NWA Traffic Question

[bigboyz05]

What I want to know is with all the massive growth in NWA how has traffic changed? What are your biggest traffic headaches and are there roads in the area that used to have light traffic and now major arteries?

[Snaple4]

I have spent a significant part of my life in the North West, namely Seattle/Tacoma area. I have also spent time in Atlanta, Virgina, D.C., New York City, and even parts of British Columbia.

Has our traffic increased and gotten worse? Yes it has but our cities have taken steps to help. The bulk of the problem is 540. The limited access highway is poorly designed for every one of its entries and exits. And with certain areas (Bentonville) having minimal feeder off-ramps to side streets it makes the concentration of businesses more apparent. Once you are away from the 540 corridor you will notice traffic in many areas, even in Fayetteville, but it is not terrible and only marginally restrictive.

So my conclusion is this: If I-540 had properly designed on/off ramps and more off-ramps (without on-ramps) to alternative streets we would have less problems. The issues we see now are a direct result of poor designing on our Highway and connected major thoroughfares (How efficient is it to have an exit/entry with a stop light and then have a road with a stop light only 25-50 yards from that? Stop lights are cheap but terribly inefficient for high volume thoroughfares).

[Mith242]

I know everybody like to complain about how bad traffic is. But I really don't know that it's as bad as you'd see in larger metros. I think the biggest thing is more how quickly things changed. But there have certainly been some changes to driving patterns. When I first moved to Fayetteville years ago you were usually okay as long as you stayed off College Ave. But obviously traffic has spread out to other arterial roads now. Also been some really big changes to the rest of NWA as well. I believe there are now examples of 5 lane roads in Benton County that didn't even exist 5-10 years ago.

[bigboyz05]

I know everybody like to complain about how bad traffic is. But I really don't know that it's as bad as you'd see in larger metros. I think the biggest thing is more how quickly things changed. But there have certainly been some changes to driving patterns. When I first moved to Fayetteville years ago you were usually okay as long as you stayed off College Ave. But obviously traffic has spread out to other arterial roads now. Also been some really big changes to the rest of NWA as well. I believe there are now examples of 5 lane roads in Benton County that didn't even exist 5-10 years ago.

[Mith242]

I've seen several posts on here that speak of Springdale as if it's hell on earth. Would this include city infrastructure and planning?

[cowbreath]

I wouldn't go that far. But it does suffer from haphazard growth and bad planning. It seems to be heading nit the right direction now. But it will take a long time to correct for those past mistakes.