Adding insult to injury, took me 65 minutes to get out of parking garage last night

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Stan

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I park in the University Ave lot. I’ve never experienced what happened last night. Absolute gridlock in parking lots and roads out of the stadium village area. Not a fun way to end a frustrating 2nd half.
 



This is why Minnesotans have traditionally bailed early on bad games. Gotta beat the traffic is always a useful mantra.
 

Yeah, I got caught up in that in the North Carolina game yesterday I was in lot 37 and snuck through some back route and made it home to the southern suburbs in about 40 minutes from when I got in my car.
 




We take the choo choo from Lot 86 on the West Bank over to the stadium and back. One is however at the mercy of the rapid transit gods on when a train will actually appear going west to downtown Mpls from St. Paul.

Last evening the next train was 20 minutes when arriving at the platform that was essentially full. Those minutes counting down seem like forever after games like last night. However, still better than the line waiting for buses to go over to the Fairground lots.

Back to last night, the train that did come was completely empty so it accommodated the entire packed platform, of course packed to the gills. Had a couple standing next to me that his sweetie must have gotten something from the game that no one else got as they somewhat whispered to each other "things." Almost had to tell them to get a room. Fortunately West Bank Station was just 2 blocks so escaped without any greater incident.
 

We parked at the fair grounds. After game, waited in line for the shuttle maybe 10 mins. Ride over is another 5-10 mins.

Google maps took us a bit of a wonky way over to 280, but there was no traffic at all. $15 to park there as long as you want, free shuttles. Can tailgate if you want, we just parked. Rolled in 15min before game time and made it to our seats as game was starting.

For what it's worth.

(Obviously not an option for folks who tailgate near the stadium)
 




Left early from the Victory lot expecting a smooth getaway. But no! The traffic gurus in their infinite wisdom coned off the usual two lanes that drain the victory and Ski-U-Mah lots into one lane. There now was a single dedicated lane to empty the Minnesota Lot. The Traffic cop was letting ONE car at a time proceed. I can only imagine the clusterf**k that happened when the game was finished.
 

Whytetale said:
Left early from the Victory lot expecting a smooth getaway. But no! The traffic gurus in their infinite wisdom coned off the usual two lanes that drain the victory and Ski-U-Mah lots into one lane. There now was a single dedicated lane to empty the Minnesota Lot. The Traffic cop was letting ONE car at a time proceed. I can only imagine the clusterf**k that happened when the game was finished.
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Minneapolis generally is a construction war zone every time I have to go there this summer and now into the fall. Yesterday took a route across the north side as a "shortcut" that almost diverted me to Hudson. Now with FB season underway, some of my historic routes leaving the stadium are now just this side of Beirut.

Must be shovel-ready stimulus monies from 3 years ago finally making it to actual projects and work, especially since a lot of the projects involve taking perfectly good 4-lane streets and eliminating lanes to make room for bicycles and traffic calming. Since the number of vehicles using these streets actually is staying constant, of course there's congestion during construction but it will remain when done too. Progress.
 




I've never parked on campus. I took my 85yr old father on Saturday night. We parked across 35W and walked. As we walked along 5th street, I picked out a white Tesla and said we would beat it to the highway. It had barely moved by the time we crested the bridge into Drinkytown. We hopped into my truck and got right on 35W. It works every time and the exercise is good. I hate sitting in traffic.
 

1994Convert said:
I've never parked on campus. I took my 85yr old father on Saturday night. We parked across 35W and walked. As we walked along 5th street, I picked out a white Tesla and said we would beat it to the highway. It had barely moved by the time we crested the bridge into Drinkytown. We hopped into my truck and got right on 35W. It works every time and the exercise is good. I hate sitting in traffic.
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Yeah I made a mistake a few weeks back on my way out.
It’s a mess.

The people with whistles and vests who are supposed to speed things up may actually do the opposite
 

I am in 4th Street Ramp. Whatever the U has done this year with the traffic control, construction, etc. has completely ruined game days. We left the game with 9 minutes left in the 4th on Saturday, with a 9 year old and 5 year old, we proceeded to be stuck in the ramp for 90 minutes. It took 2 hours from the time we got in our car, to when we got to Eagan. Absolutely insane, will have me reconsidering renewing tickets
 


It took nearly 2 hours to get out of lot c58. No traffic control meant no cars could move because everyone is inching along both 4th and university with the construction. Got to the lot about 5 minutes after the game ended- left my seat after they conveyed the 3rd down on the other side of the 2 minute time out- and only about 8 cars were able to get out of the lot in an hour and a half. Unacceptable level of negligence on the traffic control and ensuring traffic flowed properly.

I recognize there are a lot of options inclusive of the light rail and walking to avoid this. When the product on the field is bad the tailgating is the best part. Can’t tailgate anymore if it takes 2 hours to leave. Now why go in person? Can watch it on tv recorded and skip the commercials in less time that it takes to exit the lot.

If you have a shitty product you can sell tickets with a good experience. Hard to sell tickets when both are garbage. Throw in the need to get there early enough to get through the security line and we are talking 2.5 hours of wasted time due to the universities inefficiency
 

My only comment on this is having been to Notre Dame Stadium 3 times, if you get out of the Parking lot within 65 minutes, that's an hour less than what I experienced leaving South Bend.
 

1994Convert said:
I've never parked on campus. I took my 85yr old father on Saturday night. We parked across 35W and walked. As we walked along 5th street, I picked out a white Tesla and said we would beat it to the highway. It had barely moved by the time we crested the bridge into Drinkytown. We hopped into my truck and got right on 35W. It works every time and the exercise is good. I hate sitting in traffic.
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It's great that he is still able to make that walk.
 


Horrible getting out of the University lot. Where were the traffic cops? Or has Mpls scared them all off? One more obstacle for fans...
 


1994Convert said:
I've never parked on campus. I took my 85yr old father on Saturday night. We parked across 35W and walked. As we walked along 5th street, I picked out a white Tesla and said we would beat it to the highway. It had barely moved by the time we crested the bridge into Drinkytown. We hopped into my truck and got right on 35W. It works every time and the exercise is good. I hate sitting in traffic.
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If I do, I plan to grab a drink somewhere close after to let the traffic clear out.
 


BilldGopher said:
We take the choo choo from Lot 86 on the West Bank over to the stadium and back. One is however at the mercy of the rapid transit gods on when a train will actually appear going west to downtown Mpls from St. Paul.

Last evening the next train was 20 minutes when arriving at the platform that was essentially full. Those minutes counting down seem like forever after games like last night. However, still better than the line waiting for buses to go over to the Fairground lots.

Back to last night, the train that did come was completely empty so it accommodated the entire packed platform, of course packed to the gills. Had a couple standing next to me that his sweetie must have gotten something from the game that no one else got as they somewhat whispered to each other "things." Almost had to tell them to get a room. Fortunately West Bank Station was just 2 blocks so escaped without any greater incident.
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1994Convert said:
I've never parked on campus. I took my 85yr old father on Saturday night. We parked across 35W and walked. As we walked along 5th street, I picked out a white Tesla and said we would beat it to the highway. It had barely moved by the time we crested the bridge into Drinkytown. We hopped into my truck and got right on 35W. It works every time and the exercise is good. I hate sitting in traffic.
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I also park a little ways away and walk. I figure with the beer and the fatty food, a 20 minute walk each way isn't bad and I avoid all the traffic.
 

I don't know if this is the cause of the extra delays but this statement had been on the U's gameday page all fall:

Ongoing construction will impact traffic flow on 4th Street between Oak Street and I-35W. This area will be reduced to two lanes and will lead to delays affecting egress traffic departing Huntington Bank Stadium. Please allocate more time if traveling on 4th Street.

We park at the fair grounds so I can't comment on how this might affect things.
 



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