The Great Interstate Bracket Challenge

[NWI_Irish96]

And now, these are the Elite Eight matchups:

EAST
95 vs. 81

SOUTH
10 vs. 75

MIDWEST
90 vs. 70

WEST
80 vs. 40

[SkyPesos]

EAST
95 vs. 81
95 wins hands down for me; it's pretty much the Main Street of the east coast.

SOUTH
10 vs. 75
I do give 75 a hard time for all the endless construction on the highway in the 6 states it goes through, but as someone in Cincinnati, it's one of my most used interstates

MIDWEST
90 vs. 70
As much as I like 90, 70 has a special place in me. I grew up in Columbus and St. Louis, which are both on 70, and now live in Cincinnati, which has 70 as the closest through E-W interstate 60 miles north. And there's the section in western Colorado and its unique termius at a parking lot.

WEST
80 vs. 40
My favorite interstate at one point, for all the metro areas it goes through. There's some of the country's most important like San Francisco, Chicago and NYC, as well as smaller but also important ones like Salt Lake City, Omaha, Cleveland and barely misses Pittsburgh

[thspfc]

East:
I-95. Seriously, is I-81 really the second best eastern Interstate? I-95 was always going to come out on top, but I would pick I-76, I-84, I-91, and I-93 over I-81.

South:
I-75. Difficult choice, but I feel like I-10 has become really suburbanized and representative of the dark side of the US' freeway culture.

Midwest:
I-70. Best matchup of the tournament so far, easily. I think the Denver to Grand Junction drive is the deciding factor.

West:
I-80. I-40 is the second weakest remaining Interstate after I-81 IMO. Where's the knockout punch? The six "worthy" Interstates to make it this far (95, 10, 75, 70, 90, 80) all have it. I-40 doesn't.

[vdeane]

EAST
95 vs. 81
I-81; once again, I am shaking my head at the people who are voting only by importance in a contest with no criteria (which thereby implies favoritism instead).  I-81 is scenic.  I-95 holds one of the most boring stretches of interstate I've ever driven on.  No contest.

SOUTH
10 vs. 75
I-75; it was a tough one, but I decided to vote for the Mackinac Bridge and Alligator Alley, even if I don't like the stretch between Chattanooga and Knoxville.

MIDWEST
90 vs. 70
I-90; I suspect that I'm going to vote hometown all the way, at the rate things are going.  Besides, it's the only x0 interstate I have a burning desire to clinch.

WEST
80 vs. 40
I-80; I-80 was the subject of multiple of my favorite Freewayjim videos - on the other hand, I don't have much to say for or against I-40, so it loses on the grounds of not feeling particularly remarkable.

[I-55]

Well looks like I lost. In a way I had a bit of a cinderella run there. 

[jflick99]

EAST
95 vs. 81

SOUTH
10 vs. 75

MIDWEST
90 vs. 70

WEST
80 vs. 40

[FrCorySticha]

EAST
95 vs. 81

SOUTH
10 vs. 75

MIDWEST
90 vs. 70

WEST
80 vs. 40

[dkblake]

81
10
90
80

[Great Lakes Roads]

95
10
90
80

[CNGL-Leudimin]

My picks for the quarterfinals:
East: 95
South: 10
North: 90
West: 80

[JayhawkCO]

95, 10, 70, 80

Chris

[webny99]

And now, these are the Elite Eight matchups:

EAST
95 vs. 81
The East Coast's most vital freeway meets up with the only non-major 2di to make it this far.

SOUTH
10 vs. 75
Who will take the Battle of Lake City?

MIDWEST
90 vs. 70
These two may as well be mirror images of each other (quirks in their routings, spanning both the Rockies and Appalachians, tolled in the East, connecting major cities across the nation, etc.)

WEST
80 vs. 40
It's SF-NYC against Barstow-Wilmington.

I foresee some juicy matchups in the middle bookended by some blowouts.

[Konza]

EAST
95 vs. 81
The East Coast's most vital freeway meets up with the only non-major 2di to make it this far.

When you look at what each of these routes connects, this really is no contest.  Loved driving I-81 from I-78 to I-26, though...

SOUTH
10 vs. 75
Who will take the Battle of Lake City?

Let's see here:  LA- Phoenix- Tucson- El Paso- San Antonio- Houston- New Orleans- Jacksonville vs. Detroit- Toledo- Dayton- Cincinnati- Knoxville- Chattanooga- Atlanta- Tampa- Miami.  I-10 connects three of the five most populous cities in the United States.  Can another route make that claim?

MIDWEST
90 vs. 70
These two may as well be mirror images of each other (quirks in their routings, spanning both the Rockies and Appalachians, tolled in the East, connecting major cities across the nation, etc.)

Coast-to-Coast wins out here.  I-90 definitely wins in the Eastern Time Zone, the Central is pretty much a draw, and I-70 wins in the Mountain Time Zone.  But I-70 doesn't make it to the Pacific Time Zone.

WEST
80 vs. 40
It's SF-NYC against Barstow-Wilmington.

Even if I-80 skirts most of the big cities it connects, it still connects them.

[Buck87]

81
75
90
80

[Ketchup99]

95 over 81 - no contest. I-95 is urban, fun to drive, on occasion clogged, absolutely critical. It's emblematic of the Northeast Corridor and wins in a landslide.

10 over 75 - neither one comes anywhere near me, but I'll vote I-10 for its usefulness and big city portions.

90 over 70 - I haven't voted for I-70 a single time, and don't plan on ending that streak now.

80 over 40 - maybe I'm partial to the North, but I-80 is a great road.

[Bickendan]

81
10
90
40

[Scott5114]

81, 10, 70, 40

Hope all y'all voting for 80 get stuck in the snow. 40's clearly the better coast-to-coast of the two.

[CtrlAltDel]

I have to admit, I'm hoping for more upsets this time, as opposed to last time's zero. That said, here are my choices:

EAST
95 vs. 81
I-81 just doesn't have enough to pull off the upset.

SOUTH
10 vs. 75
The variety of unique landscapes, such as the Everglades, wins this one for I-75.

MIDWEST
90 vs. 70
My favorite to win it all faces its biggest challenge yet, but a short Breezewood wins over a long concurrency.

WEST
80 vs. 40
While I-40 does not reach the coast, it also wins out over along concurrency.

[dlsterner]

95, 75, 70, 40

[thspfc]

EAST
95 vs. 81
I-81; once again, I am shaking my head at the people who are voting only by importance in a contest with no criteria (which thereby implies favoritism instead).  I-81 is scenic.  I-95 holds one of the most boring stretches of interstate I've ever driven on.  No contest.

I'm shaking my head at you, voting only by scenery in a contest with no criteria.

Voting purely on scenery is no better than voting purely on importance.

[vdeane]

EAST
95 vs. 81
I-81; once again, I am shaking my head at the people who are voting only by importance in a contest with no criteria (which thereby implies favoritism instead).  I-81 is scenic.  I-95 holds one of the most boring stretches of interstate I've ever driven on.  No contest.

I'm shaking my head at you, voting only by scenery in a contest with no criteria.

Voting purely on scenery is no better than voting purely on importance.

Technically I'm voting by favoritism, so not just scenery... though scenery is important.  Nostalgia and fascinations are big ones too, though they might be more reflected in my comments for the last round than this one.  I-95 can be fun in the NEC portions (at least for roadgeeks) when there's no traffic, but that's a pretty big ask for the NEC, which is quite often congested (I was VERY frustrated with it and practically crying the last time I drove the DC-Richmond portion).  Honestly, at this point I'm tempted to just keep voting against I-95 just because so many people are voting for it with "no contest" comments in every match it's in, just to keep things real, although in truth, I-95 is one of the 2dis I would like to clinch (I have everything south of US 201 in Maine).

I'm starting to wonder if the importance factor is an inherent thing in these types of voting brackets.  The same thing happened both years the We've Got Ward podcast did March's Madness, with the protagonist of the serial they were focusing on for that year getting first place and Tattletale second place.

[M3100]

81
10
70
40

[TJS23]

90
10
70
80

[wanderer2575]

EAST
95 vs. 81

SOUTH
10 vs. 75

MIDWEST
90 vs. 70

WEST
80 vs. 40

[I-55]

81
75
70
40