Mother Nature was kind enough to keep the snow, rain and freezing rain out of the core of the metro area for the morning rush hour and that, combined with light levels of traffic, made for nice Friday commute.
We had very few crashes and stalls, which kept traffic moving at or near the posted speeds on most routes.
The commute was not completely without hassles, however. Drivers on southbound 35W hit a big snag for about 30 minutes between 7:50 a.m. and 8:20 a.m. when a crash took out the left lane at 26th Street. That had traffic stacked up as far back as Johnson Street, 4 miles from the wreck.
Metro Transit's NexTrip system went off line for about two hours this morning. The trip planning service that offers real time arrival and departure times for light-rail trains and buses came back up around 8:15 a.m.
I'll be back Monday with more live traffic reports. Be sure to check out my Monday column and send me your traffic questions at drive@startribune.com.
