Regional Boards > Central States
US 400
xonhulu:
--- Quote from: Revive 755 on July 25, 2009, 11:27:00 PM ---Maybe KS 96 and CO 96 need to be promoted to US 450 instead :biggrin:
Just from glancing at a map, I'm not seeing KS 27 being that important of route.
--- End quote ---
Agree on KS 27, not really an important interstate route.
I've actually wondered why MO 96 between Joplin and Springfield wasn't included in US 400, because it would remove that awkward due-south dip 400 takes to meet I-44 and that route was at one time a US Highway, carrying US 66 (today's I-44 followed what was then US 166 instead). I hope if Kansas is serious about upgrading US 400 into a freeway, they'll build a new-terrain route that runs more diagonally in this area.
Seriously, CO/KS 96 would make a good US 450. Actually, they should extend it further east along KS 96, then take over the eastern part of US 400. Then you could decommission the western part of 400 -- problem solved!!!!
Related question: anyone know if there are plans to re-route US 54 in the Wichita Area? Seems to me it would make more sense to route 54 along I-235, KS 96 and KS 254. That would eliminate some of the 54/400 duplex.
agentsteel53:
CO-KS 96 also has a decent historical precedent for becoming a US route. It was the Kansas-Colorado Boulevard, and was the first trail completely signed in Kansas, in 1916 by auto trails pioneer Woody Hockaday. He put up tens of thousands of porcelain "H" signs all over the midwest. A big letter "H" for highway (or for his own name), the name of the trail, the name of the next town, and an arrow denoting which way the highway turned, or if it continued straight.
when the Kansas-Colorado Boulevard, which had the most "H" signs on it out of any trail, by far, became a state route in the early 1920s, it got 96 because that was Hockaday's shop's phone number in Wichita.
If I could find a link to an "H" sign I'd post one. I have one on my wall, from the Midwest Highway, with "TO INMAN" as the control city. Inman is the southernmost town in Nebraska on what is now US-81, so the sign is from either there or Kansas. Too bad it's too dark to take a picture ... classic "H" signs beat US-400 any day of the week!
J N Winkler:
--- Quote from: Chris on July 25, 2009, 06:10:35 PM ---The Dodge City - Mullinville (30 miles) route can retain it's original number, and Haverhill - Pittsburg (134 miles) can also get a K-route. So basically, out of 488 miles, only 164 miles do not run concurrent with other U.S. routes.
--- End quote ---
Yes, but you are still discounting the navigational value of having one number for one itinerary. Even if you discount Joplin-Wichita trips, traffic is more likely to want to go from Wichita to Dodge City and Garden City (only common designation = US 400) than Wichita to Meade (common designation = US 54) or even Garden City and Dodge City to Hutchinson and Newton (common designation = US 50).
--- Quote ---Given the fact that there are already two other parallel US Highways east of Wichita (US 160 and US 166), I'm not sure if US 400 is that important to keep.
--- End quote ---
Trust me--it is. US 160 and US 166 are too far south to be of day-to-day relevance to drivers from Wichita. And even with US 400, Kansas is hardly overprovided with US routes. On this basis, Ogallala, Nebraska does not need US 30 because it is already served by US 26.
--- Quote from: agentsteel53 on July 26, 2009, 02:01:16 AM ---If I could find a link to an "H" sign I'd post one. I have one on my wall, from the Midwest Highway, with "TO INMAN" as the control city. Inman is the southernmost town in Nebraska on what is now US-81, so the sign is from either there or Kansas. Too bad it's too dark to take a picture ... classic "H" signs beat US-400 any day of the week!
--- End quote ---
Inman, Nebraska is actually on the US 20-US 275 concurrency elsewhere in the state. The Inman sign is probably pointing to Inman, Kansas, in McPherson County, which is near to but not adjacent to the US 81 corridor. It is on K-61, which incidentally is being widened to four-lane divided with provision for future expansion to full freeway standard.
xonhulu:
--- Quote from: J N Winkler on July 26, 2009, 11:07:30 AM ---Yes, but you are still discounting the navigational value of having one number for one itinerary. Even if you discount Joplin-Wichita trips, traffic is more likely to want to go from Wichita to Dodge City and Garden City (only common designation = US 400) than Wichita to Meade (common designation = US 54) or even Garden City and Dodge City to Hutchinson and Newton (common designation = US 50).
--- End quote ---
It's called a map, kids. Anyway, I think this is an overblown reason. To go from Seattle to Salt Lake City, one needs to take 4 interstates: I-90, I-82, I-84, and I-15. Somehow, plenty of folks still find the way. Seriously, they need to give us a little more credit for intelligence.
If this is really the main reason for US 400, then why did AASHTO reject the much earlier request for US 789, a similar highway proposal which would've created one continuous multi-state route but involved considerable multiplexes with existing routes?
--- Quote ---Trust me--it is. US 160 and US 166 are too far south to be of day-to-day relevance to drivers from Wichita. And even with US 400, Kansas is hardly overprovided with US routes. On this basis, Ogallala, Nebraska does not need US 30 because it is already served by US 26.
--- End quote ---
But US 26 and US 30 are different routes; 30 wasn't added on top of 26 through town. Not really analogous to US 400.
bugo:
My favorite US 400 memory was driving across southwestern MO in 1995 near the OK/KS/MO tripoint and seeing a green exit sign with 2 shields on it. I was looking for the US 166 exit, and I knew I was getting close because of the decreasing mile markers, but 2 shields? The half mile or so from the point from where I could first tell there were 2 shields on the sign to the point where I could see what number was in the second shield must have been the longest half mile I've driven in my life. "400"? Why is there a US 400? And where does it go? I was following US 166 that day so I got to follow this weird new highway as far as Baxter Springs, where it then went north on old US 66, now ALT US 69 (there is a Baxter Springs bypass now.) It was several months or a year before I found a map that showed US 400. This would never happen in the post-Internet age. That innocence is a casualty of the internet.
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