51 or 101 for commute?? (S-bound am/N-bound pm) (Scottsdale, Chandler: hotel, construction)

[amcoco]

I am relocating to AZ soon and curious which freeway has a worse rush hour - 51 or 101. I will be commuting from Tatum & Bell to downtown Tempe (TTL). Distance-wise, it's a wash, although there's a bit more freeway on the Bell/51/202 route than Bell/FLW/101/202.

I'm from PHX originally, so I know the valley, but I only lived in this particular area briefly years ago before law school, so I'm curious whether 51 or 101 has less congestion for the southbound am/northbound pm commute.

[observer53]

Bell/FLW is a parking lot in some stretches itself. I would use the 51 route, which involves the Bell/FLW road much less. Or, if you want to use the 101, go NORTH and pick up the 101 off Tatum, skipping Bell/FLW altogether.

[43north87west]

The reality is, you are going to have to experiment and fine tune both options, based on the time of day. I used to commute from North Scottsdale to Chandler Hospital using FLW to the 101, and there was a good volume of traffic, but it moved fast. Even leaving 20 minutes earlier or later, can have a huge effect on the traffic that you will encounter on your commute, regardless of the route.

The thing about the 51 is that you have to deal with the mini stack 51/202, which is where the whole thing gets screwed up as there is only one lane going to the west 10, and one to the east 202. But, the advantage to using the 51 is, once you are on the 202, there is little traffic at that time of the morning, going east.

Using the south 101 option, I might opt out of the 202 entirely and use surface streets for that part.

[Zippyman]

Timing is still everything if you're on the 51 - not just "rush hour", but are you leaving at 7am, or can you do it at like 6:30? The 51 has a perpetual "mini jam" @ about northern if you try to do it later.. at 6:30, you can usually rock..

everything usually keeps moving, but there are so many people getting on that it slows way down the later you leave..

On the way back, you may just want to watch the traffic & make a spot call - 101 is busy in the evenings, 51 is busy & slow (but usually keeps moving), worst case, 7th ave /7th st/ cave creek will get you from 202 to bell in about a half hour... unless it's raining, if it's raining, you might be better off getting a hotel in Tempe..

[amcoco]

Thanks for the comments. I have two kids in middle school, so leaving uber early isn't an option. I'm less worried about end of day commute, since Phoenicians tend to actually leave work at a reasonable hour - which is usually not the case for me! I don't recall ever seeing significant traffic anywhere (except maybe I-10W) after about 6:30p, and 6:30 generally means I'm leaving early.

As suggested, I'll probably experiment a bit and see what happens. Fortunately, no one's keeping track of when I get to the office, so if I'm stuck in traffic the only real downside is being angry that I'm stuck in traffic. Still beats the 60-75 min. commute in NY!

[TheArguer]

Another option is Tatum/44th St and the 202. Traffic isn't usually too terrible, and it's a nice drive as you're going through PV and Arcadia.

[new2colo]

The commute times are probably comparable now, but keep in mind that ADOT will be starting a pretty major widening project on the 101 (both the northbound and southbound directions) through Scottsdale in August or September as part of ADOT's plan to eventually widen the entire 101 to 4 lanes + 1 HOV lane all around. They are adding a general purpose lane in each direction between Shea Boulevard and the 202. Once construction starts, I am sure that there will be more bottlenecks, lower speed limits, and general disruptions. Until then, I would use the 101 down to the 202.