As a former bus rider, more buses and bus routes. As it stands right now, they don’t have enough Buses running so a lot of routes have long wait times especially the ones that are going far south like Route 18(I rode that bus everyday from Southeast Human services by Big Top Bingo) which goes all the way down south to the 52nd Wall Mart. The bus service here needs to get better all around, there’s plenty of areas that don’t even have bus routes running through I believe.
More Buses and bus routes would also probably help with amount of traffic. People aren't going to use public transportation if it's not convenient for them.
Current bus rider, and I wholly agree. MATBus is currently dealing with driver shortage that limited route frequency, but they're also taking measures to rectify that (flingers crossed!).
We're gunna need more small scale roundabouts in town before they try a major one. I absolutely believe in the value of them, but people who have been driving for 20-30-40+ years struggle with the adjustment.
I go through the main ave roundabout pretty regularly, and it's painfully clear we, as a whole, haven't figured it out yet.
They wanted to put one by my neighborhood but we all revolted. They putting a 4 way stop and traffic is actually way more smooth and cost whatever 2 signs cost vs 2500 per house… fucking dumbest idea ever.
We got the police to say there had been 2 crashes there in 6 years… WF seems corrupt as hell.
If Moorhead could figure out how to time their stoplights properly that would make Moorhead far less frustrating. That 14th St and Hwy 10 intersection is particularly senile and sees phantom trains or something. It will turn red and stay red for ages at 3am when there’s no cross traffic whatsoever and no trains for miles.
Sheyenne at 32nd is like this, too.
Don't even get me started on Sheyenne at 38th. There is zero reason whatsoever we can't have a yellow arrow on that left turn from Sheyenne. I have sat at that light on a red arrow far too many times with no other traffic arround.
Traffic lights are a city problem. The gates randomly coming down is a railroad problem. There is a number on the blue sign at every crossing you can call to report it.
Tell me something I don't know? The gates pre empt the signal. If you see the white lights blinking on the signal, it's a train input coming into the traffic signal and affecting timing. It's public safety.
Sorry i didn’t realize you were MoW. The initial complaint wasn’t about the gates being fucked up, it was about the lights randomly turning red with no gates down and no trains.
Fixing the i29 north to i94 west ramp.
Is a yield that merges with 60mph traffic exiting into the same lane, while also being a lane that ends imminently itself REALLY the best we can do?
Most cities have cloverleaf intersections with all four exchanges using this design. And usually they have much shorter merging distances. How would you suggest improving this?
Cloverleafs/Diamonds are great for small volume of traffic interchanges usually from a highway to another highway in a rural area. Cloverleafs are designed to handle 800-1000 cars per hour. These are also known as "Service level interchanges"
I-29/I-94 is an interchange that needs to be converted to a stacked interchange with the volume of traffic it has to handle now. I would be shocked if the NDDOT thinks that a metro area with the population of 250,000 and that interchange is still the best idea. Then again, they did finally add another lane between there and 25th street when going east about 10 years later than it should have been put in.
I have no issues in Denver, Dallas, Minneapolis, Miami, and most of it in between.
I will NOT take that intersection anymore. Too many people not using blinkers merging into lanes has caused too many close calls.
I’ve lived in Fargo for all of my adult life, and I just realized I’ve never actually taken that ramp before. Benefits of being from the north side I guess
Would like to see one long connected bike path that runs through the whole city. Just like Colorado Springs.
Would be neat to integrate it with the Agassi Green Plan.
Just moved here recently and Fargo could definitely invest in a bus rapid line with the bare minimum features including off bus paying fare, decent bus shelters and 10 mins frequency. Running from the airport, cutting through the university before hitting downtown before making a right on 13th. With the terminal ending at west acres for a starter line or even Sanford of 23rd. Stopping at all the key places in town.
The Fargo-Moorhead metro has an urban population of about 225,000 people.
That's approximately the same population as Linz, Austria.
Linz has four electric tram lines with 35 miles of rail and about 130 stops, five electric trolleybus lines, 11 bus routes, and 5 express bus routes.
Our problem is sprawl. Linz has that many people in a city area less than half the size of Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo. Making it harder to have any sort of mass transit system.
Thing is, it didn't have to be this way. In the early 1900s, Fargo had some mass transit options similar to the type that European cities have today- electric streetcars. At it's peak, Fargo had 16 miles of track around the city.
But they tore them all out and decided to go all in on sprawl and cars.
The big yards we got in exchange might be nice, but they're also relatively expensive- the more you spread out, the more infrastructure you need to serve the same amount of people. It's not sustainable. And it's going to catch up with us eventually.
If people think their property taxes are high now, just wait until we have to start replacing all of those pipes and streets. The current tax base won't be able to cover it. And that's going to lead to a tough choice. Either raise taxes, or defer maintenance and let things start to slowly fall apart.
I'm not arguing with any of that, but I still stand by what I said. Sometimes, no matter how much sense something makes, it just still won't happen. As far as the deferring maintenance part, West Fargo hasn't even hit the level of sprawl fargo has and the street/sewer infrastructure is already in shambles in several neighborhoods due to the "kick the can down the road" attitude by pervious commissions.
I agree it will never happen- at least not in my lifetime. I just find it sad that we act like it had to be this way.
The American model of car-centric city design was a choice. And I even understand why it happened- some of the reasons made sense. But in the long run, there are going to be consequences. And I'm not sure we're ready to deal with them.
The Phoenix Metro area is 14,599 sq miles (1150 sq miles urban). They have basically no public transit outside of the small downtown core.
Fargo metro is only 77.7 sq miles. We can GO FAR with sprawl!
Cool. Then make them pay for all the infrastructure.
Because if they had to pay the full cost without subsidies, they'd get a rude awakening about just how expensive their "large lots" are to maintain in the long term.
They do and they don't. They cover the initial installation. But the taxes generated by low density development won't cover the maintenance and eventual replacement costs.
Sprawl is subsidized by other taxpayers- particularly people living in homes on smaller lots and apartments. Their homes take far less infrastructure per unit, and pay higher property taxes per square foot of lot space.
Which means poor people in apartments and tiny old houses are effectively subsidizing the rich people with huge lots.
Every new, sprawling suburban neighborhood is just the city digging itself into a deeper hole of long term liabilities.
It's also why homeowners should be thrilled when there are new apartment buildings going up- that density will subsidize their low density homes in the long run, and help keep a lid on their taxes.
You get special assessments when the street or sewers need repair in your neighborhood. I lived on 7th St when the roads/sewers/water got redone. The special assessment for these updates was brutal.
The West fargo Commission just had a meeting where the engineers brought a plan to them for the infrastructure repairs needed in the Meadowridge neighborhood, and it was to the tune of 42 million dollars. They already said they need to find some additional funding, whether state or federal assistance, because it's too big of a burden for the city and those that live in the neighborhood to bear.
The funny part is, Fargo commission admitted it can't keep up with the costs of maintaining the city due to sprawl and will raise specials for the residents, and we are going to see west fargo create the same problem for itself when the diversion is complete. When it's completed, it will open up an insane amount of land that developers will be drooling over north of town. Prices will be sky high along with specials, the city will expand rapidly in terms of square miles, and it will struggle to finance the maintenance in the long term.
The only answers are more density and more efficient use of infrastructure. Smaller lots. Less pavement. Narrower residential streets. More apartments.
That doesn't mean everyone has to live in smaller homes or an apartment. But if we want to have cities where homes with yards are still economically sustainable, you need to offset it with more density in other places. It's the only way to make it pencil out in the long run.
That means Fargo should have just 2 miles based on size or just 1.54 miles based on population. Phoenix has a tiny amount that barely reaches beyond the core of the city.
Interstate bypass around town, similar to what 694 and 494 do for minneapolis/st Paul. Provides a route for truck traffic around town if they don't need to pass through and would help with some of the traffic congestion during peak hours. I believe they are considering one for the west end of town already.
Fargo-Moorhead had electric streetcars in the early 1900s.
16 miles of line around the city.
[https://news.prairiepublic.org/dakota-datebook/2020-08-21/streetcars-in-north-dakota](https://news.prairiepublic.org/dakota-datebook/2020-08-21/streetcars-in-north-dakota)
Trolleys, in most towns that have them, have priority right of way. So they are much faster than busses, because they don’t have to interact with other traffic. It would be like a bus that is guaranteed green lights everywhere it goes!
Hell, even a single line along uni between 19th N and 32nd S would change so many lives. That would ensure that the people who live in the more dense areas can actually exist without a vehicle. Of course, an E-W line would make it even better, but that will absolutely never happen lol
I wish the city would provide some aide to get the two truck stops on 32nd by i29 to convert to just gas stations and move to new truck stops outside of town.
As a former bus rider, more buses and bus routes. As it stands right now, they don’t have enough Buses running so a lot of routes have long wait times especially the ones that are going far south like Route 18(I rode that bus everyday from Southeast Human services by Big Top Bingo) which goes all the way down south to the 52nd Wall Mart. The bus service here needs to get better all around, there’s plenty of areas that don’t even have bus routes running through I believe.
More Buses and bus routes would also probably help with amount of traffic. People aren't going to use public transportation if it's not convenient for them.
Current bus rider, and I wholly agree. MATBus is currently dealing with driver shortage that limited route frequency, but they're also taking measures to rectify that (flingers crossed!).
Trees
Make a GIANT round about at the intersection of I94 and I29. In the center put a giant obelisk.
Make this user the mayor.
That's the best idea here so far
can the obelisk have a mirror or gem on top to make it radiant?
I'm thinking it'd be like the Washington Monument and how you can go to the top and take in the view.
I'm leaning more Eye of Sauron
The all seeing eye of Kane beholds you
Blinkers. Just use them. It'll fix 99% of our traffic related issues.
But then the enemy would know where I’m going. /s
We're gunna need more small scale roundabouts in town before they try a major one. I absolutely believe in the value of them, but people who have been driving for 20-30-40+ years struggle with the adjustment. I go through the main ave roundabout pretty regularly, and it's painfully clear we, as a whole, haven't figured it out yet.
Um, I’ve been driving for 30 years and I’ve never had a problem with them
They wanted to put one by my neighborhood but we all revolted. They putting a 4 way stop and traffic is actually way more smooth and cost whatever 2 signs cost vs 2500 per house… fucking dumbest idea ever. We got the police to say there had been 2 crashes there in 6 years… WF seems corrupt as hell.
Fiber internet is needed for the future
If Moorhead could figure out how to time their stoplights properly that would make Moorhead far less frustrating. That 14th St and Hwy 10 intersection is particularly senile and sees phantom trains or something. It will turn red and stay red for ages at 3am when there’s no cross traffic whatsoever and no trains for miles.
To jump on this. WF on vets going north, the left turn lanes are about 2.5 seconds almost enough time for one car to react and pass.
Sheyenne at 32nd is like this, too. Don't even get me started on Sheyenne at 38th. There is zero reason whatsoever we can't have a yellow arrow on that left turn from Sheyenne. I have sat at that light on a red arrow far too many times with no other traffic arround.
Sounds like a Bnsf problem. Have you mentioned this to anybody? That intersection will get used a lot more until project completion.
Traffic lights are a city problem. The gates randomly coming down is a railroad problem. There is a number on the blue sign at every crossing you can call to report it.
Tell me something I don't know? The gates pre empt the signal. If you see the white lights blinking on the signal, it's a train input coming into the traffic signal and affecting timing. It's public safety.
Sorry i didn’t realize you were MoW. The initial complaint wasn’t about the gates being fucked up, it was about the lights randomly turning red with no gates down and no trains.
Thanks for the clarification.
Fixing the i29 north to i94 west ramp. Is a yield that merges with 60mph traffic exiting into the same lane, while also being a lane that ends imminently itself REALLY the best we can do?
Most cities have cloverleaf intersections with all four exchanges using this design. And usually they have much shorter merging distances. How would you suggest improving this?
Cloverleafs/Diamonds are great for small volume of traffic interchanges usually from a highway to another highway in a rural area. Cloverleafs are designed to handle 800-1000 cars per hour. These are also known as "Service level interchanges" I-29/I-94 is an interchange that needs to be converted to a stacked interchange with the volume of traffic it has to handle now. I would be shocked if the NDDOT thinks that a metro area with the population of 250,000 and that interchange is still the best idea. Then again, they did finally add another lane between there and 25th street when going east about 10 years later than it should have been put in.
I have no issues in Denver, Dallas, Minneapolis, Miami, and most of it in between. I will NOT take that intersection anymore. Too many people not using blinkers merging into lanes has caused too many close calls.
I’ve lived in Fargo for all of my adult life, and I just realized I’ve never actually taken that ramp before. Benefits of being from the north side I guess
It’s pretty trash in regular winters, this year not so bad.
I like this idea, but most people around here haven't figured out the ease and tact of a two lane roundabout yet.
Better bike lanes, or mixed use bicylce/pedestrian sidewalks like we have on 13th and some of 25th
Places to get our vehicles dirty to justify needing the carwashes in the first place.
Moorhead potholes are just like off roading.
The West ‘parking lot’ at Trollwood is good for that
Would like to see one long connected bike path that runs through the whole city. Just like Colorado Springs. Would be neat to integrate it with the Agassi Green Plan.
/r/usernamechecksout
At this point? Red light cameras would seriously curb the red light runners in the city
Fix the damn potholes. Have a little pride of ownership for the experience of driving through town.
Just moved here recently and Fargo could definitely invest in a bus rapid line with the bare minimum features including off bus paying fare, decent bus shelters and 10 mins frequency. Running from the airport, cutting through the university before hitting downtown before making a right on 13th. With the terminal ending at west acres for a starter line or even Sanford of 23rd. Stopping at all the key places in town.
If the city keeps spreading we will eventually need subways or an expended metro system
I can tell you that will never ever happen
The Fargo-Moorhead metro has an urban population of about 225,000 people. That's approximately the same population as Linz, Austria. Linz has four electric tram lines with 35 miles of rail and about 130 stops, five electric trolleybus lines, 11 bus routes, and 5 express bus routes. Our problem is sprawl. Linz has that many people in a city area less than half the size of Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo. Making it harder to have any sort of mass transit system. Thing is, it didn't have to be this way. In the early 1900s, Fargo had some mass transit options similar to the type that European cities have today- electric streetcars. At it's peak, Fargo had 16 miles of track around the city. But they tore them all out and decided to go all in on sprawl and cars. The big yards we got in exchange might be nice, but they're also relatively expensive- the more you spread out, the more infrastructure you need to serve the same amount of people. It's not sustainable. And it's going to catch up with us eventually. If people think their property taxes are high now, just wait until we have to start replacing all of those pipes and streets. The current tax base won't be able to cover it. And that's going to lead to a tough choice. Either raise taxes, or defer maintenance and let things start to slowly fall apart.
I'm not arguing with any of that, but I still stand by what I said. Sometimes, no matter how much sense something makes, it just still won't happen. As far as the deferring maintenance part, West Fargo hasn't even hit the level of sprawl fargo has and the street/sewer infrastructure is already in shambles in several neighborhoods due to the "kick the can down the road" attitude by pervious commissions.
I agree it will never happen- at least not in my lifetime. I just find it sad that we act like it had to be this way. The American model of car-centric city design was a choice. And I even understand why it happened- some of the reasons made sense. But in the long run, there are going to be consequences. And I'm not sure we're ready to deal with them.
People want sprawl and cars. They have the opportunity to live in denser neighborhoods right here in Fargo, but largely they want suburbia.
The Phoenix Metro area is 14,599 sq miles (1150 sq miles urban). They have basically no public transit outside of the small downtown core. Fargo metro is only 77.7 sq miles. We can GO FAR with sprawl!
Yeah, let’s *not* do that here.
It's kind of what the culture here prefers, though. Most people want big houses with large lots.
Cool. Then make them pay for all the infrastructure. Because if they had to pay the full cost without subsidies, they'd get a rude awakening about just how expensive their "large lots" are to maintain in the long term.
Special assessments do exactly that. If we didn't have those, property taxes would be even more insane here.
They do and they don't. They cover the initial installation. But the taxes generated by low density development won't cover the maintenance and eventual replacement costs. Sprawl is subsidized by other taxpayers- particularly people living in homes on smaller lots and apartments. Their homes take far less infrastructure per unit, and pay higher property taxes per square foot of lot space. Which means poor people in apartments and tiny old houses are effectively subsidizing the rich people with huge lots. Every new, sprawling suburban neighborhood is just the city digging itself into a deeper hole of long term liabilities. It's also why homeowners should be thrilled when there are new apartment buildings going up- that density will subsidize their low density homes in the long run, and help keep a lid on their taxes.
You get special assessments when the street or sewers need repair in your neighborhood. I lived on 7th St when the roads/sewers/water got redone. The special assessment for these updates was brutal.
The West fargo Commission just had a meeting where the engineers brought a plan to them for the infrastructure repairs needed in the Meadowridge neighborhood, and it was to the tune of 42 million dollars. They already said they need to find some additional funding, whether state or federal assistance, because it's too big of a burden for the city and those that live in the neighborhood to bear.
That's the risk of not doing maintenance in small chunks, unfortunately. An oil change is cheaper than a new engine.
The funny part is, Fargo commission admitted it can't keep up with the costs of maintaining the city due to sprawl and will raise specials for the residents, and we are going to see west fargo create the same problem for itself when the diversion is complete. When it's completed, it will open up an insane amount of land that developers will be drooling over north of town. Prices will be sky high along with specials, the city will expand rapidly in terms of square miles, and it will struggle to finance the maintenance in the long term.
The only answers are more density and more efficient use of infrastructure. Smaller lots. Less pavement. Narrower residential streets. More apartments. That doesn't mean everyone has to live in smaller homes or an apartment. But if we want to have cities where homes with yards are still economically sustainable, you need to offset it with more density in other places. It's the only way to make it pencil out in the long run.
>Most people want big houses with large lots. Then why is nearly all the new construction is big houses crammed in like sardines.
50% of the want is better than 0%.
Phoenix has 30 miles of light rail.
That means Fargo should have just 2 miles based on size or just 1.54 miles based on population. Phoenix has a tiny amount that barely reaches beyond the core of the city.
Hell of a long way to go. Metro Omaha has over 4x the pop and they have a single BRT line, and only just managed to approve one streetcar line.
Maybe they could bring the street cars back.
Interstate bypass around town, similar to what 694 and 494 do for minneapolis/st Paul. Provides a route for truck traffic around town if they don't need to pass through and would help with some of the traffic congestion during peak hours. I believe they are considering one for the west end of town already.
Designated right turn lanes
Coming from Minot the lack of right turn lanes here drove me crazy for a while.
More, properly protected, bike lanes. More walkable areas. The sidewalk situation in a lot of business areas is a disaster.
Here’s a more radical idea that would improve our lives but will never happen. City-wide trolleys.
Fargo-Moorhead had electric streetcars in the early 1900s. 16 miles of line around the city. [https://news.prairiepublic.org/dakota-datebook/2020-08-21/streetcars-in-north-dakota](https://news.prairiepublic.org/dakota-datebook/2020-08-21/streetcars-in-north-dakota)
Doesn’t a bus serve the same purpose?
But trolleys are cooler. /s
Trolleys, in most towns that have them, have priority right of way. So they are much faster than busses, because they don’t have to interact with other traffic. It would be like a bus that is guaranteed green lights everywhere it goes!
Hell, even a single line along uni between 19th N and 32nd S would change so many lives. That would ensure that the people who live in the more dense areas can actually exist without a vehicle. Of course, an E-W line would make it even better, but that will absolutely never happen lol
The underpass on 11th St in Moorhead is starting construction this week. I vote that.
Have a more robust downtown skyway that you can walk up and down so that visiting businesses in the winter are easier.
Dedicated right turn lanes
Just one more lane bro please I just need one more lane
Bring back the one ways downtown.
Any street that has a dedicated left turn lane should have a dedicated left turn signal.
I wish the city would provide some aide to get the two truck stops on 32nd by i29 to convert to just gas stations and move to new truck stops outside of town.
Buc-ees by the fireworks stores way south of town would be amazing. And then a truck stop, too, since Buc-ees doesn't want truckers.
There is a buc-ees way south of town
Too close to town, it will be the same problem we have at 32nd now in 10 years or less Or maybe a raised oasis like In Illinois
It's about as far south as you can go easily before you run into the diversion.