Frontage Road Poll.

[triplemultiplex]

The way Texas does 'em on pretty much every mile of freeway seems like a big waste of space and money.  Obviously Texas-style frontage roads have their place in certain urban environs, especially where an arterial surface route has been upgraded or a freeway is nestled into a street grid, but to build every freeway like that, even when starting from scratch, is just a big waste.  It's also a big rubber stamp for urban sprawl; an open invitation to mostly empty parking lots with ugly buildings behind them.

[roadfro]

Nevada doesn't really have frontage roads in the sense described thus far in the thread--one-directional roads adjacent to the freeway. The only highway that really has them is sections of I-215/CR 215 around Las Vegas. These are new with the freeways (and in the case of CR 215, was the original roads that carried the traffic until the freeway was built), and adjacent land is mostly undeveloped.

Other sections of Nevada have different types of frontage roads. These are most often found along rural sections of I-80 and some rural parts of I-15. This is typically where the old U.S. highway was not covered up directly by the Interstate and provides bi-directional local access in an area.


Each type of frontage road serves a purpose. In highly built areas, I can see the need for Texas-style frontage roads--especially if the road preexisted the freeway. Building these with the freeway isn't really necessary in many cases, especially if that degree of local access isn't needed to avoid breaking up neighborhoods or business districts.

[formulanone]

Bumping this to voice my displeasure with "excessive" frontage roads. Namely, the abundance of them in Texas.

Miss your exit? It's almost like missing two exits, since you have to spend lots of time making U-turns and doubling back. Too many one-way streets and they seem to promote lots of weaving. And it's quite annoying if your destination is located between two major freeways, which assuredly means you have make three long rights instead of a simple left. Or three lefts when you'd rather make a single right. In all, they don't seem to reduce highway traffic and congestion, although it does appear that the traffic is diverted somewhat from the arterials.

There's a time and place for them, where a short limited-access road or a grade separation might hinder nearby businesses or other local access...but I can't stand when entire stretches of interstate are dependent on them. I will say they can be convenient for spotting those tall signs in the distance.

[Joe The Dragon]

Chicago has few because most of the Expressways were built in rail corridors that allready had limited access points. The Dan Ryan was built next to exisiting streets that became frontage roads like Big Matts Houston example.
The Tollroads were orginally built as bypasses(another discussion) and thus not many interchanges or frontage roads originally.
On I-55 parts of old 66 and its bypasses sort of serve as frontage roads -a rare rural small town example in Illinois

The EOE / Elgin—O'Hare Expressway has some and the new part will have them as well.

[TEG24601]

I love frontage roads, especially how they work in Michigan and Texas, and follow the roads.  I'm not a big of a fan where they just happen to be there due to placement in the grid, like in Portland or Seattle.  It seems like missed opportunities for growth and lower impact from the freeways.