Crews must be doing OK at keeping traffic moving

roadrepairs3Given how much Wichitans complain about road construction, it’s impressive that the city ranked second-best of 90 cities in fewest traffic delays in the 2009 Urban Mobility Report. Apparently, construction crews are doing a pretty good job keeping traffic moving. The ranking is also impressive given that Wichita isn’t doing as well on traffic safety. Wichita dropped 23 positions, to 55th place out of 200, in Allstate Insurance Co.’s annual ranking of the likelihood of having a traffic accident. More accidents usually mean more traffic delays.

3 Comments

  1. Regular
    Posted July 10, 2009 at 9:00 am | Permalink

    From what I can tell that is different about Wichita’s set up of traffic pylons and barricades, is that they give you plenty of notification when it will start. This helps alert the driver. Radio station notifications helps tremendously as well…

    I’ve been in some cities that won’t put any notification there is road construction going on and will place barricades and pylons minimal distance from the construction area causing an accordion effect in traffic flow.

  2. bth
    Posted July 10, 2009 at 2:35 pm | Permalink

    I have what most Wichitans would consider a tough commute – from past Maize Road to almost Webb Road on Kellogg. Takes me under a half-hour counting the drivethrough at Spangles for breakfast. My friends in Chicago, Atlanta, California, etc would kill for such a short and easy drive.

    The fact that we worry about speeding tickets on Kellogg illustrates just how easy it is. I NEVER had to worry about that on the Tri-State or Dan Ryan during rush hours – I was lucky to be able to exceed 20 mph!

  3. FoxNewsSucks
    Posted July 10, 2009 at 10:11 pm | Permalink

    The problem isn’t speed traps during rush hour. No one gets up to the speed limit at those times.

    The disgust with the city’s money-grubbing speed traps is based on the fact that they are operated on weekends, mid-day, and mid-night when traffic is low and sometimes one is the ONLY CAR ON THE ROAD.

    Speed limits should be variable based on traffic conditions. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with driving 80 on a clear weekend afternoon with little traffic. It’s not wrong, and it shouldn’t be illegal. Those wanting to drive slowly still have the choice of using a number of different streets for their Sunday drive.