driving in Ames is just as bad.
many city planning departments are so worried about making sure setbacks and storm water pond sizing are correct they overlook the "planning" part of the job. part of planning is telling decision-makers that some ideas are bad and there are alternatives. a few months back we had a huge thread about the long-term budget issues causes by culs-de-sac and a forced street hierarchy. Ankeny (and basically all the western suburbs) are so mesmerized by capturing the growth they all fight for the same exact thing. The end result is more and more people in their cars (and no, i'm not saying cars are bad) taking the same routes to further and further places that are the exact same as they places they are driving through.
the long-term solution is to not mandate such accommodation for cars which only forces people to take cars everywhere. if cities worked together instead of against each other they could have a more uniform development pattern across jurisdictions that would spread traffic out.
Ames has definitely had some bad city planning and is paying for it. However I think Ames' issues are more easily solved than Ankeny. Martin Marietta mines really limit more access to 35 but Ames still has the room around it to embrace 30 and build faster routes off it especially in the NW areas of Ames. North Ames is a nightmare to get to and not getting better.
Time will tell if they will build anything or just keep adding neighborhoods with no easy ways to or from.