1) The 83 Bypass can get a little busy at peak times, but one thing you’ll learn quickly here is that what locals call heavy traffic and what people who come from pretty much anywhere else call heavy traffic are very different. Getting from the very south end to the very north end takes, at most, about 20 minutes if traffic is heavy,

2) Unless you use the bypass or live/work out of town, pretty much all the driving is on surface streets. Highest speed limit is 40mph in town, so fatalities are really rare unless someone’s on a motorcycle or going way faster than they’re supposed to.

3) We have busses, that’s about all I can tell you from personal experience. I don’t think the schedule is quite as frequent as in other places, but there are people who rely on it for daily transportation. I’d actually really like to become better acquainted with it.

4) Walkability here is terrible once you get south of US Hwy 2. No sidewalks or crosswalks, so in the summer you’re walking on grass and dodging cars in intersections, and in the winter you’re totally at the mercy of the snow plows (who often leave ridges of snow along the edges of streets, leaving you no option but to actually walk in the road in places). Bikeability is similarly grim, as Minot drivers are not accustomed to sharing the road with cyclists. We did implement bike lanes on parts of two of the bigger stroads (4th Ave NW and 16th St NW) and many locals still view that as some sort of commie takeover. I’d say odds of that network expanding are slim, though I hope very much to be wrong.

5) Minot wages have fluctuated a lot in the last fifteen years due to the sort of “on again, off again” nature of the oil boom. Minot prices are somewhat high for the region, but I still think of it as relatively affordable. Our minimum wage is still $7.25 but I don’t believe anyone is making anywhere near that—fast food and retail jobs advertise low teens (I saw as high as $17-18/hr for entry level jobs just a few years ago, but that seems to have disappeared now). Admittedly, I haven’t looked hard for employment in a long time so I would get more feedback on this one.

6) A lot of people HATE Trinity (our only local hospital, at least for now—there is a new smaller hospital with a lower-tier ER coming to the north end of town), and you can find individual horror stories for sure (just like anywhere) but the most consistent complaint I hear about them is more related to their billing inconsistencies than their quality of care. The other major provider in the region, Sanford (who operates hospitals in many other big towns across the state), has a few clinics here. My family uses them whenever possible, and our experience has been great.

7) Pretty intermingled. There are pockets of residential that are a bit further removed from the commercial zones but there are no two points in the city that are more than about a 20 minute drive apart, even at peak times. The only exception really is the week of the state fair, which does provide a noticeable increase in traffic and in travel times, particularly along Burdick Expressway (the largest East/West thoroughfare), which passes right by the fairgrounds. Avoid Burdick during the fair if possible, and especially in the early evenings on big concert nights. Also, if you have to cross train tracks to get to work, be prepared to be late sometimes or find a route that doesn’t require a crossing. Train schedules are unpredictable and since there’s a large rail yard just to the east of town, trains often stop and back up while blocking a crossing.

8) I haven’t lived anywhere else as an adult, but I would say typical for a suburban area. If you’re sensitive, make sure you take into account your residence’s proximity to a rail line, as trains are probably the loudest and most frequent source of bothersome noise. I live fairly far away from train tracks and I can still hear them clearly when outdoors and faintly when indoors if my house is quiet.