Rural-looking freeways in urban areas

[sprjus4]

NYSDOT says this section of NY 27 is in too dense an area to raise the 55 mph limit: https://goo.gl/maps/nSk6XXUxiHbGKiVVA

That highway would be 65 mph in almost every other state. "Too dense". 

Both I-495 and NY-27 should be 65 mph outside of New York City on Long Island.

I-87 can be posted at 65 mph 15 miles north of New York City, but I-495 and NY-27 are not allowed 60 miles away from New York City.

[vdeane]

It probably would be in New York too, if only it were not on Long Island.

(personal opinion)

[webny99]

Second that. That would totally be posted at 65 mph if it was upstate.

[Roadgeekteen]

Second that. That would totally be posted at 65 mph if it was upstate.

Why are speed limits lower on Long Island?

[webny99]

Second that. That would totally be posted at 65 mph if it was upstate.

Why are speed limits lower on Long Island?

Island mentality, I guess. I stand to be corrected but I don't think there are any 65 mph roads on Long Island. Having to go through NYC to get to the rest of the world tends to kind of bake in your perceptions and worldview. NYC is an unavoidable part of life on Long Island, even in Montauk. Places that far away from NYC that are upstate, like Binghamton or Albany, don't revolve around NYC to the same extent.

[ftballfan]

Second that. That would totally be posted at 65 mph if it was upstate.

Why are speed limits lower on Long Island?

Island mentality, I guess. I stand to be corrected but I don't think there are any 65 mph roads on Long Island. Having to go through NYC to get to the rest of the world tends to kind of bake in your perceptions and worldview. NYC is an unavoidable part of life on Long Island, even in Montauk. Places that far away from NYC that are upstate, like Binghamton or Albany, don't revolve around NYC to the same extent.

Until I read this, I didn't realize that Montauk is over 100 miles away as the crow flies from Manhattan. Montauk is closer to Hartford, Providence, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and even Boston than NYC

[webny99]

Hmm. I feel like heading west in a covered wagon in the 1920's or 30's would be like heading west in a Model T right now.

The Oregon Trail was used into the 1890s.  1920 was only 30 years later.  It's more like heading west in one of these:
[img snipped]

Fair enough. I was thinking more in terms of how much has changed, not necessarily how much time has elapsed. The development of the car was such a huge advance and progress has come in much smaller increments since then.

[milbfan]

I-40 in GSO, Gate City Blvd to I-785/I-840/I-85.

[cpzilliacus]

Nobody has mentioned I-97 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. 

The southern section, between U.S. 50/U.S. 301 and MD-32, is quite desolate for being in a large suburban county.  According to FHWA maps, some sections this are indeed rural on at least one side, other parts are urbanized, but this section of freeway certainly looks rural.

[The Nature Boy]

Second that. That would totally be posted at 65 mph if it was upstate.

Why are speed limits lower on Long Island?

Island mentality, I guess. I stand to be corrected but I don't think there are any 65 mph roads on Long Island. Having to go through NYC to get to the rest of the world tends to kind of bake in your perceptions and worldview. NYC is an unavoidable part of life on Long Island, even in Montauk. Places that far away from NYC that are upstate, like Binghamton or Albany, don't revolve around NYC to the same extent.

Until I read this, I didn't realize that Montauk is over 100 miles away as the crow flies from Manhattan. Montauk is closer to Hartford, Providence, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and even Boston than NYC

The lack of a bridge across the Long Island Sound has really shaped Long Island culture. I would say that the most logical place for a bridge (economically) is an extension of I-91 across the LI Sound at New Haven but that's also a 20 mile bridge, which is shorter than the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway so it's theoretically possible but not likely.

[Techknow]

IMO the most rural-looking of Bay freeways would be I-680 between the Sunol Grade east of the CA 238 junction and Bernal Avenue in Livermore.  Looks can be deceiving; there's a lot of higher-end housing tucked away in the hills through which the freeway passes -- but hard to see from a distance, particularly the mansions west of the freeway near the Sunol Blvd. exit (John Madden lives in one of those just west of the country club).

I only been on I-680 from Fremont to the I-280 junction but I think I-280 has that feature as well when it goes through Hillsborough. When one heads north and goes through the San Mateo Creek bridge, one can see the back of some houses there, but they're tucked away behind the hills, except for one notable exception, the Flintstones House of course. Heading Southbound one can't really see them while driving!

[kphoger]

Hmm. I feel like heading west in a covered wagon in the 1920's or 30's would be like heading west in a Model T right now.

The Oregon Trail was used into the 1890s.  1920 was only 30 years later.  It's more like heading west in one of these:
[img snipped]

Fair enough. I was thinking more in terms of how much has changed, not necessarily how much time has elapsed. The development of the car was such a huge advance and progress has come in much smaller increments since then.

I do believe, however, that hers was one of the last families to move west by covered wagon.

[Concrete Bob]

Phoenix Arizona's SR 51 (Lori Piestewa Freeway) gets a totally rural look and feel as it passes through Dreamy Draw.  One leaves suburbia quickly, only to be back in as quickly at the other side of the park.  It's a nice break from all the development as one travels from one end of the 51 to the other.   

[ftballfan]

I-96 in the Grand Rapids area, especially between US-131 and I-196

[webny99]

I originally posted this to a different thread because I couldn't find this one, but anyways, it's relevant here:

It's crazy that this is part of the route between the Vancouver Airport (YVR) and most of Vancouver's eastern suburbs.

[Roadgeekteen]

I-29 and I-635 in KC

For I-29, the 55 sign kind of gives it away.

[vdeane]

I-29 and I-635 in KC

For I-29, the 55 sign kind of gives it away.

After leaving streetview on the I-635 one and moving the map around, I wound up doing a double-take after finding stuff like this.  I wonder if there are goats.

[SkyPesos]

Some in the Cincinnati area:

- I-74 about 2 miles west of its eastern terminus at I-75

- I-275 on its western loop

- I-71 between exits 10 and 11

- OH 126 between exits 29 and 31

[achilles765]

Interstate 10 in east San Antonio, interstates 35 and 37 in south San Antonio and the southern leg of interstate 410

[epzik8]

Does that one segment of I-95 between the north side of Wilmington and the Pennsylvania line count?

[Avalanchez71]

When I was growing up in northwestern Kansas in the 1990s, our church organist at that time had come to this state in a covered wagon when she was a little kid.

Covered wagons were obsolete by the 1890's, so she must have been over 100 years old?

No.  They may have been obsolete by then, but they still existed.  Hers was one of the last wagons to come west, I believe, and I don't think it was necessarily part of a "wagon train".  She died about 15 years ago, I think.  I can't for the life of me remember her name, or else I'd try to hunt down the obit.

I would say the transition point would have been in the 1920s.  It is possible.  The first master road builder of OK came over in a covered wagon.

[Road Hog]

Trains existed, of course, at the turn of the 20th century but didn't run everywhere, and automobiles (and automobile-worthy roads) were just starting to appear. So covered wagons certainly still existed.

[skluth]

Coming into St Louis on I-55 in Illinois is quite strange. You get your first distant view of St Louis approaching the I-255 interchange after passing through some exurban settings from Troy to Collinsville. Next you go through some rural-like area, although on the right is a giant landfill (not Cahokia Mound, which I found out after I moved to the area). Then you go over a bunch of railroad tracks and voila, you're in and urban industrial wasteland two miles from Downtown St Louis with a clear view of the Arch, not that you can look much because of the spaghetti-like braided road you get to navigate on I-55 through East St Louis.