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Los Angeles/Southern California in terms of reach and number of miles. However, a lot of people don't realize that a lot more freeways were planned to be built.
Houston is a close second. They have done a pretty good job in terms of expanding their freeway and tollway network, and those stack interchanges (particularly along the Beltway) kick ass. However, I think that their freeways have been a blessing and a curse in terms of the city's reputation. A lot of people get a look at I-45/North Freeway or I-10/East Freeway and see the industrial landscape and the endless billboards and think that all of Houston looks like that.
Dallas/Ft. Worth gets points for its extensive system and network. Their freeways aren't as "nice" looking as Houston's (except for the North Central Expressway), but in terms of reach and and accessibility, there are very few metros that can really compete.
Atlanta's freeways are wide because they have to be. Since the arterial/street network isn't up to par, we get a lot a lot of massive traffic on the freeways since the alternative routes aren't as good. The DT Connector may be wide, but it's a clusterf*ck of too many exits and entrances too close together. The Perimeter/I-285 was originally meant as a bypass, but those days are long gone. I-85 in Gwinnett County is wide and has some cool parts to it, but the congestion on that section of freeway is pretty well known. Basically, you have a metro area of 5.5 million people using a freeway system that was designed for about half of that population. When the "Freeing-The-Freeways" project that helped widen the freeways in the area in the late 1980's to accommodate the growth of the area, the freeways were not designed for the sheer amount of people that relocated to Metro Atlanta after the Olympics in 1996.
Honorable mention goes to the Kansas City Metro area. Lots of freeway miles for a metro of its size.
San Diego and Phoenix get honorable mentions from me as well.
People forget about NYC. While their network is extensive, it is quite overburdened because the freeways really aren't that wide enough. Ever been on I-95 in CT or Westchester or the LIE heading into the city?
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
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One thing I envy about Columbus is that it's half the size of the Twin Cities, yet you have 3, 4 or 5 lanes on nearly all of your freeways! We are just NOW getting to that point but it's WAY too late, of course.
One thing I envy about Columbus is that it's half the size of the Twin Cities, yet you have 3, 4 or 5 lanes on nearly all of your freeways! We are just NOW getting to that point but it's WAY too late, of course.
Columbus does have an extensive, impressive network of freeways ... constructed largely to accomodate the ongoing and future growth of this sprawling city.
Just to point something out though, Columbus is actually a much larger and more populated city than Minneapolis & St. Paul combined.
Only the addition of the vast suburbs of MSP ( the MSA ) is larger than that of Columbus.
Columbus does have an extensive, impressive network of freeways ... constructed largely to accomodate the ongoing and future growth of this sprawling city.
Just to point something out though, Columbusis actually a much larger and more populated city than Minneapolis & St. Paul combined. Only the addition of the vast suburbs of MSP ( the MSA ) is larger than that of Columbus.
Which is what really matters. Metro populations are how to really judge the size of a city. I grew up in Columbus actually and people would always say "its the largest city in Ohio" then when you go to Cleveland and Cincy which have smaller city populations and larger metro populations you can definitely tell youre in bigger cities. It kind of gives a wrong impression because Columbus isnt the largest "city" in ohio. The Cleveland area is.
As for freeways Columbus has a very organized network and this makes it very easy to get around. you can get from one side of town to the other in 20 minutes usually. Northeast Ohio (Cleveland/Akron) area have a much larger and busier freeway system though. Cleveland also has light and heavy rail which is impressive.
One thing I envy about Columbus is that it's half the size of the Twin Cities, yet you have 3, 4 or 5 lanes on nearly all of your freeways! We are just NOW getting to that point but it's WAY too late, of course.
More lanes means more construction, West. You up for that?
Which is what really matters. Metro populations are how to really judge the size of a city. I grew up in Columbus actually and people would always say "its the largest city in Ohio" then when you go to Cleveland and Cincy which have smaller city populations and larger metro populations you can definitely tell youre in bigger cities. It kind of gives a wrong impression because Columbus isnt the largest "city" in ohio. The Cleveland area is.
As for freeways Columbus has a very organized network and this makes it very easy to get around. you can get from one side of town to the other in 20 minutes usually. Northeast Ohio (Cleveland/Akron) area have a much larger and busier freeway system though. Cleveland also has light and heavy rail which is impressive.
Cleveland does have an impressive freeway system, I know this from being a proud native of the city.
You definitely do gain a sense of a "much larger city" in Cleveland ... despite the fact that Columbus ( city alone ) has nearly 400,000 more inhabitants.
The Cleveland freeway system and metro area is impressive, too ... thank's for pointing this out.
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