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Have been randomly curious about the Bangor, Maine area today and I noticed it has a spur interstate, I-395, which is easily one of the most marginal spurs that I've seen. It mainly serves to connect the suburb of Brewer (9.6k people) to I-95.
There are a couple exits in Bangor itself, but they easily could've just been a long I-95 off-ramp. Even that might be unnecessary; Bangor's downtown is not that far from I-95.
Despite this, it's one of the older interstates, with the first section opening to the public in 1959.
Needed: Interstate from Memphis --> Huntsville --> Atlanta area.
Not needed: I-22
These two sentences come close to contradicting each other. If there is an interstate link needed between Memphis and Atlanta, I-22 (along with I-20) is one of the most direct routes possible. Granted, Huntsville gets left out, but still . . .
These two sentences come close to contradicting each other. If there is an interstate link needed between Memphis and Atlanta, I-22 (along with I-20) is one of the most direct routes possible. Granted, Huntsville gets left out, but still . . .
I-22 goes through, or just north of, Tupelo, MS - a small city of about 35,000, the only sizable town along the route; but not only Huntsville (current metro population of about 515,000) gets left out, but the Decatur metro and the Shoals metro areas (each around 150,000) are left out.
I think there needs to be a better highway connection between D.C. and the Delaware and Maryland coast. The Bay Bridge is a bottleneck and it forces people to cross the Bay close to Baltimore but then there's no direct highway to the Delaware coast that's only like 50 miles away from there and instead the highway takes you south toward Easton/Cambridge before leading you to Ocean City. As a result neither Rehoboth Beach/Lewes nor Ocean City are as close or convenient to reach as they seem.
It feels almost like it's designed intentionally to minimize the day trip potential from the D.C. area, but it's odd for one of the biggest metro areas in the country to not have a direct high capacity, high speed link to its closest coastline with tourism potential.
I-22 goes through, or just north of, Tupelo, MS - a small city of about 35,000, the only sizable town along the route; but not only Huntsville (current metro population of about 515,000) gets left out, but the Decatur metro and the Shoals metro areas (each around 150,000) are left out.
Use apples and apples. The Tupelo micropolitan area is 160k. Besides, there's really nothing else in between the Shoals and Memphis either. Once hitting Alabama, it's more of an approach into Atlanta issue. Going through Huntsville would hit the already overloaded I-75. I-20 is a bit freer for the final entry into Atlanta.
Texas:
I-27 extension south from Lubbock to San Angelo; north from Amarillo to Raton, NM and/or Rapid City, SD.
I-14 extension from Waco, TX to Kilgore, TX.
I-45 extension to Oklahoma border.
Interstate upgrade replacing US290, US183, US87, US 67 and US385 from Houston to Fort Stockton, TX.
Interstate upgrade from Fort Worth to Amarillo
Interstate upgrade from Austin to Lubbock replacing US183 and US84
Other states:
I-30 extension from Little Rock to Festus, MO replacing US167/US67.
I-45 extension in Oklahoma replacing US69 and interstate upgrade from McAlester, OK to Lenexa, KS.
I-57 extension from Sikeston, MO to NW Arkansas.
I-37 should be extended south to the Lower Rio Grande Valley ....Brownsville...
I-35 should be extended south from Laredo to McAllen
If I'm not mistaken, your I-37 extension will be served by I-69E and I-35 will be served by I-2. (Not totally sure that I-2 is supposed to go as far northwest as Laredo, but I think it is.)
This one might become marginally more useful if and when they ever build I-69 from Memphis up through Dyersburg and on toward Union City.
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