Interstate 15 north of Barstow to the State Line

[vdeane]

I always found it a little odd when people can afford and are physically able to drive but yet don't.  My uncle is like that, he makes a bunch of money and even collects cars.  The man is super hesitant to drive on high speed roads for whatever reason and goes way out of his way to find transit alternates.  The fact that he is fine with flying but not driving moderate-long distances makes it all the more vexing as an observer.

None of that is to say that there shouldn't be public transit options available those who need them.

There are quite a few people who are legit scared of both driving fast and having other people drive fast around them.  I think this is part of what fuels the "everybody drives too fast" sentiment that always pervades debates about speed limits.

[Max Rockatansky]

I always found it a little odd when people can afford and are physically able to drive but yet don't.  My uncle is like that, he makes a bunch of money and even collects cars.  The man is super hesitant to drive on high speed roads for whatever reason and goes way out of his way to find transit alternates.  The fact that he is fine with flying but not driving moderate-long distances makes it all the more vexing as an observer.

None of that is to say that there shouldn't be public transit options available those who need them.

There are quite a few people who are legit scared of both driving fast and having other people drive fast around them.  I think this is part of what fuels the "everybody drives too fast" sentiment that always pervades debates about speed limits.

The strange thing is that my grandpa (his father) got the same way when he was in his 50s.  My grandpa was worse in that he was a panicky backseat driver and would scream "LOOK OUT" a lot. 

[cl94]

...

This really sums up my thinking in a way I haven't adequately done. When I was on the way back from my first trip to Las Vegas in 2022, I was frustrated enough with the truck traffic on I-40 that I found myself shouting at random trucks that got in the way "YOU SHOULD BE A TRAIN."

Likewise, if there are people able and willing to use a train to commute, they should have the option to do so. That frees up capacity for those of us who prefer driving.

Every time I see a double-trailer truck (or heaven forbid, the TRIPLE-trailer ones you sometimes see out west), I scream, "Trains belong on the RAILROAD, not on the HIGHWAY!"

And don't even get me stated on the topic of so-called "autonomous vehicles" being allowed on our streets and highways.

The land trains (three trailers) are mostly a Nevada special.  It isn't hard to pass them on the likes of two lane roads like US 95 north of Las Vegas (thinking of the I-11 to Reno fans in the crowd).

This. Trucks aren't that hard to pass and they are often willing to let you pass. It's the oblivious car drivers who can't drive a steady speed and refuse to let others pass that cause issues. If you're a timid driver who refuses to drive faster than 70 no matter what, you may find trucks hard to pass, but accepted convention out west is to go 10-15 above to pass and slow down once the maneuver is complete. I rarely have issues passing in Nevada unless it's an unusually curvy section of road.

As far as why trucking is so prevalent out west, blame the private freight railroads for sucking. The rail lines in/out of SoCal and the Bay Area are among the most congested in the country, to the point where companies will often truck freight from the ports to Nevada/Utah/Arizona because that saves a ton of time. Since the railroads only care about short-term profit, they won't add capacity as that eats into profits. Every line in/out of California needs another track, but that will not happen unless the feds fund all of it.

I should also add that many important city pairs lack a direct railroad connection between them, even if it seems logical. For example, there is no N-S rail line between the Central Valley and I-15.

[Bobby5280]

I guess everyone has convenient access to a car, and screw everyone who doesn't / can't afford it?

That's reality for any Americans living outside a densely populated major metro area. Those who don't have a car will be blowing a lot of money calling Uber. Or they'll be looking like a crackhead, pedaling around town on a bicycle.

There are quite a few people who are legit scared of both driving fast and having other people drive fast around them.

Lawton has an over-abundance of such drivers. We have a lot of people who deliberately drive 10-20mph under the posted speed limit. Turn signals? What are those? These people make I-44 "lots of fun." They'll come to a dead stop at the end of the on-ramp, having everyone else slamming their brakes. A few weeks ago I got caught up in a chain-reaction collision because some derpy-derp couldn't decide if they were going to get on I-44 or take the other ramp to 2nd Street. Got some good front end damage to my truck -all thanks to one of those slower "safer" drivers.

[sprjus4]

I guess everyone has convenient access to a car, and screw everyone who doesn't / can't afford it?

That's reality for any Americans living outside a densely populated major metro area. Those who don't have a car will be blowing a lot of money calling Uber. Or they'll be looking like a crackhead, pedaling around town on a bicycle.

Or, as you saw Lawton says, a bus system. Not everyone drives, and those all aren't "crackheads".

[Plutonic Panda]

That whole section of I-44 through Lawton needs to be reworked and made 3 lanes each way to "future proof it" along with redoing the interchanges.

[rte66man]

That whole section of I-44 through Lawton needs to be reworked and made 3 lanes each way to "future proof it" along with redoing the interchanges.

That section is quite odd. It was built in the early 60's as a connector to the HE Bailey turnpike to OKC. I would guess the Feds made some demands as the RoW north of Rogers Lane is quite narrow plus the bridge over Sheridan Road has no shoulders and that stretch has no inside shoulders. IMO it's odd because immediately to the east are two rail lines. One is still active (BNSF) and the other is a remnant of the old Rock Island line that was removed in the 80's?  There has been plenty of "spare" land for widening but nary a peep from ODOT or the area State reps.

[kphoger]

I always found it a little odd when people can afford and are physically able to drive but yet don't.

Heck, back before I got married, I would sometimes walk three blocks and then hitchhike the 1½ miles to community college—just because I enjoyed it more than driving my car there.  (This was in the western suburbs of Chicago.)

[Max Rockatansky]

I always found it a little odd when people can afford and are physically able to drive but yet don't.

Heck, back before I got married, I would sometimes walk three blocks and then hitchhike the 1½ miles to community college—just because I enjoyed it more than driving my car there.  (This was in the western suburbs of Chicago.)

I did a fair amount of walking when I stayed at my dad's apartment in downtown Chicago.  There really a good way to get around other than on foot considering parking was hard enough to find.  It was even harder considering I was driving a 1997 Chevy 1500 in high school.  I usually just kept it in the parking garage and made due unless I was leaving downtown.

[kphoger]

I always found it a little odd when people can afford and are physically able to drive but yet don't.

Heck, back before I got married, I would sometimes walk three blocks and then hitchhike the 1½ miles to community college—just because I enjoyed it more than driving my car there.  (This was in the western suburbs of Chicago.)

I did a fair amount of walking when I stayed at my dad's apartment in downtown Chicago.  There really a good way to get around other than on foot considering parking was hard enough to find.  It was even harder considering I was driving a 1997 Chevy 1500 in high school.  I usually just kept it in the parking garage and made due unless I was leaving downtown.

I lived far enough west that public transit wasn't great, but it wasn't completely terrible either.

My all-time best hitchhikes in the Chicago area were these:

1.  I got off the Blue Line L at Harlem after dark.  I put a thumb out while standing at the CTA bus stop.  A pickup truck stopped for me, I got in the back and lay down out of sight.  1¾ miles later, I knocked on the rear window, and he stopped to let me out at Harlem & Augusta.

2.  I found myself in New Lenox on a Saturday, but needed to get back to Wheaton.  (Long story how that happened.)  Taking Metra  back would have taken FOREVER because of the limited weekend schedule, so...  I decided to hitchhike to Joliet and hopefully find a Pace bus north from there—not really sure it was even possible  So I made a hitchhiking sign that said "Joliet" and flew it at the corner of Lincoln Hwy and Cedar Rd, on the sidewalk in front of a gas station.  A guy in a work van stopped for me and ended up taking me all the way to Warrenville after first going to Joliet—dropping me off just five miles from my apartment.  He dealt with car dealerships for work, and that's the way his route was going.

3.  I was waiting for Pace bus from Wheaton to Forest Park after dark during a blizzard.  It didn't seem to be coming, so I gave up and decided to take Metra instead.  While I was walking up a residential street in Wheaton, on my way to the train station, I put out my thumb.  The car stopped.  He took me all the way to Stone Park or somewhere like that, on North Avenue, 15 miles away.  I was able to catch a different Pace bus from there to my destination.

[vdeane]

As far as why trucking is so prevalent out west, blame the private freight railroads for sucking. The rail lines in/out of SoCal and the Bay Area are among the most congested in the country, to the point where companies will often truck freight from the ports to Nevada/Utah/Arizona because that saves a ton of time. Since the railroads only care about short-term profit, they won't add capacity as that eats into profits. Every line in/out of California needs another track, but that will not happen unless the feds fund all of it.

Emphasis on short-term.  They'll even terminate profitable lines if the immediate payoff from decommissioning is high enough.  The hedge funds that now own the railroads are basically doing the same thing to them that Eddie Lambert did to Sears and Kmart.

[Bobby5280]

Or, as you saw Lawton says, a bus system. Not everyone drives, and those all aren't "crackheads".

The only people I see pedaling bicycles around town anymore do look like crackheads. They're grown adults riding child-size dirt bikes or whatever kinds of bikes they can manage to steal. Criminal demand for stolen bikes is so high in Lawton there are people literally driving around town with battery operated power tools ready to cut through any locks or bicycle racks they encounter. You can't simply lock up a bicycle and leave it unattended anymore here.

That whole section of I-44 through Lawton needs to be reworked and made 3 lanes each way to "future proof it" along with redoing the interchanges.

ODOT does the bare minimum it can in Lawton. Rogers Lane would probably be upgraded into an Interstate highway before ODOT would do a full 3x3 upgrade of I-44 thru the Lawton area. That's how remote the chances are. Nevertheless, much of I-44 thru Lawton and especially Fort Sill needs to be completely re-built. I wouldn't expect ODOT to do any more than a 2x2 replacement. Lawton would probably have to undergo a population boom and gain a lot of political clout before anything bigger could happen.

Just a few days ago ODOT started some kind of maintenance project on a couple I-44 bridges over railroad tracks just South of the Cache Road interchange. It's a complete bitch driving through there. There's a single lane each way and that single lane is probably not more than 10' wide, hemmed in with concrete Jersey barriers. I thought I was going to scrape up the paint on my pickup truck driving through there at only 40mph. I'm not driving through that crap again until they're finished.

The "newer" tri-level bridges in the Cache Road/I-44 interchange now look like hell. They were "remodeled" about a decade ago -basically just new paint and some work on the old concrete. Rust from the 50+ year old bridge structure has been leeching through for years.