Largest Cities without a freeway connection? or even a 4-lane connection?

[sprjus4]

^

"Largest Cities without a 4-lane/freeway connection"

[RoadMaster09]

^

"Largest Cities without a 4-lane/freeway connection"

I should have asked it better, but they meant to be two separate questions. Revised to make it clearer.

[transplanted]

Very interesting question. I did a systematic search of all metro areas in the lower 48 with >100,000 population. There are just a handful of these that don't have any sort of four-lane connection, and the top three came up in the discussion already (I also tried to determine the distance from the city center of these to the nearest four-lane highway):

Chico, CA -- 230,000 -- 20 mi to I-5 at Orland
Bend, OR -- 190,000 -- 115 mi to I-5 at Halsey
Wenatchee, WA -- 110,000 -- 41 mi to I-90 at George
Ithaca, NY -- 105,000 -- 25 mi to I-81 at Cortland

There are also about 20 metro areas that do have a four-lane connection, but not in the form of a limited-access highway. These are

Myrtle Beach, SC (connected to Charleston & Florence)
Salisbury, MD (connected to Annapolis & Dover)
Santa Cruz, CA (connected to San Jose)
Lynchburg, VA (connected to Charlottesville & Roanoke)
Prescott, AZ (connected to I-17)
Houma, LA (connected to Lafayette & I-310)
Panama City, FL (connected to Pensacola & I-10)
Jacksonville, NC (connected to Wilmington & I-40)
Yuba City, CA (connected to Sacramento)
Albany, GA (connected to I-10, I-75, & I-185)
Jefferson City, MO (connected to I-70)
Dothan, AL (connected to I-10)
Homosassa Springs, FL (connected to I-75)
Florence, AL (connected to I-65 & I-840)
Logan, UT (connected to I-15)
New Bern, NC (connected to I-795)
Farmington, NM (connected to Albuquerque)
San Angelo, TX (connected to I-20)
California, MD (connected to Washington)
Sebring, FL (connected to Miami & Orlando)
Gettysburg, PA (connected to Harrisburg & Frederick)
Mankato, MN (connected to I-35)

The second list has a lot more eastern cities than I was expecting. There's enough of these that some geographic patterns do start to emerge, though.

[TravelingBethelite]

Minor correction to Jefferson City, MO - it has several 4-lane connections (depends on what you count). There is US 63 at the very least, but depending on what you'd count, US 50 and US 54.

[froggie]

^ On that note, Mankato, MN also has 4-lane connections to Sioux City, IA and I-90 (via US 169/MN 60) and the Twin Cities (via US 169)...not just a connection to I-35.

And technically, Rochester, MN proper does not have a freeway connection either...the city limits have yet to cross I-90 and neither the US 52 nor the US 63 interchanges with I-90 are freeway-to-freeway.

[3467]

Of you count 4 lane and it freeway you have to go down to 10000 in Illinois. One Canton is basically going to be connected in this plan leaving only Kewanee and Streator which are both near freeways and have 4 lanes through town.
The suburban areas of McHenry and Kendall counties will get or just got multi lane connections.
You have to go really low in Iowa. Carroll on US 30 is barely over 10000.

[Konza]

Lots of nuances here.

Cochise County, Arizona is over 6,200 square miles.  The Sierra Vista- Douglas Metropolitan Statistical Area is defined as Cochise County.  The population density is about 21 persons per square mile, and the vast majority of the land area in the county is decidedly rural.

There are over 90 miles of Interstate 10 in Cochise County, but it doesn't get within 25 miles of Sierra Vista, and I can't imagine that it gets within 50 miles of Douglas.

Sierra Vista is connected to Interstate 10 by a four lane (mostly) divided highway, but it is not limited access, and has a handful of stoplights.

So, based on the above, is Sierra Vista without a freeway connection or not?

[ibthebigd]

For Kentucky I would say Pikeville.

SM-G950U

[Rothman]

For Kentucky I would say Pikeville.

SM-G950U

How is 23/460 not a four-lane?  Heck, my relatives in Prestonsburg refer to 23/460 as "The Four Lane."