San Fran and work in Alameda. Bay Bridge wasn't bad in the early morning but coming home was painful.

 

I was cracking up reading your description of the Lincoln traffic gauntlets I might have a skewed opinion of the traffic in Lincoln since I'm usually scurring around in a short amount of time to visit people.

[ZRod]

I guess I take Normal/Capitol more than any other street in town and often finding myself not having to stop more than once from ~21st all the way down to 70th.

The reason you don't stop is because that's probably the way accross town with the least traffic lights. I drive it everyday from 70th to Antelope prkway to get to campus. And I have to stop at 56th, 48th, 40th, usually 27th, and pre antelope prkway you had to stop at 17th. That's 5 out of 7 lights on the route, and the only reason you don't have to stop at South street is because it is the one and only light that is synced on the route. The other light at Lincoln High actually has a sensor so it only triggers when cars are there. Coming back is even worse because Antelope is all jacked up, you wait at lights that have zero cross traffic, and there are turn signals for oncoming traffic that you have to wait for even when no one is turning. Knapp is right the traffic design is horribly inefficient.

[Foppa]

Since moving to Lincoln in August the lights are actually something I've been thankful for and thought were done well

 

I don't understand this. You like the fact that you can't go more than several blocks without hitting a light and stopping?

 

Traffic systems should be designed to efficiently move traffic around. In Lincoln, they are designed (or at least, they function as if) to chop traffic into controllable pieces and move those pieces around the city in short steps.

 

Driving down O Street from 9th to 17th, you're going to stop four of the eight lights, if not more. Driving the opposite direction at the same time - same result.

 

Driving down O Street from 17th to 27th, you're going to definitely stop at 27th, if not 25th, and now you're almost 100% likely to stop at Antelope Valley. In a ten-block distance you're stopping a minimum of once and likely three times - and that's despite syncing up with the traffic pattern of the street when you had already stopped at 17th.

 

Continuing east on O from 27th, you're going to stop at 33rd unless you speed like a madman. You're going to stop at 48th after you stopped at 33rd, and that's even if you stopped again at the only light between them at 44th.

 

This is Lincoln's "thoroughfare," the street with the most traffic, the street which moves the most cars. But there's no flow.

 

---

 

Take 27th. Longest north/south street through town. Start down at Yankee Hill and head north. If you stopped at the light at 27th & Yankee Hill, you're going to stop at Pine Lake without question, and that's even if you stopped at Porter Ridge. You're through Pine Lake now, going north, and you're likely to stop at one of the South Pointe entrances. You'll definitely stop again at Old Cheney - and again, that's if you're already in sync with the lights of the street, having stopped at the 27th & Pine Lake intersection.

 

You will stop again at Highway 2, and that's even if you got through the light at Tipperary. So, you're stopped at Highway 2, heading north, the light turns green and you have to GET ON IT or you're going to stop again at Woods Blvd. WHY!?!? Why should you have to stop at that podunk intersection when you just cleared a major intersection of two thoroughfares? THAT is asinine.

 

Anyway. You've made it through Woods unscathed, let's say, and now you're heading toward the trifecta of Van Dorn, Sheridan and South. You may get through Van Dorn, presuming you didn't stop at Woods, but it's unlikely (unless you're speeding) that you'll make it through Van Dorn AND Sheridan. And even if you've stopped at one of those two, you're going to stop for sure at South. Then you're going to stop at A, and you're going to stop again at Capitol Parkway. And you're quite likely to stop AGAIN, unless you get off the light quite quickly, at Randolph, and if you make it past Randolph, you're lucky if you make it past J Street without stopping.

 

You WILL stop at O Street. Period. But once you're through O, you may stop again at P street, which happens to me about half the time. Proceeding north, you're stopping at Vine, no questions asked. If you get on the gas once the Vine light turns green you MAY avoid stopping at the next light, Y Street, but that's a 50/50 chance. You get past Y Street and you're almost definitely stopping at Holdrege. Get through Holdrege and you may stop at Fair Street, but not always. You WILL stop at Cornhusker, and you may, depending on traffic, sit through a couple of lights. From Cornhusker you're stopping at either K-Mart Drive or Fairfield, possibly both. Get past those two intersections and you ARE stopping at Superior, again maybe waiting for two lights, depending on traffic. From there you're stopping again at probably two of the three lights at Ticonderoga, Kensington, and/or Folkways.

 

North from there you're most likely stopping again at Fletcher, and even if you make it past Fletcher you're stopping at Whitehead Drive. From there you're at the Interstate, and if you're heading west to Grand Island or York, you're most likely going to have to stop at the on-ramp light to wait to get onto the Interstate.

 

---

 

This is a tremendously antiquated way of moving traffic. I talked to a city engineer years ago about this. Basically they're using a philosophy developed in the 50s & 60s where they try to break traffic up into manageable chunks and control how it moves across town. That was probably OK in the 60s when there were half to 1/4 as many cars on the road as there are today, but it simply does not work in the modern era.

 

First, it wastes a TON of gas. All that starting and stopping is horrible for gas mileage. It causes unnecessary delays in simple drives across town. What used to take 15 minutes to drive now takes 20 or more. That's a completely unnecessary addition of time in the interest of slowing traffic. Traffic can be managed so it flows smoothly, so it moves at a reasonable and safe speed, and so it has a minimum number of stoppages. Lincoln doesn't have this philosophy, and I can't imagine why anyone would think the way they run traffic here is good. I find it baffling.

 

Huh. And people wonder why the gas tax is so high

[NUance]

You guys ain't seen nuthin'

If you're talking about traffic, I have. I worked on Market Street in San Francisco, and commuted there from Los Altos. I know traffic. No, Lincoln's traffic isn't big-city traffic. But that doesn't mean it isn't bad. It's just bad in different ways.

I'll bet that was a while back. It was probably bad back then. But MUCH worse now. If you wanted to get to Market Street from Los Altos (~40 miles) by, say, 9:00am, you'd prolly need to start by about 6:00am. That is some crazy traffic up and down the 101.

[Landlord]

Guys......GUYS.

 

 

 

BE HAPPY GUYS.

[Minnesota_husker]

No it isnt.

 

I love Lincoln, but that is a crock of poop.

[ADS]

Guys......GUYS.

 

 

 

BE HAPPY GUYS.

NO, YOU BE HAPPY.

[Blackshirts007]

Traffic control is a f'ing joke. Knapp pretty much summed it up. The most frustrating thing is when I go to work I have to take a left on 14th and old Cheney coming from the north. After waiting for awhile the turn lane will get the arrow and then the next light 1 block down (by the gas station) will always turn red. I've tried flooring it after the turn and can never make it. The only good lights are from 9th and J to Q and 10th and Q to J because they are timed. It's works great if you follow the speed limit. But if you drive 35 downtown like I do get ready to catch up to red at about the 3rd light

[tschu]

No it isnt.

 

I love Lincoln, but that is a crock of poop.

Sounds like you need to turn that frown upside down