The Monday drive to work started off rather mundane, but just after 7:30 a.m. all kinds of trouble broke out.
A stalled vehicle that briefly blocked the center lane of southbound 494 at Minnetonka Blvd. was all it took to choke traffic and more than an hour later things struggled to move. Traffic stacked up back to Bass Lake Road and between 8 a.m. and 8:30 the trip down to the Crosstown was averaging more than 30 minutes. Travel times have dropped a bit in the past 15 minutes.
Tight conditions caused a ramp jam from eastbound Hwy. 12 to southbound 494, and a crash in the backup caused a big jam on eastbound Hwy. 12 from Central Avenue over to the 494/349 interchange.
Things on both routes have been very slow to loosen, and speeds are well below the posted.
Northbound 169 drivers got caught in a backup when three vehicles collided at Anderson Lakes Pkwy. That made the drive 20 minutes or more from Canterbury Road up to 494.
East metro drivers battled congestion on westbound 94 from McKnight Road over to 35E, with the worst between 7 and 8:15 a.m. when the trip was 15 minutes.
The new Green Line saw robust ridership this morning, the first work day the new light-rail line was in operation. Riders told the Drive that cars were packed during the 7 to 8:15 p.m. period. One grip: Electronic signs said "Please Check Schedules" instead of listing real-time information.
That's it for today. I'll be back Tuesday with more live traffic reports.
