New York

[KEVIN_224]

Is this any better for you? Still kinda blurry.

[cu2010]

Took a little trip from VT out to Massena, NY over the weekend. 

Hey, that's my neck of the woods!

[route17fan]

Is this any better for you? Still kinda blurry.

I'm grateful it has survived this long. (not sure how it survived, but still nice to see)

[cu2010]

I'm grateful it has survived this long. (not sure how it survived, but still nice to see)

Region 7 is notoriously slow at replacing things.

Speaking of Region 7, they've actually begun replacing all of the Seaway Trail markers with ones with the new name and design introduced in 2010. Unfortunately, there's considerably fewer of them than before...

[Roadsguy]

Fortunately there's a decent Street View shot of it.

[empirestate]

They're working on AET as we speak, but tollbooth capacity isn't the issue. It's the lack of lanes on the crossings themselves. Every major crossing is a bottleneck because you have a bunch of expressways/parkways converging and the lanes aren't balanced. Backups originate at the merge point or after the tolls when a bunch of lanes get dropped. At GW, for example, you have I-95, Palisades Parkway, US 1/9, and NJ 4 feeding into 7 lanes of traffic. Backups there originate after the tolls.

While that's true, you have to imagine that some of the backup could be alleviated by not having so many toll lanes needing to merge back together after the plaza, as well as having different areas for cash customers and for E-ZPass users. Both movements (the merging of many lanes after the plaza, and the weaving around of vehicles to get to some other toll lane, often unnecessarily) tend to gum up the works if done in a disorderly fashion. And that's a given around here...

[xcellntbuy]

I was browsing Google Earth and I looked in the Albany area. Why is Corporate Woods Boulevard  connected to I-90 in such a large trumpet with what appears to be a concrete, interstate grade roadway? There's a similar connection on I-787.

Google "I-687". That's why.

I saw a power transmission line travels between the two trumpets, I was definitely wrong assuming that's where the routing of I-687 was supposed to go.

http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-687_ny.html

I really miss the classic 1960's and 1970's Rand McNally cartography.

Agreed.  I remember the days when all these roads existed or did not exist, as the case may be, and signed with the numbers indicated.  I guess I am showing my age.

[Duke87]

Would AET tolling on the NYC bridges help traffic?

They're working on AET as we speak, but tollbooth capacity isn't the issue. It's the lack of lanes on the crossings themselves. Every major crossing is a bottleneck because you have a bunch of expressways/parkways converging and the lanes aren't balanced. Backups originate at the merge point or after the tolls when a bunch of lanes get dropped. At GW, for example, you have I-95, Palisades Parkway, US 1/9, and NJ 4 feeding into 7 lanes of traffic. Backups there originate after the tolls.

Heck, backups often extend through the tolls. I've gone through E-ZPass lanes without having to slow down because traffic was backed up so much.

The bottleneck with the GWB is the roads connecting to it on the New York side. Note that when heading outbound during the evening rush, in the direction where there is no toll plaza to contend with, all the nasty traffic is on the roads approaching the bridge. Once you're on the bridge, you're more or less home free.
Heading inbound, when traffic backs up all the way over the bridge, it's not because of the bridge itself or because of the toll plazas. It's because 7 lanes of bridge has less than 7 equivalent lanes of highway on the New York side to dump into.

Nonetheless, while each crossing has different reasons for having traffic jams, generally speaking they are not because of the toll plaza. Not anymore at least. I remember back in the 1990s it was routine for toll plazas themselves to be the cause of traffic jams, since everyone had to stop and pay cash or at least use tokens/change baskets. Once EZpass became widely used this problem largely went away.

One noteworthy exception is the Triboro Bridge. The Triboro is generally the least traffic prone of all the East River crossings, but there are times where Bronx-Queens traffic backs up behind the toll plaza if, for whatever reason, a large number of people are paying cash at a time when relatively few cash lanes are staffed. Seems to happen mostly on Friday and Saturday nights. In these cases the lines for the cash lanes back up onto the Bronx Kill span (Queens-bound) or the main viaduct (Bronx-bound) and vehicles with EZpass have to sit in it until they get closer to the toll plaza and the roadway widens for it.

I've also observed this phenomenon on the Whitestone, but it's much less common.

[empirestate]

I was browsing Google Earth and I looked in the Albany area. Why is Corporate Woods Boulevard  connected to I-90 in such a large trumpet with what appears to be a concrete, interstate grade roadway? There's a similar connection on I-787.

Google "I-687". That's why.

I saw a power transmission line travels between the two trumpets, I was definitely wrong assuming that's where the routing of I-687 was supposed to go.

http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-687_ny.html

I really miss the classic 1960's and 1970's Rand McNally cartography.

Agreed.  I remember the days when all these roads existed or did not exist, as the case may be, and signed with the numbers indicated.  I guess I am showing my age.

What, by the way, was the original plan for NY 85 north of I-90? It seems already to have been canceled by the time of this map.

[Rothman]

There was some sort of government facility there that is now a practically abandoned brownfield; I'm betting it was an obstacle for any plans for quite a while. 

That said, I did hear a former RPPM of Region 1 say that the brownfield is basically what's been keeping NY 85 from being extended to Central Ave (besides the lack of funding for expansions).  His opinion was that the few houses right at the end of current NY 85 (south of the brownfield) would not be an obstacle cost-wise in terms of obtaining the ROW.

[xcellntbuy]

I was browsing Google Earth and I looked in the Albany area. Why is Corporate Woods Boulevard  connected to I-90 in such a large trumpet with what appears to be a concrete, interstate grade roadway? There's a similar connection on I-787.

Google "I-687". That's why.

I saw a power transmission line travels between the two trumpets, I was definitely wrong assuming that's where the routing of I-687 was supposed to go.

http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-687_ny.html

I really miss the classic 1960's and 1970's Rand McNally cartography.

Agreed.  I remember the days when all these roads existed or did not exist, as the case may be, and signed with the numbers indicated.  I guess I am showing my age.

What, by the way, was the original plan for NY 85 north of I-90? It seems already to have been canceled by the time of this map.

NY 85 was to continue north and connect with the proposed Interstate 687.

[PHLBOS]

I really miss the classic 1960's and 1970's Rand McNally cartography.

Same here.  Personally, I wish RandMcNally would revive the old graphics (but maybe still show the Interstate shields in their actual colors).  It's worth noting that some of the 3di bubble-style shields out there resemble RMN's 3di shields shapewise.  Sample 1.  Sample 2.

[D-Dey65]

I really miss the classic 1960's and 1970's Rand McNally cartography.

Same here.  Personally, I wish RandMcNally would revive the old graphics (but maybe still show the Interstate shields in their actual colors).  It's worth noting that some of the 3di bubble-style shields out there resemble RMN's 3di shields shapewise.  Sample 1.  Sample 2.

I'm more interested in the use of proposed and under construction roads on these maps than the old graphics themselves.

But back on the proposed "improvements" for NY 27 (I still can't find that link); If they're going to add the service roads, and I firmly believe they should, they should add them to the originally intended rights of way. I may have to take drastic measures on a google search to find this proposal.

[okc1]

I'm more interested in the use of proposed and under construction roads on these maps than the old graphics themselves

I can see RMcN not getting into the controversy of proposed routes, but I would like to see a "approved - awaiting funding" for routes with an approved FEIS and other coordination.

[PHLBOS]

I'm more interested in the use of proposed and under construction roads on these maps than the old graphics themselves

I can see RMcN not getting into the controversy of proposed routes, but I would like to see a "approved - awaiting funding" for routes with an approved FEIS and other coordination.

Such would have been helpful while the US 202 Parkway was under construction south of Doylestown, Bucks County, PA.  During the years the road was finally under construction, not one map/atlas showed the road as such (broken/dashed line).   Only after the road opened, did maps/atlases started showing it.  Contrast such to the decades of showing the Blue Route/I-476 as a dotted/dashed line.

[Rothman]

All I know is that Rand McNally showed the Nashua, NH bypass as being under construction for what was probably decades.

[cl94]

All I know is that Rand McNally showed the Nashua, NH bypass as being under construction for what was probably decades.

Does it still show it as being under construction?

[Alex]

The artwork change with the 1980 North American Road Atlas dropped the proposed freeway line work. They probably figured by then that so few new roads were going to be added that it was no longer necessary to show any proposals. That or if they did, they would just show it as under construction as they did for the Nashua Bypass and others (as I recall the two portions of I-476 were shown u/c for years too).

All I know is that Rand McNally showed the Nashua, NH bypass as being under construction for what was probably decades.

Equally they have shown the K-4 freeway extension as under construction on the Topeka inset for over ten years. The highway is still planned, but not funded.

All I know is that Rand McNally showed the Nashua, NH bypass as being under construction for what was probably decades.

Does it still show it as being under construction?

No they finally dropped it.

[cl94]

All I know is that Rand McNally showed the Nashua, NH bypass as being under construction for what was probably decades.

Does it still show it as being under construction?

No they finally dropped it.

It's about flipping time. I lived in Nashua long before I could remember anything and my parents said that was planned long before they moved there. Anyone know which edition finally removed it?

[Alex]

It's about flipping time. I lived in Nashua long before I could remember anything and my parents said that was planned long before they moved there. Anyone know which edition finally removed it?

They dropped it in the 2009 edition.

[Rothman]

It's about flipping time. I lived in Nashua long before I could remember anything and my parents said that was planned long before they moved there. Anyone know which edition finally removed it?

They dropped it in the 2009 edition.

Heh.  I thought it was a couple of years even after that.

[mariethefoxy]

Has anyone else noticed the really bad potholes on the Sunrise Highway Service road in Babylon? They stuck ROUGH ROAD signs by one of the bad stretches, which looks literally like the surface of the moon, even worse than some of the sections of the FDR Drive.

[cl94]

Has anyone else noticed the really bad potholes on the Sunrise Highway Service road in Babylon? They stuck ROUGH ROAD signs by one of the bad stretches, which looks literally like the surface of the moon, even worse than some of the sections of the FDR Drive.

That's typical Erie County practice. Rough road sign goes up 5-10 years before they fix it.

[Rothman]

It was also the case on NY 85.  First case I was aware of where they were placed on a freeway.   

I heard they're used as a means to mitigate liability, of all things.

[route17fan]

Has anyone else noticed the really bad potholes on the Sunrise Highway Service road in Babylon? They stuck ROUGH ROAD signs by one of the bad stretches, which looks literally like the surface of the moon, even worse than some of the sections of the FDR Drive.

That's typical Erie County practice. Rough road sign goes up 5-10 years before they fix it.

Would we be able to throw Chautauqua County in to that as well? On I-86 east at the PA-NY state line, not only are there ROUGH ROAD signs, but they are in construction colors, with z-bars! (which I am told are indications of a long-term sign posting)