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Pre-interstate road trip through Iowa

Started by Stephane Dumas, March 30, 2011, 06:01:52 PM

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Stephane Dumas



Scott5114

Very nice. Tons of old signs, especially 1948-spec white background shields (and a few '26-spec Iowa US 30s hanging around). Despite what the seek bar says it's only 17 minutes long, so well worth the time.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

agentsteel53

live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

jake@aaroads.com

RoadWarrior56

I did not realize that "No Passing Zone" pennants were in use that early.  I didn't see them in Indiana until the late 60's.  I love the white skips sorrounded by yellow lines, brings back childhood memories.

mgk920

And whenever I drive some of those types of 'old' roads (I successfully navigated 'old' US 20 between Waterloo, IA and US 71 back in the mid-1990s), I often wonder what those roads were like in the pre-interstate days.

It is fascinating to note that such an 'old road' not far from there is still in primary use - most of US 20 between Freeport and East Dubuque, IL is still in its 1930s form.

Nice ride in that film!

:clap:

Mike

Brian556

I know that most of us like old stuff and alot of people like to say that things were better in the old days. Watching this video re-enforces my belief that things are better today.

Notice that none of the gas stations had awnings over the pumps.

Cars often had no a/c, glass headlights that you could not see s*** with, and had manual transmissions (which I HATE)

These two-lane highways were very narrow and unsafe. Slow-moving trucks obstructed traffic.
The signs are very difficult to read due to small text (esp. the clearance sign), and you could not dissern between the US and state highway markers due to the thin outlines.

And, in this video the towns were junky-looking. From other photographic sources, I have noticed that big cities were also junky-looking during this time period, but have improved signifigantly. We make alot more effort on appearence of newer bulidings/properties.

agentsteel53

Quote from: Brian556 on April 02, 2011, 08:17:35 PMyou could not dissern between the US and state highway markers due to the thin outlines.


part of that is halation due to the filming technology at the time.  the first gantry that they show (IA-64, US-30, IA-330), I thought it was just plain squares with route numbers and no shield outlines, because of the halation... I had thought I had discovered a previously unknown style of route marker used in Iowa.

When looking closely at it, they do indeed have circles for the state routes and the US shield for 30.

but yes, the video shows clearly the problem of the 1948 specification of route markers.  having just an outline makes it pretty indiscernible under adverse conditions.
live from sunny San Diego.

http://shields.aaroads.com

jake@aaroads.com

iowahighways

Quote from: RoadWarrior56 on April 02, 2011, 09:29:00 AM
I did not realize that "No Passing Zone" pennants were in use that early.  I didn't see them in Indiana until the late 60's.  I love the white skips sorrounded by yellow lines, brings back childhood memories.

Iowa invented the No Passing Zone pennant -- they first used them in 1958 along that stretch of US 30 shown in that film.
The Iowa Highways Page: Now exclusively at www.iowahighways.org
The Iowa Highways Photo Gallery: www.flickr.com/photos/iowahighways/



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