The chart above shows the distribution of commuter traffic traveling northbound and southbound during weekday peak travel times. The morning peak travel time is from 6-10 a.m. and the afternoon peak travel time is from 3-7 p.m. The project team conducted a traffic analysis, of the number of trips (per every 100 vehicles) that traveled the entire project north-south extents, to determine if Rice Street was primarily used for local trips or commuter traffic traveling through Saint Paul to another destination.
The number of peak hour commuter trips along Rice Street was then compared to other major parallel routes including Como Avenue, Dale Street, Jackson Street, I-35E, Westminster Street and Edgerton Street to see the primary regional routes on a typical weekday.
Northbound traffic
During the morning peak travel time for every 100 vehicles traveling north through Saint Paul on one of these corridors, 94 are on I-35E, two are on Rice Street, and four are on the other routes. During the afternoon peak travel time for every 100 of these vehicles, 85 are on I-35E, four are traversing Rice Street, and 11 are on the other routes.
Southbound traffic
During the morning and afternoon peak travel times for every 100 vehicles traveling north through Saint Paul on one of these corridors, the traffic patterns are consistent with 90 vehicles on I-35E and three vehicles on Rice Street, and seven on the other designated streets.
This analysis confirms that most of the commuter traffic uses I-35E during peak travel times. During the afternoon rush hour we see some, but minimal, I-35E traffic diverting to parallel routes likely due to congestion on the interstate highway.