The misery-o-meter was at the top of the scale for north metro drivers as major routes were plugged up all rush hour long. At times drivers on eastbound Hwy. 10 from Anoka to Blaine and on both directions of 694 between Maple Grove and Oakdale were barely moving.
At 9 a.m., Hwy. 10 showed a little improvement with the drive time from Hwy. 169 to 35W at 17 minutes. But 694 continued to crawl along with the trip from 169 to 35E over 30 minutes for westbound drivers and 20 to 25 for eastbound motorists.
On westbound 94, crashes at Huron Blvd. and Hamline Avenue early in the rush plugged up traffic and things never improved as new incidents took their place. At times it was 45 minutes between the downtowns for westbound drivers. That trip is now at 29 minutes.
In the west metro, both directions of Hwy. 100 and Hwy. 169 had motorists' blood pressure rising at traffic was at a near standstill between 494 and Rockford Road. At this hour, the toughest stretches on both routes are on Hwy. 100 through St. Louis Park south of 394 and on northbound 169 from Bren Road up to 394.
There is no word on the nature of the injuries when a motorist ran into a First Unit that had stopped to assist at a crash on 35E at Randolph Avenue around 6 a.m.
Meanwhile, drivers on northbound Cedar Avenue and 35W had few issues to deal with. Those in the east metro also were moving without much difficulty.
