Dallas commuter alert: A tight squeeze on 114, but there's good to come
I'm one of the hordes of people fighting Flower Mound's rush hour traffic every morning. You know, the slow march south on 2499. I squeeze through the funnel, turn east on 114, past Texas Stadium and head straight to downtown Dallas. I don't have the worst commute in the world. In fact, I'd much rather go downtown than try to get to the High 5, or worse, to Frisco or McKinney.
114 is actually the easiest part of my commute. It's not speedway-smooth, but there's rarely a big delay. But there's construction now that's narrowing the lanes and slowing down the commute. I talked to a TxDOT engineer today. He says they're adding new lanes to the stretch of 114 from Freeport to 161/PGBT, which should speed things up when construction is completed late this year.
Even better, TxDOT is improving the suicide merge where eastbound 114 and 183 merge together. After they finish the work south of Texas Stadium, there will be 2 lanes of 114 and 3 lanes of 183, and not a one of them will have to squeeze into another lane. Expect this project to be complete in a couple of months.
Your turn: How long is your commute, and do you have any tips on how to get there and back faster?
posted by Chip Mahaney @ 9:37 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
For me, the most frustrating thing is the fact that FM traffic lights are not timed to optimize traffic on the major roads. In the evenings I can get from Downtown Dallas to Grapevine Mills in about 20 minutes, and as soon as I pass the Denton County sign everything jams up. The lights will change immediately to allow a single car to enter 2499 from a side street, backing up traffic significantly on the main road. Has TxDOT done a traffic analysis lately? The increasing poppulation of FM and Highland Village would certainly warrant another look at ways to improve the traffic flow northward on 2499 in the afternoon/evening period.
Post a Comment
<< Home