I’m surprised that there was no mention of the route between Phoenix and Las Vegas. This route is a must. Not only for these cities, but for all north and south travel through the intermountain West.
Interstate 11 currently exists in southeastern Nevada. The plan is to start it in Nogales, run it to Casa Grande and bypass Phoenix to the west. From there it would follow US 93 to Las Vegas, and proceed from there to Reno.
I am so glad you're on here. At about age 4 I started exploring maps and was a full blown geo junkie in a few years. It's cool to see someone with as much passion for the subject and I thank you so much for your videos.
1996 middle school geography championship earned me the nickname geography boy. I agree Christopher, I always thought my passion for geography was unparalleled. It is a small niche after all.
As a Virginian, I was SO hoping to see I-81 on this list. It is an absolute nightmare at all times. They recently were going to add tolls to help pay for improvements, but trucker unions pulled their weight around and it was turned down. There is almost always an accident on 81, and the backups can be insane. 10+ mile backups are common. Also, very glad that you pointed out US-29. I spend a lot of time in both Charlottesville and Lynchburg and getting to NC or beyond is stupid.
As a trucker, here are some ones that you missed.. #1: Phoenix-Vegas-Reno-Eugene OR #2: Norfolk VA directly east to 95, without having to go all the way up to Richmond #3: Minneapolis to St Louis direct route. You were spot on about the Dallas to Denver one, though. And it's not just the traffic to Denver - pretty much all the freight from Albuquerque and all the points West on i-40, including all of Northern California, has to take 287 to get down to Dallas-Fort worth.
Phoenix - Las Vegas - Reno is already in the works. But Reno to Eugene is just not going to happen. The Interstate could get as far as Klamath Falls, but where would it go from there?They are certainly not going to run an Interstate through Crater Lake National Park. That would only leave Oregon SR 58 through Oakridge as a possible route, and that would never pass environmental. Western Oregon does need more Interstates, but I just don't see it happening any time soon, if ever.
A lot of Minneapolis and St Louis has US-61/I-380 that is a direct. The route is slowly being finished. I’ve driven on it and most of it is freeway with some no traffic light intersections. The only area that has a ton of traffic lights is in Hannibal MO (I don’t know if they’ll make a bypass there). Waterloo IA also has a few lights in downtown as interstate 380 turns into a boulevard.
The Great Plains region is gonna to be extremely populated Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City, Denver, Oklahoma City, Wichita, and Omaha are gonna need robust transportation system Especially for DFW, Denver and KC.
Oh man, I am a Harrisonburg VA native, went to college in Elizabeth City NC and currently live north of Charlotte (right off 77, another nightmare). Everything you said about the first three routes is spot on! VA and NC need MAJOR overhauls to their interstates!
I go on 81 to go from Blacksburg up to PA and then I go on 78 to NJ. Half the time on 81 is going 20 under the speed limit bc you're behind a truck in the left lane going 55 up a hill. 78 isn't a whole lot better though. 81 and 78 around the holidays are especially horrid.
@@richh650yeah they have 4 lanes each side but it’s basically 2 each side since the other 2 are rolled express lanes. That nobody uses. What a waste. And even in trucks wanted to pay the toll which they would, they can’t. So we’re all stuck in the two right lanes going 5 mph, while looking at 2 empty lanes. 🤣👍🤦♂️🤡🤡🤡
Funny, I was even a little upset when he mentioned 81 which is a beautiful drive… then he mentioned traffic and I remember a dead stop last time the wife and I drove thru.
North of I-64 it wasn't too busy. From NC going to New England I'd take I-64 west of Richmond and I-81 up to Scranton then head east on I-84. I would rather drive an hour or two out of the way than be stuck in I-95 traffic.
I was born and raised in western NC but my mom grew up in Arlington, VA and both of my grandparents lived there until they died. My grandpa died when I was just a baby but my family would drive up there to visit my grandma at least once a year. I’m barely old enough to remember when they finished extending I-26 to I-81 and beyond but even though we’d hit traffic jams at all hours both day and night, I-81 was (and still is) perhaps the most beautiful stretch of interstate I’ve ever been on
Cool video, GeogKing As a Virginian who has been up and down 81 my whole life.. what amazing scenery yet unbelievable headaches! Absolutely stressful from PA to TN. And there’s always accidents blocking things up. It’s not safe and they’ve needed to expand forever ago.
Kyle, speaking on behalf of all the highway and road geeks out there, thanks for the video focusing solely on interstates and some new connections as food for thought. It’s been two long (4 years maybe?) since your last interstate video. Please consider a future video on the U.S. highways, which rarely ever get new or extended routes and are now legacy.
When I started the channel it was almost entirely about road tripping so there was more about interstates but then came the pandemic, so not much road tripping. I've gotten back on the road this past year so I'll be doing more road trip/interstate videos as well.
Amen to 81 through Virginia! It used to be a lovely trip through the Shenandoah valley, but over the last 25 years, the highway has grown into a major trucking route and of course more cars. This mix of so many trucks and cars results in many accidents.
The 'elephant races' where a speed limited truck has a slightly higher limit passing another with a slightly lower limit are very annoying on 2x2 interstates like I-81, leading to dangerous driving and potential crashes.
When I drove big truck long haul back in the eighties and early nineties, the traffic was nothing like what's shown in his pictures of I-81 in Virginia. It was an easy, beautiful drive. The idea of taking a detour through the roller coaster Hillbilly would have been inconceivable to me.
It wouldn't even need to be completely expanded to 3 lanes each way. Truck lanes at areas exceeding a specified grade would go a long way to ease the stress. We have a very limited area of truck lane near Blacksburg but we certainly need much more! When I travel locally, I generally just use the parallel US 11/Lee Highway other than through Abingdon itself, which has a 25 mph speed limit.
I drove I81 through Virginia in July 2021 going from Ma to FL. We went this way to avoid NYC, Baltimore and Washington DC. It was a gorgeous drive through the mountains but the amount of truck traffic on 2 lanes was a bit scary, and that was on a Saturday. I couldn't imagine a weekday.
What're your thoughts on expanding railroads? They're generally cheaper to maintain and could take a lot of the freight traffic out of the way. Would love to see a video on where train routes could be useful.
I was thinking the same thing, especially when he mentioned the highway in Virginia. Adding more lanes will just induce more demand! We need to be using our land more efficiently and create more compact transportation where the congestion won't be as felt.
@@QueenFondue the problem with I-81 in Virginia is all the warehouses and logistics that are happening along that corridor. There is not enough rail infrastructure to accommodate it as it is growing. I believe that Virginia is in eating large amounts to create an inland port using rail to battle the I 81 congestion.
Came here to say the same thing. Expanding existing roads just leads to induced demand. Rail and high speed rail would reduce the traffic on all the routes mentioned.
Also, the extension of Interstate 40 to Bakersfield. Right now, if you're driving from Phoenix to San Francisco and want to stay on Interstates, you must turn south at Barstow and through a high pass, drive 2 hours through the freeway system of Los Angeles, then north through another high pass. These passes are often closed in the winter from snow, leaving no way to get to San Francisco from Arizona on the interstate.
CA 58 is pretty much a freeway from Kramer Junction (US 395) to Bakersfield, but the Barstow to 395 portion definitely needs work. Barstow needs a bypass to the south as well...
@@bartphlegar8212the freeway runs from Kramer Junction (395) through Bakersfield. They built a bypass over 395 and BNSF tracks. Mojave has been bypassed. In Bakersfield eminent domain 😢an entire neighborhood. Eventually it will go to I5.
I’ll also add that Dallas to Denver route needs to happen. Being an interstate across there would mean I could make that trip WITHOUT having to unplug my e-log for the last hour and a half.
Making Highway 6 from Spanish Fork, UT to Green River, UT not only would create a more direct SLC-DEN route but would also help with the DEN-DFW route you also covered. During the summer months it carries a tremendous amount of RV traffic as well from the Wasatch Front to Lake Powell.
I just don't know if the traffic is really sufficient to justify the upgrade. Yes, it carries a large amount of RV traffic, and I've driven that route more often than I care to count. But it still isn't that busy. If anything, upgrading Highway 91 from Brigham City to Logan to interstate standards would be a much higher priority in the state, and I could imagine other places that might also be of interest like from Provo to Park City through Provo Canyon.
The comments made about possible alterations to deal with weather issues, eh, it’s a problem. Smoothing out roads in the mountains means using higher altitudes for certain terrain… or a 100 mile-long tunnel that I suspect doesn’t yet exist on this planet. I tend to think Price Canyon and the US 40 corridor aren’t situations that can be efficiently improved.
That stretch of 6 is very high truck traffic since it provides an alternative corridor between Texas & the PNW when the route through Wyoming is experiencing bad weather. It's often easier to deal with Soldier Summit and then drop down the backside of the Rockies into NM than it is to deal with the multiple high passes on 80 or 70.
The original plan for I-70, when extension west from Denver was authorized, was to go the Spanish Fort. For some reason, the routing was altered, in order to terminate at 15 at Cove Fort instead. This might have been to accommodate E - W freight travel to and from LA.
I travel I-81 daily to work between Hollins and Salem, VA and you are spot on. The 81 corridor through Virginia is packed like Sardines. Just chilling in the right lane is cool, till you get behind a semi going 30mph uphill and the hills are long and plentiful.
I've driven that exact route from Denver to Salt Lake City on several occasions. I take I-80 from SLC to Denver across the windswept landscape of southern Wyoming (the stretch from Casper, WY to Denver can get ridiculously clogged) and take the I-70/Highway 6 route home. It's hard to beat the scenery you get through the Colorado Rockies and high desert cliffs and mountains of Utah, and taking one route there and another route back makes it more adventurous.
For the Denver to Dallas route, part of that route is getting upgraded to Interstate standards. It will be an extension of I-27, probably basically an upgrade of Highway 87/64. Now, that is just Amarillo to Raton, so it doesn't cover Highway 287, but it's a start. By the way, this is part of what's being called US Port to Plains.
@@dhinton1 some want it to run from Laredo to Canada. 83 gets a lot more traffic than 385 does in northern Colorado and the the Nebraska panhandle, and at the peak of supplies being hauled into the Bakken, Nebraska said traffic counts didn't justify expanding 83 out to 4 lanes, let alone freeway.
Denver to/from San Antonio, TX is also a trucking route, so from I70 in Colorado, Hwy 287/385 to Amarillo to Abilene to San Antonio has seen some improvement, but in a truck it is rough.
I normally take 290 being on the north side of Austin when driving to Houston. The Houston side of 290 is pretty good, but always busy with traffic. Though, as you head towards Austin, it's far from an interstate going through the middle of Giddings, Elgin, and Manor with lots of stoplights. 71 has toll lanes in spots, but still goes back to traffic lights with huge backups. For Thanksgiving, GPS redirected me to tiny country roads to get out of Austin.
I would also include Hartford to Providence. There is a short stretch of I-384 but the rest is either US-44 which takes you through UConn or US-6 which has a lot of deadly head on collisions especially in Eastern Connecticut.
NIMBYs in rich eastern Connecticut put the kibosh on that. It was supposed to overlay US 6 through the eastern part of the state. Instead the result was “Suicide Six”.
I drove Hartford to Newport a couple months ago. It was scary how much of that drive was a 2-lane backroad. We were even caught behind a car that had a tire explode on a trailer and kept driving. Very scary, especially between two major areas with a lot of traffic!!!
The original I-84 was to go through the Scituate Reservoir, the drinking water supply for Providence. As RI nixed the highway going through the reservoir, I-84 between Hartford and Providence was cancelled. The only stubs are the aforementioned I-384 and what's now the US 6 bypass in Willimantic. I-84 was re-routed using I-86 to Sturbridge MA. I-86 became I-84. The new I-86 using PA 17 and NY 17 along the lower tier of NY is unrelated to this.
81 in VA being on this list despite already being an interstate is hilarious and true. I-75 in Georgia is getting truck only lanes to separate them from cars. 81 probably could use it even more
Definitely need one between Phoenix and Las Vegas. I think they’re in the process (especially when it says future interstate corridor), but it’s needed soon
@@boogitybear2283 yes, I made that trip several times as a kid. It used to be two lanes from the Hoover Dam to Wickenburg, with the ten mile exception of I-40. It sucked BAD.
As always, another great video. I was hoping you would make something interstate related at some point. Between Northern Delaware and Virginia Beach, they could definitely use an interstate or road upgrades. It’s a major corridor with only 2 real options. US 13 and US 113 are the only ways you can go and both of them are 4 lanes with plenty of stops in between. And for I-81, throughout it’s entire length only has one section that’s 3 lanes for a considerable distance. That’s from mile marker 8 in WV to the MD state line. They definitely need 3 lanes on more of the route.
I agree 100% with your assessments. I've traveled all these routes you've mentioned and agree that better routes are long over due. I live in Raleigh NC. Every month the traffic congestion gets worse. They are trying to upgrade the roads but it's a slow process. Really enjoyed this video.
North Carolina is likely the single best DOT in the country, in terms of product delivered, to the public. High quality upgrades and Interstate designations throughout the state. Many other states seem to operate on notion that growth doesn’t exist, and that traffic can be waved away with a “magic” wand.
One that is short but worth mentioning is Atlanta, GA to Huntsville, AL. The current route is either way out of the way via I-75, I-24, and US-72 with several signals. The shortest way is via two lane roads crossing 2 separate mountains. I see many trucks on these tight back roads and it really could use an interstate.
yes! the routes between atlanta and huntsville is either too dangerous (two-lane roads) or too long (going through chatt). atl and hsv are long overdue for a direct interstate route.
Great video Kyle! While I'm a total map nerd, I haven't driven around the US much outside the Mid-Atlantic. Living in New Jersey, you really get to know a thing or two about traffic though I didn't know there was so much traffic in the areas you highlighted. Although creating or upgrading highways is quite expensive because of the sheer linear distances, but in the long run the fuel savings would be astronomical.
BIG yes to Highway 6. All the young folk from Salt Lake and Provo (including myself) use it to get to Moab. On holiday weekends in the summer it’s mostly college kids and semis on the road - not a great combo. Not to mention winter conditions in the Spanish Fork Canyon portion
Glad to see someone discuss needed Interstates in the neglected West. The Dallas-to-Denver one is important---extend I-30 from Fort Worth to Amarillo, and extend I-27 from Amarillo to Denver. Some commenters also noted the Phoenix-Las Vegas-Reno route---I-11, which will likely never be completed in our lifetime. The one glaring omission is extending I-40 west, to I-5. Ending I-40 at I-15 in Barstow, CA, has been frustrating drivers since the 1970's! Currently, all interstate traffic is being routed southward, toward LA. This, when half of the I-40 traffic is wanting to head northward, toward San Francisco and Sacramento. For years, the only way to head northward, was to follow the maze of SR 58. Luckily, over the past 20 years, the state of California has been trying to upgrade the worst parts to freeway. Folks have been demanding that this route be made an Interstate. But, for some unknown reason, the fed-government keeps digging-in its heels on this issue.
I've driven I-81 in Virginia for many years. We would drive it regularly to avoid I-95 to get to the DC area. It has been a pain with the hills and trucks and occasional snowfall, but after getting in horrible traffic on I-95 last December, we will continue to use it. One year we took US-29 instead and it wasn't too much slower so we might try that again assuming we can be on it during daylight hours.
I drive I-81 a lot, and yeah it's frustrating. A lot of backups are caused because you have two trucks going side by side well below the speed limit, and all the cars are stuck behind them. Honestly, it's sometimes easier just to take US-11 which runs parallel to it.
This is easier said than done. You have to look at infrastructure costs ( excavating, building, maintaining, storm runoff etc ) versus the benefits ( travel time saved , population density and how high the traffic volume is along the total route) . Additionally, bypassing local routes has a negative impact on the communities situated along these routes. In the long run, it’s more beneficial to expand the interstates lanes , like I-81, especially south from PA,
I went to college at JMU which is on both sides of I-81 (I could literally see the cars in my freshman dorm). I have a big soft spot for 81, it is really a beautiful highway with views of the mountains on both sides
I drive the Dallas to Denver route every month or so, and I agree wholeheartedly. 287 is an okay highway for the most part, but if we don’t need an interstate for such a vital route, I guess we’re stuck waiting for out jetsons cars.
I live in Baltimore but work in Winchester, VA (110 mile distance). Going home the fastest route is via I-81 thru VA and WV. One time there was an accident that had us in still traffic for over an hour moving at a pace of less than HALF a mile per hour. I'm really talking snail's pace. Mind you I live 2 hrs away. It got so bad that myself and a bunch of drivers started cutting thru the grassy median to go the opposite direction (I-81 South towards Winchester). I never thought I would ever cut thru the grass in my life until I found myself in that situation. Not to mention the backroads of Berkeley and Jefferson counties WV are horrible. You'd be lucky to find yourself on a back road that allows you to comfortably do more than 40 mph. I-81 is a menace and I've weaved through enough 18-wheelers for a lifetime honestly. I hate this highway with a passion.
Agreed - every major interstate that is two lanes each side needs to be three. There are a few freeways that have done this in short sections and the decrease in congestion is wonderful.
Hey Kyle! I’m not sure if you’ve already touched on this topic, but I think it would be really interesting to see a video on what I call “southeastern mountain cities”. Think Asheville, Chattanooga, Roanoke, Charleston WV, Knoxville etc. I feel like there is something about these cities that is incredibly underrated, and very similar to one another. However, it seems like Asheville is the only one in the bunch that has a hold on the public consciousness, even though other cities have exactly what they have, but a much lower cost of living. For example, I have recently become completely enamored by Roanoke, Virginia. A clean, safe (only locals who have never left Roanoke think it’s “dangerous”), and unbelievably friendly city with a less than 15 minute drive from downtown to the heart of Jefferson/Washington national forest. And the fact that you can buy a fully renovated Victorian home less than a 10 minute walk from downtown, in a nice neighborhood, for less than $250,000 is absolutely incredible. I know you’re in Chattanooga so you might know what I mean when I say these cities seem weirdly underrated and not talked-about on a national level.
Lynchburg > Roanoke :) Safer, more friendly, smaller, and lower cost of living. We love it here! The worst part is the missing interstate like Kyle talked about. He's spot on with how troublesome it is!
As a over the road trucker with 5 years of experience , I can personally attest to everything you mentioned. Suggestion for Part 2- Talking of Safety and Time savings 1). Reno to Las Vegas- Truckers nightmare single lane highway overtaking is a deathwish. Could easily convert hwy 95 to a interstate. 2). Pheinix to Las vegas- talk about connecting two major metropolitan cities that weren't as big when interstate system was designed
I think we need more of 8s as the last digit of the interstate numbering system. They are: I-18 which connect from Dallas Texas to Lafayette Louisiana, I-28 which connect from Amarillo Texas to Fort Worth Texas, I-48 which connect from I-35 near Perry Oklahoma to I-49 in Springdale Arkansas, I-58 should connect from I-25 in Pueblo Colorado to future I-57 in Poplar Bluff Missouri, and I-98 should connect from I-81 in Watertown New York to I-89, north of Burlington Vermont.
The drive from Bristol to Winchester is besutiful. But the traffic isn’t mostly local. It is pass through. Not sure why Kyle wants Virginia to pay transit that originates and ends in other states. We will be fine to wait for federal funds
We could also use an interstate highway in Texas connecting Beaumont to Lufkin to Tyler as a hurricane evacuation route. It would run concurrent with US 69 and avoid travel through Houston.
Love the mention of NW to SE highways in Ohio. I live just Southeast of Columbus and go to the Carolinas often. by far, the worst part of the entire trip is southeast of Athens (my alma mater) into Ravenswood, WV to get to I-77. You get stuck behind a semi in the hills and you're already delayed. Its a brutal drive through there. Would LOVE a more direct route into WV!
@@scotcoon1186 Yea, now that WV has finally finished their stretch of 35, it's an easy (but boring) drive to I-64. Of course right now I-64 is a mess of a different kind.
what surprises me, is that there isn't a houston to denver route, and a san antonio to Shreveport route. truck drivers, to and from austin, and san antonio probably wouldn't mind missing DFW altogether. they could make an interstate spur that peals off of I-20 outside of Shreveport, and follows US 79 down into the brazos valley, then follows state highway 21 to san marcos, north of san antonio. this would allow both austin and san antonio a direct link to I-20.
Wow, the first six routes you mentioned are places where I have lived and/or went to school, and have personally impacted me. I have made the drive from Austin to Aspen twice. However, out of all of these that I personally know, I have to say that I-81 is the one that needs to be fixed first. I went to school off of 81 and it is absolutely *abysmal* driving through there. At least in most of those Texas routes, there are large stretches of road that pretty much act as a highway to begin with, especially the further west you go in Texas, the amount of towns you pass through isn't ideal for sure, but it's not too terrible.
I want I-40 extended from Barstow through Bakersfield to I-5. That is the only meaningful bypass of LA and that road is a nightmare of trucks. It has gotten better over the last ten years but I'm amazed that route has never been finished.
I wish that even just 1% of what is needed could be built because what a blessing that would be! Everyone is going to say that we can’t afford it and our existing roads and bridges are falling apart. Years ago I read that Germany’s autobahns have roadbeds of concrete that are twice as thick as ours, but maintenance is still necessary.
Germany has 25% of the population USA has, but Germany also has 5% of the land mass. On a per capita basis, easier for them to afford road coverage and maintenance. Plus they’ve got decent train service given the same principles.
Vegas to Reno getting the upgrade and Vegas to Phoenix would be a godsend. There isn’t too much traffic north of Vegas unless you’re right outside Hawthorne into Reno, but the stretch to Phoenix would really make it easier to travel that way
Love this video thank you! I am from Colorado & spent most of my life there. I was amazed how long it took to drive around Virginia when visiting my girlfriend’s parents. Lots of roads but all small & windy.
Virginian here. Definitely agree with you on I-81. Also, I'd recommend upgrading US 29 from I-66 down to Greensboro. They could call it an extension of I-83 by using I-695, I-70, US 29 in MD, the ICC (MD 200), connect it to VA 28 via a new Potomac River crossing, and then I-66 from Centreville to Haymarket. I guess I-83 inside the Baltimore Beltway would get a new Interstate name
Northern Virginian here. There won't be a new river crossing because there's a wildlife preserve in the way on the Maryland side. I live about a mile from where that proposal would be and it's not happening anytime soon.
I was always was in favor of extending I-83 along I-695 to where the current I-97 is and have it run along 50 east to Salisbury. From Salisbury 83 would run down U.S. 13 through Norfolk and then southwest over to Raleigh along what they're proposing as I-87
@@c.t.turner2123 That route you're proposing through the Eastern Shore would make more sense numbered as I-97, IMO. Mainly because of how the grid is set up.
I'm not an expert on Eastern NC but I'd like to add some context to your comment on I-95. It certainly doesn't connect well with New Bern or Jacksonville, but at the time of construction, the I-95 corridor went through some of the most economically important manufacturing and agricultural hubs of NC. Wilson, Rocky Mount, Goldsboro, Smithfield and Kinston were crucial cities for textiles and tobacco and have seen rapid decline of economic output, quality of life, and population of the past half century (This could be a great video!). The I-95 corridor today is still essential for NC industry, mainly agriculture and fuel, while a few new industrial zones have been added recently to attempt to revitalize the economy in this part of the state. And once again, I'm certainly no expert on any of this so I apologize if I have mischaracterized anything here, people who are from Eastern NC please chime in! Hopefully the corridor will be 6 lanes the whole way soon and it will shorten that drive from VB to Charleston!
I drove I-81 this past summer because I was going from Charleston, SC to Wilkes-Barre, PA, and then on to Burlington, VT. I wanted to avoid big cities like Washington D.C. so I took I-81 and stayed in Roanoke. I actually didn't notice the traffic being that bad in Virginia, but perhaps that was because of the time of the day I was driving. The traffic did get a bit worse in Maryland, but for the most part it was easy.
I live in Roanoke and travel 81 to Richmond or 81 south to Christiansburg and the effort is there. It is alot a 2 lanes each way but they have added a 3rd lane so several parts. Sure not enough but in the Roanoke area there are spurts of 3 lanes of each way and through Salem it looks to be work being done to add another lane or 2. Very useful because cars tend to ride the left lane way too much with little effort to pass cars on the right. Trucks do use 81 alot going north to south and visa versa but this video seems outdated when mentioning I-81. New third lanes have been added..But way more are needed.
I’ve been a truck driver since 1998. I’ve taken almost all of those routes. Highway 6 through Utah is nice when the weather cooperates. One route I would suggest is Denver to Minneapolis. Minneapolis to Sioux Falls is all four lane. You just have a few towns to go through. But from Sioux Falls to interstate 80 will be tricky. There are a few Indian reservations in South Dakota that you would either have to bypass, or get their permission to build on. But from North Platt or Grand Island to Yankton would be doable. Also Amarillo to Bismarck might be a consideration.
I-27 would perfect for the Amarillo idea. There's a lot of potential north of Armadillo. Low population in that region might prevent from happening in our life time.
It's interesting that you highlighted the Des Moines to Memphis corridor through Missouri as this is the first time I've heard that route come up in a freeway/interstate conversation around here (Missouri). While Missouri has recently worked on I-49 along the western side of the state, I think in general they are content with building 4 lane freeways that are not up to interstate standards (although with occasional exits for larger cities). This has been the approach on their portion of The Avenue of the Saints (connecting St. Paul, MN to St. Louis, MO) and the Chicago-KC Corridor which mostly follows US 36 in Missouri. Because The Avenue of the Saints is now almost entirely a freeway (I believe the section through Hannibal MO has the only remaining stoplights), I suspect they would say to use that as the alternative to building another corridor connecting Des Moines to Memphis.
Being from JCMO the Des Moines-Memphis corridor would be one good option to connect Jefferson City to the interstate system, plus MO has no north-south interstate routes through the middle of the state, all the north-south interstates are along the eastern and western edges of the state
Three Midwestern missing links that come to mind: US 151 - could connect Madison, WI to Des Moines, IA via Waterloo, Dubuque, and Cedar Rapids. (I 86 - hate duplicating numbers). WI 29 - could connect the Twin Cities to the Fox Valley (Green Bay, Appleton, etc) via Eau Claire and Wausau. Also would allow I 39 to end at an actual interstate (96, maybe?) US 52 - Rochester to MSP. (Northern I-37?)
I am surprised you did not mention that there is no interstate from Phoenix to Las Vegas and from Las Vegas to Reno. Also, I-69 from Port Huron to Houston and to far south Texas is broken up with many large uncompleted segments. I drive the south Texas portion where there are many "Future I-69 corridor" signs but no work is being done. I would suggest you do a Part 2 to this video. Thanks.
Happy to see you mention Dallas to Denver. That was actually my first roadtrip I ever took, and I've driven it twice since. It isn't an awful drive, but a lot of it is two-lane blacktop. A section through New Mexico has no gas station for 100+ miles, and numerous signs warn you of this before entering the corridor. Things get better once you enter Colorado, but it takes forever to get out of Texas due to size & New Mexico due to low speed limits and poor roads. Also, the route is plagued by tumbleweeds & dust storms, but I guess a new highway wouldn't fix that.
Kyle, I love your channel. Longtime viewer, first time commentator. I’m a native New Mexican who drove back and forth the Michigan for college every semester, but I live in NYC now and unfortunately have to drive to various hospitals around Brooklyn. The BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Express) is I-278 and it is actually falling apart. They recently had to narrow one section of it, just south of the Brooklyn bridge, down to 2 lanes because the roadway can’t handle all the heavy truck traffic from New Jersey and points NE. Seems like a lot of these traffic and safety issues could be alleviated with a better/dedicated way of moving freight. Interested to know how your suggestions might fit with improved rail
Thank you for your comment. I think we definitely need an improved rail network for passenger and freight. For cities, I'm all about walking, buses, and light rail. I'm not familiar with the specific situation in NYC but any issues there are going to be extra difficult to deal with due to limited space. But I think intracity freight is still going to be largely trucks, but a lot of what is transported by trucks over longer distances can be carried by rail as well.
Resident of Las Cruces here! They’ve actually had the BP check points closed recently, fyi. Also the large military installations around here make it necessary to drive around them.
I agree with your Ohio selection. I currently live in Toledo and there is absolutely no good way to get from here to Columbus. You would think there would be motivation to improve the route to at least connect Columbus and Detroit. I don't even consider going to WV from here just because of how inefficient it would be.
Another route I'd say that is highly needed is between Washington D.C./Baltimore and Ocean City, MD. I have been on U.S. Route 50 to get to Ocean City so many times, and it can get heavily backed up. So far, the closest Interstates to Ocean City coming from D.C. and Baltimore are I-595 between the Capital Beltway and Annapolis. And I-97 between I-695 and I-595. Another highway in Maryland that should be upgraded is Maryland Route 3. It was originally planned as I-297 but was canceled due to opposition from the community. Traffic through Crofton can get bumper to bumper for about most of the highway due to it being part of a bypass around Washington to take you to Richmond or the Hampton Roads area.
I would add a bridge/tunnel at Cape May and an interstate between Cape May and Virginia Beach (plus redesignating the NJ Garden State Parkway to an interstate). Then also an interstate between Virginia Beach and I-95 in North Carolina. This would provide an alternate route between the Northeast and the South, bypassing the whole mess that is I-95 between NY and Richmond, VA.
That whole stretch could be called I-87, linking the two existing/planned ones together (Of course I-87 into NY City would have to be numbered as an I-x87 3di).
When I drove east on I-40 through North Carolina two years ago on a Sunday, I was astonished, amazed, and stupefied at how heavy the traffic was. The traffic did not start thinning out until I was east of Raleigh.
Mass transit only makes sense in high-density areas, but many such areas are still under-served by subways and El's. Philly is a strong example. Unlike NYC which kept building and building, the fools in Phila City Hall have blown many opportunities. The Roosevelt Subway has sat at #1 on the Federal DOT "new starts" list for decades, with estimates of very high ridership, yet city leaders never get serious about solving both issues - US1 is congested with road traffic, yet the route is excellent for transit. A combo project to depress the two inner roadways to convert them to expressway, while placing the subway (split) under the local roadways, would work wonders. The cost of $3B is often cited as a block, but how many bills have passed Congress for far greater amounts, and Philly could not get a billion to launch the project?
@@weirdfish1216 I agree, the only difference is that the US needs better inter-city service. Especially for trips of 500 miles or less, anything much more than 500 will compete with airplanes
As a Missourian i confirm that US-63, US-65, and MO-13 between KC and Springfield are all carrying a lot of traffic. Making them limited access highways would greatly help road safety, and the state has made great strides toward it in the last 30 years. I need Arkansas to connect the northern & southern sections of I-49 from Fort Smith to Texarkana; this would be a real time saver by cutting out a massive jog into Oklahoma, and would connect Kansas City to New Orleans via Shreveport & the fast growing Northwest Arkansas area. Dallas to Denver makes so much sense, but there population growth wasn’t there in the 1960s. Upgrading US-54/400 from Dodge City to Joplin via Wichita is a good idea and much needed; the Dodge City/Garden City/Liberal triangle has had huge growth in the last 20 years but is so isolated. Finally, US-36 between Springfield, IL & I-35 in northern MO is nearly already interstate-grade so that should finish the job & consider extending it to St. Joseph; it would draw alot of truck traffic off I-70, which is sorely needed. Trains are great & I’m all for strengthening that, but they make sense connecting major city to major city. The places you detailed are smaller city/rural to smaller city/rural but all fast-growing; not big enough now to really support rail development, but very much able to support better roads.
My one takeaway from my Transportation Geography class at SDSU was that establishing more freeways just allows for more growth. At least in So. Cal that was absolutely true! In time, those bucolic suburbs became just as congested as the cities they hoped to avoid. So, Shhhhhhhh. Be careful what you wish for. The developers are listening.
There are some areas where growth would be appreciated, such as central Alabama west of Montgomery. There has been talk for a long time about extending I-85 west to the Mississippi line. I have heard it said that when the Interstate Highway System was planned, the Jim Crow era politicians did not want an interstate in their fiefdoms. Now there are no such barriers to an interstate, whether it is called I-85 or the proposed I-14.
@@joshuabenjaminscott2365 Actually dumbshit! The population is diminishing. people moving out in large numbers . Pick a book or a magazine. Have your mom read it to ya'!
81 is such a beautiful drive and is a great chance to avoid 95 when heading to Charlotte, Columbia, and Atlanta from DC...and I will never get on it again until they get rid of all those turns that the trucks can barely handle and add some lanes.
I’ve always thought a route from Tallahassee through Columbus, Ga, Opelika, Gadsden, and connect to I-65 north of Huntsville would be beneficial. It would divert traffic to avoid Atlanta, Birmingham, and Chattanooga. It would also connect midsized towns in eastern Alabama. You could continue the route for a more direct route to Missouri and the Great Plains as demand grows.
That would be useful for long distance through traffic I suppose. But locally around here in Alabama I'm not sure how that would work. It would be a very strange interstate corridor. lol.
I was always in Favor.of extending I-85;down to Panama City. Extending I-185 down to Tallahassee could work. Going around Ft Benning might be a challenge.
@@c.t.turner2123 US 27 has a freeway that goes through ft benning and the road is now four laned all the way to FL. Maybe with some upgrades the highway could be an interstate from Columbus GA to I 10 near Tallahasee.
I've done 81 in Virginia a few times and was amazed by the amount of truck traffic headed to an from the northeast. It was very challenging to pass. Every hill, the big trucks would bunch up and then one would jump out to pass, but couldn't gain speed, and it created a clot of traffic behind it, packing everyone very close to one another. By the end, I called it the "PASS HIM!" highway.
For those mentioning expanding railroad coverage. In high density traffic corridors l agree whole heartedly. but in areas that are not well served by current highways without the average population density then maybe expansion of either the Interstate System or the secondary Federal Highway system. These areas most likely could not support increased rail service. If as a nation we decide to increase rail service nationwide we should not only focus on urban corridors but long distance (1) service between major hubs. And these major hubs should be served by express trainsets that have a minimum of stops between hubs. 1) The distance between hubs depends a lot on the speed.
I remember wanting to plan a hypothetical Miami-Seattle road trip, and always being curious that there isn't a perfectly diagonal route that allows to fully experience the inmensity of America in a direct way.
What kind of goods are you moving from Miami to Seattle, or vice versa? There’s a decent route that’s not worth shortening without a good business case.
We should go ahead and add a hypothetical interstate from San Diego to Maine. As a matter of fact my parents and I did that cross-country trip back in '77.
Just wanted to say I love your work Kyle, and to update you that the 2 lane portion of US-17 between Jacksonville and New Bern, NC has been completely bypassed. It is a 60 mph 4 lane expressway from just north of Jacksonville to Maysville, then 70 mph freeway from Maysville to US-70 in Craven County west of New Bern. There are plans to finish the freeway by-pass from US-70 north to the existing NC-43/US-17 intersection between New Bern and Vanceboro NC within the next several years.
I did chuckle in the Texas section at 7:35 where the verbiage was "so many more people moving there" while the image includes what appears to be an abandoned building.
I noticed that also, but that picture was taken in one of the small towns on US 287 that needs to be bypassed by a new interstate designation. The businesses that need to be on the interstate can build new modern facilities there to capitalize on the traffic passing by. Living in Houston and having property in Colorado I agree that improvements and upgrades are sorely needed with the population growth in all the metro areas.
I relate to alot of this. I've lived in Charleston, SC and Virginia Beach. Check. I moved from Baltimore to San Antonio by way of I-81 in Virginia. I did that back in 1996 so it wasn't crowded at all then but I don't doubt that it is now. I live in Texas now and agree with all the ones you stated - especially Austin - Houston. How that hasn't happened by now is just bewildering.
Texdot has squandered billions on frills since the late nineties. Clearview, excess architecture such as inlays, excessive details and un needed landscaping. They should have focused on corridor development.
I live in Ohio, and I agree with your views on the Ohio stretches. I think the stretch of US-23 you mentioned was proposed to be part of I-73 at one time. And I still think it could be, but with the exception of North Carolina there is no national interest in giving attention to I-73. If the 23 strip can be converted to freeway the next trick would be to connect it to State Route 315 which is freeway from I-270 in Worthington to I-71/I-70 in downtown Columbus. 315 would connect to I-71 which would connect to SR-104, which has a freeway strip connecting it to US-33. The 33 strip you mentioned I am familiar with as it connects to I-77. I do think it would be better served as a freeway, but it has no proposed interstate designation, and it is not part of the I-73/I-74 proposal. It would need a new designation. Maybe I-177 as I heard I-77 was originally supposed to go through Columbus to Cleveland, but the final result didn’t reflect the original design. Converting the US-33 strip to freeway to Columbus is a good idea. It could also connect to 104 leading into I-71. There was also a proposal connecting 104 to the western connector to I-70 making it a new I-70 in the process and bypassing downtown Columbus. This extension is likely more possible with the loss of Cooper Stadium. But there are still some property issues to consider. However liking the extension to 104 and 33 to make a new southeastern freeway, I-177, makes sense to me.
Some other freeway ideas in places I used to live that weren't mentioned: US 30 from Pocatello to Little America, WY: Currently, traffic coming from the Pacific NW going towards the Great Plains have to make a detour south into the northern suburbs of SLC, which is an area that's getting very crowded. Having an extra bypass option as an eastern extension of I-86 would be good to help clear traffic in Utah. US 95 from Winnemucca, NV to Coeur d'Alene via Boise: This is the only road that connects Northern Idaho to the rest of the state, the least we could do is make it a full freeway. Would also help to connect Moscow/Pullman, WA to the rest of the country. The extension south to Winnemucca is more to make the northward jog of 80 make a bit more sense. There's also a convenient number to use here, I-13, or if you want to avoid superstitions, I-7 or I-9, whatever CA 99 doesn't take. US 20 from Idaho Falls to St. Anthony: This is more suited as a 3 digit Interstate, but it's a route I think warrants it. The route connects Idaho's 4th and 9th largest cities and is the main route to the western side of Yellowstone National Park. It's already a freeway up to St. Anthony with the connection to I-15 soon to be redone, so this route becoming I-115 I think would be a good thing. Beltway around Baton Rouge: There's no current beltway around Baton Rouge, but if there's somewhere that desperately needs it, BR is the city that needs it. Currently, there's only 8 crossings over the Mississippi River in Louisiana, 3 in New Orleans, 2 in BR, and 3 in far flung rural areas. One of those two BR crossings is I-10, but two other interstates make this crossing horrifically bad to use: I-110 that immediately splits from I-10 and goes north, and I-12 that bypasses New Orleans to the north of Lake Pontchartrain. A third crossing to the south of BR in Iberville Parish is already in the works, so why not make that part of a beltway that bypasses BR from I-10 in WBR Parish south and around to I-12 in Livingston Parish? I've drawn up a sketch on this road in Google Earth, and the route wouldn't be but a couple miles longer than the current route, but could be built to handle higher speeds and future expansion as BR grows further south.
Your first route would make a lot of sense. I have come up with a fictional flash narrative in my head involving a character who is fresh off a trip to Phoenix and heading to see some members of his family living Grand Rapids, Michigan after visiting other family members living in a distant suburb of Seattle, Washington. In the scene, he has to explore a few different route options, each of which ultimately take him through the suburbs of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Boise to Winnemucca is particularly bad, though I don't know how heavily travelled it is now. I remember years ago how that highway developed ruts from the weight of the trucks, and cars with narrower wheelbases would end up with one side or the other running in one. Driving north/south in Nevada simply isn't done on interstates, so that deserves a look.
@@pfcrow There may be a reason that road isn’t that well maintained. Extremely few people between Nampa and Winnemucca. The next traffic backup would probably be the first. I drove that route for years myself. The most realistic thing I could see happening is a southern bypass of Boise that links with US 95, and that’s probably not a higher priority than an expressway or rail along the northern edge of the Treasure Valley.
I am from that northeastern part of NC you talked about at the beginning of the video. The highway infrastructure is so limiting here. You have to take backroads to get to backroads that lead to 2-4 lane highways. I went to school 4 hours away, yet I had friends who lived twice as many miles away who got home in the same amount of time because they could hop on super highways! It makes travel very hard because it takes so long to finally get to a highway that takes you anywhere. Not to mention all of the cell phone dead zones in this area!
Idaho Needs to make Highway 95 an interstate. It is the only north south road in Idaho that is a two lane highway for a majority of it. Traveling in winter time can be extremely dangerous with road often times having to be closed for long periods of time because of slides of snow.
US 95 from winnemucca to boise really should be one, currently a lot of people have to use that route to go from Northern California to Boise and it’s a long, dangerous two way highway drive. There was even a student at Boise state who was recently killed due to a semi crossing over on that drive which seems to happen more often than it should
It could b I-11, but the route is likely to go through Oregon because it’s less challenging since there’s less mountains. What I would do is have the interstate split into an I-11W and an I-11E similar to I-35. I-11W would serve Reno and Bend Oregon, while I-11E would serve Winnemucca Nevada and Boise Idaho. The routes would converge in Clarkston/Lewiston and head north to Spokane.
I've been subscribed to you for years and I can't believe you only have just under 200k subscribers! Your content is so educational and you have such a warm personality! Keep up the good work Kyle!
i drove i-81 from i-40 in knoxville up to i-76 in harrisburg-ish over the summer and did not experience any issues with traffic at all. i’m born and raised in new jersey though so maybe what the rest of the country calls a congested road i consider to be a free flowing highway
I would like to see a road going from Wilmington to Charlotte NC to bypass all the cities along 40/85 which is a nightmare if you are just going through NC. I grew up while the interstates were being built. A good portion of interstates through the mountains of Virginia/West Virginia were not completed until the 70's and into the 80's. Driving along Route 60 through those mountains was very stressful.
Agree with this. Since they're already upgrading a lot of the US 74 corridor to freeway, the route you propose could actually go past I-85 through Shelby all the way to I-26 in Columbus.
I used to live in two of the areas in this video: the north and south carolinas along the coast and then going southeast out of Columbus. Kyle's descriptions are spot on for these. The ironic thing is: half the people you meet in Hilton Head are from Ohio.
I 69 saw a video on that, portions build is not up to interstate standards. Other states won’t fund it, want federal money. Some states thinking about toll booths.
The planned I-27 extension from Amarillo to I-25 will help that part of the Dallas to Denver corridor issue. But they definitely need to bring the Dallas to Amarillo section up to interstate standards as well.
An area you never mentioned is pretty much the whole of Delmarva. Especially during beach season it becomes quite a nightmare to navigate through it. If you're coming from the north, you'll get off of I95 onto Delaware Route 1, which is the easiest route in the area until you hit Dover. On the south side of Dover it ceases to be an "expressway" and you start hitting lights and lower speed limits. It's also a massive trucking route and cuts down to two lanes which makes it easily congested as you hit lights, but it's actually the least problem. US Route 50 essentially runs from the Bay Bridge to Ocean City, and the lights on the route are pretty terrible. Going through Easton (and to a lesser extent Cambridge) is a nightmare, and then you have to get off the bypass and go through lights in Salisbury too. Route 13 (which intersects with both 1 and 50) can be a nightmare too. The stretch from the Bay Bridge tunnel to the Salisbury bypass is not the most horrible thing in the world, but the lower speed limit in Virginia, and the lights in Pocomoke and Princess Anne make it slower than it needs to be. The worst stretch of it is from Salisbury to Dover. As the most efficient route for someone going through the state to get north (as the Puncheon Run connector in Dover is the best place to get on 1), 13 gets absolutely jam packed sometimes. It is only a four lane through the entirety of the stretch after Salisbury, and the lights in Salisbury especially are a nightmare because of lower speed limits at 45 (Seaford, Harrington which slows down to 35 at points, and Camden, which only slows to 50, also have this problem) and the speed limit also slows down to 50 in Laurel, 45 in Felton and 35 in Greenwood. What saves the latter two is that it is only 1 light. Route 9, which connects Laurel on 13 with Lewes on the coast, is a two lane highway throughout with mostly 50mph speed limits (except going through the town of Georgetown which at least has a traffic circle to keep traffic flowing). A lot of people use this route to get between 13 and 113, or between 13 and Route 1 if you're going to the beaches. The fact that it's only a two lane is my biggest issue with it, because there is no room to pass slow moving tourists and trucks. Route 113 running south from Milford to eventually connect with 13 in Pocomoke is a nightmare in certain areas. Milford has slower speed limits and plenty of lights, but following that you're good until Georgetown. From Georgetown onward is an absolute nightmare because the speed limit doesn't matter as there are a ridiculous amount of lights and lower speed limits heading through especially Millsboro but also any of the other towns on the route. Delaware is not a big state and I drove from Greenwood to Selbyville (on the 113 corridor) and back during beach season for a part and that took me 5 hours. 113 is an absolute nightmare that I refuse to use unless I absolutely have to. But the biggest nightmare in the entire area is Route 24. 24 runs from Laurel on the route 13 corridor all the way to Rehoboth Beach. Because it's running to the biggest beach in the state of Delaware, it was always going to be a bit of a nightmare, but what makes it so much worse is it goes directly through the heavily populated town of Millsboro, which also has a massive Mountaire chicken plant on the other side of it. The trucks, heavy local traffic, lights, lower speed limit, and heavy tourist traffic combine to make Millsboro absolute torture to drive through (they are supposedly working on a bypass which is long overdue). I also didn't mention Route 404, which can get insanely congested with beach traffic and trucks after you go through Denton and it cuts down to a two lane. Overall, while the highway structure itself is not bad, it is just built for a time when the US had a lower population and not as many cars on the road. As the population grows, we will continue to see new corridors that need to be updated to accommodate the extra traffic.
@@trumpetmatt33 lol same. Lifelong Marylander who used to go to Rehoboth when I was younger but anymore it’s a nightmare. 13 all the way down is still a nice drive if it’s not crowded
Great video. I live in WV so I'm fairly familiar with the interstates from PA down to SC and it is extremely frustrating to travel on interstates in NC and SC. I actually just traveled to Orlando and back and the drive (due to the CONSTANT semi granny racing and left lane cruisers) was exhausting. Add in some rain and potholes and it's just a treat. One thing that will potentially relieve some of the pressure on 81 is the completion of route 48 (corridor h) in West Virginia. If it makes sense to do so, vehicles will be able to cut over from 81 to 79 and move south through WV and vice-versa. Back in the day the issue with semis wasn't near as bad because their speed was not governed like it is now. But I agree time is money and at the very least they need to make many of the east coast interstates 3 lanes. Travel is far different now than it was 70 years ago.
Colorado and Utah both wanted I-70 to veer north at Green River and link Denver with Salt Lake, but FHWA insisted on reaching I-15 and today's route to Las Vegas and southern California. So an upgrade of U.S. 6 has been wanted by even the state highway departments for 60 years.
I’m surprised that there was no mention of the route between Phoenix and Las Vegas. This route is a must. Not only for these cities, but for all north and south travel through the intermountain West.
It’s in the works as I11
Interstate 11 currently exists in southeastern Nevada. The plan is to start it in Nogales, run it to Casa Grande and bypass Phoenix to the west. From there it would follow US 93 to Las Vegas, and proceed from there to Reno.
The two lane part of 93 is just scary, especially around weekends
that one and phoenix to salt lake are really important
@@mab31347 It's one of the most dangerous stretches of road in the area.
I am so glad you're on here. At about age 4 I started exploring maps and was a full blown geo junkie in a few years. It's cool to see someone with as much passion for the subject and I thank you so much for your videos.
1996 middle school geography championship earned me the nickname geography boy. I agree Christopher, I always thought my passion for geography was unparalleled. It is a small niche after all.
@@kavanloughlin7643 yuh I majored in it
I always find myself exploring on Google maps! Is it wanderlust that makes us love geography or what is it
As a Virginian, I was SO hoping to see I-81 on this list. It is an absolute nightmare at all times. They recently were going to add tolls to help pay for improvements, but trucker unions pulled their weight around and it was turned down. There is almost always an accident on 81, and the backups can be insane. 10+ mile backups are common. Also, very glad that you pointed out US-29. I spend a lot of time in both Charlottesville and Lynchburg and getting to NC or beyond is stupid.
As a trucker, here are some ones that you missed..
#1: Phoenix-Vegas-Reno-Eugene OR
#2: Norfolk VA directly east to 95, without having to go all the way up to Richmond
#3: Minneapolis to St Louis direct route.
You were spot on about the Dallas to Denver one, though. And it's not just the traffic to Denver - pretty much all the freight from Albuquerque and all the points West on i-40, including all of Northern California, has to take 287 to get down to Dallas-Fort worth.
Look up the ports-to-prairie project funding.
Should be ports to mountains, but we are talking about congress
Phoenix - Las Vegas - Reno is already in the works. But Reno to Eugene is just not going to happen. The Interstate could get as far as Klamath Falls, but where would it go from there?They are certainly not going to run an Interstate through Crater Lake National Park. That would only leave Oregon SR 58 through Oakridge as a possible route, and that would never pass environmental. Western Oregon does need more Interstates, but I just don't see it happening any time soon, if ever.
A lot of Minneapolis and St Louis has US-61/I-380 that is a direct. The route is slowly being finished. I’ve driven on it and most of it is freeway with some no traffic light intersections. The only area that has a ton of traffic lights is in Hannibal MO (I don’t know if they’ll make a bypass there). Waterloo IA also has a few lights in downtown as interstate 380 turns into a boulevard.
The Great Plains region is gonna to be extremely populated
Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City, Denver, Oklahoma City, Wichita, and Omaha are gonna need robust transportation system
Especially for DFW, Denver and KC.
Raleigh to Norfolk was the original plan of I87. Not sure if that is ever going to happen though.
Oh man, I am a Harrisonburg VA native, went to college in Elizabeth City NC and currently live north of Charlotte (right off 77, another nightmare). Everything you said about the first three routes is spot on! VA and NC need MAJOR overhauls to their interstates!
I go on 81 to go from Blacksburg up to PA and then I go on 78 to NJ. Half the time on 81 is going 20 under the speed limit bc you're behind a truck in the left lane going 55 up a hill. 78 isn't a whole lot better though. 81 and 78 around the holidays are especially horrid.
lol 77 between CLT and Statesville is where dreams go to die
@@richh650yeah they have 4 lanes each side but it’s basically 2 each side since the other 2 are rolled express lanes. That nobody uses. What a waste. And even in trucks wanted to pay the toll which they would, they can’t. So we’re all stuck in the two right lanes going 5 mph, while looking at 2 empty lanes. 🤣👍🤦♂️🤡🤡🤡
I agree that I-81 can be stressful, but the scenery is great also
I-81 has the best scenery of any interstate I’ve driven.
Funny, I was even a little upset when he mentioned 81 which is a beautiful drive… then he mentioned traffic and I remember a dead stop last time the wife and I drove thru.
81 needed expanded to 4 lanes each way plus a few climbing lanes 25-30 years ago.
North of I-64 it wasn't too busy. From NC going to New England I'd take I-64 west of Richmond and I-81 up to Scranton then head east on I-84. I would rather drive an hour or two out of the way than be stuck in I-95 traffic.
I was born and raised in western NC but my mom grew up in Arlington, VA and both of my grandparents lived there until they died. My grandpa died when I was just a baby but my family would drive up there to visit my grandma at least once a year. I’m barely old enough to remember when they finished extending I-26 to I-81 and beyond but even though we’d hit traffic jams at all hours both day and night, I-81 was (and still is) perhaps the most beautiful stretch of interstate I’ve ever been on
Cool video, GeogKing
As a Virginian who has been up and down 81 my whole life.. what amazing scenery yet unbelievable headaches! Absolutely stressful from PA to TN. And there’s always accidents blocking things up. It’s not safe and they’ve needed to expand forever ago.
I went that way last month from Maine to new Mexico in an RV, gorgeous drive but the road was not up to interstate par
Kyle, speaking on behalf of all the highway and road geeks out there, thanks for the video focusing solely on interstates and some new connections as food for thought. It’s been two long (4 years maybe?) since your last interstate video. Please consider a future video on the U.S. highways, which rarely ever get new or extended routes and are now legacy.
When I started the channel it was almost entirely about road tripping so there was more about interstates but then came the pandemic, so not much road tripping. I've gotten back on the road this past year so I'll be doing more road trip/interstate videos as well.
Amen to 81 through Virginia! It used to be a lovely trip through the Shenandoah valley, but over the last 25 years, the highway has grown into a major trucking route and of course more cars. This mix of so many trucks and cars results in many accidents.
much better than i-95
The 'elephant races' where a speed limited truck has a slightly higher limit passing another with a slightly lower limit are very annoying on 2x2 interstates like I-81, leading to dangerous driving and potential crashes.
When I drove big truck long haul back in the eighties and early nineties, the traffic was nothing like what's shown in his pictures of I-81 in Virginia. It was an easy, beautiful drive. The idea of taking a detour through the roller coaster Hillbilly would have been inconceivable to me.
It wouldn't even need to be completely expanded to 3 lanes each way. Truck lanes at areas exceeding a specified grade would go a long way to ease the stress. We have a very limited area of truck lane near Blacksburg but we certainly need much more! When I travel locally, I generally just use the parallel US 11/Lee Highway other than through Abingdon itself, which has a 25 mph speed limit.
@@glennirion7277 I remember years ago on the US 11 in VA of 3 lanes with a passing lane on the uphills.
I drove I81 through Virginia in July 2021 going from Ma to FL. We went this way to avoid NYC, Baltimore and Washington DC. It was a gorgeous drive through the mountains but the amount of truck traffic on 2 lanes was a bit scary, and that was on a Saturday. I couldn't imagine a weekday.
What're your thoughts on expanding railroads? They're generally cheaper to maintain and could take a lot of the freight traffic out of the way. Would love to see a video on where train routes could be useful.
I was thinking the same thing, especially when he mentioned the highway in Virginia. Adding more lanes will just induce more demand! We need to be using our land more efficiently and create more compact transportation where the congestion won't be as felt.
@@QueenFondue the problem with I-81 in Virginia is all the warehouses and logistics that are happening along that corridor. There is not enough rail infrastructure to accommodate it as it is growing. I believe that Virginia is in eating large amounts to create an inland port using rail to battle the I 81 congestion.
The US government doesn't own the rail system, various private companies own it
Came here to say the same thing. Expanding existing roads just leads to induced demand. Rail and high speed rail would reduce the traffic on all the routes mentioned.
The trucking industry is taxpayer subsidized.
Man I can't stress enough how awesome it'd be to get that route between Des Moines and Memphis. That would take many hours of stress out of my life
I make an ass out of you and me that you are just KIDDING!!!😂🤣😂🤣
Also, the extension of Interstate 40 to Bakersfield. Right now, if you're driving from Phoenix to San Francisco and want to stay on Interstates, you must turn south at Barstow and through a high pass, drive 2 hours through the freeway system of Los Angeles, then north through another high pass. These passes are often closed in the winter from snow, leaving no way to get to San Francisco from Arizona on the interstate.
It's the best road across the Sierras south of I-80, and sees immense amounts of trucking.
CA 58 is pretty much a freeway from Kramer Junction (US 395) to Bakersfield, but the Barstow to 395 portion definitely needs work. Barstow needs a bypass to the south as well...
@@bartphlegar8212the freeway runs from Kramer Junction (395) through Bakersfield. They built a bypass over 395 and BNSF tracks. Mojave has been bypassed. In Bakersfield eminent domain 😢an entire neighborhood. Eventually it will go to I5.
I’ll also add that Dallas to Denver route needs to happen. Being an interstate across there would mean I could make that trip WITHOUT having to unplug my e-log for the last hour and a half.
Making Highway 6 from Spanish Fork, UT to Green River, UT not only would create a more direct SLC-DEN route but would also help with the DEN-DFW route you also covered. During the summer months it carries a tremendous amount of RV traffic as well from the Wasatch Front to Lake Powell.
I just don't know if the traffic is really sufficient to justify the upgrade. Yes, it carries a large amount of RV traffic, and I've driven that route more often than I care to count. But it still isn't that busy.
If anything, upgrading Highway 91 from Brigham City to Logan to interstate standards would be a much higher priority in the state, and I could imagine other places that might also be of interest like from Provo to Park City through Provo Canyon.
The comments made about possible alterations to deal with weather issues, eh, it’s a problem. Smoothing out roads in the mountains means using higher altitudes for certain terrain… or a 100 mile-long tunnel that I suspect doesn’t yet exist on this planet. I tend to think Price Canyon and the US 40 corridor aren’t situations that can be efficiently improved.
That stretch of 6 is very high truck traffic since it provides an alternative corridor between Texas & the PNW when the route through Wyoming is experiencing bad weather. It's often easier to deal with Soldier Summit and then drop down the backside of the Rockies into NM than it is to deal with the multiple high passes on 80 or 70.
The original plan for I-70, when extension west from Denver was authorized, was to go the Spanish Fort. For some reason, the routing was altered, in order to terminate at 15 at Cove Fort instead. This might have been to accommodate E - W freight travel to and from LA.
It nice to have I-23 which connect between Albuquerque New Mexico to Salt Lake City Utah.
I travel I-81 daily to work between Hollins and Salem, VA and you are spot on. The 81 corridor through Virginia is packed like Sardines. Just chilling in the right lane is cool, till you get behind a semi going 30mph uphill and the hills are long and plentiful.
I'm sure a lot of this is traffic bypassing DC
Absolutely, I live in the Abingdon/Bristol, VA area near TN and it is getting SO crowded here as well. Truck traffic is horrible on 81
I-81 is MUCH better than taking I-95 for travel to the northeast.
The 81 crowds outside of Roanoke are what taught me the beauty of back roads lol
I live up here in Winchester Virginia and 81 nightmare sometimes
I've driven that exact route from Denver to Salt Lake City on several occasions. I take I-80 from SLC to Denver across the windswept landscape of southern Wyoming (the stretch from Casper, WY to Denver can get ridiculously clogged) and take the I-70/Highway 6 route home. It's hard to beat the scenery you get through the Colorado Rockies and high desert cliffs and mountains of Utah, and taking one route there and another route back makes it more adventurous.
Made that drive several times also. Very scenic
On that note… would you ever want 70 to avoid Glenwood Canyon, despite the necessary slowdown?
Not me.
Casper is not on I-80 or on the way from SLC to Denver
One other place that comes to mind is expanding I-88 across VT and NH to Maine following Route 4.
This is excellent work, Kyle! 81 is absolutely insane!!! Also from Wichita, Kansas to Santa Rosa, New Mexico; and a split off to Springer, New Mexico.
For the Denver to Dallas route, part of that route is getting upgraded to Interstate standards. It will be an extension of I-27, probably basically an upgrade of Highway 87/64. Now, that is just Amarillo to Raton, so it doesn't cover Highway 287, but it's a start. By the way, this is part of what's being called US Port to Plains.
yeah .... 27 potentially is being expanding north to Denver, and south to Laredo.
@@dhinton1 some want it to run from Laredo to Canada. 83 gets a lot more traffic than 385 does in northern Colorado and the the Nebraska panhandle, and at the peak of supplies being hauled into the Bakken, Nebraska said traffic counts didn't justify expanding 83 out to 4 lanes, let alone freeway.
Denver to/from San Antonio, TX is also a trucking route, so from I70 in Colorado, Hwy 287/385 to Amarillo to Abilene to San Antonio has seen some improvement, but in a truck it is rough.
I normally take 290 being on the north side of Austin when driving to Houston. The Houston side of 290 is pretty good, but always busy with traffic. Though, as you head towards Austin, it's far from an interstate going through the middle of Giddings, Elgin, and Manor with lots of stoplights. 71 has toll lanes in spots, but still goes back to traffic lights with huge backups. For Thanksgiving, GPS redirected me to tiny country roads to get out of Austin.
I would also include Hartford to Providence. There is a short stretch of I-384 but the rest is either US-44 which takes you through UConn or US-6 which has a lot of deadly head on collisions especially in Eastern Connecticut.
NIMBYs in rich eastern Connecticut put the kibosh on that. It was supposed to overlay US 6 through the eastern part of the state. Instead the result was “Suicide Six”.
I drove Hartford to Newport a couple months ago. It was scary how much of that drive was a 2-lane backroad. We were even caught behind a car that had a tire explode on a trailer and kept driving. Very scary, especially between two major areas with a lot of traffic!!!
The original I-84 was to go through the Scituate Reservoir, the drinking water supply for Providence. As RI nixed the highway going through the reservoir, I-84 between Hartford and Providence was cancelled. The only stubs are the aforementioned I-384 and what's now the US 6 bypass in Willimantic. I-84 was re-routed using I-86 to Sturbridge MA. I-86 became I-84. The new I-86 using PA 17 and NY 17 along the lower tier of NY is unrelated to this.
81 in VA being on this list despite already being an interstate is hilarious and true. I-75 in Georgia is getting truck only lanes to separate them from cars. 81 probably could use it even more
81 is miserable from about Harrisburg to Tennessee.
Definitely need one between Phoenix and Las Vegas. I think they’re in the process (especially when it says future interstate corridor), but it’s needed soon
I can remember when going from Las Vegas to Flagstaff being Hell! It was prior to the Pat Tillman Bridge being built.
@@boogitybear2283 yes, I made that trip several times as a kid. It used to be two lanes from the Hoover Dam to Wickenburg, with the ten mile exception of I-40. It sucked BAD.
As always, another great video. I was hoping you would make something interstate related at some point.
Between Northern Delaware and Virginia Beach, they could definitely use an interstate or road upgrades. It’s a major corridor with only 2 real options. US 13 and US 113 are the only ways you can go and both of them are 4 lanes with plenty of stops in between.
And for I-81, throughout it’s entire length only has one section that’s 3 lanes for a considerable distance. That’s from mile marker 8 in WV to the MD state line. They definitely need 3 lanes on more of the route.
I agree 100% with your assessments. I've traveled all these routes you've mentioned and agree that better routes are long over due. I live in Raleigh NC. Every month the traffic congestion gets worse. They are trying to upgrade the roads but it's a slow process. Really enjoyed this video.
North Carolina is likely the single best DOT in the country, in terms of product delivered, to the public. High quality upgrades and Interstate designations throughout the state. Many other states seem to operate on notion that growth doesn’t exist, and that traffic can be waved away with a “magic” wand.
One that is short but worth mentioning is Atlanta, GA to Huntsville, AL. The current route is either way out of the way via I-75, I-24, and US-72 with several signals. The shortest way is via two lane roads crossing 2 separate mountains. I see many trucks on these tight back roads and it really could use an interstate.
yes! the routes between atlanta and huntsville is either too dangerous (two-lane roads) or too long (going through chatt). atl and hsv are long overdue for a direct interstate route.
Great video Kyle! While I'm a total map nerd, I haven't driven around the US much outside the Mid-Atlantic. Living in New Jersey, you really get to know a thing or two about traffic though I didn't know there was so much traffic in the areas you highlighted. Although creating or upgrading highways is quite expensive because of the sheer linear distances, but in the long run the fuel savings would be astronomical.
Trenton needs to finish NJ 55. North Jersey has been blocking this for decades.
BIG yes to Highway 6. All the young folk from Salt Lake and Provo (including myself) use it to get to Moab. On holiday weekends in the summer it’s mostly college kids and semis on the road - not a great combo. Not to mention winter conditions in the Spanish Fork Canyon portion
Upgrade 6 to interstate Standards and Call it I-370 or I-570
At that point it would be best to make an interstate all the way from Salt Lake to Albuquerque. Would also solve the SLC-Denver issue.
I used to want to see Moab.
Then I saw pictures of the crowds and how the city is growing.
Everyone going out there loving it to death.
Glad to see someone discuss needed Interstates in the neglected West. The Dallas-to-Denver one is important---extend I-30 from Fort Worth to Amarillo, and extend I-27 from Amarillo to Denver. Some commenters also noted the Phoenix-Las Vegas-Reno route---I-11, which will likely never be completed in our lifetime.
The one glaring omission is extending I-40 west, to I-5. Ending I-40 at I-15 in Barstow, CA, has been frustrating drivers since the 1970's! Currently, all interstate traffic is being routed southward, toward LA. This, when half of the I-40 traffic is wanting to head northward, toward San Francisco and Sacramento. For years, the only way to head northward, was to follow the maze of SR 58. Luckily, over the past 20 years, the state of California has been trying to upgrade the worst parts to freeway. Folks have been demanding that this route be made an Interstate. But, for some unknown reason, the fed-government keeps digging-in its heels on this issue.
I've driven I-81 in Virginia for many years. We would drive it regularly to avoid I-95 to get to the DC area. It has been a pain with the hills and trucks and occasional snowfall, but after getting in horrible traffic on I-95 last December, we will continue to use it. One year we took US-29 instead and it wasn't too much slower so we might try that again assuming we can be on it during daylight hours.
I drive I-81 a lot, and yeah it's frustrating. A lot of backups are caused because you have two trucks going side by side well below the speed limit, and all the cars are stuck behind them. Honestly, it's sometimes easier just to take US-11 which runs parallel to it.
Ah yes, the 'I'm going 50.3 mph uphill (in a 70 mph zone) so I'm passing the other truck going 50.2 mph' thing. It IS irritating. And dangerous.
This is easier said than done. You have to look at infrastructure costs ( excavating, building, maintaining, storm runoff etc ) versus the benefits ( travel time saved , population density and how high the traffic volume is along the total route) . Additionally, bypassing local routes has a negative impact on the communities situated along these routes. In the long run, it’s more beneficial to expand the interstates lanes , like I-81, especially south from PA,
I went to college at JMU which is on both sides of I-81 (I could literally see the cars in my freshman dorm). I have a big soft spot for 81, it is really a beautiful highway with views of the mountains on both sides
I drive the Dallas to Denver route every month or so, and I agree wholeheartedly. 287 is an okay highway for the most part, but if we don’t need an interstate for such a vital route, I guess we’re stuck waiting for out jetsons cars.
I live in Baltimore but work in Winchester, VA (110 mile distance). Going home the fastest route is via I-81 thru VA and WV. One time there was an accident that had us in still traffic for over an hour moving at a pace of less than HALF a mile per hour. I'm really talking snail's pace. Mind you I live 2 hrs away. It got so bad that myself and a bunch of drivers started cutting thru the grassy median to go the opposite direction (I-81 South towards Winchester). I never thought I would ever cut thru the grass in my life until I found myself in that situation. Not to mention the backroads of Berkeley and Jefferson counties WV are horrible. You'd be lucky to find yourself on a back road that allows you to comfortably do more than 40 mph. I-81 is a menace and I've weaved through enough 18-wheelers for a lifetime honestly. I hate this highway with a passion.
I took I-81 today for the first time on a trip from Charlotte to Manhattan. I didn't see any issues, the traffic was fine, at least in my direction.
Agreed - every major interstate that is two lanes each side needs to be three. There are a few freeways that have done this in short sections and the decrease in congestion is wonderful.
Hey Kyle! I’m not sure if you’ve already touched on this topic, but I think it would be really interesting to see a video on what I call “southeastern mountain cities”. Think Asheville, Chattanooga, Roanoke, Charleston WV, Knoxville etc.
I feel like there is something about these cities that is incredibly underrated, and very similar to one another. However, it seems like Asheville is the only one in the bunch that has a hold on the public consciousness, even though other cities have exactly what they have, but a much lower cost of living.
For example, I have recently become completely enamored by Roanoke, Virginia. A clean, safe (only locals who have never left Roanoke think it’s “dangerous”), and unbelievably friendly city with a less than 15 minute drive from downtown to the heart of Jefferson/Washington national forest. And the fact that you can buy a fully renovated Victorian home less than a 10 minute walk from downtown, in a nice neighborhood, for less than $250,000 is absolutely incredible.
I know you’re in Chattanooga so you might know what I mean when I say these cities seem weirdly underrated and not talked-about on a national level.
Lynchburg > Roanoke :) Safer, more friendly, smaller, and lower cost of living. We love it here! The worst part is the missing interstate like Kyle talked about. He's spot on with how troublesome it is!
As a over the road trucker with 5 years of experience , I can personally attest to everything you mentioned.
Suggestion for Part 2- Talking of Safety and Time savings 1). Reno to Las Vegas- Truckers nightmare single lane highway overtaking is a deathwish. Could easily convert hwy 95 to a interstate.
2). Pheinix to Las vegas- talk about connecting two major metropolitan cities that weren't as big when interstate system was designed
I think we need more of 8s as the last digit of the interstate numbering system. They are: I-18 which connect from Dallas Texas to Lafayette Louisiana, I-28 which connect from Amarillo Texas to Fort Worth Texas, I-48 which connect from I-35 near Perry Oklahoma to I-49 in Springdale Arkansas, I-58 should connect from I-25 in Pueblo Colorado to future I-57 in Poplar Bluff Missouri, and I-98 should connect from I-81 in Watertown New York to I-89, north of Burlington Vermont.
I love I-81! It does need to more lanes, so many trucks but the scenery is beautiful and mountainous ❤️
Agreed!
The drive from Bristol to Winchester is besutiful. But the traffic isn’t mostly local. It is pass through. Not sure why Kyle wants Virginia to pay transit that originates and ends in other states. We will be fine to wait for federal funds
I-81 in VA is a very scenic route, but the congestion makes me too stressed out to enjoy it.
We could also use an interstate highway in Texas connecting Beaumont to Lufkin to Tyler as a hurricane evacuation route. It would run concurrent with US 69 and avoid travel through Houston.
That's actually a good idea, you could call it I-47
Love the mention of NW to SE highways in Ohio. I live just Southeast of Columbus and go to the Carolinas often. by far, the worst part of the entire trip is southeast of Athens (my alma mater) into Ravenswood, WV to get to I-77. You get stuck behind a semi in the hills and you're already delayed. Its a brutal drive through there. Would LOVE a more direct route into WV!
If it doesn't add a lot of miles, go down 23 to 35 at Chillicothe. 4 lanes all the way to i64.
@@scotcoon1186 Yea, now that WV has finally finished their stretch of 35, it's an easy (but boring) drive to I-64. Of course right now I-64 is a mess of a different kind.
35 in WV is horrid road quality (at least in a semi). Every single bridge transition feels like I'm about to go into orbit.
what surprises me, is that there isn't a houston to denver route, and a san antonio to Shreveport route. truck drivers, to and from austin, and san antonio probably wouldn't mind missing DFW altogether. they could make an interstate spur that peals off of I-20 outside of Shreveport, and follows US 79 down into the brazos valley, then follows state highway 21 to san marcos, north of san antonio. this would allow both austin and san antonio a direct link to I-20.
Wow, the first six routes you mentioned are places where I have lived and/or went to school, and have personally impacted me. I have made the drive from Austin to Aspen twice.
However, out of all of these that I personally know, I have to say that I-81 is the one that needs to be fixed first. I went to school off of 81 and it is absolutely *abysmal* driving through there. At least in most of those Texas routes, there are large stretches of road that pretty much act as a highway to begin with, especially the further west you go in Texas, the amount of towns you pass through isn't ideal for sure, but it's not too terrible.
I want I-40 extended from Barstow through Bakersfield to I-5. That is the only meaningful bypass of LA and that road is a nightmare of trucks. It has gotten better over the last ten years but I'm amazed that route has never been finished.
The problem there is too much truck freight and not enough on rail freight.
This is probably a link that the Feds rejected or overlooked when they were planning the original system 🤔 I bet they regret that now...
I wish that even just 1% of what is needed could be built because what a blessing that would be! Everyone is going to say that we can’t afford it and our existing roads and bridges are falling apart. Years ago I read that Germany’s autobahns have roadbeds of concrete that are twice as thick as ours, but maintenance is still necessary.
Germany has 25% of the population USA has, but Germany also has 5% of the land mass. On a per capita basis, easier for them to afford road coverage and maintenance. Plus they’ve got decent train service given the same principles.
Vegas to Reno getting the upgrade and Vegas to Phoenix would be a godsend. There isn’t too much traffic north of Vegas unless you’re right outside Hawthorne into Reno, but the stretch to Phoenix would really make it easier to travel that way
LA to Maui would be nice too
Yeah right
I like it, but I would prefer SD to Maui.
Love this video thank you! I am from Colorado & spent most of my life there. I was amazed how long it took to drive around Virginia when visiting my girlfriend’s parents. Lots of roads but all small & windy.
Virginian here. Definitely agree with you on I-81. Also, I'd recommend upgrading US 29 from I-66 down to Greensboro. They could call it an extension of I-83 by using I-695, I-70, US 29 in MD, the ICC (MD 200), connect it to VA 28 via a new Potomac River crossing, and then I-66 from Centreville to Haymarket. I guess I-83 inside the Baltimore Beltway would get a new Interstate name
Northern Virginian here. There won't be a new river crossing because there's a wildlife preserve in the way on the Maryland side. I live about a mile from where that proposal would be and it's not happening anytime soon.
@@adammoldover8769 yuuuppp. It's mainly cause a bunch ot rich NIMBYs in the wealthy part of Montgomery County
I was always was in favor of extending I-83 along I-695 to where the current I-97 is and have it run along 50 east to Salisbury. From Salisbury 83 would run down U.S. 13 through Norfolk and then southwest over to Raleigh along what they're proposing as I-87
@@c.t.turner2123 That route you're proposing through the Eastern Shore would make more sense numbered as I-97, IMO. Mainly because of how the grid is set up.
@@papilgee4evaeva The reason
I was looking at the I-97 number being used more in the New England region
I'm not an expert on Eastern NC but I'd like to add some context to your comment on I-95. It certainly doesn't connect well with New Bern or Jacksonville, but at the time of construction, the I-95 corridor went through some of the most economically important manufacturing and agricultural hubs of NC. Wilson, Rocky Mount, Goldsboro, Smithfield and Kinston were crucial cities for textiles and tobacco and have seen rapid decline of economic output, quality of life, and population of the past half century (This could be a great video!).
The I-95 corridor today is still essential for NC industry, mainly agriculture and fuel, while a few new industrial zones have been added recently to attempt to revitalize the economy in this part of the state. And once again, I'm certainly no expert on any of this so I apologize if I have mischaracterized anything here, people who are from Eastern NC please chime in! Hopefully the corridor will be 6 lanes the whole way soon and it will shorten that drive from VB to Charleston!
I drove I-81 this past summer because I was going from Charleston, SC to Wilkes-Barre, PA, and then on to Burlington, VT. I wanted to avoid big cities like Washington D.C. so I took I-81 and stayed in Roanoke. I actually didn't notice the traffic being that bad in Virginia, but perhaps that was because of the time of the day I was driving. The traffic did get a bit worse in Maryland, but for the most part it was easy.
I live in Roanoke and travel 81 to Richmond or 81 south to Christiansburg and the effort is there. It is alot a 2 lanes each way but they have added a 3rd lane so several parts. Sure not enough but in the Roanoke area there are spurts of 3 lanes of each way and through Salem it looks to be work being done to add another lane or 2. Very useful because cars tend to ride the left lane way too much with little effort to pass cars on the right. Trucks do use 81 alot going north to south and visa versa but this video seems outdated when mentioning I-81. New third lanes have been added..But way more are needed.
Lucky!
I’ve been a truck driver since 1998. I’ve taken almost all of those routes. Highway 6 through Utah is nice when the weather cooperates.
One route I would suggest is Denver to Minneapolis. Minneapolis to Sioux Falls is all four lane. You just have a few towns to go through. But from Sioux Falls to interstate 80 will be tricky. There are a few Indian reservations in South Dakota that you would either have to bypass, or get their permission to build on. But from North Platt or Grand Island to Yankton would be doable.
Also Amarillo to Bismarck might be a consideration.
I-27 would perfect for the Amarillo idea. There's a lot of potential north of Armadillo.
Low population in that region might prevent from happening in our life time.
Proposed I-92! Northern New England needs an East-West route.
They really do need I92 or 493 to go east to west. Having only I 90 which is turnpike sucks
Living within 10 minutes to two different interstates, I guess I never really thought about how some people live far away from an interstate.
yeah. I feel the same way you do. I actually live near 3 relatively close exits of the same interstate.
It's interesting that you highlighted the Des Moines to Memphis corridor through Missouri as this is the first time I've heard that route come up in a freeway/interstate conversation around here (Missouri). While Missouri has recently worked on I-49 along the western side of the state, I think in general they are content with building 4 lane freeways that are not up to interstate standards (although with occasional exits for larger cities). This has been the approach on their portion of The Avenue of the Saints (connecting St. Paul, MN to St. Louis, MO) and the Chicago-KC Corridor which mostly follows US 36 in Missouri. Because The Avenue of the Saints is now almost entirely a freeway (I believe the section through Hannibal MO has the only remaining stoplights), I suspect they would say to use that as the alternative to building another corridor connecting Des Moines to Memphis.
Being from JCMO the Des Moines-Memphis corridor would be one good option to connect Jefferson City to the interstate system, plus MO has no north-south interstate routes through the middle of the state, all the north-south interstates are along the eastern and western edges of the state
Three Midwestern missing links that come to mind:
US 151 - could connect Madison, WI to Des Moines, IA via Waterloo, Dubuque, and Cedar Rapids. (I 86 - hate duplicating numbers).
WI 29 - could connect the Twin Cities to the Fox Valley (Green Bay, Appleton, etc) via Eau Claire and Wausau. Also would allow I 39 to end at an actual interstate (96, maybe?)
US 52 - Rochester to MSP. (Northern I-37?)
I am surprised you did not mention that there is no interstate from Phoenix to Las Vegas and from Las Vegas to Reno. Also, I-69 from Port Huron to Houston and to far south Texas is broken up with many large uncompleted segments. I drive the south Texas portion where there are many "Future I-69 corridor" signs but no work is being done. I would suggest you do a Part 2 to this video. Thanks.
Happy to see you mention Dallas to Denver. That was actually my first roadtrip I ever took, and I've driven it twice since. It isn't an awful drive, but a lot of it is two-lane blacktop. A section through New Mexico has no gas station for 100+ miles, and numerous signs warn you of this before entering the corridor. Things get better once you enter Colorado, but it takes forever to get out of Texas due to size & New Mexico due to low speed limits and poor roads. Also, the route is plagued by tumbleweeds & dust storms, but I guess a new highway wouldn't fix that.
Kyle, I love your channel. Longtime viewer, first time commentator. I’m a native New Mexican who drove back and forth the Michigan for college every semester, but I live in NYC now and unfortunately have to drive to various hospitals around Brooklyn. The BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Express) is I-278 and it is actually falling apart.
They recently had to narrow one section of it, just south of the Brooklyn bridge, down to 2 lanes because the roadway can’t handle all the heavy truck traffic from New Jersey and points NE.
Seems like a lot of these traffic and safety issues could be alleviated with a better/dedicated way of moving freight. Interested to know how your suggestions might fit with improved rail
Thank you for your comment. I think we definitely need an improved rail network for passenger and freight. For cities, I'm all about walking, buses, and light rail. I'm not familiar with the specific situation in NYC but any issues there are going to be extra difficult to deal with due to limited space. But I think intracity freight is still going to be largely trucks, but a lot of what is transported by trucks over longer distances can be carried by rail as well.
Resident of Las Cruces here! They’ve actually had the BP check points closed recently, fyi. Also the large military installations around here make it necessary to drive around them.
They did that only because of how New Mexico handled the Covid-19 pandemic, which is different than how Texas handled it!
I agree with your Ohio selection. I currently live in Toledo and there is absolutely no good way to get from here to Columbus. You would think there would be motivation to improve the route to at least connect Columbus and Detroit. I don't even consider going to WV from here just because of how inefficient it would be.
All they need to do is add a exit on to some other highway on 33 which goes through dublin. It would make Columbus to Toledo faster.
Another route I'd say that is highly needed is between Washington D.C./Baltimore and Ocean City, MD. I have been on U.S. Route 50 to get to Ocean City so many times, and it can get heavily backed up. So far, the closest Interstates to Ocean City coming from D.C. and Baltimore are I-595 between the Capital Beltway and Annapolis. And I-97 between I-695 and I-595. Another highway in Maryland that should be upgraded is Maryland Route 3. It was originally planned as I-297 but was canceled due to opposition from the community. Traffic through Crofton can get bumper to bumper for about most of the highway due to it being part of a bypass around Washington to take you to Richmond or the Hampton Roads area.
I would add a bridge/tunnel at Cape May and an interstate between Cape May and Virginia Beach (plus redesignating the NJ Garden State Parkway to an interstate). Then also an interstate between Virginia Beach and I-95 in North Carolina. This would provide an alternate route between the Northeast and the South, bypassing the whole mess that is I-95 between NY and Richmond, VA.
That whole stretch could be called I-87, linking the two existing/planned ones together (Of course I-87 into NY City would have to be numbered as an I-x87 3di).
Problem is when the bridge tunnel shuts down because of weather. Plus the tolls.
When I drove east on I-40 through North Carolina two years ago on a Sunday, I was astonished, amazed, and stupefied at how heavy the traffic was. The traffic did not start thinning out until I was east of Raleigh.
It would be good to see more mass transit development too
Yes. I don't want to come off as a gear head anti-rail guy. I have high speed rail content coming soon.
Mass transit only makes sense in high-density areas, but many such areas are still under-served by subways and El's. Philly is a strong example. Unlike NYC which kept building and building, the fools in Phila City Hall have blown many opportunities. The Roosevelt Subway has sat at #1 on the Federal DOT "new starts" list for decades, with estimates of very high ridership, yet city leaders never get serious about solving both issues - US1 is congested with road traffic, yet the route is excellent for transit. A combo project to depress the two inner roadways to convert them to expressway, while placing the subway (split) under the local roadways, would work wonders. The cost of $3B is often cited as a block, but how many bills have passed Congress for far greater amounts, and Philly could not get a billion to launch the project?
I think we should build more rail instead of interstate highways.
@@weirdfish1216 I agree, the only difference is that the US needs better inter-city service. Especially for trips of 500 miles or less, anything much more than 500 will compete with airplanes
@@dtvjho yes, high speed rail or even better conventional rail for less than 500 miles, planes for more than 500
As a Missourian i confirm that US-63, US-65, and MO-13 between KC and Springfield are all carrying a lot of traffic. Making them limited access highways would greatly help road safety, and the state has made great strides toward it in the last 30 years. I need Arkansas to connect the northern & southern sections of I-49 from Fort Smith to Texarkana; this would be a real time saver by cutting out a massive jog into Oklahoma, and would connect Kansas City to New Orleans via Shreveport & the fast growing Northwest Arkansas area. Dallas to Denver makes so much sense, but there population growth wasn’t there in the 1960s. Upgrading US-54/400 from Dodge City to Joplin via Wichita is a good idea and much needed; the Dodge City/Garden City/Liberal triangle has had huge growth in the last 20 years but is so isolated. Finally, US-36 between Springfield, IL & I-35 in northern MO is nearly already interstate-grade so that should finish the job & consider extending it to St. Joseph; it would draw alot of truck traffic off I-70, which is sorely needed. Trains are great & I’m all for strengthening that, but they make sense connecting major city to major city. The places you detailed are smaller city/rural to smaller city/rural but all fast-growing; not big enough now to really support rail development, but very much able to support better roads.
My one takeaway from my Transportation Geography class at SDSU was that establishing more freeways just allows for more growth. At least in So. Cal that was absolutely true!
In time, those bucolic suburbs became just as congested as the cities they hoped to avoid.
So, Shhhhhhhh. Be careful what you wish for. The developers are listening.
I wish that was a class I could take here at GMU! There's urban geography/urban planning but it's not the same
There are some areas where growth would be appreciated, such as central Alabama west of Montgomery. There has been talk for a long time about extending I-85 west to the Mississippi line. I have heard it said that when the Interstate Highway System was planned, the Jim Crow era politicians did not want an interstate in their fiefdoms. Now there are no such barriers to an interstate, whether it is called I-85 or the proposed I-14.
Because California is still growing. Duh
@@joshuabenjaminscott2365 Actually dumbshit! The population is diminishing. people moving out in large numbers . Pick a book or a magazine. Have your mom read it to ya'!
@@PBFoote-mo2zr Unless transporters make use of wormholes, that's a hard pass. I like life.
81 is such a beautiful drive and is a great chance to avoid 95 when heading to Charlotte, Columbia, and Atlanta from DC...and I will never get on it again until they get rid of all those turns that the trucks can barely handle and add some lanes.
I’ve always thought a route from Tallahassee through Columbus, Ga, Opelika, Gadsden, and connect to I-65 north of Huntsville would be beneficial. It would divert traffic to avoid Atlanta, Birmingham, and Chattanooga. It would also connect midsized towns in eastern Alabama. You could continue the route for a more direct route to Missouri and the Great Plains as demand grows.
Definitely could get behind some sort of a long distance detour around Atlanta from traffic from Florida to Nashville
I’ve always felt a route from Nashville to Pittsburgh would be helpful as well, take some traffic off of 65 and 40 and would also help decongest 81
That would be useful for long distance through traffic I suppose. But locally around here in Alabama I'm not sure how that would work. It would be a very strange interstate corridor. lol.
I was always in Favor.of extending I-85;down to Panama City. Extending I-185 down to Tallahassee could work. Going around Ft Benning might be a challenge.
@@c.t.turner2123
US 27 has a freeway that goes through ft benning and the road is now four laned all the way to FL. Maybe with some upgrades the highway could be an interstate from Columbus GA to I 10 near Tallahasee.
I've done 81 in Virginia a few times and was amazed by the amount of truck traffic headed to an from the northeast. It was very challenging to pass. Every hill, the big trucks would bunch up and then one would jump out to pass, but couldn't gain speed, and it created a clot of traffic behind it, packing everyone very close to one another. By the end, I called it the "PASS HIM!" highway.
We need one from Phoenix to Vegas! We’re the two largest metro areas that aren’t connected by interstates.
For those mentioning expanding railroad coverage. In high density traffic corridors l agree whole heartedly. but in areas that are not well served by current highways without the average population density then maybe expansion of either the Interstate System or the secondary Federal Highway system. These areas most likely could not support increased rail service. If as a nation we decide to increase rail service nationwide we should not only focus on urban corridors but long distance (1) service between major hubs. And these major hubs should be served by express trainsets that have a minimum of stops between hubs.
1) The distance between hubs depends a lot on the speed.
I remember wanting to plan a hypothetical Miami-Seattle road trip, and always being curious that there isn't a perfectly diagonal route that allows to fully experience the inmensity of America in a direct way.
Because the interstate system is built on a pseudo-grid system
What kind of goods are you moving from Miami to Seattle, or vice versa? There’s a decent route that’s not worth shortening without a good business case.
We should go ahead and add a hypothetical interstate from San Diego to Maine. As a matter of fact my parents and I did that cross-country trip back in '77.
Just wanted to say I love your work Kyle, and to update you that the 2 lane portion of US-17 between Jacksonville and New Bern, NC has been completely bypassed. It is a 60 mph 4 lane expressway from just north of Jacksonville to Maysville, then 70 mph freeway from Maysville to US-70 in Craven County west of New Bern. There are plans to finish the freeway by-pass from US-70 north to the existing NC-43/US-17 intersection between New Bern and Vanceboro NC within the next several years.
I did chuckle in the Texas section at 7:35 where the verbiage was "so many more people moving there" while the image includes what appears to be an abandoned building.
I noticed that also, but that picture was taken in one of the small towns on US 287 that needs to be bypassed by a new interstate designation. The businesses that need to be on the interstate can build new modern facilities there to capitalize on the traffic passing by. Living in Houston and having property in Colorado I agree that improvements and upgrades are sorely needed with the population growth in all the metro areas.
I really enjoy your videos! I like learning what places are like. Ever since I was young, geography and history were my favorite subjects.
I relate to alot of this. I've lived in Charleston, SC and Virginia Beach. Check. I moved from Baltimore to San Antonio by way of I-81 in Virginia. I did that back in 1996 so it wasn't crowded at all then but I don't doubt that it is now. I live in Texas now and agree with all the ones you stated - especially Austin - Houston. How that hasn't happened by now is just bewildering.
Texdot has squandered billions on frills since the late nineties. Clearview, excess architecture such as inlays, excessive details and un needed landscaping. They should have focused on corridor development.
I live in Ohio, and I agree with your views on the Ohio stretches.
I think the stretch of US-23 you mentioned was proposed to be part of I-73 at one time. And I still think it could be, but with the exception of North Carolina there is no national interest in giving attention to I-73.
If the 23 strip can be converted to freeway the next trick would be to connect it to State Route 315 which is freeway from I-270 in Worthington to I-71/I-70 in downtown Columbus. 315 would connect to I-71 which would connect to SR-104, which has a freeway strip connecting it to US-33.
The 33 strip you mentioned I am familiar with as it connects to I-77. I do think it would be better served as a freeway, but it has no proposed interstate designation, and it is not part of the I-73/I-74 proposal. It would need a new designation. Maybe I-177 as I heard I-77 was originally supposed to go through Columbus to Cleveland, but the final result didn’t reflect the original design.
Converting the US-33 strip to freeway to Columbus is a good idea. It could also connect to 104 leading into I-71. There was also a proposal connecting 104 to the western connector to I-70 making it a new I-70 in the process and bypassing downtown Columbus.
This extension is likely more possible with the loss of Cooper Stadium. But there are still some property issues to consider. However liking the extension to 104 and 33 to make a new southeastern freeway, I-177, makes sense to me.
Some other freeway ideas in places I used to live that weren't mentioned:
US 30 from Pocatello to Little America, WY: Currently, traffic coming from the Pacific NW going towards the Great Plains have to make a detour south into the northern suburbs of SLC, which is an area that's getting very crowded. Having an extra bypass option as an eastern extension of I-86 would be good to help clear traffic in Utah.
US 95 from Winnemucca, NV to Coeur d'Alene via Boise: This is the only road that connects Northern Idaho to the rest of the state, the least we could do is make it a full freeway. Would also help to connect Moscow/Pullman, WA to the rest of the country. The extension south to Winnemucca is more to make the northward jog of 80 make a bit more sense. There's also a convenient number to use here, I-13, or if you want to avoid superstitions, I-7 or I-9, whatever CA 99 doesn't take.
US 20 from Idaho Falls to St. Anthony: This is more suited as a 3 digit Interstate, but it's a route I think warrants it. The route connects Idaho's 4th and 9th largest cities and is the main route to the western side of Yellowstone National Park. It's already a freeway up to St. Anthony with the connection to I-15 soon to be redone, so this route becoming I-115 I think would be a good thing.
Beltway around Baton Rouge: There's no current beltway around Baton Rouge, but if there's somewhere that desperately needs it, BR is the city that needs it. Currently, there's only 8 crossings over the Mississippi River in Louisiana, 3 in New Orleans, 2 in BR, and 3 in far flung rural areas. One of those two BR crossings is I-10, but two other interstates make this crossing horrifically bad to use: I-110 that immediately splits from I-10 and goes north, and I-12 that bypasses New Orleans to the north of Lake Pontchartrain. A third crossing to the south of BR in Iberville Parish is already in the works, so why not make that part of a beltway that bypasses BR from I-10 in WBR Parish south and around to I-12 in Livingston Parish? I've drawn up a sketch on this road in Google Earth, and the route wouldn't be but a couple miles longer than the current route, but could be built to handle higher speeds and future expansion as BR grows further south.
Your first route would make a lot of sense. I have come up with a fictional flash narrative in my head involving a character who is fresh off a trip to Phoenix and heading to see some members of his family living Grand Rapids, Michigan after visiting other family members living in a distant suburb of Seattle, Washington. In the scene, he has to explore a few different route options, each of which ultimately take him through the suburbs of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Boise to Winnemucca is particularly bad, though I don't know how heavily travelled it is now. I remember years ago how that highway developed ruts from the weight of the trucks, and cars with narrower wheelbases would end up with one side or the other running in one. Driving north/south in Nevada simply isn't done on interstates, so that deserves a look.
@@pfcrow There may be a reason that road isn’t that well maintained. Extremely few people between Nampa and Winnemucca. The next traffic backup would probably be the first. I drove that route for years myself.
The most realistic thing I could see happening is a southern bypass of Boise that links with US 95, and that’s probably not a higher priority than an expressway or rail along the northern edge of the Treasure Valley.
Correct about Baton Rouge. Much needed.
I am from that northeastern part of NC you talked about at the beginning of the video. The highway infrastructure is so limiting here. You have to take backroads to get to backroads that lead to 2-4 lane highways. I went to school 4 hours away, yet I had friends who lived twice as many miles away who got home in the same amount of time because they could hop on super highways! It makes travel very hard because it takes so long to finally get to a highway that takes you anywhere. Not to mention all of the cell phone dead zones in this area!
Let’s not forget that even if the NIMBYs don’t want I-87 to be built through there, having a quick hurricane evacuation route is a necessity
Idaho Needs to make Highway 95 an interstate. It is the only north south road in Idaho that is a two lane highway for a majority of it. Traveling in winter time can be extremely dangerous with road often times having to be closed for long periods of time because of slides of snow.
US 95 from winnemucca to boise really should be one, currently a lot of people have to use that route to go from Northern California to Boise and it’s a long, dangerous two way highway drive. There was even a student at Boise state who was recently killed due to a semi crossing over on that drive which seems to happen more often than it should
It could b I-11, but the route is likely to go through Oregon because it’s less challenging since there’s less mountains. What I would do is have the interstate split into an I-11W and an I-11E similar to I-35. I-11W would serve Reno and Bend Oregon, while I-11E would serve Winnemucca Nevada and Boise Idaho. The routes would converge in Clarkston/Lewiston and head north to Spokane.
I've been subscribed to you for years and I can't believe you only have just under 200k subscribers! Your content is so educational and you have such a warm personality! Keep up the good work Kyle!
Thank you! I appreciate the comment and hope to keep it interesting
Why would I want to avoid the shack outside La Grange? They got a lot a nice girls there.
i drove i-81 from i-40 in knoxville up to i-76 in harrisburg-ish over the summer and did not experience any issues with traffic at all. i’m born and raised in new jersey though so maybe what the rest of the country calls a congested road i consider to be a free flowing highway
Couldn't agree with you more about I-81. I always dread driving on it.
I completely agree with your comments on I-81 in Virginia--speaking from my own experience of driving on this road several years ago.
I would like to see a road going from Wilmington to Charlotte NC to bypass all the cities along 40/85 which is a nightmare if you are just going through NC. I grew up while the interstates were being built. A good portion of interstates through the mountains of Virginia/West Virginia were not completed until the 70's and into the 80's. Driving along Route 60 through those mountains was very stressful.
Agree with this. Since they're already upgrading a lot of the US 74 corridor to freeway, the route you propose could actually go past I-85 through Shelby all the way to I-26 in Columbus.
I used to live in two of the areas in this video: the north and south carolinas along the coast and then going southeast out of Columbus. Kyle's descriptions are spot on for these. The ironic thing is: half the people you meet in Hilton Head are from Ohio.
I would love to see a video on the developing Interstates, like I-42, the I-69 expansion, and I-11.
I 69 saw a video on that, portions build is not up to interstate standards. Other states won’t fund it, want federal money. Some states thinking about toll booths.
The planned I-27 extension from Amarillo to I-25 will help that part of the Dallas to Denver corridor issue. But they definitely need to bring the Dallas to Amarillo section up to interstate standards as well.
I had to drive from Dallas to Denver in 2002 and I went through OKC/Wichita. Really shocked to see that 20 years later still there is no interstate.
An area you never mentioned is pretty much the whole of Delmarva. Especially during beach season it becomes quite a nightmare to navigate through it.
If you're coming from the north, you'll get off of I95 onto Delaware Route 1, which is the easiest route in the area until you hit Dover. On the south side of Dover it ceases to be an "expressway" and you start hitting lights and lower speed limits. It's also a massive trucking route and cuts down to two lanes which makes it easily congested as you hit lights, but it's actually the least problem.
US Route 50 essentially runs from the Bay Bridge to Ocean City, and the lights on the route are pretty terrible. Going through Easton (and to a lesser extent Cambridge) is a nightmare, and then you have to get off the bypass and go through lights in Salisbury too.
Route 13 (which intersects with both 1 and 50) can be a nightmare too. The stretch from the Bay Bridge tunnel to the Salisbury bypass is not the most horrible thing in the world, but the lower speed limit in Virginia, and the lights in Pocomoke and Princess Anne make it slower than it needs to be. The worst stretch of it is from Salisbury to Dover. As the most efficient route for someone going through the state to get north (as the Puncheon Run connector in Dover is the best place to get on 1), 13 gets absolutely jam packed sometimes. It is only a four lane through the entirety of the stretch after Salisbury, and the lights in Salisbury especially are a nightmare because of lower speed limits at 45 (Seaford, Harrington which slows down to 35 at points, and Camden, which only slows to 50, also have this problem) and the speed limit also slows down to 50 in Laurel, 45 in Felton and 35 in Greenwood. What saves the latter two is that it is only 1 light.
Route 9, which connects Laurel on 13 with Lewes on the coast, is a two lane highway throughout with mostly 50mph speed limits (except going through the town of Georgetown which at least has a traffic circle to keep traffic flowing). A lot of people use this route to get between 13 and 113, or between 13 and Route 1 if you're going to the beaches. The fact that it's only a two lane is my biggest issue with it, because there is no room to pass slow moving tourists and trucks.
Route 113 running south from Milford to eventually connect with 13 in Pocomoke is a nightmare in certain areas. Milford has slower speed limits and plenty of lights, but following that you're good until Georgetown. From Georgetown onward is an absolute nightmare because the speed limit doesn't matter as there are a ridiculous amount of lights and lower speed limits heading through especially Millsboro but also any of the other towns on the route. Delaware is not a big state and I drove from Greenwood to Selbyville (on the 113 corridor) and back during beach season for a part and that took me 5 hours. 113 is an absolute nightmare that I refuse to use unless I absolutely have to.
But the biggest nightmare in the entire area is Route 24. 24 runs from Laurel on the route 13 corridor all the way to Rehoboth Beach. Because it's running to the biggest beach in the state of Delaware, it was always going to be a bit of a nightmare, but what makes it so much worse is it goes directly through the heavily populated town of Millsboro, which also has a massive Mountaire chicken plant on the other side of it. The trucks, heavy local traffic, lights, lower speed limit, and heavy tourist traffic combine to make Millsboro absolute torture to drive through (they are supposedly working on a bypass which is long overdue).
I also didn't mention Route 404, which can get insanely congested with beach traffic and trucks after you go through Denton and it cuts down to a two lane.
Overall, while the highway structure itself is not bad, it is just built for a time when the US had a lower population and not as many cars on the road. As the population grows, we will continue to see new corridors that need to be updated to accommodate the extra traffic.
1000% agree with all of this.
@@trumpetmatt33 lol same. Lifelong Marylander who used to go to Rehoboth when I was younger but anymore it’s a nightmare. 13 all the way down is still a nice drive if it’s not crowded
i think the same problems with 81 needing 6 lanes applies to 95. absolutely needs more lanes between GA and northern VA
Great video. I live in WV so I'm fairly familiar with the interstates from PA down to SC and it is extremely frustrating to travel on interstates in NC and SC. I actually just traveled to Orlando and back and the drive (due to the CONSTANT semi granny racing and left lane cruisers) was exhausting. Add in some rain and potholes and it's just a treat. One thing that will potentially relieve some of the pressure on 81 is the completion of route 48 (corridor h) in West Virginia. If it makes sense to do so, vehicles will be able to cut over from 81 to 79 and move south through WV and vice-versa. Back in the day the issue with semis wasn't near as bad because their speed was not governed like it is now. But I agree time is money and at the very least they need to make many of the east coast interstates 3 lanes. Travel is far different now than it was 70 years ago.
Colorado and Utah both wanted I-70 to veer north at Green River and link Denver with Salt Lake, but FHWA insisted on reaching I-15 and today's route to Las Vegas and southern California. So an upgrade of U.S. 6 has been wanted by even the state highway departments for 60 years.
In hindsight, they should have done both routes then, when it was far cheaper.