Report confirms driving in Rapid City's gap sucks

Maneuvering a refrigerated truck through the streets of Rapid City for three years teaches the driver a few things about traffic flow.

7am to 8:30 is bad. Noon is bad. 4:30pm to 6 is bad.

The train obstructs multiple egress opportunities simultaneously, often moving in the same direction as that restaurant that only allows deliveries during an open window closing in two minutes.

On one exasperating morning nearly forty years ago, I shouted out of the cab of the truck, "Omaha Street should be one way from West Boulevard to Mountain View and West Main should be one-way all the way to St. Joe!"

Then, it dawned on me that Mountain View should be one-way to Jackson Boulevard, Jackson Boulevard should be one-way from Mountain View to West Main and Cross Street one way to Omaha St. Left-hand turn lanes appeared to me as if in a vision.

True story.

The report, which is issued annually, examined traffic numbers from 2014 to 2017. It found that four streets in Rapid City had volumes of traffic of more than 30,000 vehicles per day. Those streets are West Main Street from Jackson Boulevard to Cross Street, I-90 from I-190 to Haines Avenue, West Main Street from Cross Street to West Steet and Omaha Street from Fifth Street to East Boulevard.

Read the rest here.

There should be a roundabout at the intersection of Elm and E. St. Pat, too.