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Most useless: Any "beltway" or "loop" interstates. This includes Washington DC's Capital Beltway (I-495), San Antonio's I-410, Atlanta's I-285, Rochester's Inner Loop (part of I-490), Harrisburg's beltway (I-81 and I-83), Columbus' Outerbelt (I-270), Kansas City's I-435 and many, many others.
Most needed: None. We have more than enough highway infrastructure in the United States as long as we maintain it.
No way, those loops or beltways are critical in most of those larger cities! They provide direct access to the area's "main" freeway to those areas that are further out. If someone lived in a further out area and needed to get across the metro area quickly- or needed to get to the area's "main" freeway- without that look they would be dealing with a lot of time wasted on stop and go city streets. These loops are very important.
And regarding the comments about I-5 at the Washington/BC border, I have been through there many times. It is not a wide freeway there, it is the minimum 2 lanes on each side- that is the minimum for an interstate, you couldn't go any smaller. And yes, there is heavy traffic across that border in both directions every day, especially on weekends. Washington State DOT says an average of 32,000 vehicles per day make that crossing. That is nothing to sneeze at! There are probably 10 lanes or gates at the crossing going into Canada and about that many going south into Washington. Traffic is slowed by each car taking maybe a couple minutes at the gate, but there is definitely volume and you could not just do away with this stretch of interstate.
^ I think a lot of it is how dominating it is from 43 east to the lake and then south over the Summerfest grounds. If it weren't there you could really tie in the financial/main area of downtown with the 3rd Ward, the river, Amtrak station, public market, summerfest grounds, etc.
You would have to get rid of the industrial island and all the industrial port stuff, not a raised bridge, to "tie" them together the way you're talking. The E/W road is a critical beltline regardless of what happens to the bridge, and right now KK (which has become more-and-more developed just in the past few years) and 794 are what ties downtown/3rd Ward with Bay View.
Interstate 69 in Texas is much needed. Its replacing the outdated Highway 59.
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Originally Posted by Andy
I-69 is signed in places. It is alive and needed throughout much of its proposed corridor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spade
I 69 is definitely not dead. They are building it now. In fact, it is alive in Texas as the all the us 59 in the Houston area signs have changed to I 69. I've also seen them south of Memphis as well.
First they gotta finish it off in Indiana and Arkansas needs a lot of work to do.
Most useless: Any "beltway" or "loop" interstates. This includes Washington DC's Capital Beltway (I-495), San Antonio's I-410, Atlanta's I-285, Rochester's Inner Loop (part of I-490), Harrisburg's beltway (I-81 and I-83), Columbus' Outerbelt (I-270), Kansas City's I-435 and many, many others.
Most needed: None. We have more than enough highway infrastructure in the United States as long as we maintain it.
How is the I-270 beltway around Columbus useless?
There needs to be an Interstate linking Columbus to Toledo, Ohio.
So, you would have the massive summer beach traffic between Baltimore and Ocean City, just inch thru all the traffic lights on Route 2 to reach the Bay Bridge ? Likewise all the Baltimore residents using BWI Airport ?
Most useless: Any "beltway" or "loop" interstates. This includes Washington DC's Capital Beltway (I-495),maintain it.
LOL Are you serious ??? The Wilson Bridge (part of I-495) handles 150,000 to 200,000 vehicles PER DAY Woodrow Wilson Bridge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . Would you have all that additional traffic go thru the central business district of Washington DC which already has extreme gridlock ? Because that's where the only other Potomac Bridge crossings are located. 80,000 people work in the Tysons Corner neighborhood (of Fairfax County VA) alone -- and a high proportion of them have to commute from Southern Maryland on the Wilson Bridge because they cannot afford the astronomical cost of homes in Fairfax Co, VA. Also, more tens of thousands of people commute daily between Mont Co, MD and Fairfax Co VA. Would you have them go thru downtown DC too? Actually, no new bridge crossings (except rail) have been added across the Potomac River since 1965, and since that time, overall traffic in the DC area has quadrupled.
I've heard that Beijing China has something like 5 or 6 beltways - each one further out than the other - which is even more than Houston.
So, you would have the massive summer beach traffic between Baltimore and Ocean City, just inch thru all the traffic lights on Route 2 to reach the Bay Bridge ? Likewise all the Baltimore residents using BWI Airport ?
I don't think I-97 as a road is useless, but I do think it was rather stupid to have given it a 2-digit interstate number. It should be I-795 or something.
Although the Chicago area gets some pretty heavy traffic, this highway sees almost none.The Road To Nowhere - Chicago Tribune. The film "Groundhog Day" used it, as it caused little disruption. In fact, I heard on this mornings traffic report it is closed for filming. Most needed probably US 12 south of the Wisconsin border.
Last edited by pvande55; 08-13-2013 at 04:21 AM..
Reason: Add filming note
I thought I 69 was one of the major roads of the Nafta corridor
I just drove I 70 fron Indiana to Cincy for a weekend trip and thought I275 was a nice way to keep me out of the city until I had to be there
I spent quite a bit of time on I 75 between ST ignace and the Soo and the previous poster is correct, that is a useless leg of the interstate system
I-75 in the U.P. is also part of the NAFTA corridor (notice all those semis?).
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