Highways with to many lanes

[Roadgeekteen]

What highways have to many lanes? 8 lanes seems excessive on I-95 northeast of Boston except during tourist season.

[webny99]

Haven't we done this at least once before?

[kphoger]

North Korea.  All of it.

[SectorZ]

What highways have to many lanes? 8 lanes seems excessive on I-95 northeast of Boston except during tourist season.

It is likely the only road with too many lanes in the northeast of the US.

[Roadgeekteen]

Haven't we done this at least once before?

I searched, couldn't find anything.

[webny99]

Haven't we done this at least once before?

I searched, couldn't find anything.

Try searching "too" instead of "to". 

[TheHighwayMan3561]

North Korea.  All of it.

Myanmar's new planned capital city has this one beat.

[Brandon]

North Korea.  All of it.

Myanmar's new planned capital city has this one beat.

Thread winner!
Here's what they look like: https://goo.gl/maps/KTyVApQ3Fuq

[sparker]

North Korea.  All of it.

Myanmar's new planned capital city has this one beat.

Thread winner!
Here's what they look like: https://goo.gl/maps/KTyVApQ3Fuq

All that road needs (besides vehicles!) is a series of Burma-Shave signs. 

[index]

North Korea.  All of it.

Myanmar's new planned capital city has this one beat.

Thread winner!
Here's what they look like: https://goo.gl/maps/KTyVApQ3Fuq

I'm not sure if they were expecting that many people to move to their new capital, or that's a "gigantic and imposing landmark or facility that's really empty and desolate that exists as a nod to a crazy authoritarian leader and their country's capital because the capital is so amazing and grand and it needs to look so impressive because I'm in power" kind of thing. Probably the latter.

[ipeters61]

The Schuylkill Expressway in Philadelphia. 

[Brandon]

The Schuylkill Expressway in Philadelphia. 

Be nice there if the lanes were consistent instead of constantly entering and leaving the expressway (as in new lane on the right, old lane exits on the left).

[Bruce]

Urban surface streets over 4-5 lanes. The merging movements just slow down traffic and reduce throughput, and the pedestrian crossing times necessary at intersections are just too long.

On the plus side, it provides plenty of room for protected bike lanes, bus lanes, wider sidewalks, and other better uses of roadspace.

[formulanone]

Ordos, China was similarly over-planned, over-served, but houses just a tiny fraction of its expectations.

In all honesty, there are very few places in America which carry too many lanes for too long. You could gripe about I-22 at I-65 being a little overbuilt for a mile or so in each direction, but at least it's future-proofed.

[theroadwayone]

North Korea.  All of it.

Myanmar's new planned capital city has this one beat.

Thread winner!
Here's what they look like: https://goo.gl/maps/KTyVApQ3Fuq

I'm not sure if they were expecting that many people to move to their new capital, or that's a "gigantic and imposing landmark or facility that's really empty and desolate that exists as a nod to a crazy authoritarian leader and their country's capital because the capital is so amazing and grand and it needs to look so impressive because I'm in power" kind of thing. Probably the latter.

Anyone see the Top Gear when they went through there and, because it was so deserted, they played football (soccer) in the middle of one of those?

[webny99]

In all honesty, there are very few places in America which carry too many lanes for too long. You could gripe about I-22 at I-65 being a little overbuilt for a mile or so in each direction, but at least it's future-proofed.

I-65 itself in the vicinity of I-22 seems very wide. Birmingham is a decent-size metro area, but I don't think it justifies this. You would think you were approaching something Atlanta-sized, if not bigger.

[jeffandnicole]

The NJ Turnpike is actually overbuilt in a few small areas.  Per traffic projections, only 5 lanes per direction are needed between 6 and 7A.  But, building to 6 lanes was needed to avoid situations where a roadway is closed and only 2 lanes are available on the other roadway.

The 6 lanes for a mile so south of Interchange 6 is a massive overbuild, but necessary for the merging/diverging movements.

[formulanone]

In all honesty, there are very few places in America which carry too many lanes for too long. You could gripe about I-22 at I-65 being a little overbuilt for a mile or so in each direction, but at least it's future-proofed.

I-65 itself in the vicinity of I-22 seems very wide. Birmingham is a decent-size metro area, but I don't think it justifies this. You would think you were approaching something Atlanta-sized, if not bigger.

It's not wide for long - a mile or two - at least it provides adequate passing and leap-frogging opportunities after getting bottled up for the previous 80 miles in either direction.

We'll know if it's too many lanes 20 years from now.

[index]

In all honesty, there are very few places in America which carry too many lanes for too long. You could gripe about I-22 at I-65 being a little overbuilt for a mile or so in each direction, but at least it's future-proofed.

I-65 itself in the vicinity of I-22 seems very wide. Birmingham is a decent-size metro area, but I don't think it justifies this. You would think you were approaching something Atlanta-sized, if not bigger.

It's not wide for long - a mile or two - at least it provides adequate passing and leap-frogging opportunities after getting bottled up for the previous 80 miles in either direction.

We'll know if it's too many lanes 20 years from now.

Probably future-proofing, as formulanone implied.


Same tactic is also applied with this DDI and University boulebard Boulevard (I'm keeping that typo there, I find it really amusing for whatever reason) in Sarasota, which has a lot of lanes but really not that much traffic:


https://www.google.com/maps/@27.3886507,-82.4512081,3a,75y,97.43h,81.86t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1svGPl2Daxxp4HiYh0ifEElA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656


Probably really needed for the future in the ever-growing Sun Belt.

[Flint1979]

I-75 has eight lanes between Flint and Saginaw and then has eight lanes again for a short stretch from Zilwaukee to Bay City. It might seem like overkill to some people but keep in mind that I-75 receives all the traffic for Detroiters heading north on summer weekends.

There is a short stretch of I-75 though between the US-23 split at MM 115 to I-475 at MM 111 where it is four lanes (two in each direction).

I get annoyed by the lack of lanes on US-23 south of Flint all the time. And I can't figure out why they added that Flex lane or whatever it's called just to have it closed most of the time. The lane is always there it's not like a reversable express lane or anything but they'll have it closed most of the time. The only time I ever saw it used was on a Saturday when Michigan had a home football game and US-23 was packed with traffic.

I-94 between Ann Arbor and Benton Harbor is another highway that lacks lanes. So I guess Michigan has built highways with too many lanes as well as highways with too few of lanes.

[wanderer2575]

I get annoyed by the lack of lanes on US-23 south of Flint all the time. And I can't figure out why they added that Flex lane or whatever it's called just to have it closed most of the time. The lane is always there it's not like a reversable express lane or anything but they'll have it closed most of the time. The only time I ever saw it used was on a Saturday when Michigan had a home football game and US-23 was packed with traffic.

Because it's really just an oversized shoulder, not a fully-engineered traffic lane.  Plus, when it's in use, there is absolutely no other left shoulder space available (bad news if there's an accident or breakdown) and in many places it's right up against guardrail.  Definitely does not meet modern design standards for full-time use.  So the idea is for it to be used only to alleviate congestion during weekday rush hours, special events such as U-M football games, or blocked lanes.

What's really stupid is that umpteen millions were spent building the flex lanes only as far north as Whitmore Lake without having funding in place to extend it at least as far as I-96; all this thing has done is to move the northbound bottleneck farther along.  I assume that on the southbound side everything still bottlenecks up at the M-14 interchange.

[tdindy88]

Going back to Alabama, I was amazed years ago when I saw that I-65 was six lanes quite a ways north of Birmingham, I think at least to the Jefferson County line. Yet it seemed as if the growth in the metro area was to the south of the city and I-65 went down to four lanes just south of the I-485 interchange. I may of course be missing something. And then I-22 is six lanes for quite a distance heading west of the I-65 interchange and a quick look a county-level maps shows that the county containing Jasper isn't growing too much. I suppose it makes sense that they have to overbuild the interchange between the two interstates if they interstates themselves are already overbuilt. But perhaps it's needed down there.

[Hurricane Rex]

US 20 in Iowa?

Also I can't find a single location in Oregon and Washington with too many lanes.

LG-TP260

[Flint1979]

I get annoyed by the lack of lanes on US-23 south of Flint all the time. And I can't figure out why they added that Flex lane or whatever it's called just to have it closed most of the time. The lane is always there it's not like a reversable express lane or anything but they'll have it closed most of the time. The only time I ever saw it used was on a Saturday when Michigan had a home football game and US-23 was packed with traffic.

Because it's really just an oversized shoulder, not a fully-engineered traffic lane.  Plus, when it's in use, there is absolutely no other left shoulder space available (bad news if there's an accident or breakdown) and in many places it's right up against guardrail.  Definitely does not meet modern design standards for full-time use.  So the idea is for it to be used only to alleviate congestion during weekday rush hours, special events such as U-M football games, or blocked lanes.

What's really stupid is that umpteen millions were spent building the flex lanes only as far north as Whitmore Lake without having funding in place to extend it at least as far as I-96; all this thing has done is to move the northbound bottleneck farther along.  I assume that on the southbound side everything still bottlenecks up at the M-14 interchange.

I guess my point was that they should have just added a third lane instead, actually that stretch where the flex lanes are should be four lanes in each direction. At least at the M-14 interchange you get a third lane though granted it's only to the other M-14 split by the Plymouth Road exit. Let's face it though US-23 is a freeway in between Standish and Toledo and runs solo as a freeway from Flint to Toledo connecting through Ann Arbor. It just boggles my mind that MDOT has not upgraded US-23 basically at all and what they have upgraded is just beyond stupid. I'm having enough problems with them trying to get a left turn arrow put in at M-58 (State Street) and Hemmeter in Saginaw Township, an intersection that is among the most dangerous in Saginaw County. It's due to the timing of a traffic light and the lack of a left turn arrow trying to turn left in one direction vs. three lanes of oncoming traffic in a stretch of M-58 that sees about 30,000 vehicles a day.

[wanderer2575]

I get annoyed by the lack of lanes on US-23 south of Flint all the time. And I can't figure out why they added that Flex lane or whatever it's called just to have it closed most of the time. The lane is always there it's not like a reversable express lane or anything but they'll have it closed most of the time. The only time I ever saw it used was on a Saturday when Michigan had a home football game and US-23 was packed with traffic.

Because it's really just an oversized shoulder, not a fully-engineered traffic lane.  Plus, when it's in use, there is absolutely no other left shoulder space available (bad news if there's an accident or breakdown) and in many places it's right up against guardrail.  Definitely does not meet modern design standards for full-time use.  So the idea is for it to be used only to alleviate congestion during weekday rush hours, special events such as U-M football games, or blocked lanes.

What's really stupid is that umpteen millions were spent building the flex lanes only as far north as Whitmore Lake without having funding in place to extend it at least as far as I-96; all this thing has done is to move the northbound bottleneck farther along.  I assume that on the southbound side everything still bottlenecks up at the M-14 interchange.

I guess my point was that they should have just added a third lane instead, actually that stretch where the flex lanes are should be four lanes in each direction. At least at the M-14 interchange you get a third lane though granted it's only to the other M-14 split by the Plymouth Road exit. Let's face it though US-23 is a freeway in between Standish and Toledo and runs solo as a freeway from Flint to Toledo connecting through Ann Arbor. It just boggles my mind that MDOT has not upgraded US-23 basically at all and what they have upgraded is just beyond stupid. I'm having enough problems with them trying to get a left turn arrow put in at M-58 (State Street) and Hemmeter in Saginaw Township, an intersection that is among the most dangerous in Saginaw County. It's due to the timing of a traffic light and the lack of a left turn arrow trying to turn left in one direction vs. three lanes of oncoming traffic in a stretch of M-58 that sees about 30,000 vehicles a day.

I get the point and I don't disagree, but a proper widening will require a concrete Jersey barrier, stormwater drainage system, no doubt some ROW acquisition, and lots of bridgework -- on top of building the actual road.  I read somewhere a few years ago that MDOT estimated a widening of US-23 between Ann Arbor and Flint would cost a couple billion dollars.  That might be chump change in North Carolina or West Virginia, but it ain't happening in Michigan.  The flex lane seems stupid and I don't know that I'm defending it, but they did what they thought was the best they could with the resources they had.  I haven't seen any numbers so I don't know if it's actually doing anything to alleviate traffic jams.