Best commute to U of M Medical Center East Bank. (Minneapolis: home, neighborhoods)

[Tyryztoll]

Hi, considering a position at U of M Medical Center East Bank, and since it's so centrally located I was wondering which direction the best (easiest) commute might be from in correlation with the suburbs. We're considering areas like White Bear Lake, Apple Valley, and Woodbury so far. Also, does anyone know how the parking situation is around the U of M area? Thanks so much in advance for any advice.

[mr roboto]

From there North is the easiest. Arden Hills, Roseville, Shoreview. WBL would be ok I'd imagine. Same with Woodbury.

I think the south burbs south of 494 could get tricky with traffic

[WoodburyWoody]

Shoreview, Roseville, Arden Hills if you are looking at suburbs with easy commute to the East Bank. If you expand a bit, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale and the Como and St. Anthony Park neighborhoods are St. Paul are pretty nice.

Rush hour (M-F, 7ish to 9ish and 3ish to 7ish) for Woodbury to/from East Bank can be 35-45 minutes in dry weather (even rain slows everything down for rush ... add snow and it often doubles). Outside rush hour, it cuts in half on 94 from here. And it depends on where in Woodbury (it can take a long time to get across Woodbury on surface streets to freeways).

Keep in mind that the east burbs - and I include Lake Elmo and Stillwater in that - are continuing to grow. Once the 36 bridge is done crossing the St. Croix at Bayport (south of Stillwater), even more building will occur on the Wisconsin side (already a ton of people commuting in from Hudson, New Richmond and other western Wisconsin cities and towns).

Rush hour from Eagan is about the same to the East Bank. The issue from the south is a limited number of places to cross rivers (and the east, from Wisconsin) and those point bottleneck every rush hour. As I wrote, it changes off-rush, but not to the same extend I have found from Woodbury in.

Light rail to the East Bank from the east is great, albeit consistent and with several stops. The East Bank station is on Washington in front of Moos Tower, part of the medical complex. From Union Depot in St. Paul, the train to the East Bank station takes 30 minutes nearly every single time I have taken it, rain, shine, blizzard. It is seriously consistent, which is nice when you know driving will take two hours because of snow. And the train runs like every seven minutes from early morning to evening, then switches to a longer break between trains but does run all night.

As for parking, if you work at the U and want/need to drive, there is contract parking available. Surface lots and garages. You can get parking, though it may not be close to where you work (though you can get on a waiting list for a closer lot while you have a contract in a further lot). Some ramps - like Washington Ave ramp - take years to get a spot. Some of the inner campus surface lots literally take decades. More at Contract Parking | Parking & Transportation Services .

And there are folks who live around the St. Paul Campus or northern or eastern 'burbs and park at the St. Paul campus and take the free campus connector buses, which have frequent stops around the East and West Banks. More at Transit | Parking & Transportation Services .

And, if you take public transit, the U subsidizes the Metropass for trains and buses (Metropass(staff/faculty) | Parking & Transportation Services). The buses in Minneapolis and St. Paul are great, but it quickly falls off getting out to the burbs, depending on the burbs. There are express buses, for example, from Woodbury to the East Bank and back, but I believe there are only two in the morning and one in the afternoon on that express route.

[Tyryztoll]

Thanks for the great responses, and you guys are going to kill me, but I forgot to mention I would be working 2nd shift.....going in around 3pm and coming home around 11pm. That obviously changes the traffic dynamic, but wasn't sure if there were any spots that might be heavy round the clock like some other big towns I've lived in.

We really like the Forest Lake area because of the proximity to the northwoods regions of Minnesota and Wisconsin.....would that be a doable commute?

[WoodburyWoody]

Originally Posted by Tyryztoll

Thanks for the great responses, and you guys are going to kill me, but I forgot to mention I would be working 2nd shift.....going in around 3pm and coming home around 11pm. That obviously changes the traffic dynamic, but wasn't sure if there were any spots that might be heavy round the clock like some other big towns I've lived in.

We really like the Forest Lake area because of the proximity to the northwoods regions of Minnesota and Wisconsin.....would that be a doable commute?

Yeah, certain commute routes here are really impacted by rush hour (like coming in to the East Bank from the eastern burbs on 94). I think western burbs have heavier traffic and longer peak periods and I-35W from the south into Minneapolis gets stacked for longer stretches of time M-F.

As for Forest Lake, yeah, lots of people do it. Not sure what the traffic is like on 35W when you would be driving.

Someone here does and will chime in, though. Good luck on your decision.

[Citykid3785]

From Apple Valley, you are probably looking at 40 minutes on average, with a range of 32-50 minutes. In my experience, parking at the U is worse than parking downtown, in that it pretty much sucks It's also policed more as well.

[cheddar]

If you are working at the U, you can get parking there but it will cost about $100 per month in a ramp. Then you might not get into your preferred ramp at first so you might be walking a bit until you get more seniority.

[Tyryztoll]

Originally Posted by cheddar

If you are working at the U, you can get parking there but it will cost about $100 per month in a ramp. Then you might not get into your preferred ramp at first so you might be walking a bit until you get more seniority.

$100 a month??

Are we talking about Minneapolis or New York?

[wamer27]

35W going south from Forest Lake is free flowing in the afternoon. It'll slow some around the quarry area, but then the exit for east bank isn't far from there.

[wamer27]

Originally Posted by Tyryztoll

$100 a month??

Are we talking about Minneapolis or New York?

That's $5 a day for 20 workdays, you can find ramps in NYC for that?