Around Town
This started as a reply to someone new to town. It got a little out of hand but I hope it's informative.
Hi. Welcome to Missoula.
It's not that big of a town. Really. Our roads are fucked the hell up and confusing. Yes. But here's the born-and-raised-local-low-down for y'all.
There are a mere handful of main roads that the rest of the town is pretty much built around. Almost everything is in relation to a major N/S street or the clarkfork river that divides the city in half.
Broadway: Most direct E/W street in town. Far E Broadway (past Van Buren) has lots of low-income apartments. There is also a free campus Park-N-Ride bus stop/parking lot here. Broadway cuts through all the major N/S roads and eventually becomes the old highway and goes to the airport and eventually turns into the highway that goes to Kalispell at an intersection called "the Y".
Van Buren: N of I-90 is "The Rattlesnake" Upper-middle class residential. Nice houses. Usually expensive. At Van Buren and Broadway there is a shopping center and a foot/bike bridge that crosses the Clark fork and goes to campus.
Madison/Arthur Ave: N/S Comes out of the rattlesnake, crosses the Clark Fork and becomes Arthur. All of campus is south of the Clark Fork and east of Arthur Avenue.
Higgins Ave: N/S. N Higgins avenue is the center of downtown Missoula. Wide varity of stores/restuarants/bars whatev. 2nd bridge across the river. Directly south of the river for about 5 blocks is designated the "Hip Strip".
Between Higgins and Arthur is the University residential area. Very convienent. Pretty damn expensive living.
South of South Avenue Higgins Ave veers right and becomes a SW/NE road. "South(west)higgins"
This serves as a main drag for the extreme south ("the south hills": $$$) part of town. No real shopping, churches, grocery stores, real cheap housing down on the actual avenue, real expensive housing WAY up in the hills from here.
Orange St/Stephens Ave: Orange n/s is in the business district. This is the 3rd bridge across the river. Orange St. Food Farm is at Orange and 5th (5 streets south of the Clark Fork). This is my favorite grocery store in all of Missoula. It's the cheapest. It's locally owned. And they have awesome beer specials.
At Orange and 6th. Orange St. turns to the west and begins heading SW/NE. It is now called Stephens Ave.
Stephens Ave is mostly residential until it merges with Brooks.
Brooks Ave: NE/SW. Splits off from south Higgins in front of Hellgate High School. This is the major street that goes through the southern business district. Brooks is where you're going to find a lot of cafe's, gas stations, fast food, the Mall (which is technically on South but Brooks has an enterence to). Porn stores, travel agents, restaurants, movie theaters, casinos, movie rental stores. It eventually turns into Hwy93 S when it crosses Reserve.
South Ave: Runs E/W south of the river. The east part of South is the extreme south part of campus with married student housing and the golf course. At South and Brooks is the Fairgrounds. The west part of south, towards Reserve, is the Southgate Mall.
Russell: A less-used N/S road. Does not exit to i-90. Light business/residential. Eventually crosses SW Higgins.
Between orange and Russell and N. of Broadway is the "northside." low-income housing. dense. everyone now has a house in what used to be their back yard. lots of cool neighborhood parks and things like that.
Reserve St: N Reserve: BOX Stores Galore! Welcome to Anytown, USA. We got your Krispy Kreme Donughts, we got your Costco, Burger King, McDonalds, Linens-N-Things, Quiznos, Olive Garden, Staples, Best Buy, Pizza Hut, Perkins, Wendy's, PetCo and even a Super Wal-Mart but don't go there. Reserve St crosses the Clark Fork and S reserve is business but less intense. There's a Verizon office and some insurance offices and a grocery store and stuff. It crosses brooks and virtually disappears.
So here's the tricky part.
---MALFUNCTION JUNCTION:
South Avenue, Russell, Brooks merge here in a twisted star.
It wasn't that bad. It used to be the longest light in town, traffic backed up aruond 5pm but it was cool you just had to get through the intersection and you could continue along your way.
Now if you're on E South Ave headed W and you want to go to the Mall on the other side of brooks and russell, you will be redirected to a street called "oxford" which is actually just a light into a parking lot, where you will be forced to either take a left or a right onto Brooks. You take a left, get into the rightmost lane, take a right across Russell and back onto South. 3 blocks later you will be forced to either turn right or left, but both are really straight and either will get you to the mall.
If you are at the mall and want to go home to E south you can't. You get on south and drive towards the intersection with Russell. The road forces you to take a U-turn and head back west on south.
If you're on Brooks headed NE and you want to turn N on Russell, you now take a random other street several blocks before hand and take a left onto Russell from there, and go straight at MJ.
It's ok if you are on the street you want to be on after the intersection.
Just avoid it at all costs. Or ride your bike.
Oh yea. And W broadway from Orange to Russell is 1 lane in each direction. Watch for pedestrians! They figured the best way to reduce the hit-n-runs would be to condense the 5 lane road into 3 lanes.
And Higgins-Arthur area is riddled with E/W 1-ways. watch out.
Your first week in Missoula, set aside an entire day to just drive aimlessly. Even if you get lost way in the middle of fucking nowhere all you have to do is turn around and go back the way you came. The city is only about 5 miles in any direction. You'll figure it out in no time.
Hi. Welcome to Missoula.
It's not that big of a town. Really. Our roads are fucked the hell up and confusing. Yes. But here's the born-and-raised-local-low-down for y'all.
There are a mere handful of main roads that the rest of the town is pretty much built around. Almost everything is in relation to a major N/S street or the clarkfork river that divides the city in half.
Broadway: Most direct E/W street in town. Far E Broadway (past Van Buren) has lots of low-income apartments. There is also a free campus Park-N-Ride bus stop/parking lot here. Broadway cuts through all the major N/S roads and eventually becomes the old highway and goes to the airport and eventually turns into the highway that goes to Kalispell at an intersection called "the Y".
Van Buren: N of I-90 is "The Rattlesnake" Upper-middle class residential. Nice houses. Usually expensive. At Van Buren and Broadway there is a shopping center and a foot/bike bridge that crosses the Clark fork and goes to campus.
Madison/Arthur Ave: N/S Comes out of the rattlesnake, crosses the Clark Fork and becomes Arthur. All of campus is south of the Clark Fork and east of Arthur Avenue.
Higgins Ave: N/S. N Higgins avenue is the center of downtown Missoula. Wide varity of stores/restuarants/bars whatev. 2nd bridge across the river. Directly south of the river for about 5 blocks is designated the "Hip Strip".
Between Higgins and Arthur is the University residential area. Very convienent. Pretty damn expensive living.
South of South Avenue Higgins Ave veers right and becomes a SW/NE road. "South(west)higgins"
This serves as a main drag for the extreme south ("the south hills": $$$) part of town. No real shopping, churches, grocery stores, real cheap housing down on the actual avenue, real expensive housing WAY up in the hills from here.
Orange St/Stephens Ave: Orange n/s is in the business district. This is the 3rd bridge across the river. Orange St. Food Farm is at Orange and 5th (5 streets south of the Clark Fork). This is my favorite grocery store in all of Missoula. It's the cheapest. It's locally owned. And they have awesome beer specials.
At Orange and 6th. Orange St. turns to the west and begins heading SW/NE. It is now called Stephens Ave.
Stephens Ave is mostly residential until it merges with Brooks.
Brooks Ave: NE/SW. Splits off from south Higgins in front of Hellgate High School. This is the major street that goes through the southern business district. Brooks is where you're going to find a lot of cafe's, gas stations, fast food, the Mall (which is technically on South but Brooks has an enterence to). Porn stores, travel agents, restaurants, movie theaters, casinos, movie rental stores. It eventually turns into Hwy93 S when it crosses Reserve.
South Ave: Runs E/W south of the river. The east part of South is the extreme south part of campus with married student housing and the golf course. At South and Brooks is the Fairgrounds. The west part of south, towards Reserve, is the Southgate Mall.
Russell: A less-used N/S road. Does not exit to i-90. Light business/residential. Eventually crosses SW Higgins.
Between orange and Russell and N. of Broadway is the "northside." low-income housing. dense. everyone now has a house in what used to be their back yard. lots of cool neighborhood parks and things like that.
Reserve St: N Reserve: BOX Stores Galore! Welcome to Anytown, USA. We got your Krispy Kreme Donughts, we got your Costco, Burger King, McDonalds, Linens-N-Things, Quiznos, Olive Garden, Staples, Best Buy, Pizza Hut, Perkins, Wendy's, PetCo and even a Super Wal-Mart but don't go there. Reserve St crosses the Clark Fork and S reserve is business but less intense. There's a Verizon office and some insurance offices and a grocery store and stuff. It crosses brooks and virtually disappears.
So here's the tricky part.
---MALFUNCTION JUNCTION:
South Avenue, Russell, Brooks merge here in a twisted star.
It wasn't that bad. It used to be the longest light in town, traffic backed up aruond 5pm but it was cool you just had to get through the intersection and you could continue along your way.
Now if you're on E South Ave headed W and you want to go to the Mall on the other side of brooks and russell, you will be redirected to a street called "oxford" which is actually just a light into a parking lot, where you will be forced to either take a left or a right onto Brooks. You take a left, get into the rightmost lane, take a right across Russell and back onto South. 3 blocks later you will be forced to either turn right or left, but both are really straight and either will get you to the mall.
If you are at the mall and want to go home to E south you can't. You get on south and drive towards the intersection with Russell. The road forces you to take a U-turn and head back west on south.
If you're on Brooks headed NE and you want to turn N on Russell, you now take a random other street several blocks before hand and take a left onto Russell from there, and go straight at MJ.
It's ok if you are on the street you want to be on after the intersection.
Just avoid it at all costs. Or ride your bike.
Oh yea. And W broadway from Orange to Russell is 1 lane in each direction. Watch for pedestrians! They figured the best way to reduce the hit-n-runs would be to condense the 5 lane road into 3 lanes.
And Higgins-Arthur area is riddled with E/W 1-ways. watch out.
Your first week in Missoula, set aside an entire day to just drive aimlessly. Even if you get lost way in the middle of fucking nowhere all you have to do is turn around and go back the way you came. The city is only about 5 miles in any direction. You'll figure it out in no time.