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[papaT10932]

I'm sure a new state would be rather quick to swap out its state highway marker, probably to a new symbol that reflects its identity better.

How about the nightmarish possibility of a new state resorting to the default circle as its highway marker and adding yet another circle to the list. I don't even want to think about it!

[mightyace]

If Western Canada seceded. I would imagine the US would be reluctant to annex it for fear of war with what remained of Canada. Would Western Canada outside of Alberta want to be in the U.S. anyway?

At least at one time some of them did.

One of the reasons that the Canadian transcontinental railroad was built was to lessen the change of the western provinces seceding.

I read in Reader's Digest a while back that the farmers on the plains feel they have more in common with their brethren in the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana, Iowa, Nebraska than they do with the big businessmen "back east" in Toronto and Montreal and government bureaucrats in Ottawa.

Though, I bet their U.S. counterparts would say the same thing about about businessmen from the eastern half of the U.S. and of Washington D.C.

[Scott5114]

I'm sure a new state would be rather quick to swap out its state highway marker, probably to a new symbol that reflects its identity better.

How about the nightmarish possibility of a new state resorting to the default circle as its highway marker and adding yet another circle to the list. I don't even want to think about it!

Well, think about it; if a region holds the rest of its state in contempt so much as to try breaking away and forming its own state, it's liable to have a deal of pride that it'd want to express in a state highway marker. Think of what happens when a region splits off to form a new country—there's always a bunch of nationalistic fervor, slogans are adopted, flags and anthems are introduced, etc, etc, often even when the new government doesn't even exert control over all its claimed territory yet.

[froggie]

- A "DC solution", which IMHO would require a 50 state approved Constitutional admendment, with a Columbia consisting of northern Virginia, suburban Maryland and DC as a state or state like entity, with a rest of Maryland and a rest of Virginia.  (There is no way that DC will ever be granted representation in the Congress as is.)

Likewise, there is no way that Virginia will give up its cash cow.  So this idea is pretty much D.O.A.

[oscar]

If Western Canada seceded. I would imagine the US would be reluctant to annex it for fear of war with what remained of Canada. Would Western Canada outside of Alberta want to be in the U.S. anyway?

Since Canada's political center is to the left of ours, US conservatives might blanch at adding population from even the more conservative Canadian provinces, which on average are more supportive than the 50 existing states of gun control, government involvement in health care, etc.

[vdeane]

I don't see why mile markers and exit numbers would have to change.  While most roads start at 0, not all do.  Just look at ON 401, ON 400, I-90 in NY, I-276, I-395, and I-17 (also I-86/NY 17, but that's just exit numbers as NY is sequential).

[rawmustard]

I don't see why mile markers and exit numbers would have to change.  While most roads start at 0, not all do.  Just look at ON 401, ON 400, I-90 in NY, I-276, I-395, and I-17 (also I-86/NY 17, but that's just exit numbers as NY is sequential).

Because if some of these interstates would cross into a new hypothetical state, the new state would use new milemarkers relative to its line. For example, if Superior were to break off from Michigan (and provided county boundaries remained the same), I-75 would have its Superior milemarker 0 in the middle of the Straits of Mackinac, and the exit numbers in Superior would be adjusted accordingly. Only 3dis would have continuity with milemarkers from a previous state, as is done currently in many places.

[vdeane]

I don't know if there's anything that says you have to adjust that stuff on a 2di, though it's certainly more desireable.  I-86's exist numbers in NY are actually an extension of the numbers in PA (though I-86's exist numbers also have a number of other issues).

[mightyace]

I don't know if there's anything that says you have to adjust that stuff on a 2di, though it's certainly more desireable.  I-86's exist numbers in NY are actually an extension of the numbers in PA (though I-86's exist numbers also have a number of other issues).

Exactly, when I-24 dips into Georgia just west of Chattanooga, it retains the mile markers and exit numbers as if it had never left Tennessee.

[Riverside Frwy]

I want to see Mexico annexed, and just have it split up with state names they Mexico already has for their different regions.Before when I was a little younger I wantED California split up into North and South California, like North and South Dakota, but I think all Californians should remain united.....

[bugo]

I want to see Mexico annexed

Not me.  Mexico is basically a third world country and annexing it would bring the US down.  It would cost trillions of dollars to bring the basic infrastructure to the level of the rest of the country.  Leave Mexico as a separate country.

[Riverside Frwy]

I want to see Mexico annexed

Not me.  Mexico is basically a third world country and annexing it would bring the US down.  It would cost trillions of dollars to bring the basic infrastructure to the level of the rest of the country.  Leave Mexico as a separate country.

Lets see.....We would save millions(maybe even billions) off border patrol and deportation payments, not to mention all the oil we would could steal.Plus, imagine the joy of all the fresh pavement of a brand new section of the Interstate Highway system.

EDIT: Also, don't forget all the tourist destinations in Mexico.If Mexico is annexed, we get all the tourist money too hehe.

[froggie]

Border/oil are valid points, but bugo's point about the basic infrastructure level trumps those...

[Scott5114]

Also there would be the difficulties of assimilating a culture with very different norms than the current American country (different language, different values, differing details in religion, etc)

[Duke87]

I've often thought that NYC area (at least the NY part) should be it's own state apart from the rest of New York.

The state of Gotham (for lack of a better name  ) would consist of New York City, Long Island and an indeterminate stretch of the lower Hudson River.   Tappan Zee Bridge?  I-84 Bridge?

Wouldn't be practical. Bear in mind that the Delaware and Catskill aqueduct systems (which together provide 90% of the city's water supply) extend well into Greene and Delaware counties, even a bit into Scoharie County. The city would be drawing water from a separate state if you put a border anywhere between it and Albany, pretty much.

[mightyace]

^^^^

That's not much different than what LA does.

Granted the Colorado River is part of the eastern boundary of California, but much of that water originates upriver in other states.

[sandiaman]

California should  definently be split into two states, due to its enormous size in population.  Eureka has  nothing in  common with say, El   Centro in the Southeast        corner.  They  could easily split  into  five states  like  Texas can do  according to thier constitution.  The state  of Jefferson was tried and  rejected  in the  Texas  panhandle.  Amarillo would have  been its  capital.  The  state of Franklin  was also a no-go  for the eastern part of Tennessee.

[burgess87]

Split New York State at IH 81.  East of the 81 remains New York.  The rest is "Western New York".

A shield design with Niagara Falls on it would be pretty freaking sweet.

[Mike_OH]

Instead of creating more states we should combine small, low populated states.  My ideas: State of New England (CT, RI, MA, VT, NH, ME); a new state combining PA and NJ; State of Delmarva (DE, MD, VA).  That would make 42 US States.

[english si]

surely the problem is more in the big empty bit between the Mississippi and the Pacific coast states (there are a few exceptions).

OK, New England has some small states - but a combined state would have about 14.5 million people (5 biggest - about halfway between FL and IL)
I'm not entirely sure that the liberals would be too happy with 10 Northeastern Senate places and Electoral College votes disappearing either!

Perhaps a better way of splitting it would be into 3:

• Northern New England (can include Atlantic Provinces if you want) : VT, NH and ME - 3.3 million - bigger than Iowa, smaller than Connecticut - Atlantic Provinces give it 5.6 million
• Southern New England : CT and RI  - 4.6 million - bigger than SC, smaller than AL.
• Massachusetts -  6.6 million - Arizona sized.

[froggie]

The original premise of this thread prompted me to spend the bulk of yesterday creating a theoretical "what-if" map, whereby the "Lower 48" becomes the "Lower 60" (59 if you exclude D.C.).  Still working on finishing up that webpage, but here's a dozen of the "what if" possibilities regarding the Interstate system.  Infer what you will until I post the map page...

[Roadgeek Adam]

Heh, here's one - if McDonald County MO got their way, we'd have a state in and of itself

[Duke87]

Instead of creating more states we should combine small, low populated states.  My ideas: State of New England (CT, RI, MA, VT, NH, ME); a new state combining PA and NJ; State of Delmarva (DE, MD, VA).  That would make 42 US States.

Heh, I've toyed with the idea of CT/MA/RI being one state and VT/NH being another, myself (Maine is already large enough on its own).
The fun part is trying to figure out what to do with all the resulting duplicate town names. The CT/MA/RI state would end up with a good three dozen of them. Sicking "New" or "Old" in front of one of the dupes would, functionally speaking, work just fine in most cases, but aesthetically speaking that would start to get really stale and clunky in a hurry. There are already several cases of this (e.g., Fairfield and New Fairfield, CT). I already don't particularly like it and would rather there not be more of them.
A better idea would be to resurrect some more old native names, I'd think. Then we can cut down on the duplicating with (Old) England, too!

[TXtoNJ]

NYC up to the Bear Mountain Bridge, all of North Jersey from 195 and the Turnpike on west, and Connecticut to Bridgeport as a new state. South Jersey and Delaware merge to form the new state of Lenape.

[english si]

Maine isn't large enough to be a state on it's own if CT and MA aren't.

Viable states aren't a matter of geographical size, but population (and culture and so on). That said, Wyoming can cope with it's population. Monaco, various island nations, etc with smaller populations. Go back to 1776 and they coped with smaller populations in the colonies - even Vermont can cope with it's population as a viable state.