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Lovely I-68 in western MD, aka National Freeway, is the only "freeway" in MD that I'm aware of.
Beautiful highway, seeing pictures like that is giving me nostalgia already from my first major solo road trip last July from NYC to Cincinnati....carving up the western, mountainous half of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in my 2011 Kia "sports car" lol. First time hitting the streets of downtown Cincy, I couldn't even believe that this was a city, having driven in Manhattan hundreds of times in my life, especially speaking of traffic signal timing in an urban area...
The best intersection type for progression is the superstreet. It allows the signals facing opposite directions to be green at different times in the cycle.
The idea of "turning right to go left" is a main feature of the superstreet. This concept is something metro Detroit drivers have long been accustomed to. The following picture was taken along Woodward Avenue in the 1930s...
Superstreets in metro Detroit include Telegraph, 8 Mile Road, Mound Road, Hall Road, Metroplitan Parkway, Stephenson Highway, Gratiot Avenue, Northwestern Highway, Fort Street, and Michigan Avenue. The widespread use of superstreets is a major reason why Detroit has decent signal progression.
You see it in action a lot with the buses getting signal priority... and perhaps even more importantly, with emergency vehicles. Obviously they have the ROW no matter what, but it helps when the light stays green for the the entire way through the intersection.
Overall it's probably not going to help traffic / congestion all that much, especially as Los Angeles continues to grow, but one place it might be very beneficial (other than the above) is that if it cuts down on times stopped at a red light, it can really do a lot to cut down on emissions.
- An expressway is a limited access at-grade multilane highway with traffic lights at major intersections, and with all other intersections removed (or restricted to right turns onto and off of the side road). There are occasional interchanges. Usually driveways are prohibited.
- A freeway is a fully controlled access highway where there are no intersections, and entry and exit are by means of interchanges. No tolls are charged to use it.
- A tollway is like a freeway, except that tolls are charged to use it.
The above are the classes of roads used by the US Department of Transportation.
What government officials decide to name roads has nothing to do with the classes. They usually choose something that sounds nice.
The two main north/south arteries through downtown Raleigh are timed so that one only stops once (if at all) for the commute through the city core. These arteries are each 4 lanes, one-way and located just a block from the other. This has enabled Raleigh to accommodate significant amount of north and south traffic at 35mph without having to plow a freeway through the middle of the city. Because these roads are each one way, you eliminate the need for center turn lanes that eat up land and increase the overall width of the roadway.
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