Secrets of the City

I think the real reason I posted this is so I can have a post with the categories “traffic” and “twolves”. This will never happen again.

But I do really like this Michigan Left. I fucking hate left turns, especially on Hennepen/Lyndale. (I take the tough stances on the difficult issues, I know.)

they do it like that in NOLA too.

I’m with you Rex. I especially hate red arrows when there is no traffic.

I need to stop reading so much politics. I was trying to figure out why the Free Republic was interviewing T-wolves coaches.

Ah, that’s a little of the old newspaper boy slipping in there. “Freep” immediately makes sense to me, but might be foreign to others. Then again, maybe everyone here already knows about this ingenius Michigan Left too.

Wow, I really like that idea of the Michigan Left. Much cooler than the roundabouts popping up here.

Those Michigan Lefts are pretty sweet. Spending my formative driving years in San Diego, I had become awfully fond of the combination of right turn lanes with center medians that are paved and marked as left turn lanes.

Hennepin and Lyndale would be way, WAY less congested if they both had one lane in each direction with a center left-turn lane down their lengths in addition to right-turn lanes. Here’s a terribly funny diagram from the California DMV of what it looks like right before there’s a massive three-car collision (it’s the fifth picture down). The one with the bicyclist (”right!” “wrong!”) is a scream.

As a native Michigander, I can authoratatively say that the Michigan Left is the bomb. Although I realize that I lose all street cred by using the term “the bomb.”

Seriously, though, metro Detroit has a lot of six- and eight-lane divided highways (e.g., Eight Mile), and without the Michigan Left you’d have to have a cloverleaf at every intersection. Not cool.

Hwy 55 (from Mpls out to the northwest ‘burbs) would be a perfect example of the kind of road that could benefit from a Michigan Left.

email your legislator about this, they should be in minnesota

the michigan left is pimp. (now that’s street cred)

a dude I met in chicago (in his 50’s) said MN invented traffic meteres for freeway on-ramps, and noise walls along urban highways.

hey here’s a shout out to my D-Town homies, gimme a Mgan left anytime. word!

Total pimp, the intersection at Franklin & Hennepin needs this.

Unfortunately, the Michigan Left doesn’t work in urban environments. Look at the diagram, and look at how much space they take up.

We could have one at Lyndale and Franklin if we tore down Vision Loss Resources, Rudolph’s, the Dragon, Hums, the Wedge, etc. I’m willing to wait for my left turn signal…

I’ve been to Troy, Michigan where there are a bunch of these Michigan left turns. Troy is shithole of a town. If you even want to call it a town. It’s all roads, parking lots, office buildings and stripmalls. It has absolutely no character and is easily forgotten. The Michigan lefts take up a ton of space and contribute to the overall high speed, constant car traffic. I never saw anyone walking around on the sidewalks. I saw keep the Michigan lefts in Michigan.

A link from the great Freep! About the Michigan Left, no doubt… be still my beating heart.

The Michigan Left, for you Minnesotans, wouldn’t work here–the coach in that article is right, you don’t know bad traffic until you’ve tried to cross the wasteland that is the Detroit Metro. MunsingW is also right, as the Left is used on Woodward but vanishes as you near Detroit proper. Bravo, too, to the leigha for suggesting Hennepin and Lyndale get middle turn lanes. How long have those been primary thoroughfares?

I have to add, however, that I never saw metered ramps until I moved here. I also never thought I’d see drivers that rivaled Florida for their timidity and utter inability to understand even the most fundamental rules of the road. Get out of the left lane if you’re not passing on the highway. Christ almighty…

The only thing I would want from Detroit is some of their ethinc restaurants. In every other category I hope Minneapolis is never like Detroit.

Agreed, there aren’t many existing roads here where a Michigan Left would work. And all of metro Detroit is like the city of Troy, as Rudy described. Big roads with lots of cars. Concrete jungle. And it goes on and on and on. It’ll only be a few more years until that kind of density makes it all the way to Ann Arbor (which is 40 highway minutes west from the westest-most edge of the city of Detroit).

I also think ramp meters both suck and blow. Maybe *that’s* why people here never learn how to merge properly.

And while I’m proud to be from the D, but there’s a reason why I live here now.