Largest city without a freeway of any type

[agentsteel53]

(Side note: Should we keep this to the US only or should this include the whole world?)

the international question has been broached.  I think the answer turned out to be Dhaka, Bangladesh.

[Alps]

The word "freeway" refers to the free flow of traffic, not to its method of finance.  A toll road with controlled access is indeed a freeway.

Ok maybe that's true but in principle i disagree a freeway must not carry tolls to be called a freeway. otherwise you call it a "tollway" or toll expressway if we are getting technical.

"If we are getting technical," a freeway is as previously defined. You just shot your own argument in the head.

[Alps]

For NJ, it's the 35th largest municipality, Plainfield, pop. just under 50K and located along US 22. I-78 is less than 2 miles away, though. I don't have the patience to read the entire list for proximity.

[Brandon]

I would include nearby freeways as freeways (yes, tollways included) as serving said municipality.

For Illinois, some of the larger ones include:

Carbondale
Charleston
Freeport (The US-20 bypass does however have interchanges)
Woodstock
Crystal Lake
Algonquin
McHenry

Of these, Crystal Lake is the largest.

[US 41]

Not in the US, but Winnipeg according to the 2014 RandMcnally Road Atlas doesn't have any freeways and it has a population of 663,617.

[Alps]

Not in the US, but Winnipeg according to the 2014 RandMcnally Road Atlas doesn't have any freeways and it has a population of 663,617.

No longer true. The west side of the Perimeter Hwy. (101) has been upgraded to full freeway.

[NE2]

Not in the US, but Winnipeg according to the 2014 RandMcnally Road Atlas doesn't have any freeways and it has a population of 663,617.

No longer true. The west side of the Perimeter Hwy. (101) has been upgraded to full freeway.

Are the RIROs still present?

[Alps]

Not in the US, but Winnipeg according to the 2014 RandMcnally Road Atlas doesn't have any freeways and it has a population of 663,617.

No longer true. The west side of the Perimeter Hwy. (101) has been upgraded to full freeway.

Are the RIROs still present?

There might be one or two left. That's something I did not take note of when I was out there.

[Bigmikelakers]

Rio Rancho, NM- Pop 90,000

La Habra, CA- Pop 61,300

Poway, CA- Pop 47,800

Huntington Park, CA- Pop 58,700

Palm Desert, CA (I-10 runs very close to the city boundary)- Pop 50,000

San Jacinto, CA- Pop 45,400

And Hemet, CA which "TheStranger" mentioned earlier.

[NE2]

One that's not a suburb in the ordinary sense (but also not incorporated as a city/town/etc., though it has a well-defined boundary): The Villages, FL, 51K population. Florida's state song describes it perfectly: Old Folks at Home. It's also the Teabaggistani capital.

[The High Plains Traveler]

Greeley CO. Population 109,000. There is a U.S. 85 bypass, but it's just expressway.

[roadman65]

One that's not a suburb in the ordinary sense (but also not incorporated as a city/town/etc., though it has a well-defined boundary): The Villages, FL, 51K population. Florida's state song describes it perfectly: Old Folks at Home. It's also the Teabaggistani capital.

It is also running neck in neck with Belle Glade for STD's race.

[DTComposer]

Here's a more or less comprehensive list of California cities with no freeways, using 35,000 as the arbitrary cutoff:

Hemet, Riverside County - 78,657
La Habra, Orange County - 60,239
Gardena, Los Angeles County - 58,829
Huntington Park, Los Angeles County - 58,114
Palm Desert, Riverside County - 48,445
Poway, San Diego County - 47,811
Cypress, Orange County - 47,802
San Jacinto, Riverside County - 44,199
Lompoc, Santa Barbara County - 42,434
Rancho Palos Verdes, Los Angeles County - 41,643
Calexico, Imperial County - 38,572
Stanton, Orange County - 38,186
La Quinta, Riverside County - 37,467
Los Banos, Merced County - 35,972
Temple City, Los Angeles, County - 35,558

Expanding on that, Hemet is the only Census-defined Urban Area in California that has no freeways within its boundaries (pop. 163,379).

[golden eagle]

For Mississippi, it would be Greenville (pop. around 34K).

[Bigmikelakers]

West Jordan, UT- Pop 108,000

The Woodlands, TX- Pop 105,000

Tyler, TX- Pop 100,000

[NE2]

For Mississippi, it would be Greenville (pop. around 34K).

Currently has a US 82 bypass being built (but stalled).

[KEK Inc.]

For Washington, Sammamish, WA (which doesn't have a post office) with almost 50,000.  SR-520 and I-90 comes close, but not quite.  Next would be Edmonds (isolated from I-5; SR-104 connects I-5 to the ferry terminal, but it's not a freeway) and then Bremerton if SR-3 doesn't enter its city limits.

[golden eagle]

For Mississippi, it would be Greenville (pop. around 34K).

Currently has a US 82 bypass being built (but stalled).

But for now...

Once the bypass is built, I believe the city in line will be Natchez.

[sandiaman]

Bend .OR  (80,000)
Roswell, NM (48,000)
Lewiston, ID (30,000)
Logan ,UT (35,000)
Sierra Vista, AZ  (35,000)

[mgk920]

Bend .OR  (80,000)
Roswell, NM (48,000)
Lewiston, ID (30,000)
Logan ,UT (35,000)
Sierra Vista, AZ  (35,000)

US 97 is a full freeway through much of Bend, OR.

Mike

[triplemultiplex]

Finding suburbs where the freeways just barely miss the corporate boundary seems like a cop out.  Great, we found 70,000 people between the spokes of a metro area's freeway system.  I think it's more interesting to find those Roswells and Lewistons and Sierra Vistas that are off on their own and have nothing freeway-like at all.

For example, in Wisconsin, the largest city that 'technically' doesn't have a freeway is the Milwaukee suburb of Franklin (~35k).  But just barely, so who cares?  Wisconsin Rapids (~18k), on the other hand, is the more interesting example because it's the largest city not served by any freeway at all in the state. (Marshfield is larger by a little bit and now has a couple miles of freeway on US 10 flanking the one interchange).  The fact that every community over 20k in the state is served, directly or almost directly by freeway mileage is an interesting statistic worth comparing.

[formulanone]

Finding suburbs where the freeways just barely miss the corporate boundary seems like a cop out.

In that case, the

"Longest Distance from the Closest City/Town boundary to Any Limited-Access Highway, Yet Still Big Enough to Have Significant Population (like a McDonald's or a couple of stoplights)"

might be the best way to phrase the topic, except that's as wide-open as a topic could get.

[hotdogPi]

Maybe "Largest city with no ramps within 10 miles"? Would that be the same thing?

[Alex4897]

Maybe "Largest city with no ramps within 10 miles"? Would that be the same thing?

That would knock out places that have quasi-interchanges between two streets.

[Chris]

Kinshasa, Congo has a population of 9 million and no freeways, I don't think they even have one interchange. Many African cities do have a few interchanges even if they don't have any real freeways.

Dhaka, Bangladesh has no real freeways, but they do have a couple of flyover-type roads.