Driving in Ames
- Thread starter dafarmer
- Start date
I am afraid that there is little that can be done to improve south Duff as the city has allowed overdevelopment there, despite the fact that most of that area is in a flood plane. As for L-Way, the traffic there may become worse due to the new apt. buildings that are about to open up.
I've lived in DFW for 20 years and Scottsdale for 2, Ames is so bad compared to those cities when it comes to traffic. Obviously, it's a different scale and type of traffic but for the size of Ames, the traffic is horrible. South Duff is just terrible.
I moved in on Saturday and I've seen the traffic get progressively worse throughout the week. I don't think it has anything to do with bad drivers necessarily (every city has their fair share of bad drivers). The roads in Ames just can't handle the growth and the amount of traffic and cars.
Also, like someone else mentioned, the city of Ames waiting to do that road work on Lincoln way until now, is just dumb. Why would they wait to take the busiest or 2nd busiest road in the city, down to 1 lane going each way (which is already too small) for when the students get back? Just poor planning.
I moved in on Saturday and I've seen the traffic get progressively worse throughout the week. I don't think it has anything to do with bad drivers necessarily (every city has their fair share of bad drivers). The roads in Ames just can't handle the growth and the amount of traffic and cars.
Also, like someone else mentioned, the city of Ames waiting to do that road work on Lincoln way until now, is just dumb. Why would they wait to take the busiest or 2nd busiest road in the city, down to 1 lane going each way (which is already too small) for when the students get back? Just poor planning.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
If that parallel ran all the way to 30 and maybe even south of 30, that could be a lot of traffic relief.
If it feeds back into Duff, it still helps, but makes a chokepoint by Duff and 30.
And that's what I think too. They should have made the old gravel now paved 16th, 2 lane per side, and traffic could have went to Dayton or Duff.
Also, I've never seen so many hotels in my life in 1 area with only 1 restaurant by them. We all know that Azteca is good but travelers are some times leery of local Mexican and Chinese food.
Couple restaurants out there could make a fortune.
- Mar 27, 2006
- 40,829
- 28,324
- 113
My guess would be Lincoln Way because of the Lincoln Highway/Old 30. Or Grand/Duff because of Business Route 69.
YOU MOTHER ****ERS COMPLAINING ABOUT AMES DRIVING AND I AM SITTING HERE FEELING SADNESS ABOUT HOW I AM OLD AN WON'T BE MOVING BACK TO AMES AGAIN!!!
I am sad. I miss Ames.
I am sad. I miss Ames.
They would have been done with Lincoln Way well before move-in week had it not been for all of the rain days. Same with 24th Street.
The problem isnt that its overbuilt, imo, its that its very poorly designed. There was just no cohesive plan for limiting access to duff and having cross-property traffic flow in between those access points. I mean for example, you could look at Mills Civic Parkway in WDM and there is just an absolute ****-ton of stuff in the stretch between jordan creek pkwy and I-35, but WDM enforced cross-property access and alignment of private drives as well as put limits on street access (especially to left turns, a lot of street exits are right in-right out). You see similar in parts of the university ave area between 50th and Valley West Mall.
I believe theyre trying to fix some of that, but obviously its a lot harder to do after the fact.
I believe theyre trying to fix some of that, but obviously its a lot harder to do after the fact.
Last edited:
Why did they wait until the end of July to start this project? They should have started in June.
When I was in the required speech class somebody gave an informative speech about how Asians are bad drivers. The TA let him finish but he never returned to class after that day.
You must be old. To have taken speech class with Donald Trump, that was probably what, in the 60's?
I think it has more to do with the lack of urgency in the companies hired for the construction. When they closed the intersection of Hayes and 24th Street for reconstruction at the end of May, it was supposed to be for two weeks. FIVE weeks later, it reopened. Only then were they going to start on the rest of the rebuilding on 24th Street. According to the city, the entire project would take 5-6 weeks, "depending on weather conditions." They are now five weeks in and STILL are not done with replacing the north side of the road. It will probably be October 1st before the rest is completed. Yes, I live on 24th and it SUCKS. Having a garage I cannot use or even get to with my car is beyond frustrating.
Plus, it also looks like the city decided to not do anything they said they would to reduce speeding on that stretch of 24th Street. The limit is 30, but people go 45. It is also a single lane in both directions between Hayes and Northwestern, but people act like it's four. They must be hallucinating the white dividing line or something. The city had several plans the looked at, including building out the curbs periodically to eliminate the outside "lane," among other options. With all the new concrete that has been poured already, there is zero indication that they are doing anything but creating a street four lanes wide.