I-75 in Cincinnati: what causes backups?

[hbelkins]

Is there anyone here with more familiarity with Cincinnati than I have that can tell me why traffic invariably backs up northbound between the lateral and Paddock Road about 3 p.m. every weekday? What is there that causes this? I don't know of any funky lane drops or anything to trigger this, but every time I have been through there at that time traffic slows to a crawl, and every afternoon on WKRC-AM they mention the slowdown there.

[Alps]

I'll ask Tim Brown, he'll know.

[vtk]

My answer was going to be "construction in Kentucky" but then I saw you were asking about northbound.

[jjakucyk]

A flood of departing students and teachers from UC and Xavier?  A lot of the UC medical campus people heading north get on at Mitchell, and those from Xavier would take the Lateral. 

It could also be a geometry situation.  I-75 between the Ludlow Viaduct and Paddock Road was built in the late 1950s, and it is basically in its original configuration.  North of the Lateral especially there are very narrow right shoulders, no left shoulders, narrow lanes, and a lot of up and down rolling and short sight distances.  This in and of itself could be the problem. 

South of the Ludlow Viaduct they built the highway to higher standards that were drafted in the early 60s, plus there's fewer crossing roads and railroads necessitating the roller coaster profile you see north of the Lateral.  The highway north of Paddock was built earlier actually, with the original surface Wright-Lockland Highway between Glendale-Milford Road and Shepherd Lane from 1941, the southbound lanes of the Lockland Split from Shepherd to Galbraith Road/Hartwell Avenue in 1943, and from there south to Paddock in 1947.  All of that was rebuilt and reconfigured in 1963-64 when they added the northbound leg of the Lockland Split and widened everything to three lanes each way, plus adding the Neumann Way collector.  The original surface highway from 1941 was three lanes, but with many driveway accesses and other surface intersections.  The section through Lockland and to Paddock was two lanes each way, with the southern leg between Galbraith and Paddock originally built like a typical rural interstate with a median.  Again, that was all obliterated in the 60s, and they used somewhat better geometric standards that probably help traffic flow a bit better.

[JMoses24]

The answer: The Towne Street interchange.

In particular, the Towne exit ramp is just a few hundred feet north of the merge from the Norwood Lateral westbound to I-75 northbound. The need for a quick weave out of the right lane tends to create the very definition of a big mess. And now, they're working on improvements to the stretch from the Western Hills Viaduct to Paddock that include closing that interchange. Of course, until they do it will continue to be the aforementioned big old mess.

http://www.i75millcreekexpressway.com/

[tvketchum]

Is there anyone here with more familiarity with Cincinnati than I have that can tell me why traffic invariably backs up northbound between the lateral and Paddock Road about 3 p.m. every weekday? What is there that causes this? I don't know of any funky lane drops or anything to trigger this, but every time I have been through there at that time traffic slows to a crawl, and every afternoon on WKRC-AM they mention the slowdown there.

Traffic.

[ARMOURERERIC]

Some stupid local radio station was throwing turkeys out of a helicopter above a mall near the interstate causing traffic to slow down and rubber neck, station owner thought turkey's could fly, what dummy.

[hbelkins]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeCGURWzjwE

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Some stupid local radio station was throwing turkeys out of a helicopter above a mall near the interstate causing traffic to slow down and rubber neck, station owner thought turkey's could fly, what dummy.

And he keeps repeating this, year after year after year....

[ShawnP]

Everyone escaping from Ohio is what causes the backups.

[InterstateNG]

OP is talking about northbound traffic.

[hbelkins]

OP is talking about northbound traffic.

Yep. To get to Dayton on a Friday afternoon earlier this year, I took US 68 to OH 73 just to avoid that mess around Paddock and the Norwood Lateral. Last time I tried to navigate that, I sat in traffic forever in that spot, only to clear it and get caught in another mess just south of I-275 in the Sharonville area.

[amroad17]

Basically it is the substandard section that causes this.  I believe when some drivers are motoring through there, they have a claustrophobic feeling because of the closeness of buildings and trees to the road--plus the fact of no left shoulder and that Cincinnati drivers are not the "smartest" drivers. It makes them drive slower.  It does open up a bit after the Lockland split--for only a mile, then the traffic from Glendale-Milford joins the fray as well as the Sharon Rd. traffic a mile ahead.  I-75 is the main highway through western and northern Cincinnati as well as for the Ohio Valley for those going to Michigan.  When 100,000+ vehicles use the road every day, you are bound to have backups.  It is many drivers using a now outdated freeway.

Now with the beginnings of the I-75 reconstruction project at Mitchell Ave., traffic is only going to get worse.  Just think what is going to happen when Ohio DOT starts working on the part south of Mitchell to the Brent Spence Bridge.

Southbound I-75 doesn't escape backups either.  With traffic funneling from I-71, the afternoon commute is very slow.  Because I-75 is a major trucking route and the Covington cut in the hill is fairly steep, the traffic crawls up the hill until Kyles Lane, mainly because of the trucks that have to use the right two lanes (out of the four) and have to climb that 4-5% grade.  Sometimes the traffic backs up to Harrison Ave., to Hopple Ave., or, on Fridays, to I-74.

[jwolfer]

I remember watching I think it was Modern Marvels about freeways.  There was some traffic engineers interviewed about some behavioral things they found.  A single car braking in rush hour traffic will cause a back-up a few miles back. I would like to learn more about this phenomenon.  But i can see that happening in many urban areas... In Jacksonville morning rush-hour backs up on I-10, years ago it made sense to me with the 10/95 merger being a 1950s Y but now it is reconstructed and the 10/95 merger actually opens up the traffic.  It seems many people arent used to the new configuration yet or its just the back-up from 95 south coming onto I-10

[seicer]

As someone who lives in Cincinnati - and drives through this mess every day, I may provide some insights based on my meetings with ODOT.

Traffic on I-75 comes from:
a. Downtown Cincinnati, which feeds from a variety of ramps that will eventually be consolidated into two ramps with C/D lanes (or local streets) as part of the Brent Spence Bridge project.
b. MLK (Exit 3) and Mitchell (Exit 6), both of which feed towards the University of Cincinnati and the hospital complexes. That area - Uptown, is the number two source of employment for the region.
c. Interstate 74 (Exit 4), but mainly during rush hour. It has a fairly low VPD otherwise.
d. SR 562 (EXit 8), which feeds a lot of traffic from Interstate 71 and eastern Cincinnati.

Some tidbits about the recent widening project:
a. When the Paddock Road interchange (Exit 9) was reconstructed circa 2003, it was rebuilt with a width of six lanes and two outside shoulders with a median barrier. Any talks of four-lane widening was dismissed at that time.
b. Jump ahead only a few scant years and there developed this "pressing" need for eight-laning Interstate 75 from the Brent Spence Bridge north to Interstate 275. It was broken up into essentially three projects:
i. Brent Spence Bridge approach (to the Western Hills Viaduct). - Nowhere near funding or final design.
ii. Mill Creek Expressway (to the Lockland split basically). - Being built in phases.
iii. Through the Valley (north to I-275). - Nowhere near funding or even preliminary design.
c. There are provisions for light-rail. You can see evidence of that with the extra wide ROW with the new Monmouth Street overpass that replaced the Bates Avenue overpass. This could connect to either the subway or to an above-ground streetcar using light-rail vehicles.
d. Mitchell Avenue is being rebuilt as a tight urban diamond. The new bridge replaces one built in 1957 with a shoulder addition in the 1970s/1980s. This is one of the busiest areas for I-75; the overpass carries 159,200 vehicles per day as of 2005. In 1994, that figure was 134,213 VPD. In 1990, that was 129,827 VPD.

[Mr_Northside]

I remember watching I think it was Modern Marvels about freeways.  There was some traffic engineers interviewed about some behavioral things they found.  A single car braking in rush hour traffic will cause a back-up a few miles back. I would like to learn more about this phenomenon.  But i can see that happening in many urban areas...

Here in Pittsburgh, we have some tunnels that epitomize this.  And "Maintain Speed Thru Tunnels" signs don't do shit.