Most Useless Interstate/US Highways and Places that Need Them. (garden, beach)
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Don't try to use a random GoogleMaps shot(of which looks like an early fall morning) to have any idea of what the cross-border traffic is like. You can find GoogleMaps shots of I-5 in San Ysidro leading to Tijuana with little traffic--and that's the busiest crossing in the country and usually a long wait to get back in.
Total traffic between US to Canada on the BC-Washington border has been up lately--and it's actually higher than it was in the late 90s. Even if US visitors to BC has dropped--Canadians going south(many for weekly shopping trips) have increased. The whole Blaine, Washington area outlet malls and large big box stores in Bellingham get huge amounts of Canadian shoppers and provide a boost to the economy. It doesn't matter if it's more so Canadians crossing the border these days--you still need an interstate highway right up to the border to handle the amount of cars.
I actually travel to BC a few times a year--so a random Googelmaps shot means little when I know what the waits are like... I was just in Vancouver last weekend. When I was returning to the US last Monday--early in the evening--the wait time was already close to 90 minutes at the main I-5 crossing and over 60 minutes at the alternate crossing just to the east. The crossing at Aldergrove 30 minutes to the east was fine going back to the US, but there was a 45 minute wait coming back from Canada on the other side. This is a rural area miles from the interstate. The other crossings(not just I-5 had long waits as well).
Right now just looking at the wait time, it's 80 minutes southbound at Peace Arch and 50 minutes at the alternate crossing to the east and 40 minutes at Aldergrove. This isn't indicative of the theory that no one is using the border crossings.
Drive I-75 between Soo and Mackinac, and come back and report. How many lanes wide does a road have to be, to accommodate traffic that all stops for 10 or 20 or 30 minutes? If it were only a two lane road, everyone would just stop and wait in a different place, but still get form A to B in the same time.
How many cars actually cross the border per minute? You only need enough traffic lanes to accommodate that many cars per minute, which is probably one traffic lane. For international trading and commerce, there is probably only a few trucks an hour going through. How many lanes do they need?
I think the obvious reason is that the US near the Canadian border is really rural. Only Detroit and Buffalo are urban at all.
I grew up right on I-89 near the border. It's the major route between Boston and Montreal. Deuhrrr, there aren't traffic backups in Franklin County Vermont, population 47,000; therefore there's no reason to have a 4-lane divided highway from Boston to Montreal.
Any east-west route through Huntsville, AL would be nice, but preferably one to Atlanta. I also think they should do a N-S spur off of I-65. I guess Decatur seemed like the bigger city back when interstates were designed, and I-65 now hugs a city about a third the size of the second largest metro in the state. One thing that makes useful routes hard is Redstone Arsenal. The city practically wraps around the military base.
Right now Route 48 in WV goes pretty much from Nowhere to Noplace. I have heard its going to take around 20 years to complete this road to I-81 near Strasburg VA. I have no idea where it's Western end will be or when it Might get done!! There doesn,t seem to have been much communication between WVA and VA officials about this road.
I wouldn't be able to get to Texarkana any faster or easier on I-69 than I do on US-59. It's 70-75 mph all the way. If it doesn't translate into better travel conditions, why spend the money to build a hundred new overpasses?
I-69 is dead, it will never exist, and it is not needed.
I-69 is dead. LOL. Then why is it considered one of the top priority freeways. I predict the whole thing will be completed by 2030.
As much as I love the Texas panhandle, I-27 between Lubbock and Amarillo is just weird. If it connected down to I-20 or up to I-70 it would make sense, otherwise it might as well just be a 4 lane US highway.
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