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The interstate highway system was an extremely ambitious and forward-looking plan. This forward-looking component was not always an easy sell. I regularly drive

The interstate highway system was an extremely ambitious and forward-looking plan. This forward-looking component was not always an easy sell. I regularly drive one of the last sections of the original interstate system to be completed, I-25 between Socorro and Truth or Consequences. The existing US Highways serving this area received very little traffic and work on the interstate did not even begin until the late '60s, due to a combination of the state refusing to expend the money and controversy over the bypass issue. The bypass issue is an extremely important part of the interstate system. Because interstates must be freeways, it was extremely difficult to place them through towns, and so they usually "bypassed" the town. Especially in the west this had a devastating economic impact and lead to a broad trend of urban blight on roads which are former US highways. Late in interstate construction efforts were made to prevent this, but the problem was more or less intractable as not bypassing required a large amount of demolition. At the same time, in urban areas there was an almost incredible enthusiasm for freeways. Modern Albuquerque has two freeways which more or less divide it into four quadrants. However, controversy around routing of I-40 during initial planning lead to a response of ¿porque no los dos? and at the peak of freeway mania plans included three east-west cross-town freeways (two of them barely more than a mile apart) as well as a beltway. Fortunately these plans were largely abandoned before construction, which is not the case in other cities in which construction was started before cancellation (for example, Portland's "Mt. Hood Freeway," one of the many urban freeway projects designed by Robert Moses who started out hero and ended up villain as the destructive impacts of urban freeways became clear. Freeways are, as many large things, an epic history to themselves.

jcrawfordor 7y ago
Also, it's impossible to talk about freeways without mentioning I-19, which is signed in kilometers because it seemed at the time like the US was ready to go metric, and the Bay Area's I-380 which is not quite two miles long. It would have been longer had the original plans not been cancelled, but not much longer. Even then it's longer than I-180 which is only one mile, but I like the example if I-380 more because it's so heavily trafficked and it's quite clear at the interchange with I-280 where it almost went on further. I-19's metric signage and I-280 connect to an odd common thread, though: California, perhaps because of its size and historic isolation, has historically had its own way of doing things. This extends to freeways, where California retained its historic system of marking highways (post-miles) instead of adopting mile-posts as the federal government dictated. The difference there is slight, but there's a bigger difference: California did not, initially, number its exits. Instead they were known only by name. By the '80s they had started numbering all exits but in areas with older infrastructure, such as 101 through San Francisco, most exist are still unnumbered until something forces them to replace the signs. The decision not to number exits is perhaps partially because of the post-mile system in which mile numbers are somewhat less linear than mileposts, but probably more due to California's large set of US Highways which were upgraded to freeway condition (such as 101) and had not historically been numbered. Today this would be unusual, a US Highway updated to freeway infrastructure is more often designated as a freeway (see this happening with US-93 near Las Vegas becoming I-11), but California did it in a number of major places. The "California Difference" runs deep. Traffic signal controllers in California are built to a different standard than in the rest of the country, for example (except a few states that later adopted the California system). Mostly it's first-mover advantage.
dreamcompiler 7y ago
Interesting. I live in NM and always wondered how they managed to plow not one but two interstates right through the middle of Albuquerque. It has turned out to be a boon for the city I expect. It's very easy to get from one side of the city to the other and as one of the major cities on Route 66 (now I-40) Albuquerque certainly hasn't lost its prominence along that major east/west route.

jcrawfordor 7y ago

Also, it's impossible to talk about freeways without mentioning I-19, which is signed in kilometers because it seemed at the time like the US was ready to go metric, and the Bay Area's I-380 which is not quite two miles long. It would have been longer had the original plans not been cancelled, but not much longer. Even then it's longer than I-180 which is only one mile, but I like the example if I-380 more because it's so heavily trafficked and it's quite clear at the interchange with I-280 where it almost went on further. I-19's metric signage and I-280 connect to an odd common thread, though: California, perhaps because of its size and historic isolation, has historically had its own way of doing things. This extends to freeways, where California retained its historic system of marking highways (post-miles) instead of adopting mile-posts as the federal government dictated. The difference there is slight, but there's a bigger difference: California did not, initially, number its exits. Instead they were known only by name. By the '80s they had started numbering all exits but in areas with older infrastructure, such as 101 through San Francisco, most exist are still unnumbered until something forces them to replace the signs. The decision not to number exits is perhaps partially because of the post-mile system in which mile numbers are somewhat less linear than mileposts, but probably more due to California's large set of US Highways which were upgraded to freeway condition (such as 101) and had not historically been numbered. Today this would be unusual, a US Highway updated to freeway infrastructure is more often designated as a freeway (see this happening with US-93 near Las Vegas becoming I-11), but California did it in a number of major places. The "California Difference" runs deep. Traffic signal controllers in California are built to a different standard than in the rest of the country, for example (except a few states that later adopted the California system). Mostly it's first-mover advantage.

dreamcompiler 7y ago

Interesting. I live in NM and always wondered how they managed to plow not one but two interstates right through the middle of Albuquerque. It has turned out to be a boon for the city I expect. It's very easy to get from one side of the city to the other and as one of the major cities on Route 66 (now I-40) Albuquerque certainly hasn't lost its prominence along that major east/west route.