Unnecessary highways

[thenetwork]

But it does save you a little cash if you are using it to avoid  the bulk of I-76 on the Ohio Turnpike.  Coming from Pittsburgh, you now only have to shell out 50 Cents to get to Cleveland, if you don't mind using the I-279/79/76 (Tpk)/680/76(Freeway)/77 combo.

I think you're a little off on your figure here.  On the route you've chosen,  you'll pass through the Gateway Toll Plaza on the PA Turnpike which is $3.75 plus the $.50 on the Ohio Tpk to I-680 which is $4.25 total.

Actually, the PA Turnpike barrier toll is only paid eastbound when coming into PA from Ohio, and then technically, it is a "free"way if you use the turnpike solely between I-79 and PA-60/Future I-376, as all the toll plazas have been removed between those three exits.

What I used to do to get to Pittsburgh "toll-free" from Youngstown was to follow I-680 south to SR-165.  Then SR-165 south to SR 14, which becomes PA-51 in PA.  Then PA-51 east would hook you up to PA-60 just south of the toll portion.

[worldtravelermsk]

Wheeling has to be the smallest city to get an interstate bypass.  One or the other of 70 or 470 was totally unneeded.

I'm sure that has a lot to do with the Wheeling Tunnel.  That creates restrictions for some trucks, and creates 1-thru lane sections.  Since I-470 is signed the recommended thru route for interstate traffic, they probably should've just switched the numbers... but people seem to figure it out anyway.

I-470 exists in OH/WV primarily as a truck bypass and a thru route while I-70 is more for local traffic. On the whole, 470 is fastest way to get through the Wheeling area; hence the "Washington, Pa" / "Columbus" destinations. It's also a much safer road than I-70 - there's no narrow tunnel, the Ohio River bridge crossing is safer, there's no dangerous weaves/interchanges and the mountain grades are much easier on truckers. While I-470 is of greater interstate quality, there probably was some opposition that prevented the route through downtown Wheeling being designated as a 3di.

[Sykotyk]

I-470 exists in OH/WV primarily as a truck bypass and a thru route while I-70 is more for local traffic. On the whole, 470 is fastest way to get through the Wheeling area; hence the "Washington, Pa" / "Columbus" destinations. It's also a much safer road than I-70 - there's no narrow tunnel, the Ohio River bridge crossing is safer, there's no dangerous weaves/interchanges and the mountain grades are much easier on truckers. While I-470 is of greater interstate quality, there probably was some opposition that prevented the route through downtown Wheeling being designated as a 3di.

I'd like to fervently refute that.

From near St. Clairsville, it's downhill to the Tunnel, relatively flat until you make the climb to Cabela Drive at Exit 9. I-470 requires a downhill to the river, a huge 5-6% grade, and a downhill grade that requires all trucks to file into one lane (the left) in order to stay on i-70. Secondly, there's a rough merge of that lane onto I-70, which is part of a righthand curve.

Hardly the safest or most efficient. Most will take their chances with the tunnel traffic than that hill on I-470 east bound.

Sykotyk

[74/171FAN]

VA 895 for sure but IMHO it probably wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't a toll road

[Stephane Dumas]

Another one:

Interstate 95 north of Bangor, ME.

Look at how many cars are there and give me a good reason why it shouldn't be a freeway past there.

Currently it link with NB-95 (recently upgraded to full freeway standards to TCH-2) but there was some groups who wants to have I-95 extended northernly to Aroostock county http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-095.html and before the Interstate act pased, there was some plans to extend the Maine Turnpike northernly as well. http://web.archive.org/web/20010210013456/www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~mn2n/tollme.html

[Chris]

VA 895 for sure but IMHO it probably wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't a toll road

I'm afraid that counts for most tolled bypasses... For instance, who would use Texas 8 (Sam Houston Tollway) to get around Houston from San Antonio towards Beaumont?

[exit322]

I'm not sure people would use Beltway 8 even if it were free; it's hardly an efficient bypass.

[Avalanchez71]

How about that rule in some states that county seats should be connected with 4 lane highways regardless of size?

We got that one here in Tennessee! 

Yes and it is getting worse.  US 412 is four lanes from Hohenwald to the Maury County line now.  US 70S is four lanes from Murfreesboro to Woodbury.  Then it is four lanes from Woodbury to McMinnville.  Why?

[Dirt Roads]

VA 895 for sure but IMHO it probably wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't a toll road

I'm afraid that counts for most tolled bypasses... For instance, who would use Texas 8 (Sam Houston Tollway) to get around Houston from San Antonio towards Beaumont?

I know we've been bashing the Pocahontas Parkway (VA-895) in another thread, since it is not very useful as a cutoff from I-85 to I-295 (via I-95 northbound) due to the tolls.  But as someone else eluded, it functions very well for its intended purpose to route Virginia Beach summer traffic away from the I-95/I-64 split in downtown Richmond.  Before the Pocahontas was opened, eastbound beach traffic on I-64 could take as much as 3 hours to get the roughly 25 miles from Richmond to New Kent.  This often occurred on both Friday evenings and Saturday mornings every weekend.  When I lived in the Cloverleaf area I worked on most weekends, so I quickly learned to avoid eastern Richmond during the summers (and my office was in the C&O Fulton railyards).  Kept me out of the office on weekends.

[US71]

Arkansas 369 near Paris is basically a state maintained  half mile factory driveway. Arkansas has a number of those.

[lepidopteran]

How about the Mon-Fayette Expressway south of Uniontown?  It too closely parallels free I-79.  Would have been better to focus on the far more important section north of PA-51.  If they had to go south, a more useful route would have been to go southeast rather than southwest, paralleling US-40 and tying into I-68 around Friendsville, MD, or even as far as Keysers Ridge.   That would make I-68 a more effective alternative to the PATP mainline -- while not missing out on any tolls!

[TheGrassGuy]

I-40 BUS in Glenrio, TX

[oscar]

I-40 BUS in Glenrio, TX

That's not the only west Texas business route serving a small town in advanced stages of drying up and blowing away.

[Avalanchez71]

I-40 BUS in Glenrio, TX

That's not the only west Texas business route serving a small town in advanced stages of drying up and blowing away.

I got off at that exit and was wondering if the Bus I-40 was for real.

[TheGrassGuy]

I-40 BUS in Glenrio, TX

That's not the only west Texas business route serving a small town in advanced stages of drying up and blowing away.

I got off at that exit and was wondering if the Bus I-40 was for real.

I saw it on Google Maps while trying to take a virtual US-66 road trip during lockdown, and was wondering if the BUS I-40 was for real!

[kphoger]

I-40 BUS in Glenrio, TX

By the way, for anyone interested:

AADT (2018) = 39

That's an average of one vehicle every 37 minutes.

[Roadgeekteen]

I-795 in Maryland seems like a spur to nowhere

I-180 in Illinois

What's the point of the OH 11 freeway? Youngstown to Buffalo traffic? Why does Youngstown have so many damn highways?

NY 690 seems pointless on a map

I-391 kinda just parallels I-91

[hotdogPi]

What's the point of the OH 11 freeway? Youngstown to Buffalo traffic? Why does Youngstown have so many damn highways?

That area has declined in importance over time. It was more important when it was built.

[Roadgeekteen]

What's the point of the OH 11 freeway? Youngstown to Buffalo traffic? Why does Youngstown have so many damn highways?

That area has declined in importance over time. It was more important when it was built.

How much traffic does that highway get today?

[TEG24601]

Most of the Hoosier Heartland Highway. I would drive the US-24 section from Ft. Wayne to Logansport at least 8 times a year from 2003-2008.  Never did I encounter a need for that road to be 4-lane.  I understand they did it as part of a larger project (even thought US-24 should connect to I-469), but the traffic volumes don't really justify its "bigness".  Strategic passing lanes would have been more useful.  The SR 25 section, I've driven about 20 times, between Delphi and Lafayette, and it seems even less traveled.

[coldshoulder]

What's the point of the OH 11 freeway? Youngstown to Buffalo traffic? Why does Youngstown have so many damn highways?

That area has declined in importance over time. It was more important when it was built.

How much traffic does that highway get today?

OH 11 was originally conceived as the Lake-to-River Highway, taking traffic from Ashtabula, Ohio on Lake Erie south through the Youngstown area to the Ohio River cities of East Liverpool and Wellsville.  Back in the 60's when the steel mills and other industrial factories in Eastern Ohio were humming this highway was considered important to the region's commerce. 

Now, not so much.  Although OH 11 does get a fair amount of local traffic as a major north-south artery from Cortland, just north of Warren, southward to Columbiana, its most northerly and southerly sections are sparsely traveled.

Youngstown doesn't necessarily have a lot of freeways, but consider it is the halfway point between Cleveland and Pittsburgh (PA turnpike and OH turnpike), and also the midway point between New York City and Chicago, via I-80, one of the most heavily traveled east-west interstates in the country.

[74/171FAN]

I-795 in Maryland seems like a spur to nowhere

I am sure that commuters that would otherwise take MD 140 would say otherwise.

[jmacswimmer]

I-795 in Maryland seems like a spur to nowhere

I am sure that commuters that would otherwise take MD 140 would say otherwise.

Speaking as someone who did commute on I-795 pre-COVID, I do indeed say otherwise! I-795 functionally is less a spur and more a bypass of MD 140, which is basically a continuous strip of shopping centers and traffic signals the entire distance from I-695 to Reisterstown.  I-795's AADT tops out in the 120,000's on the initial stretch from I-695 to Owings Mills Blvd.

[1995hoo]

I've never really been able to see the point of I-790, other than perhaps a desire to shove a trumpet interchange off to one side instead of right at NY-12.

[The Nature Boy]

What's the point of the OH 11 freeway? Youngstown to Buffalo traffic? Why does Youngstown have so many damn highways?

That area has declined in importance over time. It was more important when it was built.

Youngstown's population has declined by 100,000 people, it's a mind blowing drop in population.

The interstate system is a good snapshot of what cities were considered important in the mid-20th century. There are a number of cities that have declined in the last 50 years but yet punch above their weight in terms of highway access.