Bypasses/Beltways that are busier/more congested than the routes they bypass

[plain]

Obviously bypasses of small towns and villages will be omitted as their bypasses obviously carries more traffic and there would be too many examples, so let's go with places that has a population of 100k or more metro.

I'm throwing Baltimore out there as an example.

[amroad17]

ATLANTA!!!

[US 89]

Myrtle Beach SC (yes, the city is only 27K, but the metro is 450K so I think it should count). From my experience, mainline US 17 (referred to on signs as Highway 17 By-Pass) is much busier than Business US 17 (the original road).

[plain]

^Indeed I meant metro. Fixing it now.

[BigRTM]

I-275 (in Florida) through Tampa and St. Petersburg can definitely qualify. Unlike most, here it is the bypass that goes through the cities and not the main route (I-75).

[froggie]

Not sure I'd include I-275 as that route was clearly intended to serve the cities and not as a bypass.  You could argue that I-75 is the "bypass" there.

[Roadgeekteen]

I- 405.

[TXtoNJ]

The West Loop and West Belt in Houston tend to be more congested than I-45 and 59 (except for the 288 merge).

[Henry]

I- 405.

I presume you mean in L.A.? Because you could be thinking about Seattle too.

[US 89]

I- 405.

I presume you mean in L.A.? Because you could be thinking about Seattle too.

From my experience, I-405 in Seattle is definitely less busy than I-5.

[Roadgeekteen]

I- 405.

I presume you mean in L.A.? Because you could be thinking about Seattle too.

L. A.

[jeffandnicole]

I-295 in NJ is extremely similar to, if not more congested than, I-95 in PA.  Especially in the reverse commute.

[Life in Paradise]

Not sure I'd include I-275 as that route was clearly intended to serve the cities and not as a bypass.  You could argue that I-75 is the "bypass" there.

Of course, originally I-275 was I-75 and dead ended in St. Pete.

[jwolfer]

Not sure I'd include I-275 as that route was clearly intended to serve the cities and not as a bypass.  You could argue that I-75 is the "bypass" there.

Of course, originally I-275 was I-75 and dead ended in St. Pete.

I think 75 was routed on the bypass because the old sunshine skyway bridge was not up to interstate standards and tolled..

Was it not a 75E/W set up in original plans?

LGMS428

[jwolfer]

Many bypasses no longer function as effective bypasses...

Back in 1950s they were outside developed areas, now they connect suburbs.. Going straight thru is less miles and its a eash on time

LGMS428

[ekt8750]

In the Philly metro, I-676 from end to end is 10 times worse than the portion of I-76 that it's supposed to bypass no thanks to the traffic light at the foot of the Ben Franklin Bridge that causes a lot of the gridlock. The NJ portion isn't spared either as the I-76/I-295/NJ-42 clusterfuck often causes back ups that extend into I-676 deep into Camden. Just yesterday a storm came through during the PM rush and the back up it caused went as far back as the foot of the Ben on Jersey side.

I-476 is a joke of a bypass for I-76 as well and we all know the story of why half of that road was under built.

I-276 gets an honorable mention with the standstills that road gets, though given the nature of the road, it probably should be an odd numbered 3DI.

It seems that none of I-76's children do a good job of carrying traffic away from it.

[bzakharin]

I-295 in NJ is extremely similar to, if not more congested than, I-95 in PA.  Especially in the reverse commute.

I wouldn't go that far. I'd say I-295 is congested in both directions at I-76 because that's the major entrance into / exit from Philly. The NJ 73 exit is similar, though less congested as it leads to the Northeast and not center city. It still works quite well as a general bypass compared to I-95 which is congested throughout Philly.

I would also question whether 295 is really a bypass of 95 since they don't really serve the same traffic except on a super local level. The only exception is traffic headed north to within a few miles of either side of the Scudders Falls Bridge, which can be reached using either route. The real bypass is the NJ Turnpike, and there is no comparison between that and I-95 in terms of congestion.

In the Philly metro, I-676 from end to end is 10 times worse than the portion of I-76 that it's supposed to bypass no thanks to the traffic light at the foot of the Ben Franklin Bridge that causes a lot of the gridlock. The NJ portion isn't spared either as the I-76/I-295/NJ-42 clusterfuck often causes back ups that extend into I-676 deep into Camden. Just yesterday a storm came through during the PM rush and the back up it caused went as far back as the foot of the Ben on Jersey side.

Since I-676 was originally designed to be the thru route, and 76 the bypass, this actually makes sense.

[RobbieL2415]

The eastern Hampton Roads Beltway (I-64 portion) is ALWAYS congested, every time I vacation down that way.

[briantroutman]

It seems a lot of the dubious entries in this thread are a result of the incorrect assumption that 3DI = bypass.

[jakeroot]

I- 405.

I presume you mean in L.A.? Because you could be thinking about Seattle too.

From my experience, I-405 in Seattle is definitely less busy than I-5.

The 405 between I-90 and Renton (both directions) is a perpetual traffic jam. If I were going from Everett to Tacoma, I'd use the 5 any day over the 405. Once they finish the express lanes from where they end now (in downtown Bellevue) to Renton, I'll be using the 405 every time I go north. But until then, the 5 seems to flow better.

That said, there has been much debate over whether or not the 405 was ever meant to be a bypass road.

[Max Rockatansky]

I-275 around Detroit seemed to be way more busy than I-75 was in the city.  Probably has a lot to do I-96 being multiplexed and Detroit kind of being an urban corpse and everything moving to suburbs.  Anyone have the traffic counts by chance?  An argument could probably be made for I-275 in Florida since it was originally mainline I-75 to Tampa. 

[ilpt4u]

This thread almost makes me want to look up Traffic Counts on I-294 and the Bishop Ford and Edens segments of I-94 in Chicago...

Pretty sure the Dan Ryan and Kennedy segments of I-94 (multiplexed with I-90, plus feeder traffic from I-57 on the South end) will generally out-pace the I-294 segment of the Tri State, tho.

It seems a lot of the dubious entries in this thread are a result of the incorrect assumption that 3DI = bypass.

I-290 might fight hard with I-90, tho I-290 doesn't really function as a bypass, and one could argue shouldn't even exist as a number (The Rt 53/Schaumburg segment between I-355 and I-90 could easily be a Northward extension of I-355, the segment between I-355 and I-294/I-88 an x88 or potentially x55 or x94, and the segment from I-88/I-294 into Downtown/Congress Parkway/I-90/94/Circle Interchange, an extension of I-88). But it is numbered as a Bypass (O'Hare Bypass?). Historically, I believe the Ike was the original routing of I-90

Does I-355 count as an IL 53 Bypass? Or is it simply the DuPage (and now Will) County Tollway? If it counts, I know the winner on this one =)

It seems a lot of the dubious entries in this thread are a result of the incorrect assumption that 3DI = bypass.

Keep going the other way on this idea, you could even argue that some bypasses built for 2DIs that replaced the surface streets are bypasses with higher traffic counts than the original

I-57 and I-74 around Champaign/Urbana (combined population of around 120k, per google) bypassing US 45 and US 150, respectfully. The I-55/I-74/US 51 Multiplex bypass of Bloomington/Normal (combined population of around 130k, per google), bypassing US 66, US 150, and "Business"/Old US 51 through town, are a couple of 2DI examples

[plain]

I do believe that a lot of beltways and bypasses were indeed built to bypass the cities but, as jwolfer pointed out, became commuter routes themselves when heavy development was allowed to be built along them... ESPECIALLY office parks and such (think Tysons Corner). And when companies move from a city's center to those parks it just totally changes the whole scheme of things.

[Bruce]

Thanks to highway-oriented sprawl, almost all bypasses will eventually become congested enough to be useless. No matter how many lanes, no matter how few exits.

[jakeroot]

Thanks to highway-oriented sprawl, almost all bypasses will eventually become congested enough to be useless. No matter how many lanes, no matter how few exits.

They are a bit ironic, aren't they? Without smart growth planning, they become futile.