It's 2014 and I still can't believe that.....

[dfwmapper]

50. Removing the left exiting/entering ramps at the I-35E/I-635 interchange wasn't part of the LBJ Express project

[ctsignguy]

51. ......we found 50 items....

[Alex]

52. That states haven't yet eliminated all remaining rest areas or converted them over to truck only areas...

[dgolub]

53. There's still temporary orange signage for exit 14 on the FDR Drive southbound, and the exit itself is still a mess.  It's been like that for four years now, and they haven't been doing any construction in that time.

[dgolub]

1) I-95 in the Bronx is still only 6-lanes east of the Major Deegan (I-87).

Given how dense and urbanized the area is, I'm not convinced that that one is ever going to change.  It would probably alleviate a lot of the traffic through there, though.

[NE2]

1) I-95 in the Bronx is still only 6-lanes east of the Major Deegan (I-87).

Given how dense and urbanized the area is, I'm not convinced that that one is ever going to change.  It would probably alleviate a lot of the traffic through there, though.

Example 1 of why using traffic as a synonym for traffic jams is problematic.

[english si]

In before we don't have flying cars.

They'll come next year and they'll run on trash. I saw a documentary.

54. The M25 between the M4 and M40 is still only 8-lanes, when it had too much traffic for that 25 years ago, with no plans (even as part of Heathrow expansion) to widen it and relieve the perma-jam! (and unlike the Bronx, isn't running through a dense urban area)

[Pete from Boston]

52. That states haven't yet eliminated all remaining rest areas or converted them over to truck only areas...

They're cash cows.  Why eliminate them?

[1995hoo]

52. That states haven't yet eliminated all remaining rest areas or converted them over to truck only areas...

They're cash cows.  Why eliminate them?

Virginia's former governor, Tim Kaine, ordered a bunch of them (but not all of them) closed to save money, but it was mainly political grandstanding because the amount saved was minuscule in the context of the whole budget. His successor, Bob McDonnell, had them re-opened. The Kaine Administration told people to stop at McDonald's if they needed to use the toilet.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

18 - . . . the USA is still stuck 'popularly' using a mish-mash of measures that don't relate to each other and don't progress in powers of 10 (don't go from scale to scale by moving the decimal point).

Check!

[2Co5_14]

55.  ...there still is no permanent funding mechanism for the Federal Highway Trust Fund (that would pay for a lot of the unfinished items listed above.)

[vdeane]

56. That A-25 and A-30 in Quebec have transponders that aren't even inter-operable with each other, let alone anything else.

[riiga]

57. The US still relies on writing out everything instead of using symbols and pictograms.

18 - . . . the USA is still stuck 'popularly' using a mish-mash of measures that don't relate to each other and don't progress in powers of 10 (don't go from scale to scale by moving the decimal point).

Check!

Another check!

[formulanone]

47.  It's cheaper to fly out of RDU than PTI
49.  That signs in Greensboro now say PTI-GSO airport.

Oddly, I find that flying into GSO is rather cheap (and quite hassle-free), presumably to woo passengers from going to Charlotte. It did bug me that the signs used to solely have "PTI", which is an acronym, but not the airport code.

56. That there's still a lot of dirt and gravel roads left to be improved. I used to think every gravel road that wasn't a driveway would get paved someday.

[cl94]

47.  It's cheaper to fly out of RDU than PTI
49.  That signs in Greensboro now say PTI-GSO airport.

Oddly, I find that flying into GSO is rather cheap (and quite hassle-free), presumably to woo passengers from going to Charlotte. It did bug me that the signs used to solely have "PTI", which is an acronym, but not the airport code.

56. That there's still a lot of dirt and gravel roads left to be improved. I used to think every gravel road that wasn't a driveway would get paved someday.

56.5) Several states have unpaved state routes (and not just the Moki Dugway)

[jeffandnicole]

7,392:  That speed limits have risen on highways to 80 & 85 mph.  Yet, speed limits on local roads continue to go lower, and towns and planners find more ways to slow traffic down even further.

[Brandon]

57. The US still relies on writing out everything instead of using symbols and pictograms.

Not exactly true, and the European countries use their fair share of text as well.

[SidS1045]

1) I-95 in the Bronx is still only 6-lanes east of the Major Deegan (I-87).

Given how dense and urbanized the area is, I'm not convinced that that one is ever going to change.  It would probably alleviate a lot of the traffic through there, though.

The biggest problems one would have in widening the Cross Bronx are:

--The fact that much of the road runs in an open cut with concrete walls and literally no extra room on either side.
--Blasting out the extra room for two more lanes would mean blasting through some of the hardest rock known in the US, Fordham gneiss.  It was a slow-go in the 1960's to blast out the initial six-lane ROW and would be no less problematical today.
--Atop the open cut on both sides are service roads connecting to local streets.
--Dozens of buildings immediately adjacent to the service roads would have to be condemned and torn down.  Given what buildings are worth today, the condemnation costs alone would be prohibitive.
--There are multiple overpasses carrying the Bronx's major local streets, and all those overpasses would need to be reconstructed.  Those streets cannot be closed for any length of time without major disruptions.  Atop the overpass at Jerome Avenue is the Woodlawn branch of the #4 subway line, which also must be held in place and kept operating during any construction.  It was no less than a miracle that Robert Moses managed to do so in the 1960's.
--And, of course, you must have the political will to even imagine such a project, never mind financing it and seeing it through.

If you never read another book about road construction, you should read the chapter "One Mile" in Robert Caro's The Power Broker.  What it takes to hack out the ROW for a major highway through a densely populated city is presented in graphic detail...both the construction details and the human cost.

[kkt]

Cars still burn gasoline, and gasoline is still relatively cheap.

[jakeroot]

54. The M25 between the M4 and M40 is still only 8-lanes, when it had too much traffic for that 25 years ago, with no plans (even as part of Heathrow expansion) to widen it and relieve the perma-jam! (and unlike the Bronx, isn't running through a dense urban area)

Uhh, what about the M23 north of the M25? Certainly that should have been cleaned up long ago (though the Coulsdon Bypass was a step in the right direction).

When I first went to England, this was the first image I took (M23 north of J8):

[kj3400]

54. The M25 between the M4 and M40 is still only 8-lanes, when it had too much traffic for that 25 years ago, with no plans (even as part of Heathrow expansion) to widen it and relieve the perma-jam! (and unlike the Bronx, isn't running through a dense urban area)

Uhh, what about the M23 north of the M25? Certainly that should have been cleaned up long ago.

When I first went to England, this was the first image I took (M23 north of J8):

*pic of cars in traffic*

Apparently the issue with the M23 is that there's no way to widen the A23, the road it empties out on, and even if they simply rerouted it around part of it, it would still end on that substandard A23, merely moving the problem a mile or so north.

[jakeroot]

54. The M25 between the M4 and M40 is still only 8-lanes, when it had too much traffic for that 25 years ago, with no plans (even as part of Heathrow expansion) to widen it and relieve the perma-jam! (and unlike the Bronx, isn't running through a dense urban area)

Uhh, what about the M23 north of the M25? Certainly that should have been cleaned up long ago.

When I first went to England, this was the first image I took (M23 north of J8):

*pic of cars in traffic*

Apparently the issue with the M23 is that there's no way to widen the A23, the road it empties out on, and even if they simply rerouted it around part of it, it would still end on that substandard A23, merely moving the problem a mile or so north.

I could come up with a good routing. First thing would be to re-utilize the old bypass (rebuild it, obviously) and then route it east of the Hooley city center. North of that, it would squeeze over Hollymeoak Road and then plug into the Coulsdon Bypass.

Let's not forget that TFL is no stranger to massive infrastructure projects...this wouldn't be that crazy. From what I could tell on my last visit, traffic was pretty well dissipated by the time we hit the Croydon Costco. IF we could sort of fix it up to that point, I think things would at least moderately improve.

[froggie]

55.  ...there still is no permanent funding mechanism for the Federal Highway Trust Fund (that would pay for a lot of the unfinished items listed above.)

Curious why you don't consider the Federal gas tax a "permanent" funding mechanism (even though it's currently inadequate)...

[lepidopteran]

58: There's no direct freeway between Columbus, OH and Toledo (and by extension, Detroit and SE Michigan)

59: Despite incredible technology leaps in areas like computers, the mainstay of our transportation system remains the good old-fashioned internal-combustion engine.

[Pete from Boston]

Electric pants: what's the holdup?