Business Interstate Routes Are They Useful for You?

[Avalanchez71]

Well how about it you used a all white sign in lieu of the green?

[1995hoo]

Well how about it you used a all white sign in lieu of the green?

Like these?

[ahj2000]

Well how about it you used a all white sign in lieu of the green?

Like these?

Wow those are...wow.
Alternate could be for a lot of these a signed route with an icon but no number, like the Hampton Roads Beltway in VA.
Don't like the I-95 BL in Fayetteville? Sign it Fayetteville Urban Loop/Historic Loop/Business Loop, ignoring any and all route numbers.

[Avalanchez71]

Well how about it you used a all white sign in lieu of the green?

Like these?

Wow those are...wow.
Alternate could be for a lot of these a signed route with an icon but no number, like the Hampton Roads Beltway in VA.
Don't like the I-95 BL in Fayetteville? Sign it Fayetteville Urban Loop/Historic Loop/Business Loop, ignoring any and all route numbers.

Sort of like that but with maybe a suffix or prominent business label.

I think BL and BS routes help pump money into a local economy and bring folks into town that may have otherwise not ventured.

[kphoger]

This works well for everything except 35E. I'm fine with 2B, 3D, 3M, 5G, 9N, 24K, 90S, 100C, 212F, 270Y, 401K, 454G, 984J, 1909S, etc., but 35E belongs in Dallas.

(edited to add more)

You'll have to take that up with TxDOT.  The business loop through Pearsall is officially numbered 35-E.  I used the number that it actually is.  You think it should be a different number, that ain't my problem.

USINESS INTERSTATE HIGHWAY NO. 35-E

Minute Order 091363, dated 03/26/1991; Adm. Ltr. 003-1991, dated 08/23/1991

From its junction with IH 35 north of Pearsall, southward to Comal St and then westward along and concurrent with FM 140 (West Comal St) to its junction with FM 1581; thence southward along FM 1581 to its junction with IH 35, a distance of approximately 5.5 miles. (Frio County)  Section from IH 35 north of Pearsall, southward to Comal St transferred from US 81; thence section along W. Comal St westward to FM 1581 is concurrent with FM 140; thence section from FM 140 south along FM 1581 to IH 35 is concurrent with FM 1581.

And there's already an 'E' on the existing shields.



Perhaps you'd prefer something like this, then:



That presents a problem, of course, because a highway with that number already exists in West Columbia.

[US 89]

I would prefer that they not exist.  I have never liked the idea of following an interstate shield on surface routes (which most BLs basically are).

It isn't an interstate shield, though. It's green.

From a western perspective, I tend to like business routes because they 1) tell me a town is fairly substantial and is likely to have anything I might need, and 2) provide a signed surface through route if I do find myself off the freeway in such a town.

Freeway grade BLs like I-80 Sacramento and I-85 Spartanburg and Greensboro are just dumb, though. That's not the point of a business route.

Officially you are correct, but it still looks like an interstate shield.  I understand the reasoning based on US business routes, and state business routes.  However, US Routes and State Routes are not expected to be freeways usually.

I would be fine if you took the I-40 BLs in AZ making them AZ 40A, AZ 40B, etc.

Here's the thing with that though. In most states outside the northeast, a road signed as a state route is expected to be state maintained. Interstate business routes are not necessarily subject to that distinction.

Take the I-80 business loop in Elko, Nevada as an example. About half of it is state-maintained, and that part is also signed as SR 535 - but the locally maintained parts are still BL-80. It wouldn't work to post the whole thing as SR 80D or whatever when half of it isn't even a Nevada state highway...not to mention it would break the rules of Nevada's highly organized state route system.

[D-Dey65]

We don't have them in Virginia and thus I've never really had much reaction to them either way.

We don't have them in New York, or Florida either for that matter. I was originally confused about them when I learned about them as a kid, but once I found out how they worked, I was okay with them. They may not be needed everywhere, but there are certainly places where I think they'd be useful.

[Avalanchez71]

How about the routes that now really miss the mark for usefulness?

[epzik8]

No use for me other than clinching a route. We don't have many on the East Coast, except there is I-83 Business pretty close to me in York, Pennsylvania.

[SEWIGuy]

Wisconsin doesn't use them, but I don't use them in other states either.

If I need to stop, I stop at the exits with the most gas and food options available.  Either from guide signs or from billboards as we get to an area.

[Scott5114]

I would be fine if you took the I-40 BLs in AZ making them AZ 40A, AZ 40B, etc.

This idea would work okay in Oklahoma, since we already have both suffixed routes, but would require renumbering of existing SH-40A, which already exists as a spur off former SH-40. Since SH-40 is now US-177, that should arguably have been made SH-177A a long time ago.

A SH-44A, branching off of extant SH-44, already exists, but there are no business routes of I-44 in Oklahoma, so that's fine.

[index]

BS-20 in Florence, SC is pretty useful, considering it's one of the main ways in and out of the city from the Interstate network. The two times I've been there that's whatI've used.

[cwf1701]

Michigan is big on Business interstates (as well as Business US and M routes). Many are on former US/state routes replaced by interstates or new aliments of State and US routes. Examples are BUS-I-75 in Pontiac (over former US-10/Woodward and Former BR-M-24) and BUS-I-94 in Marshall (replaced US-12 (1926-62)).

[wxfree]

I like them.  They let me know that a road goes to a business district and will lead back to the Interstate.  I disagree with the idea that GPS navigators substitute for signage.  I don't think anyone would suggest that all route signs should be removed.  We still benefit from having the way to things like parks and business districts marked, if they aren't along an otherwise existing route.

Another purpose they serve is to keep a big state from having a huge number of loop designations or short state highway segments that could be put into the BI bucket.  That designation tells you something about what the road is.  If you call it Loop/State Highway 541, that might be a short route through a town that leads back to the Interstate, or it might be some other kind of road somewhere else, or one that splits off the Interstate going into town, and then turns south downtown.  If a road probably wouldn't exist if not for a specific local purpose useful to people unfamiliar with the area, such as leading into and back from a business district or a park, I like the idea of that road having a particular kind of designation.  In past times, the old US highway often served as the business route.  I don't care for that as much because it doesn't tell you whether the road leads back to the Interstate.

The placekeeper function can be counterproductive if abused.  I'm thinking of BI 20 B and D in Texas.  If there happened to be a parallel road running all the way from Pecos to Monahans, that would be much too long for a single business route if they were just renumbering segments to minimize designations.  There's a small version of this where the old route runs from Pyote to Monahans.  To prevent that problem, only the part in Monahans is a business route, while the segment through Pyote and Wickett is Spur 57.  When US 80 was decommissioned, TXDot saw the wisdom of having a business route only in the larger town and didn't abuse the placekeeper function in a way that would keep traffic off the Interstate longer than necessary, so they built a connector to I-20 west of Monahans and gave the west segment of the old route a different number.  Also, a "business route" designation is misused when applied to an old parallel route that doesn't have any actual business along it.  As an example of avoiding this kind of misuse, TxDOT renumbered an old segment of I-10 as Loop 293 in Bakersfield because there's nothing along it.  (Also, I'd never noticed before, but it doesn't even connect to I-10 on the west side, you have to use FM 11 to get back on the Interstate.)  I suspect that a business route running many miles through a huge city is a bad idea, and that using other signage is more appropriate.  There are ways the designation can be used poorly, and there are ways it can be used well.

[webny99]

I'm not opposed to business interstates, but I've never had any particular use for them since there's so few in the Northeast.

The closest ones to me would seem to be in Michigan, and I can probably count on one hand the number of states east of the Mississippi where they're currently used: besides Michigan, you've got Illinois, South Carolina, Georgia... any I'm missing?

[oscar]

The closest ones to me would seem to be in Michigan, and I can probably count on one hand the number of states east of the Mississippi where they're currently used: besides Michigan, you've got Illinois, South Carolina, Georgia... any I'm missing?

Pennsylvania (just one), Kentucky, and North Carolina. Two in Ohio, as well.

[SkyPesos]

Here's a business route that I've been on while living in the St Louis area, but didn't really think of it as a business route: BL 70 in St Charles. Its two ends on I-70 are a mile away from each other, at MO 94 (exit 228) and 5th St (exit 229B). The routing it uses, from west to east, is MO 94 -> independent section of First Capitol Dr -> 5th St. There's a sign that tells MO 94 to turn right onto First Capitol, which doesn't sign BL 70 even though it also turns right there. It's not signed on reassurance shields at all; the only signage of BL 70 is on the two I-70 interchanges.

So yea, this designation is pointless as no one calls it by that number, and it's not even signed in most of its route.

[vdeane]

Pennsylvania (just one)

Two, now.  I-83 in York and I-376 near the Pittsburgh airport.

[jp the roadgeek]

Considering the nearest one is 250 miles away (other than a couple of stray Business I-495 shields in the Lowell, MA area about 110 miles away and a BL 84 in the Danbury area that either predates me or was eliminated in my infancy), I can't say one way or the other.

[hobsini2]

Not so much to rehash a topic that has been dormant but I am of the belief that Interstate Business Loops serve 2 functions. First and foremost as a direct link into a business district for a city that the interstate bypasses as others have mentioned. But secondly, I see them serving as an Alternate purpose to the Interstate in cases of emergency. Yes it is going to be slower. However, if you are not familiar with the area and the interstate is closed due to an accident, which I saw twice on my recent trip down to Charlotte, it would be helpful knowing how to get back onto the interstate.  That's why I am in favor of them being created as much as possible. Granted, it really would not work well in the more rural areas.

[SEWIGuy]

I can buy the "use as an alternative" statement. But I have found that business interstates, or even business state and US routes, oftentimes aren't the most convenient for services like gas and restaurants.  Rarely do I have any desire to go to the "central business district" of a town I am travelling around because often they don't provide much.

[JayhawkCO]

With the advent of mobile phones with data, they are useless.

[kphoger]

However, if you are not familiar with the area and the interstate is closed due to an accident ... it would be helpful knowing how to get back onto the interstate.

Unfortunately, how many motorists actually know the difference between these two shields (especially when dealing with a traffic jam):

[kphoger]

With the advent of mobile phones with data, they are useless.

At least in Illinois (whose state laws I'm most familiar with), that would only be legal if the driver (a) has the vehicle in Park or Neutral, or (b) is parked on the shoulder.  As I read things, under Illinois state law, there is no way to legally use your smartphone for alternate directions while crawling through a traffic jam at 5 mph.

[I-35]

It was probably stated earlier, but my opinion is that the green interstate shield should be redesignated for toll routes and that business I-XX signage should change color or go away altogether.  There was a point in time where it made sense for smaller towns that were being bypassed to indicate commercial areas that could be accessed from the interstate, but that time has long since passed and most traveler businesses have been relocated nearer to interchanges at any rate.