Let us collectively rise as a unified region, setting aside petty squabbles and differences, to bestow upon I-480 — that gaudy asphalt hellscape born of, and then turned enabler of, sprawl — the double birds it so richly deserves.
The 41-mile stretch of aggravation, which delivers both physical and psychic injury on a daily basis, is but one link in Northeast Ohio’s vast network of ever-expanding, ever more expensive to maintain highways, but it is universally acknowledged as the worst.
The Valley View Bridge, for instance, carries about 180,000 vehicles per day across the Cuyahoga River and the Ohio & Erie Canal. And even before work began last year to replace the enormous 4,155-foot bridge, one of the state’s busiest, the stretch of freeway between I-77 and I-271 had issues. Major issues.
Driving across the Valley View Bridge and seeing its giant concrete barriers and chain link fence is akin to traveling through a war zone. The freeway often resembles a parking lot as cars regularly back up and slow to a crawl at rush hour, whether because of sun glare, congestion, delayed contractor work, all three, or none of them at all. It doesn’t matter whether you’re traveling east or west, it’s viscerally atrocious. Throw in some tricky and poorly designed mergers for some additional mayhem.
Better signage at key areas — as you head east past I-77 and as you head west and approach Broadway — would go a long way toward helping alleviate congestion and upping safety, but that, of course, would ratchet down the Mad Max feel of the whole enterprise, which seems to be what ODOT is going for.
Construction work on the Valley View Bridge, which now has in its mid-section an ominous giant steel structure that looks like “The Claw” that U2 used on its 360 Tour, has only made matters worse. Oh, and all of the construction won’t be done until 2024. It never ends!
Fuck off, 480. Just fuck the fuck off forever. — Jeff Niesel
This article appears in Apr 24-30, 2019.
1. You whine and complain about Cleveland needing a vision forward, and then you whine and complain when the heaviest traveled freeway is getting work done to expand capacity, which may help with this whole vision forward thing.
2. The signage is perfectly fine. The drivers suck. I drive as a service tech across several states. I navigate the streets of Nashville, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Columbus, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Chicago, etc. etc. and the one thing that sticks out about Cleveland is that the roads are actually designed and laid out pretty well… the drivers don’t understand road signs and merging and rights of way. Show an average Cleveland freeway driver a standard road sign, and there’s at least a 50% change that driver doesn’t understand what it means. That’s the issue here.
3. There’s not a TON that can be done on 480 to alleviate congestion. There were proposed freeways taking off from the Broadway are (see: giant median) and through Shaker near where the Rapid runs (see: resident protests), but like many developed cities during the highway construction era, Cleveland had to build around structures and cities, instead of having the structures and cities grow up around the highway (see: Fairlawn).
4. I’ve had the privilege to stay overnight in many different metropolitan areas and there is nothing like the Emerald Necklace anywhere. The Metroparks system is a unique gem that only we have. Find another developed metro area where you can find such an experience.
Sorry, but 480 isn’t all that bad, especially compared to commuter hellholes in other cities. Honestly I’d say 90 is worse. I drive between 176 and 271 every day, over the bridge, and typically am doing 45-50 almost the entire way. Sometimes it backs up because of an accident, but that’s any major artery in a city. Yeah, construction sucks, but it’s doable. It takes me 20-25 minutes to commute from Parma to Beachwood and I know it could be a whole lot worse.
I-480 is so much better than what preceded it which was essentially Brookpark Road on the west side and a bunch of city streets with a bunch of name changes that carried two lanes of traffic. It took me at least one hour to travel from NASA to Shaker Heights under the best of conditions. Now, it’s a relatively easy 30 to 35 minutes. The major design error is the intersection of I-480 and I-71. The exit ramp to I-71 can be a real nightmare in rush hour, there is no northbound ramp to I-71 and reduction of 4 lanes to 2 just west of the airport exit is a travesty. It worked well until people wanted to live way west of the airport. All it takes is a lot of money and patience to rectify the situation. BTW, I for one do not find your use of the f-word very effective. Most of us stopped using it for effect once we were no longer dormitory residents or in the military.
Drive anywhere in Chicago…480’s traffic is a joke.
Growapair isn’t wrong. Just be glad there’s two major highways instead of just one like in other places. Can you imagine the rush hour traffic on 90 if 480 didn’t exist?
What’s one thing all Clevelanders have in common? Young, old, white, black, female, male…?
It’s that NOBODY uses the LANES on a FREEWAY correctly.
Left lane = passing lane. Go fast here. Go around other cars. NOT for 60 mph driving.
Middle lane = normal driving lane. Drive here most of the time.
Right lane = slow traffic, trucks, grandma, etc.
Why someone has to camp in the left lane doing 55 mph I will never understand. Shout out to the white men in oversized compensatory pickup trucks. Congrats! You guys are the winners of the worst driving trophy!
It’s absolutely insane and is to blame for much of the traffic problems we have. GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE LEFT LANE!
I was kinda on board with with this “Absolute Worst” series from Scene when they were dunking on City Council and Budish. I mean, they truly are the worst but frankly that’s low hanging fruit. But now you’re bashing I480 because it’s wasn’t designed decades ago with a huge amount of urban sprawl in mind? And oh, the construction currently happening to help fix the issue isn’t going fast enough for you? That’s why it’s “The Worst”. And then finally, when you go over a high level freeway bridge with a history of people jumping off it, you’re complaining it’s got fence and is not pretty enough? This series is really gone off the rails. I can just see the article now if we fixed all that Jeff is wining about. “ODOT wasted hundreds of millions on overtime costs to rush-build the Valley View bridges, and then spent tens of millions on making it look pretty while other bridges fall down and other roads have giant potholes that can’t be fixed because ODOT blew their wad.” I mean, what the hell, dude?
I agree with comments on here. 1) 480 is no way as bad as Atlanta, Chicago, or LA traffic. Minutes compared to hours sitting in idle traffic is a blessing for Clevelanders. 2) Trucks are the a major culprit for delaying traffic, they just need to stay in the middle lane. 3) Slow drivers in the fast lane cause the majority of the issue. I drive I480 everyday from the far west side to Solon and I see this every day were I have to pass 2-3 cars/trucks in the middle lane since they on their phones, thinking their speed limit is acceptable for them and all, and they don’t realize when 2-3 cars pass them in the middle lane and they still stay in the fast lane that maybe they aren’t fit to drive in the fast lane. This is when I pass them, throw something out my window at them, and honk my horn. Some get the picture, some don’t. If everyone did this, this problem wouldn’t exist anymore.
I am so in love with you!! Thank you!
TRAFFIC? CONGESTION? Lol you jest! 480 is childs play compared to I-5 & 405 Seattle, LA-91 SoCal, 480/580 NorCal, I-15 Vegas ….. lived in and drove them all for daily commutes of 3-5 hours. I would drive Cleveland 480 any day of the week with a smile on my face!
The signage really is “amateur hour”!
I worked with a man who worked and drove in many major cities during his career. He was not a native of Northeast Ohio and he more than once told me he did not understand why so many Clevelanders bitch and complain about the freeways and driving here. He proceeded to list, a long list too, of many cities that were worse. Of course LA, NY and Chicago were on that list and Boston and several others including his own hometown of Pittsburgh.
As far as Ohio goes, I’d say it’s worse in Cincinnati-Dayton– and I drive I-480 every workday. It’s true that drivers don’t know how to merge. For some reason, drivers here have no concept of “zippering together”. Instead, people panic merge and try to do it too early. Also, at places like from I-71N to I480W or I77N to I480 east or I271 to I480 W, people think they need to change lanes as soon as the ramps and I-480 come together. If they would just relax and drive a couple hundred yards, there would be plenty of gaps to execute their lane change. Instead, they panic, come to a complete or near-complete stop, and screw up the traffic. This isn’t rocket science people. Calm down and use common sense.
All that said, Ohio needs to come out of the 1950s and stop putting all of our eggs into the highway basket. We need alternatives to the car keys: Commuter rail, light rail, etc. We just got a gas tax hike because ODOT was going broke because we over-built our highway system and are over-dependent on it (faster degradation from over-use). I’m old enough to see the possibility of retirement on the horizon. I don’t want to have no choice but to drive as I age and the reflexes slow. I will probably move to a region that gives a damn about trains and transit.
The merging is the worst part. People don’t comprehend how to merge correctly. Everyone is in a hurry, people are on their phones, no one wants to let anyone get in front of them. And then you have the special assholian class who think its ok to swerve 100 miles per hour in between lanes from far right to far left. and then back again. IDK how these truckers don’t just run people over who cut in front of them and then slam on the brakes. Its idiotic.
Obviously, youve never left NE Ohio. I miss the traffic there
If you want to complain about traffic, you must first have lived in SoCal.
I’m going to go out on a limb, you drive a Smart Car or a Prius with a COEXIST sticker on it?
Because, good gravy you whine. If 480 is that hard for you to navigate, stay home. The rest of us are doing fine.
Yeah I wondered why the off-ramp at Broadway was awkwardly designed. It was actually supposed to be part of ANOTHER highway.
I wonder if I-290 was built in Shaker if that would have helped the traffic issues on 480.
Maybe Elon Musk can build a hyperloop for you?