We're map freaks, here at aaroads.com. Unabashedly. We have big boxes full of old ones, we stop to get new ones at state lines, and several of us work in the mapping industry. I work at Mapsco, in Dallas, myself. So it is with a sense of extreme excitement that I'd like to point out the release of the first ever Cartography Design Annual http://www.cartographyannual.com/. Most design industries have annual [...]
Continuing with our I-49 corridor theme, it's time to look at Shreveport's non interstate-interstates. The Clyde Fant memorial parkway runs southeast from downtown along the Red River. It goes through miles of parkland and passes by the city's major hospital and it's major tourist attractions (the casinos). The view below looks north at downtown Shreveport from the Parkway. Click any images for a larger view. I-20 east at [...]
Behold - Texas' new style of signing FM road junctions along major routes. I like! U.S. 80 east at FM 9
Interstate 540 is a two-parter. The southern section runs from the Oklahoma state line and bypasses Fort Smith and runs over the wide Arkansas River to end at I-40 northeast of the city. The newer, northern section, runs north from I-40 to the state's northwest metro area. Continuing on our future-Interstate-49 trend, lets take a look at I-540 in Arkansas. This view looks eastward at the Arkansas State [...]
Interstate 635 is an approximately 12 mile long bypass running to the west of downtown Kansas City. It is mostly in Kansas, but runs into Missouri as well. The entire route was recently reconstructed by KDOT in a $98 million project that also saw the rebuilding of its interchange with Interstate 70. Lets take a quick look at Interstate 635 in Kansas. Click any of the image for larger versions. [...]
Interstate 435 spends 80 miles circling Kansas City, and is one of the busiest roads in the metro area. It happens to be the world's fourth longest beltway with a single number (after Cincy, Berlin, and London). Recently, the busy southern portion of the route in Kansas was reconstructed, and parts of it are still being upgraded. Let's take a quick look at how KDOT is doing. As always click [...]
Missouri State Route 249 (two-fortynine, I-49, get it?) is a new freeway being constructed around the east side of Joplin. Currently, Joplin is served by Interstate 44 and a US 71 freeway that runs north from Arkansas and I-540. Such notable names as Langston Hughes and Jackass' Preston Lacy can claim Joplin as a hometown. Let's take a look at the as-yet-incomplete SR 249 - aka the Range Line bypass [...]
This is a look at the Texas trunk highway system. It's an offshoot of the governor's crazy Trans-Texas corridor http://www.keeptexasmoving.com/index.php/trans-texas_corridor scheme, but makes more sense. The idea is to connect huge parts of the state with expressways, building freeway bypasses of almost every populated place. Click images for larger versions. Munday's (pop. 1,500) new bypass This view shows the bypass at Seymour (pop 3,000), which [...]
Lubbock, Texas is a city of about 250,000 smack on the middle of the Caprock - an oil and agricultural rich perfectly flat region in West Texas. The city is also in the process of getting its third freeway, named for retired Texas Tech basketball coach Marsha Sharp. What's the deal with naming freeways after people who are still alive? I thought you weren't supposed to do that. Click any [...]
Check out this NY Times Article on highway signs, their fonts, their history, and Clearview. Blame the Clearview scourge on the elderly, and good salesmen, I say. IH 45 north at Beltway 8 Spot the clearview above... Is highway gothic really that "dangerous"? In its use since 1949 how many hundreds of people have been maimed or killed on our nations highways because of a font? [...]
