doodledee

I know it'll sound lame to all my teenage readers who don't know what it's like to be chained to a desk all day, but I almost peed my pants last Friday when I found the newest unquestionable Greatest Sneaky Backroad Technique for Getting Out Of Downtown Minneapolis. It is awesome.

Here's a map:

Short Version

Follow the blue line.

Long Version

The main goal is to try and avoid the disaster that occurs when everyone bunches up on 394 leaving downtown. (See diagram: "Nightmare Zone"). Traffic tends to loosen up quite a bit after the single lane chokepoint that happens when downtown traffic merges with the rest of 394, so the idea is to somehow work your way down to the next on-ramp before you get actually get on.

The old sneaky way - (See diagram, blue line->pink line) - was to go down Glenwood to Lyndale, then go down Lyndale to that road is that runs in front of Dunwoody, which is actually Wayzata Blvd. Wayzata Blvd dead-ends at 394 and you can jump on right there, well ahead of the downtown chokepoint (Diagram: "Jackpot") The problem with taking that sneaky way is that there's a good chance that you'll get stuck in a big ass line on Lyndale because there are tons of lights and buses and doofs and it'll end up taking way longer than it would have just sitting in traffic. Do you feel lucky? Sometimes, sure.

Well salvation has arrived and it goes by the name of Linden. I noticed it the other day. It's a crazy, narrow, dirty looking little street that turns off of Lyndale that nobody ever takes because it doesn't even look like it goes anywhere. Well it does, and it bypasses all the lights and crap on Lyndale and you're sailing onto the freeway in seconds, not minutes. It was awesome.

Woo hoo!