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Hello from Belgium, soon to be from Northern VA

Started by stwoodbury, February 21, 2017, 04:42:41 AM

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stwoodbury

Hello:

I have been following this forum off and on and finally decided to join. I have long been fascinated with highways (and railroads, ports and airports).

I am an American ex-pat living in Belgium, near the Walloon town of Enghien, but I actually live in Flanders.  Prior to that I lived in Germany, so I have some exposure to Belgian, Dutch, German, French, and UK highways, but despite the much longer history of roads in Europe (Celtic or Roman roads that are now superhighways) or the glamor that surrounds the no speed limit segments of heavily travelled Autobahnen, I still find that American roads make the biggest impression on me. I will be moving back to the USA (to Virginia) in May, so I plan on taking a lot of road trips throughout the Northeast and the Midwest while I am there.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and have lived there most of my life, on both sides of the mountains in Washington, but also just across the border in Oregon (Portland) and Idaho (Bonners Ferry and Moscow) so I am most familiar with roads like I-5, I-90, I-82, and I-84, US 95, US 195, US 395, US 2, US 101, etc.  Moving to Virginia will expose me to East Coast highways.

The fictional highways topic is particularly interesting because I find myself wondering why the US Government (specifically AASHTO) had the gall to decommission a legendary road like US 66 and replace it with several different interstates (55, 44, 40 and either 10 or 210) and then reuse that number as an essentially intrastate stub that connects DC to I-81, far from the original US 66 route.  I don't have a problem with upgrading or realigning an out of date design, like upgrading two lanes to four lanes and/or adding interchanges or creating bypasses and then transferring the route to the new alignment (I'm not that much of a purist), but why discard already established routes?


hotdogPi

Welcome from Massachusetts!

How many languages do you know?
Clinched, minus I-93 (I'm missing a few miles and my file is incorrect)

Traveled, plus US 13, 44, and 50, and several state routes

I will be in Burlington VT for the eclipse.

stwoodbury

Thanks,

One fluently, but I have some working knowledge of German and Dutch - not so well with French.

froggie

Regarding your question, AASHTO is not part of the Federal government.  They are, officially, an association of the state DOT's.  And US 66 got decommissioned because the states it passed through wanted it decommissioned.

stwoodbury

Quote from: froggie on February 22, 2017, 10:36:21 AM
Regarding your question, AASHTO is not part of the Federal government.  They are, officially, an association of the state DOT's.  And US 66 got decommissioned because the states it passed through wanted it decommissioned.
I should have looked up exactly what AASHTO is before mentioning it.

I can understand why state highway departments as well as motorists would prefer the faster, straighter, and also safer interstates that replaced the older two lane Route 66, or other comparable routes, but I have a hard time understanding why there was such an urge to remove an iconic designation like US 66. Maybe it did not become iconic until after it was decommissioned (despite Steinbeck's attention to it in the Grapes of Wrath).




SignGeek101


AlexandriaVA

Since I assume you'll be commuting to Foggy Bottom, understand that the Blue Line is undergoing repairs.

jeffandnicole

Quote from: stwoodbury on February 22, 2017, 03:35:24 PM
Quote from: froggie on February 22, 2017, 10:36:21 AM
Regarding your question, AASHTO is not part of the Federal government.  They are, officially, an association of the state DOT's.  And US 66 got decommissioned because the states it passed through wanted it decommissioned.
I should have looked up exactly what AASHTO is before mentioning it.

I can understand why state highway departments as well as motorists would prefer the faster, straighter, and also safer interstates that replaced the older two lane Route 66, or other comparable routes, but I have a hard time understanding why there was such an urge to remove an iconic designation like US 66. Maybe it did not become iconic until after it was decommissioned (despite Steinbeck's attention to it in the Grapes of Wrath).

Things change.  Times change.  While Route 66 may hold a special place in the hearts of many, it became an obsolete road.  Besides...it also wasn't one steady route over the years.  As is often the case, states request (and often get approval) to change a route from one roadway to another.  This happens frequently for bypasses, as an example, with the original route getting a business designation, or another route number entirely.  In many places, it was simply cosigned with the interstate highway that was bypassing it.  In other cases, some of the original lanes of Route 66 because the interstate highway.

If you wanted to try to drive the old Route 66 today, you can get close to the original routing, but a pure duplication would be virtually impossible as some areas of the highway are completely abandoned.


jakeroot

Howdy from Western Washington! Always nice to see new members who have ties to the PNW.

Did you give up your US citizenship?

slorydn1

Ahh Belgium-home of my favorite Formula One track.

Welcome from the state immediately to your south!
Please Note: All posts represent my personal opinions and do not represent those of any governmental agency, non-governmental agency, quasi-governmental agency or wanna be governmental agency

Counties: Counties Visited

stwoodbury

Quote from: jakeroot on February 23, 2017, 03:25:21 PM
Howdy from Western Washington! Always nice to see new members who have ties to the PNW.

Did you give up your US citizenship?
I'm originally from Western Washington and have lived there for about ten years, plus another six just across the Columbia in Portland, and a few years in Eastern Washington around Spokane.

No I did not give up my citizenship, since I work for the US Federal Government.

noelbotevera


stwoodbury

Quote from: AlexandriaVA on February 23, 2017, 12:13:31 PM
Since I assume you'll be commuting to Foggy Bottom, understand that the Blue Line is undergoing repairs.
I'll be in Reston. My plan is to live in that area so hopefully I will have a minimal commute.

freebrickproductions

It's all fun & games until someone summons Cthulhu and brings about the end of the world.

I also collect traffic lights, road signs, fans, and railroad crossing equipment.

(They/Them)

kphoger

I've only been through Belgium by rail, changing trains in Brussels, back in the 1990s.  Here's what I remember:

(1) We had to pay to use the restroom in the train station, but none of our money was apparently legal tender anymore.  We eventually took all our cash, held it out, and just let the attendant pick through it all to find the stuff that was actually acceptable.

(2) The train conductor told me quite sternly that "you do not put your feet on the seat in Belgium."  Once across the border in France, I was allowed to put my feet on the seat all I liked.  Same conductor.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

7/8


stwoodbury

Quote from: kphoger on February 26, 2017, 05:19:19 PM
I've only been through Belgium by rail, changing trains in Brussels, back in the 1990s.  Here's what I remember:

(1) We had to pay to use the restroom in the train station, but none of our money was apparently legal tender anymore.  We eventually took all our cash, held it out, and just let the attendant pick through it all to find the stuff that was actually acceptable.

(2) The train conductor told me quite sternly that "you do not put your feet on the seat in Belgium."  Once across the border in France, I was allowed to put my feet on the seat all I liked.  Same conductor.
You do have to pay to use the restroom still, now it would be Euro cents as opposed to Francs back then (that was before my time).
On a Thalys train (high speed rail) I could see them saying something about putting your feet on a seat in front of you, but usually it would be occupied. On the regional trains, you're lucky (or unlucky if you're trying to get out of paying your fare) to even see a conductor.

20160805

Welcome from currently overcast and foggy Wisconsin!
Left for 5 months Oct 2018-Mar 2019 due to arguing in the DST thread.
Tried coming back Mar 2019.
Left again Jul 2019 due to more arguing.

adventurernumber1

#18
Welcome to this forum, and welcome back to the United States all the way from Belgium.  :wave:


I am greeting you from the mountains of northwest Georgia.
Now alternating between different highway shields for my avatar - my previous highway shield avatar for the last few years was US 76.

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