Very Inefficient I-275 Ramps in Pinellas County (Tampa: live, dangerous)

[crabbylion]

For those of you that are familiar with the stretch of I-275 that runs through Pinellas county, tell me this....

Why in the world are the entrance/exit ramps so sporadic? The interstate runs north-south through St. Pete, however the some of the major east-west thoroughfares don't even connect to it. Most of the time they go right under. At one junction (5th Av N.) there isn't even a northbound entrance, but there is a southbound exit.

As a guy that grew up in Tampa (roughly 15 years) I gotten used to being able to simply hop on and off I-275. What I like is that in Tampa they seemed to have built exits/entrances at almost every east-west intersection. Over in Pinellas its like a hit and miss. Unless you've lived in Pinellas for 30 years and know exactly where you can access the interstate, you're better off Googling an aerial shot prior to leaving your house.

[Mike1306]

I would rather interstates in populated areas not have an over abundance of entrances and exits as it would add to congestion.
There are numerous other routes in the area like US 19 or 4th St that you could take.
There is no entrance at 5th Ave because that is where 375 intersects 275, the entrance is at 9th, 4 blocks away.

[DWMachineshop]

I wonder how People even survived with out being able to "Google" a Map!

[ferret111]

I don't see the problem. The entrances are at 54th North, 38th North, 22nd North, et cetera. Those are major streets. I can't think of any major streets that don't have any on/offramps except for Central, and that's because it runs right between the 175/375 interchanges and ramps couldn't be built.

[mph101]

What Tampa has good ramps? Of course now they are slowly fixing things but none of those ramps in Tampa coming on to I-275 have (HAD) long enough merge lanes. You up the ramp and wham your right in the traffic.
The best one is I-4 at 22nd Ave (Ybor City). Try coming out of the Port with a heavy load of gasoline in a 18 wheeler that takes 5 minutes to gear up to 30 mph and coming up that steep ramp with a 53'rig holding 9,000 gal of gasoline going 20 mph floored then westbound into traffic moving 70 mph at the mixing bowl,... to cut across 2 lanes of traffic to get southbound on I-275, that was a rocket scientist who put those ramps up on old I-275 and I-4.
It was always a gamble pulling up on any of those short little tiny steep grades with a loaded truck trying to get onto the crazy interstate in Tampa. Not only the short ramps but the grade, a loaded truck doesn't move no matter how many cars want you to go 70 mph off the Ashly exit or Dale Mabry. The idiots who made that old road should have been tied to the frame of a tractor trailer loaded at the port trying to use those dumb ramps.
Pinellas interstate even at its worse was superior to anything Tampa had before they started improving that dinosaur a decade ago
Mike Peterson gave the correct response. My example of I-4 at 22nd Ave (Ybor) is a perfect example of a exit in a heavy industrial area that is too close to the merging of I-4 & I-275 with two many exits near it both north and south making it very dangerous until the recent improvements. It is a wonder some worse accidents didn't occur there but plenty of people died because of how that thing was build by morons.

Limited Access Highway= Interstate system.

[Angler]

As feret said, with the exception of Central, the main east/west corridors have ramps. It's actually extremely efficient for the interstate and keeps traffic flowing. Also, the off-ramps are nice and long.

As for 5th Ave N, I take the NORTHBOUND on-ramp to I-275 every day for work. I don't know what you're talking about when say there isn't one. It's right past the off-ramp, under I-275.