Here’s one you don’t hear about everyday: navigating traffic as you drive through Ames. Is it me or has it just been getting worse? It feels like any time I jump in the car, it takes forever to get across town. Maybe the longer you live here, the more you become intent on getting to where you need to be and are less focused on exploring the town but who can know for sure.

The problem with driving in Ames is the lack of direct roads to get to different parts of the city and the number of stops you hit on the way. Take a look at the map, and you can see several points where crucial roads end abruptly or have to go through slower residential districts or just don’t exist where you think they would. For example, going from South 16th to University to Mortensen when trying to get across the southern part of town. What about taking State Street north and having get onto Lincoln Way only to jump back onto Hyland to continue your venture northward. Try to get from West Ames to the northern part of town near North Grand Mall or the newer developments. You can either take Ontario and go super slow the whole way or go through campus and go super slow the whole way. Did I say that twice?

I understand why things are the way they are: There’s several large areas that have developed, and we can’t have the roads that would typically be there. Campus itself, Iowa State Center and Campustown are examples of places where there might be a four lane road going through with 35 mph speed limits but putting something like that in isn’t really feasible (as far as I know).

And so the result is roads that don’t connect, you always have to get off to turn another direction and then get on another road usually involving at least two stop signs if not a traffic light. Which of course aren’t synced up so you’ll end up hitting the next one, and the next one…

Look at a map of Des Moines, need to get somewhere? It’s literally a grid and you can get anywhere using the logic behind “city blocks,” something we don’t seem to have in our town.

Yes I can name a few spots on Des Moines that make little to no sense, but it’s not the whole town, so it’s a minimal problem there.

And if the stops don’t slow you down in Ames, the speed limits will. Just assume it’s 30 or, more likely, 25. You’ll never hit higher than that, and if you do, you’re coming to a stop within a few seconds. I understand that we’re a very pedestrian city and need to go slower for safety reasons, but does that have to apply to the whole city?

And just because the speed limits are lower, that won’t slow me down. I’ll just speed through, no problem, right? Good luck with that.

Some towns implement speed cameras to issue tickets, we don’t need those, we have the Ames Police Department. I understand why we have so many police officers, due to the masses of college students who might want to cause trouble on a weekend or the events that bring people to town, but when there’s nothing going on, those officers are monitoring traffic, and they do a really good job of it.

Stops, slow speed limits and their enforcement? I’ll just idle my way through town and maybe I’ll get there eventually.

My issue is a town of 60,000 people shouldn’t even have a traffic problems, and a town that has so many events should know it’s going to have traffic coming from all directions and should be able to accommodate it. Have you been to Duff on a Saturday? Oh my God. What about Lincoln Way or downtown Ames during “rush hour”? Not impossible, nowhere near the gridlock of larger cities, but still unnecessarily frustrating.

It’s almost as if someone once decided that you’ll never have anywhere to go in Ames, and you’ll never have to get there in 10 minutes or less. Part of that probably has some merit, but it’s really not that practical.

Solution? Tear up streets and buildings to make direct routes? No practical at all, but what if we at least synced up the traffic lights? If it’s going to be 30 mph through town, let’s at least not have to stop at every single intersection. What about no left turns on Lincoln Way during rush hour? What if we put in lights at locations like Mortensen and State? Or in front of the Ames Middle School? I’m sure there’s long term plans drawn up to have some sort of byway around Duff, or some sort of solution to put a highway around the north side of Ames starting where Lincoln Way meets US 30, but these ideas are rather far out. Until then, good luck and drive safe.