It's time to let all of that go because, as a new survey shows, Kansas Citians have a very ordinary commute. The Business Journals' On Numbers blog has put together a ranking of the respective commutes for large and small cities. Kansas City, Missouri, has the 97th best commute of 269 cities with a population over 100,000.
According to the survey, 74.59 percent of Kansas City drivers spend less than 29 minutes commuting to work (27.58 percent of drivers are at their desks in under 15 minutes). Only 5.86 percent of drivers are in their cars for more than 45 minutes. Compare that with New York City, the worst city in the country for commuters, where 40 percent of the 8.3 million residents spend at least 45 minutes in the car.
Kansas City is a tick below the national average when it comes to those with short commutes — 28.7 percent of Americans in big cities are updating their Facebook status from the office in 15 minutes or less. Among area cities, Overland Park residents have the best commute, clocking in at 55th with 35.47 percent of drivers getting to work in under a quarter of an hour.
Most of us are blessed with relatively easy commutes here in Kansas City. Traffic is more likely to be an inconvenience than at a standstill. So go forth and enjoy your gridlock-free existence. And think of those rare moments when you sit idling in traffic as a vacation — a glimpse into what life is like every day on the 405 in Los Angeles or the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in New York City.
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I grew up in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. It would take me 20 minutes to/from work if it wasn't rush hour. I knew that I had to leave work by 4:30 or I was stuck in a "parking lot" for the next hour and a half to drive the 10 miles home. I used to just wait until close to 7:00, so the traffic was down to about 30 minutes. You just got used to driving everywhere and traffic ALL THE TIME, with no alternate options (the smaller roads, even neighborhood cut-throughs were always packed too!). Our area had the same population as KC, but with less land and more drivers, so you do the math. When I get stuck in KC traffic, it's like a walk in the park. There is no traffic here, just moronic drivers.
I live in OP and work in NKC----I 635 is the quickest and least dramatic way to commute-home at 5:30 ---I get burned on the rare times that i try I-35. Always a traffic jam!! The easy going I-635 commute will change for the worst in a couple years when they complete that mega ginormous office park across from Argosy on 635 by Horizons PKWY. Bummer!!
Grew up in KC and lived in Dallas-Fort Worth for 8yrs, and can definitely confirm that a) KC traffic is a cakewalk in comparison and b) it is the civilly-engineered design/layout of the street/highway system that eases things.
For example, there are several straight-forward alternate routes if a highway jams... ie, if 470/435 is backed up, you can take Bannister/95th or Red Bridge/College. In DFW there are very few such straight-forward alternate routes, it's as if squirrels on crack engineered their roadways.
Comment/questions I have heard by PE's over the years... for Unemployed Registered Professional Civil Engineer.
"Will it hurt the concrete if it freezes?" (Question asked by the the engineer regarding freshly pour concrete.)
"Just cut 4' off the beam." (Comment made by an engineer regarding a pre-stressed bridge beam that was 4' too long.)
"The soil with a LL above 40, that remains after a cut is suitable for use, but the spoil from the cut cannot be used because it is unsuitable." (Comment made by an engineer regarding cuts and fills with soils that have a liquid limit greater than 40.)
"We don't need to go all the way to bedrock. The shale layer immediately covering the limestone will support the structure." (Comment made by engineer regarding placement of a box culvert which was going to be backfilled, buried and a roadway placed on top of. Water undercut the box before the project was 50% complete.)
"The use of oversized limestone particles is suitable for backfill so long as they are laid flat to minimize soil particle filtration." (And they were. 2 years later all four bridge approach ramp settled. Why? Because the soil, even though each lift it was compacted to 98% maximum density, filtered down through the "seams" between the limestone.)
"There's nothing wrong with my design. Build it according to the plan." (Comment made by engineer regarding elevation bust found by contractor. He did as he was instructed and built it according to the plan. You can see the result at 81st and Brooklyn.)
"It's not possible to exceed 100% maximum density!" (Comment made by an engineer regarding Moisture/Density Relationship Curves as established by ASTM D698)
After close to 30 years of working with Professional Civil Engineers let me give you some advice. Get your ass out of the office and go view the "field" BEFORE you even begin to design. When construction has started go to the project at least ONCE A WEEK and TALK to the 2nd grade drop out who has been doing this kind of work all their adult life. More importanly LISTEN to them because in spite of all your education they DO know more about what's going on and how to build things than you do because that it what THEY do; and if they tell you "This isn't going to work", 99.9999999% of the time they are correct.
Yeah, but that 29 minutes could be cut to 19 if there weren't so many morons on the road who think the LEFT LANE is for continuous driving...who think that TURN SIGNALS are optional (police included)...who think they are talented enough to be able to text and drive....who have no fucking clue how to navigate a round-about....who think red light is merely a "suggestion"...who think a yellow light means "FLOOR IT!"....
I remember at KU one of the city planning professors saying something like KC had the most miles of Interstate highway per citizen
I grew up here in KC, but lived in Houston for 5 years and only recently moved back. The worst KC traffic can't touch the daily insanity of Houston, even worse since you pay to be on the tollways stuck in traffic.
It is the competency of KC's civil engineers that have made this place a cakewalk. If you see a civil engineer, thank him/her. Secondly, you might want to thank them by EMPLOYING MORE OF THEM. Do you hear me, KC metro mayors/city councils? BUILD THAT SEWER/STREET project!!! And you taxpayers don't get pissed off. We are the guys that take care of your shit. Literally.
And a three to five mile jaunt on a bike is usually faster than a car in midtown on a clear day. When traffic is snarled, it's considerably faster--even for a novice rider.
My drive is 5 minutes to work, and I hate that. I don't know how people do longer.
KC driving is a cake walk - even around the shopping malls at Christmas time. My 23 mile commute through Atlanta traffic would take anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes even on sunny days - god forbid someone was changing a tire. There were 3 occasions over 18 months where traffic accidents actually closed – yes CLOSED - the interstate for hours causing cars to run out of gas while just sitting on the highway with the AC or heater on. KC traffic? There isn’t any.
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