America's Most Pointless Interstates
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
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Off topic, but I-76 can't be renamed I-180 because there's already an I-180 in Lincoln.
@@spencerallison3196 3rd one so far
I would say I-76 has one use other than connecting I-80 (from the East) to Denver - it also serves as a long distance NYC to LA connector (via I-15 and 70). It is generally speaking part of the fastest route between the nation's two largest cities. Historically, 76 used to be "80 S" back when suffixed interstates were a thing.
When I first went on 76 in 1991 from NY, I was fazed by the fact that I was actually in Colorado. The scenery is more like KS and Western NE.
@@manfredmann2766 yeah half of Colorado is like that.
Not because I feel like they should have been connected i-76 from Pennsylvania to Colorado scene with i-84 and i-86
@@manfredmann2766 East Colorado is just slightly expensive Kansas with legal weed
Do you remember the reconstruction of the I-76 Western/I-80 Interchange? It was once a trumpet interchange back then as the single carriageway connects to Denver. Now, it was changed and the single carriageway connects to Cheyenne, WY.
I-97 actually has an interesting story. It was supposed to extend down Southern Maryland all the way to Richmond VA and the Annapolis route would be I-197, but locals heavily opposed this and ultimately left us with the current numbering. Personally I just want I-97 to be renamed I-995 so Maryland can have a complete set if I-95 auxiliary routes but that’s just me
I mean, since US50 is actually I-595 already, it wouldn't be hard. But yeah, keep the interstate out of Southern MD please...
Mr. Chernoff, I completely agree with you! I-97 has no business being a two-digit interstate. It is too short and it begins and ends on 3-digit spurs of Interstate 95, notably the I-695 Baltimore Beltway and Interstate 595/US 50. I-995 is the correct number. I-97 should be used for a coastal interstate going from Savanna GA to Norfolk VA. Then have I-87 keep going from Norfolk up the Delmarva, then concurrent with I-95, then on the the southern section of the New Jersey Turnpike, then concurrent with I-95 again up to the interchange with I-287, then replace I-287 to New York then join existing I-87 to the Canadian border. Current I-87 to NYC can be replaced with Interstate 187.
@@armandoperez7967 Interstate 278 is most likely to be replaced by Interstate 87. But this would require reconstruction of the section of the interstate in Brooklyn.
Given the way auxiliary numbering tends to work (at least in the DC/MD area) 995 would probably be incorrect as odd prefixes are pretty uniformly used for auxiliary interstates that terminate at anything other than an interchange with another interstate, whereas 97 runs from US-50/I-595 in the south to I-695 and I-895 in the north. Tbh, the thing that would make more sense would be if I-295 and I-695 in DC were both signed as 695, which would free up the I-295 designation in the area. (Of course, the reasons why that isn't the case have some historical basis; and, you'd end up with an I-295 pretty close to MD-295 in places, which wouldn't be ideal.)
@@SSGranor The parameters for avoiding confusion need to be re-set. DC has I-295 and DC-295, and most of us are't sure which one is which.
Thanks for calling out I-794 in Milwaukee. You are exactly correct that it was a small piece of what was to be a parallel interstate to I-94 to Illinois.
You’re welcome bro, GO PACK GO!
It was also supposed to head north along where Lincoln Memorial Drive is to the, now demolished and replaced with much needed housing and the Fiserv Forum, Park East Freeway. We luckily got a city landmark out of I-794 in the Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge and a few minutes of screen time in the big chase scene towards the end of "The Blues Brothers!"
I remember visiting relatives in Milwaukee in the mid 60's. Everything was torn up for the new construction of 94 and 794. It was a major cluster,,,, for travelers. Almost as bad as driving through Chicago to get there from SE Michigan lol. Even 94 wasn't done all the way through Michigan back then too!
I think 794/Lake Parkway is very useful. I have family on the south side of Milwaukee and it’s a great way to get into the city.
Until the lake parkway was built I would agree it was useless. That is not the case anymore.
What baffles me is that many insignificant minuscule towns in the US have a freeway connection, while significant cities such as Christchurch in the South Island or Hobart in Tasmania don't have a freeway connection to anywhere else.
There must not have been a sizable poor minority population to run a freeway through, cause that’s how most urban freeways were laid out in the US
If a senator or congressional committee chair asks for a connector to a constituency, the highway planners give them a federally branded 3 mile of ramp
I should clarify small towns normally don’t run a freeway through minority neighborhoods because even through those neighborhoods it’s too high of cost it’s normally through farmland which holds low relative value to housing
I've lived in Kingston, NY, for less than two years, but I'll comment on I-587 nonetheless. The population is no longer shrinking, with lots of people relocating to the city and Ulster County the last two years.
My guess for the rationale for the highway was to route traffic away from the Uptown Stockade District, with narrow streets and quite a few buildings dating from the 1700s. It leads onto Broadway, the main drag through Midtown down to the waterfront. I don't see the fact that a roundabout separates it from the I-87 (NYS Thruway) exit means the two are not connected. However, the NYS Thruway Authority does not acknowledge I-587 on its signage!
Next, Highway 9 (actually U.S. 9W) was also built as a bypass to narrow, hilly city streets. The one interchange is for a road adjacent to what had been a railroad track, so 9W passes beneath both overpasses. Unfortunately, the viaduct over the Rondout Creek required demolition of numerous buildings.
Finally, the unusual long ramp off U.S. 209 was probably meant for heavy traffic for what was once a big IBM complex.
As a current resident of Kingston I concur with everything you state here. Clearly I-587 and the way 9W was designed was to handle potential IBM traffic. I wasn't here during the hay-days of that time, closing in 1996.
@@LTParis Yes, IBM did a number on several Hudson Valley towns. It doesn't seem like Beaver did much research about Kingston.
I was going to comment about it being Rt. 9W as Rt. 9 is on the otherside of the Hudson River going parallel to Rt. 9W & the river.
The one argument I'll make in favor of I-97 being a two-digit signed interstate is that while it does connect larger Baltimore to a "lesser" city population-wise in Annapolis... Annapolis is the state capital.
It could be replaced by extending I-70 as well, even though I-70 would end as a north-south highway instead. Remember that I-70 ends at the beltway in Baltimore now.
Recently there have been talks of demolishing the Downtown overpass of I-794 in Milwaukee. Since people from Milwaukee’s bay view neighborhood do use that bridge to get to downtown quicker, the hoan bridge will probably still remain if the purposely deemed successful. It will probably just stop at the lakeshore parkways before turning to a Normal at grade boulevard.
Fun fact: the bridge itself was where they filmed a scene of the 1980 comedy “the blues brothers”
The bridge has been scene as a local landmark of the city as of late, as they put lights along the bridge’s archs to lighten up the lake shore.
That’s neat, I wonder what other non-major highways have made scenes on television. Besides the classic terminal freeway 47/103 in LA of course.
There has not. The last time there was any talk of it was in the 90's and that went nowhere. The elevated section was recently rebuilt it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
That rebuild (Marquette Interchange and eastward to the lake) was finished ahead of schedule and under budget! How many highway projects can claim that?!
@@dvferyanceWisdot is now considering removal.
Love your channel. Can you do some in depth analysis about the Chicagoland and BosWash megalopolises?
I second Chicago
Mexican hat and halchita mega city
I-587 and I-195 (ME) are examples of what I call “turnpike stubs”. Before electronic tolling, it didn’t make sense to have exits more than every 5-20 miles in rural areas. If there’s no suitable cross-road to build an interchange, the turnpike sometimes just builds one.
Yup, and they "technically don't connect" because that's how they did interchanges on the NYS Thruway/ME Turnpike. They had to have the tollbooths, which caused a break in traffic no matter what when it was built. Pretty much every interstate interchange on the NYS Thruway does (or at least did) that.
I suspect that many of these short, small-town spurs appeared as Interstates so that the states and cities could get Federal money. They were unable or unwilling to pay for a normal dual highway or boulevard, so they stuck their hands into the Federal highway fund.
Sort of the opposite happened in Richmond, VA. The city rejected the Federal, interstate-quality plan for I-95, which would have bulldozed straight through the city, so there's now a terrifying urban stretch in Richmond that was built with state funds. It used to be a toll road to recoup the costs, but once the city had recouped eleven times the original construction cost, they turned it over to the Feds, who ripped out the chaotic toll booths. The road may have been improved since then, but it's still white-knuckle driving.
The interstates in Atlanta, GA are a mess! I would live to see a video explaining why
Yep, I just survived a 4-day visit to Atlanta--just barely. Almost got killed (by an Illinois driver) on the way back to the airport yesterday. Butn o matter where you go, or when, there's a wreck that jams the 12-lane freeways up for miles. "Atlanta: We Came For The Traffic."
The ATL interstate system was designed for a population base of one third the size of today's population.
@@larrymcclain8874 Check out the Wikipedia article on the old Woodrow Wilson Bridge across the Potomac...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson_Bridge#Original_bridge
They didn’t plan for the needed “Outer Perimeter”.
@@davestewart2067 We did but there was no support in Forsyth County. Note that the right of ways are still unbuilt in Gwinnett County
I-76 will probably never be renumbered as a spur of I-70 or I-80 because USDOT tends to avoid assigning such numbers to states where the base route does not run. I.e., I-70 doesn't run into Nebraska and I-80 doesn't run into Colorado, so it had to receive a mainline route number instead of a spur route number.
Love your stuff Beaver. I second some of the other comments in that I would like to know more about my local interstates in the Chicagoland area, since my backyard is I-55 lol
Surprised I-99 didn't make this list!
Another way of thinking about the two I-76es is that they are actually the same I-76, an alternate routing for transcontinental trips connecting the city where the Constitution (but in '87) was signed to the Centennial State ('76) with a patriotic number. That sounds whimsical but it really means it is like an unsigned concurrency with much of I-80, similar to the signed concurrencies that I-94 uses around lake Michigan (personally I'd opt for the Muskegon ferry) or kinda, kinda like the I86es. Also Interstate Highway NXX spurs are spurs to their parent route not necessarily a spur from a city too the hinterland, although that is certainly how many Interstates which carry mostly suburban commuter traffic are built. Like other commenters pointed out I76 is an optimal, useful intercity/inerstate routing. And I would add that as a secondary east-west Interstate it is logically placed between primary east-west Interstates.
Your idea of replacing the smaller city spurs with boulevards is smart, sound planning, but a lot of these designations are often just that, hence the only freeway portion existing between those roundabouts with no other interchange like in that one example from NYS means that it is actually quite cheap to maintain and it fulfils the actual intention of the Interstate system quite nicely by encouraging commerce in the region served. A lot of companies, especially ones with intense shipping needs prefer doing business in someplace served by the Interstate brand.
In defence of incomplete interchanges, they are less costly than complete interchanges because they use space more efficiently and are usually built to take into account optimal routing. Yes, that comes at the expense of flexibility in abnormal conditions but normally simply requires drivers to navigate more savvily. Anything that might encourage more thoughtful driving while reducing unnecessary road footprint seems good to me. Not every interchange or junction needs to be a grand union.
Love your video ideas and your speaking style! Keep up the great work.
189 is useful as a way to bypass Burlington on route 7. If you are traveling up and don't want to go through downtown Burlington, you just take 189 to 89 and bypass Burlington. Gets a fair amount of cars, so I wouldn't call it useless.
Hear hear! If not for the I-189 drawdown, Route 7 would be a parking lot. Especially with all the construction. It also saves tons of time getting between the two wings of South Burlington without going all the way up to UVM and making exit 14/Dorset Street even worse than it is.
Theres a new I-587 in North Carolina, it is there to connect Greenville NC to Raleigh and it's very useful, I can see why because Greenville is growing fast and maybe NCDOT is preparing for a boom in cars traveling from Raleigh to Greenville. (That's my explanation)
I-587 goes right thou Wilson NC and -I-587 gets used quit a bit. I just wish VA would hurry up and get their part of I-87 done. This way, I could visit my family living back in the Hampton Roads without having to deal with the speed traps on U.S. Route 58
I-384 just east of Hartford, CT is a highway whose purpose of connecting Hartford to Providence ended up a sad, unrealized dream
CT has a lot of failed interstates, including one from Hartford to Grotten that spent all its money on a rock cut, and then couldn't even afford to build the road in the rockcut they just made. (Just a brilliant stroke of accounting, theoretically they could have done the math and realized they wouldn't afford getting past the rockcut after making it and just not do the rock cut)
384 was supposed to be 84 HFD to Providence and then 86 would connect that to 90 and the Mass Pike. In fact, 86 was numbered in the east that way for a while until they realized the 84 project wouldn't work... I believe there were environmental issues and construction through a reservoir that shut that down... would have been nice to have that and then 84 continue along the 195 path in RI/MA...
@@jasonreed7522 Isn't that what CT 2 essentially is at least from Hartford to Norwich? Would have been nice to have it connect all the way to Stonington... or would 11 and 85 take over and then go southeast from there?
@@mrmoose6619 yes although the exact branch is CT11 which spurs from 2 to Salem and you can still see the abandoned cuts on satelite. (Its pointed right at New London/Grotten)
So…Old Orchard Beach could bear some deeper research, that silly little stub could have been a reaction to serious traffic jams in the summer. I cannot imagine what it might have been like, but it could have been pretty ugly
Yes Joyce and at times in the summer months it still can get pretty congested. More research would also have shown the baseball stadium/ concert venue that was closed after a few short years from the public outcry due to the overwhelming traffic it created
Here's the explanation for that loooong two-lane exit ramp off US 209 to Enterprise Drive at 1:51. That complex of buildings in the lower right of the photo was once a major IBM factory, now abandoned. The long exit was so that its workers coming off US 209 and headed into its parking lot could have a place to stack up without clogging Enterprise for other commuters at shift changes. The Enterprise crossover entering the lot and the one exiting it a short distance north were formerly signalized to aid in getting the employees across Enterprise. Note that Enterprise is a county road, which might also help explain the odd design.
As someone who grew up there and even worked at the Bakery across 209 you are 100% correct Sir. Additionally, its not Rt 9, but 9W I believe that you're referring to in Kingston. Or 9 E, or G, too many damn letters
@@marksimpson8577 Thanks for your local confirmation of what I discerned from the sat pics. However, it was not I who mentioned US 9. That was Mr. Beaver. It should be US 9W.
You are correct, I should have specified about who I was responding to about the Rt 9 thing. Before the roundabout for the Interstate, there was a traffic circle. Larger in diameter and much worse designed. Got in an accident on it in 1996.... the roundabout works much better
I-76 in Colorado actually was originally called I-80s (south). It was changed to I-76 in 1976 to commemorate the year- USAs 200th birthday and Colorados 100th birthday (which is why Colorado is called the Centennial State). I highly highly doubt it will ever be changed again given the significance of that number to Colorado.
From I-495 to I-97, U.S. Rte 50 is also unsigned as I-595. They should just make I-97 a continuation of I-595 since the northern end of I-97 doesn't even connect to I-95, but it spurs off of I-895. So the new I-595 would technically be a spur of I-95 around DC. That way you could free up the I-97 designation for another highway.
I can confirm that I 195 in Maine does not get enough traffic to warrant a freeway, especially since it ends at a 2 lane state highway that goes through a residential area. The only time there is traffic on I-195 is if I-95 and US 1 have stop and go traffic entering or exiting Portland (which isn't often).
I am a retired Transportation Project Manager for the DOT. If you want to know why these things are the way they are here is where you start. mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/ It is the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Everything is covered here and I mean everything. From route designations to stripping to signage to lane widths and medians. Enjoy!
The odd thing is these routes carrying Interstate designators are not supposed to. Only way you can mark a route as an interstate is if it is a interstate design and it connects two interstates. As an example in my city I-65 and I-71 were connected with a new road built to interstate specks and when finished it carried the designator of I-265. Yet a section went past I-71 and ended at US-42 so that section carried Ky-841. At the other end we had a section with same circumstances a section was built that connected two US routes so it carried the Ky-841 route as well until the remaining segment's where completed and it all connected. Then we wright new Official Orders describing the route in its entirety.
Wilder i love you
@@BeaverGeography One more present for you. The US National Map is being built by the GIS Departments in each state. I built some of the Transportation data for Kentucky. apps.nationalmap.gov/viewer/
Small nitpick, the newly badged I-87 in NC is now currently the shortest two-digit interstate clocking in at about 12 miles from I-40 (through a weird concurrency with I-440 starting at exit 301) that kept the old I-440 exit number until it’s big right turn between Poole Rd (exit 15) and New Bern Av (exit 13). It currently stops at the US-64 Bus junction/Wendell Blvd.
This stretch of road was originally signed I-495 and meant to connect Raleigh and Rocky Mount. If you look carefully on the right as you head east on New Bern Av toward I-440, you can still see the one remaining I-495 shield.
Now it is intended to eventually make it to Norfolk but that will take many years give our glacial construction speed.
This road re-used I-87 as a nod to the Lost Colony on Roanoke (1587) south of Norfolk and the founding of NC State Univ in Raleigh (1887).
The Kingston exit on Route 9 was originally intended to get people to the IBM plant, which has been closed since the 1990s. It merges with the parking lot. However, most traffic now goes the other way, towards a school, a town hall, and a more modern office park.
I suggest that the Dwight David Eisenhower Interstate Freeway System, with construction beginning shortly after WWII, was primarily designed to accommodate military transport in wartime. The roads are thick and wide. Every one of the cities you mention has a military presence. So it follows that, while most military bases or suppliers are already near commonly used freeways, some areas needed their own sections built.
Last I remember the speed limit on I-587 is actually 55, but yeah NY 28 is 45 west of there past US 209.
794 is a freeway revolt situation, but does serve to connect the harbor to the rest of the interstate system and with the Lake Parkeay running down to the airport connects the near south burbs to downtown eliminating a lot of traffic on surface streets through residential neighborhoods.
Fun fact: the scene where the IL N@Zia run off a bridge in the Blues Brothers movie was filmed off the then incomplete 794 before the Lake Parkway was built.
794 thru downtown is likely going to be torn down and turned into a surface boulevard when it's up for reconstruction in the next few years
I remember the scene, I was surprised their Pinto wagon didn't transform into the MPC model kit of same in the clip where it was falling through the air.
@@trademark4537 I think the more likely circumstance is removing the ramps just east of the river. The Trolley building is under there.
794 also bring a more direct route to and through downtown and the harbor, definitely for downtown to the airport! I doubt they would make it an at-grade boulevard, it would be horrendously expensive and bring no real additional development to the former freeway footprint. The biggest change should be in-fill high-rise and skyscrapers of all the ridiculous parking lots (that can be incorporated into buildings).
@@Accounting4Cycling It would actually be a lot cheaper.
794 through downtown needs replacing anyways so the choices would either be to construct an entirely new viaduct to connect to the Hoan Bridge or construct an at grade boulevard and develop additional taxable land next to it.
For your college fund, you should spend that on Civil Engineering - Transportation specialty. (my major back in the day) Then you can remedy many of these interstate issues, and design and build new ones. :)
I didn't expect to see my state in this video. I've never even batted an eye at I-195. I don't really agree with your assessment of it.
Firstly, I think you undersold Old Orchard Beach. The interstate is obviously not for local residents. Most of the residents are only part time residents anyway. Old Orchard Beach is one of the states biggest tourist destinations. It's just South of Portland and is the primary ocean-beach destination for about half the states population. It also has 3 well-visited theme/water parks which serves roughly the same area. I live near Lewiston, about an hour North, and everybody around here travels there at some point during the year.
It's also consistent with the pattern seen through most of the area of regular connections between I-95 (and I-295) and Route 1, a substantial number of which are up to interstate standards. Route 1 in Maine is tourist spot after tourist spot and trust me, it gets busy. I-195 provides that regular connection to Route 1 and then just goes that little but further to provide a connection to Old Orchard.
Your alternative suggestion was to pretty much create a stroad, which is the inevitable result of putting a road in that location and which we already have plenty of. I really think the interstate serves its purpose. At other tourist destinations where highway exits just connect into local roads, there are several mile long backups during tourist season.
You totally forgot about I-175 and I-375 in St. Petersburg, FL. Only a quarter mile long for each.
Doesn't make them useless... they make it easier to get from Downtown and Tropicana Dome to I-275
I took I-175 as a shortcut to the hospital both times when my kids were born.
As someone who lives in the area I-97 is actually not pointless, traffic on US-50 gets really crazy and 97 is a good bypass if your trying to get up to Severna park or Glen Burnie, plus MD-2 is all traffic lights. You may not know if your not a local but I-97 has uses
The Interstate Highway System is actually named The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. It is a military project, insure that the military could be hardware and troops were need if we are invaded. The fact that many communities are benefited and people in the U.S. Congress are also benefit is it purely a coincidence.
Check out a map around Peoria Illinois, just a bit south of that worthless I-180, continue south along the river until you start seeing WTF.
I think in Waukegan Illinois the amstutz expressway rt 137 was supposed to be part of the lakeshore freeway.
I grew up in Maryland, learned how to drive on I-97. Given how many I-X95 there are between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., it makes total sense that the spur to Annapolis would be a two digit, just to keep confusion down
Although the state highway department and the DOT could have made it an extension of I-83 around the western Baltimore Beltway and your Jones Falls Expressway could have been renumbered as I-383 instead.
@@edwardmiessner6502 I disagree with making I-97 a three-digit interstate. Instead, extend I-70 from its current eastern terminus, following concurrently with I-695(Baltimore Beltway) to I-97 and fixing the new eastern terminus at Annapolis. I-97 would be decommissioned.
I-587 in Kingston, NY, is co-signed "NY-28" throughout its entire length. They should drop the I-587 designation and only designate it NY-28.
I live in Springfield MA and I’ve always wondered what the point of I-391 is for. I-91 curves and crosses over to the West side of the CT river and 391 begins as if 91 continues on the east side. It then runs through Chicopee and ends in Holyoke a pretty good distance from 91 in Holyoke. My issue is if you’re in Chicopee or Holyoke then you can’t take 391 to 91 north but you can get on if you’re going South. Another thing is 391 and 90 cross paths but there is no interchange. Which makes it just a little more inconvenient if you happen to live in that area since you have to drive the nearest on ramp for 90 which is on memorial drive. Not such an issue if you’re already on these highways, 90, 291, or 91 since they all connect. Oh well it’s not the end of the world but I always wondered if it was really necessary. I-291 connects I-91 and I-90
Edit: Trying to think of positive things. Like if you’re in West Springfield there is a junction for for 91 and 391 North which is convenient for reaching downtown Chicopee and Holyoke.. and Springfield via 91 south.
The amazing thing is that the suffixed interstates have made a big comeback. Not only did I-35E and I-35W never disappear in the Twin Cities and DFW, you now have I-69E, I-69C, I-69W, and soon I-14N and I-14S, as well as I-27E and I-27W, all in Texas. Colorado will get I-27N.
New York Thruway exit 19 only mentions NY 28. 587 isn't mentioned, nor is nearby US 209.
NY 28 used to follow Washington Ave. into Kington to its southern terminus. The interstate designation got federal funding, and then re-routed 28 onto it (so 587 is never an independent route, same as I-790 in Utica).
I bicycled the entire length on 587 back in the early 1980s, I was 15-16 at the time.
Turning urban freeways to boulevards is a good idea in many cases, espcially in those Midwestern postindustrial cities where too much limited access highway is present, like in Michigan or Ohio.
They’re in the process of doing that in Syracuse NY, I-81 runs through downtown as an elevated highway cutting neighborhoods and being ugly. They built a bypass, I-481 to the east and around the city, they’re going to upgrade that and move I-81 onto it, turning the road through downtown into an urban boulevard. The project is and the baby beginning stages, and the construction will be painful, in the end it will be worth it.
@@joyceneville9214 plus I-81 through Syracuse was always a nightmare, with the sharp curves and weird intersection near I-690.
375 which runs a half mile into downtown Detroit is planned to be removed. It destroyed a predominantly African American areas to maybe save 5 minutes driving time to the tunnel to Canada.
“You’re pointless!” “39 buried. 0 found”
Old Orchard Beach is a nice place to visit if you get the chance. Amtrak Downeaster stops there if you don’t wanna drive.
You could consider a video on interstate pork projects. What interstates were built to bring pork dollars into a state or region. And also were any interstates constructed with routes that led to eminent domain cash grabs or to reach locations for political connections.
I believe I-99 in PA was built just to bring pork dollars in. Its number doesn't even line up with the rest of the grid.
There is a serious push in Milwaukee to get rid of I794 and put a surface street that would connect to the Hoan Bridge
Its interesting how many of these are spur routes. In SF we have two useless spur routes, 101 central freeway which, instead of ending onto Van Ness, dumps cars off onto Market/Octavia, backing up for miles during busy times. The other one is the southern extension of highway 280 which also ends randomly in Mission Bay, causing a huge amount of traffic and blight on the neighborhoods it goes through.
US-9W in Kingston (it's not Route 9, as you called it; Route 9 is on the other side of the Hudson River) is a short, four-lane freeway crossing US-209/NY-199 because 209/199 is a limited-access freeway (US-209 becomes NY-199 after crossing over US-9W). 9W becomes Ulster Ave. south of the freeway section, but remains four lanes. 9W become a two-lane road north of the freeway section.
The 199/209 freeway extends from (but not including) the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge to NY-28, just west of the northern I-587 traffic circle, near the NY State Thruway. The 199/209 freeway was built as a fast route between the Thruway and the bridge.
I-180 already exists in Lincoln, Nebraska as a downtown spur. Also, I think the western I-76 is fine how it is. It’s too long for a 3di IMO.
There are aLready FOUR different I-180’s: one each in NE, PA, WY, and IL. Might as well make a fifth one…😊
What I don't understand is I-880 in Iowa near Omaha
Great job, Beaver. So glad to see I-587. I ride it frequently for a job right near there. Same with Enterprise Drive. Terrific video. Keep up the great work.
As a resident of Kingston I echo this sentiment. :)
Love this content, but this time around I have a note: Lake Shore Drive was originally built as a low speed promenade/road before much of it was upgraded to near interstate standards. However, I believe the more notable part of the Lake Freeway that was actually constructed somewhere a little more out of place are two tiny stretches of interstate standard highway in North Chicago and Waukegan Illinois. They're both under 5 miles long. If you aren't familiar with the Amstutz expressway it might be worth a video or part of one.
I thought the Amstutz was going to make this list...
You missed something about 189! It was a superfund site that stopped the development of the road. The company or companies that polluted the area are quite defunct and the pollution is well contained so Long as nobody digs it up to, I dunno, build an interstate? Admittedly I’m not sure about Pine street being turned into a parkway either.
I would love to see a video on the I-78 system since none of the spurs connect to the main line
It requires a "New York state of mind" to envision all of the loops and spurs touching, but then you realize it would have required the destruction of Soho, Greenwich Village and part of Brooklyn to have completed I-78 to the full Robert Moses plan.
@@stuartwald2395 One way to finally sort of complete Interstate 78 is to reroute it along what is now I-287 along then along NJ/NY 440 then take over for Interstate 278 all the way to the Bronx and connect back with I-95. The orphaned part of the highway can be renumbered into Interstate 178.
Living in the Hudson Valley in NY, as soon as I saw the title of this video, I immediately thought of I-587 which is basically a glorified entrance/exit ramp to get between the New York State Thruway and downtown Kingston.
Texas has a 26 lane route of "I hate my neighbor so don't you dare make me take a bus with him" known as the Katy Freeway. After 26 lanes they want to add more lanes to that route to adress traffic. The urban planners are like those chimps who charge at their reflection on a mirror researchers placed in the jungle, zero self awareness on their part.
3:00 it should probably be noted that the extension of the Champlain Parkway will be a 2 lane, 25 mph road
Could you make a video on places that need interstates, but don't have them ? Like Reno-Las Vegas-Phoenix, Traverse city-Grand Rapids-Ft Wayne, A branch from I 81 to Ithaca.
He already did
Oh wow that I-115 has the original 50s style highway median! That’s how a lot of highway medians looked in the early days of freeway building. That’s pretty neat to see in person since I wasn’t there lol. 😂
5:40 Funny, just the other day I was thinking about how gas in Colorado is so much CHEAPER than where I live (like to up to $1.50/gal less). I guess it's all a matter of perspective, though.
I would add I-110 in MS. It’s only purpose is to get you from I-10 (which runs parallel to the Gulf Coast, but a few miles inland) directly to the casinos on the Biloxi beachfront. It does take you over the back bay.
I175 and 1375 in st. Petersburg, Florida. I read somewhere (because i forget the source) that city planners are discussing removing the southern one and turning it back into a boulevard.
The southern route I-175 was meant to handle heavy traffic in and out of major league baseball games at the Trop. The Rays are looking to get out, and St. Pete is already deep into the process to redevelop the entire area, so if the Rays do go, 175 might get ripped up.
To date no interstate highway in Florida has had their route number undesignated. Transforming Interstate 175 from a spur highway to an at grade boulevard involves a lot of processes before the first shovel is turned to demolish the highway, which includes the Florida DOT making an application to AASHTO (American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials) to unrecognize the Interstate 175 route and getting FHWA (US DOT) concurrency which takes a lot of time in itself. In other words, the Florida DOT just can’t go in and remove the Interstate 175 shields and demolish the highway.
I-97 is entirely within Anne Arundel County, not just between the Baltimore beltway and Annapolis.
I-76 in Colorado used to be I-80S. When suffixed interstates were eliminated Western I-76 was created. In fact almost all the repeated interstates used to be suffix routes.
When were suffixed routes eliminated? I-35 has always had E/W splits in DFW & MSP. I-69E, I-69C & I-69W in South Texas are all less than 10 years old.
@@meberg500 35 was the only interstate allowed to remain.. 69 was a new example for some stupid reason.. when it should spilt into child routes. TXDOT operates in another universe though. All other suffixed routes were changed in 1980.
Actually used to be I-80S but they changed the naming scheme to avoid confusion
@@drjustino I said 80N, but corrected it to 80S.
@@shadowduck02 Hahaha, Texas is in another universe! Growing up there I always found it odd that there were 3 interstates that don't cross state lines - kinda flies in the face of the definition of interstate. I think they're up to 8 now.
my love of good urban planning and interesting minutiae is struggling against my hatred of meaningless nonsense in this video.
I live about 40 mins south of Kingston, and I’ve used the roundabout off 87 multiple times but I never new there was a short little interstate right there 😂 might take it just for fun. Also Route 9W which goes down the river through Newburgh has always been kinda weird, in the city of Newburgh it’s just a regular road with traffic lights and stop signs. A bit different with 9 on the other side in Dutchess County, where it’s a stroad going past big box stores, a regular road through communities, or in the city of Poughkeepsie (paw-kip-see) it’s as though it’s an interstate, with high speeds and the main interchange to the Mid Hudson Bridge even having left-hand exits!! I love all your videos, and I share the same love of geography, keep up the great work!!! 👍 also thx for repping the Hudson Valley ‼️
Thank you for bringing up I 97!
Also, I like 195 to Old Orchard Beach. Sure it's not long, but OO Beach is my Favorite Beach.
With Virginia Beach not too far behind.
I thought you'd cover I384 in Ct. It was built to go from Htfd to Prov. RI but got stopped when EPA found it would cut through protected wetlands. So now it goes from Htfd to about Hebron Ct and you still have to take Rte 6 to Providence. A boondoggle if there ever was one.
There was an “orphan” section of I-84, actually two that existed for years, before the western piece was finally connected to its parent and re-named I-384. The eastern piece served as a bypass of Willimantic. Yes that road should have completed to Providence. Major blunder there in not finishing.
Butte MT. in 1914 had over 80K people, and within that mining boom city at the time, over a dozen languages were spoken. So, it used to be a lot bigger, and had a ton more pull on budgets and infrastructure spending. In short, mining boom and bust, just hasn't gone full ghost town.
consider I-695 in Washington, DC. it's about 3/4 of a mile long that connects I-295 to I-395 in the District.
There is a spur route north of Concord New Hampshire that connects I-93 with US Route 4. Just a heads up. Also, thank you for all these videos!
393 is so useless
I-393, yes been on it before and thought it was very weird! It's only 4.6 miles (longer still than the ones in the video!) and really only is useful for the NH Motor Speedway, as you probably know!
@@drjustino I-393 is a spur off I-93 that heads to NH 106, which untimately goes past New Hampshire Speedway in Loudon. Thank NASCAR for this interstate spur.
Unless if I’m going to Loudon to catch a race
I-78!!!! Also Doesn’t connect to its “even number” spurs. Which are I-278/BQE, 478, 678/Van Wick Expressway, & I878. So why don’t make part of canal st I78 (not saying it should be turned into a highway but anyway, then go on the Manhattan bridge, next it will go on Adams st, then it will go on tillary st & then connect back with I-278
I-97 connects to I-895 and I-595. I-595 is a silent route (not signed) that is concurrent with US 50 and US 301. Also there was no mention of I-345.
Suggestion: interstates with bad cardinal directions. I-85 goes more E-W than N-S despite being a 2 digit odd number. I've seen a few others like I-94 between Chicago and Milwaukee like this too.
There was been talks/plans for Milwaukee’s 1-794 to be removed! No guarantee yet, but WISDOT is considering removing it because the costs of maintaining it, and to better connect downtown to the third ward.
I live 2 hours from Milwaukee and go there multiple times a year, lots more when I was younger because my grandma lived there. Im 21 and have never heard of I 794, my parents grew up there and I don’t think they even know what it is
It's been around for a long time. Not that many people use it in the area except for the very few that live in the south shore suburbs.
I personally find i-76 funny because it starts over on the east coast east of Philly gets disrupted in Ohio at Akron then turns up again in Colorado. Wonder if that was in the plans.
That roundabout in Kingston is very very confusing (& I go through 2 different roundabouts each way on my commute to works so I'm very familiar with the concept).
I would argue the colorado I 76 is important because if one were to be sending goods from omaha to say colo springs or albequerque, I 76 can cut the time rather than taking 80 over to 25
Lol I-76 is filled with industrial traffic. Awkward claim you make that it is pointless…. Err, if you want to deindustrialize the country maybe!
Yeah... His opinion on I-76 is really terrible. People don't just use I-76 to get from I-80 to Denver. One of the uses of the freeway but not at all the only one. Really makes him sound like he doesn't know what he's talking about. And if that was the only use of I-76 it would still be far from useless lol
I'd love to see a video explaining why the freeways in the Phoenix Metro area, aside from I-10 and I-17, don't have interstate numbers, even though they're all substantially larger than any of the Interstates in this video.
Road Guy Rob has you covered! He's got a couple videos on Arizona/Phoenix freeways.
@@EthanNeal I saw the main one he did focusing on the valley freeways the day it came out. I've been subscribed to Rob a long time. I was blown away that he was able to get an interview with the legendary Detour Dan, as I've been listening to him on KTAR for well over a decade. I'd just really like to see the Beaver's take on it, especially since his focus has been much more specifically on Interstate Highway oddities, and it's an oddity that almost all the Interstate type freeways in one of the largest metro areas in the US doesn't have any of their freeways designated as Interstates aside from the two that go far out of the metropolis.
@@danieldaniels7571 Being a New Mexican, I seldom get to applaud Arizona for anything other than natural beauty. But the Arizona N ZERO N loops (101, 202, 303) are mostly suburban commuter freeways, and rightly so Arizona tax money mostly funds their building and upkeep, they are mostly local roads with a special numeric branding. They are useful for interstate travel too though. When you identify a cluster of I-NXX loops and I-NXX spurs that are mostly serving suburbs then you have likely correctly identified federal dollars supporting mostly local car-based development.
And actually, Arizona highways are generally very high quality. Their infrastructure would be great infrastructure if water and oil were infinite and nothing really mattered.
Maricopa County passed a sales tax in the mid eighties specifically to fund these loops. The feds weren’t involved. But yes AZ should have applied for Interstate designations. Have an ancient paper map from the eighties and it showed the nascent Agua Fria freeway as 417. So at one time more coherent numbers were being considered.
@8:20 -Now that is a blast from the past. As a child, we would go to OOB for vacation in the summer. We were from Conn. Brings back memories of my youth. I laughed at how the narrator of the video mispronounces "Saco." Too funny. Saco has a hard "a" sound.
74-73, North Carolina
I would have included I-180 in Cheyenne, Wyoming on this list. It starts three traffic lights north of the US 85 junction with I-80 and ends just north of some railroad tracks in downtown Cheyenne. The speed limit is 45 mph, and there are no interchanges. All it does is cross a bunch of railroad tracks.
I-97 would make sense if they extended it along US 50 from Annapolis to Salisbury and then along US 13 down the Delmarva peninsula to Virginia Beach. There was a proposal to make US 50 to I-595 between the Capitol Beltway to Annapolis, but that faded out. I'm not sure why since the highway is interstate grade now.
I-76 in Colorado makes sense since Colorado was made a state in 1876 and the number fits the pattern.
I-794 is likely going to be torn down thru downtown Milwaukee similar to the Park Freeway that was torn down in 2002 and has been redeveloped into the deer district and other uses.
I think this will be a massive boon for the city connecting the historic and redeveloping 3rd ward with the rest of downtown!
You are on the path to becoming Secretary of Transportation one day. Keep on keeping on
Interstate 375 in Detroit has to be one of the worst. They literally destroyed an ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD to build that and that freeway has very light traffic even during rush hour. But it is funny they did not complete Interstate 275 to Interstate 75 in Clarkston because a small handful of suburbanites in Commerce and Waterford cried that freeway into oblivion. Now those same suburbanites cry because they are stuck with a couple of two lane roads that have poorly timed traffic signals for unimportant roads. Lol
I see you also have a Pennsy icon. Join me in supporting the benefits of rails transport over highways!
@@Pensyfan19 Yep my great grandfather worked for the pennsy back in the old days. My mom used to tell me all kinds of great thing about him. Unfortunately, he passed away LONG before I was born.
I love your vids mate! Thanks for the great content!
I'm looking forward to you having more diverse sprites of your beaver
I 794 had 2 proposed routes, 1 of which would've gone over lake Michigan and connected to I 65, thus being a nearly no exit or entry bypass of Chicago.
The right turn was supposed to be a T-bone interchange to the port of Milwaukee via WI-794 but a bunch of protestors halted the building of what would've been the longest suspension bridge in the country
I-97 should be I-995. It would make CGPGrey very happy.
I hate to say it, but I-76 would have to be I-380 because of I-180 in Lincoln
I’m glad you did I-587. Kingston is 20 minutes down the road and I’ve lived in the area for over 10 years and I can probably count the amount of times I have been on that interstate in my life.
Dr. Beaver. At your cervix
Great video, not sure I agree on I-76 though. It could be renumbered to be a spur, but that is true of almost every other non-major interstate that terminates in a city or town. The classic spur just ends in a city or town, not at an interchange with another interstate. And 2 digit numbers for interstates are sometime reused so long as there is no confusion about which one you are talking about. I-76 is also not automatically a spur just because one end is in a city. Any traffic coming from Denver or anywhere on I-70W would use that route. I-84 in OR, or CT is another that is re-used. Look at I-290 in MA. That starts at I-395 and I-90 and ends at I-495. Probably the entire I-395/290 interstate should be renamed. I-395 isn't really a spur, and I-290 isn't really a bypass of I-90. A better name might be I-695- since both ends connect to either 95 or a bypass of 95. Or maybe reuse another name- I-97 or I-89.
I think of 395 as more of a casino interstate than anything since I’m only ever on that interstate if I’m going to Mohegan or Foxwoods. Anyway, renumbering 395 there would be a problem if you wanted a 2-digit interstate. 89 wouldn’t work because you go against the grid thanks to 91 starting in New Haven and going to Vermont, and 97 wouldn’t work because of 93 serving Boston. The only option for it to remain in-grid then would be to change 395 to 93 and then turn what is 93 today into I-97, but I don’t see that happening in the history of ever.
I think for that reason 395 will probably just stay as it is, and honestly, I’m fine with that. Don’t know anything about 290 though.
@@markwilson4078 Correct on 97 for grid issue- but 395 is east of 91, so 89 is OK on that score. The biggest issue is it is too close to I-89 in NH/VT. And on the minor N/S routes the grid isn't absolute anyway. They often run as diagonals, so no number fully fits grid. My vote is still to combine and rename I-395 and I-290 to a single bypass of 95. (295, 695, or 895.) Or just leave it alone because it really doesn't matter :)
I-180 in central Illinois. A spur to Hennepin. Went to a steel company now closed.
i76 going into Denver should NOT be signed 180 - because 1xx routes are spur routes. It should be numbered with a 3xx because it connects two different numbered routes. I suggest it be numbered 325 because Denver/i25 traffic use it most.
FWIW, Saco Maine and the Saco River that drains the White Mountains in NH are pronounced SAW-COH. OOB gets many international visitors from Quebec, so the easy driving directions of a shield 🛡 route with obvious end is probably an advantage over a boulevard.
Downgrade it to boulevard (an upgrade for pedestrians and cyclists) but let it keep the shield🛡.
It's really Sack-o
@@drjustino yeah that's better
As a resident I agree with “Saw-Co”. And yeah the summers are crazy with all the tourism from Quebec id say the population probably doubles. The other end of Old Orchard Beach is in Scarborough and Route 1 is always backed up in the summer so the spur through Saco definitely has its benefits during peak tourism and the video didn’t mention the baseball stadium/ concert venue that was shut down due to overwhelming complaints from the residents and the massive gridlock it created as the spur fell just short of connecting to it. Had the venue not been shut down the spur makes perfectly good sense to have.
Though it's not the interstate technically, BC Hwy 11 in Canada matches these funny wannabe freeway trends.
It starts at the US border south of Abbotsford, where it widens into a painfully slow boulevard at the Trans Can, with busy left turns towards downtown. A short section of freeway starts through the suburbs, with 2 full exits at insignificant backroads.
The Freeway ends abruptly at another traffic light, though only the right lane follows the main route through a tight yield. Nobody turns left there, leading to an empty passing lane and congested merging, the steep grades and heavy trucks make it worse.
It's free flowing traffic through the farmland with occasional red lights, where you cross the rather beautiful bridge into Mission City. The road ends at a normal traffic light at Hwy 7, though they constructed a strange alternate route into downtown Mission.
The road splits at a trumpet interchange just after the bridge, where you can take a short freeway spur with a split end at Horne St. Traffic bottlenecks through messy right-of-way corners, and forced through another turn into downtown, crossing the rail yard by a steep, curvy overpass straight out a kids cartoon.
Though it mostly works for the level of traffic, this road is proof of how over ambitious planning in crowded areas, can result in worse traffic than standard roads, creating unnecessary bottlenecks and interchanges.
Bruh. I-115 in Butte, Montana? I will agree. Parts of that interstate doesn't really come up to meet interstate standards or what is required to be signed as an interstate. They could've signed it as Montana-115.
FYI: It's "Saw-co" Maine :P (I went to high school there and live in the also-mentioned-in-the-graphic Kennebunkport...hence all my comments about Maine stuff here)
I-195 is basically just an extension of Exit 36 on I-95 to get tourists to Old Orchard Beach and away from Saco proper. OOB is a VERY big tourist destination (as far as Maine standards go) with tons of high-rise condos, an amusement park, and it's one of the longest beaches in the US at 7 miles of unbroken sandy beach (and it's a REALLY good beach, too). What's even funnier about I-195 though is that there's an interchange for US-1 North/South that comes out across from Ocean Park Road/ME-5...and that road merges with I-195 about a mile later. So, I-195 serves as quick access/egress from the industrial area of Saco on ME-112 which is adjacent to I-95), access to downtown Saco (US-1S), access to the Funtown/Splashtown amusement park and Pine Point Beach (US-1N), and the outskirts of OOB (ME-5).
There's another nearby spur route on I-95 in South Portland (Exit 45) that connects to the Maine Mall area, Broadway in South Portland, an approach to I-295 to get to downtown Portland, the north end of Scarborough on US-1 (south) and the residential area of South Portland on US-1 (north), but it's just an access road. Maine also has I-395 that serves as a bypass of Bangor in order to serve traffic towards Ellsworth and Acadia National Park. I-195 is wholly not justified in being an interstate.
I would describe the pronounciation of Saco as Sock-o. In no way does it rhyme with the great Texas city of Waco (OK, who just pronounced that city "whack-o?!)
Sack-o would be the better way to spell out the pronunciation
@@drjustino It's not Sack, it's Sock, as if it's spelled Säco.