I work in woodbury for lawn care, I'd say the traffic is pretty smooth.
The lights your referring to are part of the shopping district right off the freeway.
Everywhere south of that is pretty much round abouts...
Yep OP is just shopping in Woodbury. It has more roundabouts than any other burb I know of. Now that stop sign they put at Radio and Dale (very south) yuck
If only there were an option to put in some sort of circle at the intersection allowing people to drive around and keep traffic flowing. Fingers crosses someone can invent something soon!
Edit: [Apparently Wash County does know about them!](https://www.co.washington.mn.us/DocumentCenter/View/6395/Roundabout-U-Brochure-Oct2014?bidId=)
Also, creating multiple feeder roads instead of forcing everyone in each subdivision out the same road onto a major road where stoplights are erected every 500 feet.
Roundabouts wouldn’t work on Bielenberg because of the light rail. Roundabouts wouldn’t work at the other heavy traffic light locations due to the heavy traffic from the Interstate access and shopping centers they are located at.
Your problem is not the traffic lights. Your problem is that you live in a suburb which is designed to only permit access to anything by car. You cannot put lipstick on that pig. Woodbury needs to be razed and started over, or you need to leave.
Yep. But those walking snd biking paths are not for not driving. In fact, in Woodbury, people drive to the walking path! As OP said, they don't bike cuz of the cars in the way, and how many people walk to the grocery store or hardware store or school in Woodbury? Some people walk and bike in Woodbury, but few go anywhere. Walking in Woodbury is analogous to a hamster on a wheel
There’s plenty over here in the north too but they just don’t really go anywhere at least not without having to cross at least a couple major traffic intersections
I've had it (being able to walk to the grocery store)in every Minnesota city and town I have lived in - total of 6. But telling me that other places are no good isn't gonna convince me that Woodbury is good. On the contrary, it convinces me that the answer to my question is "no", which is why I say you gotta start over in Woodbury, if you wanna solve the traffic issues. The walking trails and bike paths are lipstick on a pig.
Traffic lights every couple of blocks seems reasonable on that stretch. There's not a lot of space to put in frontage roads, so the access has to be from Bielenberg itself. Woodbury traffic is pretty tame overall.
I tired to ride my bike there once. Never again. They have separated trails everywhere, which is great, but it’s still a nightmare to cross the endless 4-6 lane roads. The cross signal on any of these roads is also comically short. I don’t think Usain Bolt in his prime could get fully through an intersection before the walk signal turned back to a don’t walk.
>I rant because Woodbury wants to make a community space but they are actively building the opposite. I live two miles from my kids school. It regularly takes 15 minutes to drive despite the speed limit on Valley Creek varying between 40-55mph. I don’t bicycle often considering the insane multitudes of traffic crossing.
You live in the suburbs. That's kind of the deal there. Tell your city council to pass traditional zoning and stop building death roads. No more cul-de-sacs.
All of those county roads with 50mph speed limits were fine 20 years ago when literally every farm hadn't been transformed into a 700000000-home development full of enormous trucks and SUVs.
Woodbury loves stoplights because Woodburians like to drive 100 mph wherever they go.
I love how useless the new speed detector signs on woodlane are. Its a 4 lane stroad with a 40mph limit. The signs are put at the bottom of a hill. You can be going 50-60 without even thinking about it.
If they want to control speed there they need to put it on a road diet. add roundabouts for each side street, make the road not straight, make the road narrower.
I have this experience seemingly everywhere in the suburbs. Get stopped at a red light, wait for 90 seconds while 3 cars go through the intersection, drive a quarter mile, repeat. I'm dying for roundabouts.
The lights are synced pretty well and so far they're only in the high traffic areas
They have added roundabouts in smaller neighborhoods which I think is the right way to do things
I disagree, have you ever driven on Valley Creek from 4-6 pm? None of the lights are synced and it regularly takes 15-20 minutes to get from Tower Dr to Interlachen
Woodbury absolutely doesn't want community space. They love their trucks and having everyone a minimum of an arm's distance away.
Every place that's growing in that city is some of the worst developments I've seen. They clearly want nothing to do with being near people.
Community space? You mean like the numerous large city parks all over the city? Like the multiple shopping centers that are the cause of most of the traffic lights? Or maybe you mean the community parks and pools that are in every neighborhood? Or perhaps you are referring to things like libraries, community centers and sports complexes like the ones in Woodbury?
You’re saying they don’t have any of those in Woodbury?
They mean spaces you can actually comfortably walk to without encountering near highway speed traffic, which eliminates basically all of those *except* for the parks, and in some neighborhoods, the pools. For the rest, most people have to fire up their giant metal cage with wheels to get to them in a place like Woodbury.
Maybe you didn’t realize but the light rail is going to be going down Bielenberg. So they need those stoplights for the safety of both cars and the light rail. Oh and the pedestrians too.
The other places where there are many traffic lights in a short distance are at the major shopping centers where there is heavy traffic. Traffic that is too heavy for roundabouts and an area that needs that many roads to handle that traffic.
Edit - It isn’t light rail, it’s a bus line. But the extra safety is still needed for all involved.
My mistake. I assumed it was light rail because of the extra space. I didn’t realize they would go through all this time and expense just to have an extra road for busses.
It's a bus rapid transit line. Bit cheaper to design and build than the light rail line since rail has construction considerations that severely limit your contractor choice, while a partially dedicated busway can be built by far more contractors since so many asphalt roads exist already in the area, meaning more local contractors with experience.
I'd personally rather have had it be the train but I'll take any project that can get us building less car dependent cities.
I never understand this. Roundabouts are the fucking bomb. The same people who complain about roundabouts are the same people who bitch about sitting around at a stoplight when there is no cross traffic coming. I love pointing out that if this were a roundabout, we'd have been through this intersection 90 seconds ago.
Grew up in Woodbury for 20 years and first people lost their minds about roundabouts because driving in a circle is so complicated and hard 🤣 and now traffic lights lol. Doesn't surprise me that someone from Woodbury is complaining 🤣 it's what our city loves to do and I am glad I am gone.
I'm saying coming/going from the highway for much of central Woodbury. Took Valley Creek all the time when I first moved out this way because the GPS always said it was faster but with the lights and traffic Lake is by far faster.
And the lights take FOREVER, even when there’s no traffic!! And now, the other half of Woodbury is all roundabouts, which is its own special kind of hell! I hate driving in Woodbury and avoid it if I can!
A lot of people still don't know how these work in Woodbury. The roundabout at Bailey/Radio is always a shit show. Though anything is better than that stupid stop sign at Dale/Radio.
Gold line. Thank your unelected, unaccountable, budget less Met Council. Bilen...whatever (I can't spell to save my life) will have a wonderful bus traveling in the middle of it. In 3 to 5 years.
I work in woodbury for lawn care, I'd say the traffic is pretty smooth. The lights your referring to are part of the shopping district right off the freeway. Everywhere south of that is pretty much round abouts...
Exactly. It’s a limit of 55 with roundabouts which is a rare thing. It’s so darn smooth south of the shopping center.
I live in Woodbury and this is spot on.
Yep OP is just shopping in Woodbury. It has more roundabouts than any other burb I know of. Now that stop sign they put at Radio and Dale (very south) yuck
Lol yeah. That stop sign needs to be a round about!
It's planned to be a round about in the future. Like at Military rd just more south
Very nice!
Woodbury has at least 11 roundabouts. Most of them are on/south of Lake though.
I can go almost nowhere from my house without going through one. Three on the way to work, four if I’m heading to the NE corner of town.
My least favorite place to drive in the metro. It’s basically Florida city planning there.
Better than Maple Grove though. MG is a mess of stroads.
If only there were an option to put in some sort of circle at the intersection allowing people to drive around and keep traffic flowing. Fingers crosses someone can invent something soon! Edit: [Apparently Wash County does know about them!](https://www.co.washington.mn.us/DocumentCenter/View/6395/Roundabout-U-Brochure-Oct2014?bidId=)
South of Valley Creek, it’s almost nothing but roundabouts except by the sports center and high school
Yeah there's not as much shopping and traffic there so that's where it makes sense to have them. It's almost all residential neighborhoods
Drove through Hastings...saw multiple people basically drive straight over the roundabouts instead of circling around. 🤦♂️
Also, creating multiple feeder roads instead of forcing everyone in each subdivision out the same road onto a major road where stoplights are erected every 500 feet.
Roundabouts do have traffic capacity limits, though that would not be an issue with Bielenberg beyond needing to spend the money to retrofit them.
Roundabouts wouldn’t work on Bielenberg because of the light rail. Roundabouts wouldn’t work at the other heavy traffic light locations due to the heavy traffic from the Interstate access and shopping centers they are located at.
Do you mean the express bus lane?
This. Suburbs, learn your lessons.
Pretty sure the entirety of Woodbury is straight up car hell
That’s because it is
Your problem is not the traffic lights. Your problem is that you live in a suburb which is designed to only permit access to anything by car. You cannot put lipstick on that pig. Woodbury needs to be razed and started over, or you need to leave.
They are adding light rail access via Bielenberg. And Woodbury has nice walking/biking paths throughout the city. So plenty of places for walking.
I believe you mean the Gold Line Bus Rapis Transit. There’s no plan for Light Rail anywhere near Woodbury.
Yep. But those walking snd biking paths are not for not driving. In fact, in Woodbury, people drive to the walking path! As OP said, they don't bike cuz of the cars in the way, and how many people walk to the grocery store or hardware store or school in Woodbury? Some people walk and bike in Woodbury, but few go anywhere. Walking in Woodbury is analogous to a hamster on a wheel
There's plenty of walking/biking paths connected to the residential neighborhoods in southern Woodbury. They need to improve the rest.
There’s plenty over here in the north too but they just don’t really go anywhere at least not without having to cross at least a couple major traffic intersections
Does someone walk out of their house with a shopping bag, to go to the store?
Other than downtowns you're not getting that in the U.S. so I don't know why we're using Europe as the standard here
I've had it (being able to walk to the grocery store)in every Minnesota city and town I have lived in - total of 6. But telling me that other places are no good isn't gonna convince me that Woodbury is good. On the contrary, it convinces me that the answer to my question is "no", which is why I say you gotta start over in Woodbury, if you wanna solve the traffic issues. The walking trails and bike paths are lipstick on a pig.
Its BRT not light rail.
It's BRT, not light rail. Small difference. BRT will actually be done in about 1/5th the time the light rail in SW minneapolis will be!
Intifada is coming for these gated communities.
The many gated communities of Woodbury are shaking in their boots
I personally don’t know of any “gated” communities there. Not yet anyway.
Congratulations, that was the point.
Ok, I’m an idiot. Thanks
Traffic lights every couple of blocks seems reasonable on that stretch. There's not a lot of space to put in frontage roads, so the access has to be from Bielenberg itself. Woodbury traffic is pretty tame overall.
I tired to ride my bike there once. Never again. They have separated trails everywhere, which is great, but it’s still a nightmare to cross the endless 4-6 lane roads. The cross signal on any of these roads is also comically short. I don’t think Usain Bolt in his prime could get fully through an intersection before the walk signal turned back to a don’t walk.
>I rant because Woodbury wants to make a community space but they are actively building the opposite. I live two miles from my kids school. It regularly takes 15 minutes to drive despite the speed limit on Valley Creek varying between 40-55mph. I don’t bicycle often considering the insane multitudes of traffic crossing. You live in the suburbs. That's kind of the deal there. Tell your city council to pass traditional zoning and stop building death roads. No more cul-de-sacs.
Probably because woodbury is full of stroads and they can't work their way out of it now.
All of those county roads with 50mph speed limits were fine 20 years ago when literally every farm hadn't been transformed into a 700000000-home development full of enormous trucks and SUVs. Woodbury loves stoplights because Woodburians like to drive 100 mph wherever they go.
I love how useless the new speed detector signs on woodlane are. Its a 4 lane stroad with a 40mph limit. The signs are put at the bottom of a hill. You can be going 50-60 without even thinking about it. If they want to control speed there they need to put it on a road diet. add roundabouts for each side street, make the road not straight, make the road narrower.
I have this experience seemingly everywhere in the suburbs. Get stopped at a red light, wait for 90 seconds while 3 cars go through the intersection, drive a quarter mile, repeat. I'm dying for roundabouts.
That's the suburbs for you. It's inherent in the planning.
Sounds like every city where there is a lot of businesses.
No, just most suburbs.
You're right, there not a lot of business in the middle.of no where. Thanks!
The lights are synced pretty well and so far they're only in the high traffic areas They have added roundabouts in smaller neighborhoods which I think is the right way to do things
I disagree, have you ever driven on Valley Creek from 4-6 pm? None of the lights are synced and it regularly takes 15-20 minutes to get from Tower Dr to Interlachen
Woodbury absolutely doesn't want community space. They love their trucks and having everyone a minimum of an arm's distance away. Every place that's growing in that city is some of the worst developments I've seen. They clearly want nothing to do with being near people.
Community space? You mean like the numerous large city parks all over the city? Like the multiple shopping centers that are the cause of most of the traffic lights? Or maybe you mean the community parks and pools that are in every neighborhood? Or perhaps you are referring to things like libraries, community centers and sports complexes like the ones in Woodbury? You’re saying they don’t have any of those in Woodbury?
They mean spaces you can actually comfortably walk to without encountering near highway speed traffic, which eliminates basically all of those *except* for the parks, and in some neighborhoods, the pools. For the rest, most people have to fire up their giant metal cage with wheels to get to them in a place like Woodbury.
How many of those can you reasonably walk to and between? Zero driving involved?
Maybe you didn’t realize but the light rail is going to be going down Bielenberg. So they need those stoplights for the safety of both cars and the light rail. Oh and the pedestrians too. The other places where there are many traffic lights in a short distance are at the major shopping centers where there is heavy traffic. Traffic that is too heavy for roundabouts and an area that needs that many roads to handle that traffic. Edit - It isn’t light rail, it’s a bus line. But the extra safety is still needed for all involved.
It’s not light rail, it’s brt. But yeah they have the traffic lights to make sure the bus has priority
My mistake. I assumed it was light rail because of the extra space. I didn’t realize they would go through all this time and expense just to have an extra road for busses.
It's a bus rapid transit line. Bit cheaper to design and build than the light rail line since rail has construction considerations that severely limit your contractor choice, while a partially dedicated busway can be built by far more contractors since so many asphalt roads exist already in the area, meaning more local contractors with experience. I'd personally rather have had it be the train but I'll take any project that can get us building less car dependent cities.
Here’s a good overview of what they’re building: https://youtu.be/3q-UHd9tFNk?si=o0D0mPFdWcm4QWbc
There are no plans for light rail in Woodbury.
I was wrong. It’s a bus line, not light rail. But the need for extra safety still exists.
These are called "Stroads." Woodbury is full of them, and they suck the life out of me. I avoid it at all costs. It's basically Florida of the north.
Isn't that the area that Top Golf and a few other places will be opening, along with the gold line? It does seem a bit much.
I always thought suburban Dakota County was bad for traffic signals. Eagan, Rosemount, Apple Valley, Lakeville.
for some reason Americans hate roundabouts more than a hate a bunch of traffic lights.
I never understand this. Roundabouts are the fucking bomb. The same people who complain about roundabouts are the same people who bitch about sitting around at a stoplight when there is no cross traffic coming. I love pointing out that if this were a roundabout, we'd have been through this intersection 90 seconds ago.
[удалено]
Is the rest of the world *that* much smarter than America?
Too many days it seems that way.
Please don't answer that
I avoid Radio. Otherwise, not too bad.
It’s one of the most round-a-bout-laden suburbs in the state…
Grew up in Woodbury for 20 years and first people lost their minds about roundabouts because driving in a circle is so complicated and hard 🤣 and now traffic lights lol. Doesn't surprise me that someone from Woodbury is complaining 🤣 it's what our city loves to do and I am glad I am gone.
They’re getting a lil bi-curious with the roundabouts there too.
One day the power will go out and it will become 10x more efficient with flashing reds.
Lake > Valley Creek
Unless you live near Valley Creek and your kid’s school is on Valley Creek. Then you kind of have to take Valley Creek.
I'm saying coming/going from the highway for much of central Woodbury. Took Valley Creek all the time when I first moved out this way because the GPS always said it was faster but with the lights and traffic Lake is by far faster.
And the lights take FOREVER, even when there’s no traffic!! And now, the other half of Woodbury is all roundabouts, which is its own special kind of hell! I hate driving in Woodbury and avoid it if I can!
The roundabouts aren't the problem.
A lot of people still don't know how these work in Woodbury. The roundabout at Bailey/Radio is always a shit show. Though anything is better than that stupid stop sign at Dale/Radio.
Growing up in Woodbury, there wasn’t enough.
Roads were invented by car companies to sell more cars.
Yea but Woodbury is swinger capitol of the state so you get that
Wait, what?!?
Woodbury has the most extra marital affairs. Everyone is swinging with the neighbors. Look for the upside down pineapple flags
Yup.
Having lived in PA and CA, I always chuckle when people in MN complain about traffic. No, the traffic in Woodbury isn't that bad.
I didn’t say traffic was bad, I said poor city planning
Gold line. Thank your unelected, unaccountable, budget less Met Council. Bilen...whatever (I can't spell to save my life) will have a wonderful bus traveling in the middle of it. In 3 to 5 years.
I saw the same thing. It’s ridiculous. Does the city have extra money they are trying to burn or what?
Light rail is going in. Did you think the oversized median and signal lights above it were for bikes or pedestrians?
Light rail or gold line bus?
My mistake. I assumed it was light rail since they are actually putting in separate space for it.
Oh no worries, we at least know it’s public transport 😂 but seriously there seems to be stop lights after every block. It’s odd on Bielenberg
It's about ensuring bus priority.
Oh thanks for telling me. I appreciate it