Cites that are oddly located off the main highway

[Brian556]

In Texas, I find location of the cities of Tyler and Cleburne odd. They are not located on a major nearby highway corridor that logic would dictate that they should be located on tho make them more sucessful.

Cleburne:
Located west of the I-35W corridor. Before US 81, that corridor was SH 2. There was a SH 2A for a while to serve Cleburne. Interestingly, SH 174 (Formerly SH 2A) became a divided highway before US 81 south of the US 81/SH 174 junction. Logic would dictate that 81 should have become a divided highway 1st because its a US hwy and it serves more cross-state and cross-country traffic. Maybe they were waiting on Interstate funding for the US 81/I-35W corridor.




Tyler:
Yes, it's on US 69. However, it would have made more sense for it to have been on the US 80 corridor.

[Beltway]

Raleigh NC -- off I-95 and off I-85

[Beltway]

Aye, Cleburne is connected to I-35W via US-67, a 4-lane divided highway.

Is that not a sufficient connector? 
Maybe it needs an Interstate spur, like I-135?

[bugo]

Fort Smith is off of I-40, even though it is served by I-540.

[hbelkins]

Lexington, Ky. and Huntington, WV. The interstate skirts the city instead of going through it in both cases.

[kphoger]

2 thoughts:

(1) Towns often find their locations due to railway network rather than highway network.

(2) What makes for a good town location doesn't necessarily make for a good highway location.

Feel free to debunk me.

[kendancy66]

Winston-Salem, NC not on US-70 corridor.  Situation was corrected by putting I-40 there though.

[golden eagle]

Huntsville, AL is about 20 miles from I-65, but has 565 as consolation. Fresno, despite its large size, isn't served by an interstate.

[txstateends]

Tyler:
Yes, it's on US 69. However, it would have made more sense for it to have been on the US 80 corridor.

I've never understood why I-20 wasn't built closer to Tyler.  It didn't have to be *through* town, but at least brush the north side or something.  For the most part, especially in earlier years, you could drive along and never realize you're near Tyler if you didn't see the control cities on the US 69 or US 271 exit BGSs.  At least Longview is somewhat along I-20.

[jwolfer]

Lexington, Ky. and Huntington, WV. The interstate skirts the city instead of going through it in both cases.

From what I remember reading the intital plans for the Interstate system had the roads bypassing the cities for the most part... like the PA Turnpike does not go into Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. 

[jwolfer]

2 thoughts:

(1) Towns often find their locations due to railway network rather than highway network.

(2) What makes for a good town location doesn't necessarily make for a good highway location.

Feel free to debunk me.

Lots of cities are where they are because of the railroads... or port.( e.g. Atlanta or NYC)  There are numerous  towns that died when they were bypassed by the railroad and the town the got the railroad grew, or towns that decided to pick up and move to the railroad.

[Kacie Jane]

Fresno, despite its large size, isn't served by an interstate.

However, 50 years ago, the main highway was US 99.  Certainly not oddly located off the main highway.

[agentsteel53]

Nome.

[Occidental Tourist]

Hemet, CA

[huskeroadgeek]

Huntsville, AL is about 20 miles from I-65, but has 565 as consolation. Fresno, despite its large size, isn't served by an interstate.

I don't know when the route of I-65 was chosen, but I'm guessing that it bypassed Huntsville because it wasn't a very big city until the 1960s. It experienced explosive growth due to NASA in the 50s and 60s-going from a population of 16,437 in 1950 to 139,282 in 1970. I wonder if the city had been bigger earlier on whether they would have curved I-65 into the city along the route of AL 53 and then left the city along the current I-565.

[empirestate]

Obviously, in most cases you'll find the cities were very fortuitously located on whatever the main highways were at the time of their founding (railroad, harbor, waterway, stage route...). In the West, a lot of towns that were founded on stage routes later moved to a nearby railroad, and then when US highways and later Interstates were developed, new growth migrated to those facilities. (This effect is less pronounced in the Northeast, as early roads, railroads and waterways tend to follow the same corridors by necessity.)

So what we're looking at, then, are those towns that, though founded at a geographically logical location, have since been bypassed by the new modes of commerce and thus find themselves curiously off-grid today. An example from my area would be Auburn, NY...located on early Indian trails and turnpike routes (NY 5 and US 20) but later bypassed both by the New York Central mainline and the Thruway (I-90). Now it's the largest NY city on US 20 other than Albany, but does have a curiously isolated feel.

Canandaigua, NY, just to the west, seems to have had an even earlier decline...it was the big capital for much of western NY in its day; Susan B. Anthony was tried there for voting because Rochester was too backwater at the time. But again, railroad and Interstate missed it, and today it's a destination city but not a regionally important one.

[Alps]

One I came across today: Rochester and I-90. I-490 has to swing way up to get into the city. Now, technically the Thruway's only one town away through Henrietta or Chili, but it's nowhere near the "action".

[empirestate]

One I came across today: Rochester and I-90. I-490 has to swing way up to get into the city. Now, technically the Thruway's only one town away through Henrietta or Chili, but it's nowhere near the "action".

There was, of course, much discussion about Rochester being on the Thruway or not back when plans were being made. But it did, at least, make it onto the Interstate system, if only with a healthy three 3dis. That's not entirely unheard of; see Worcester, MA (I-90), Pittsburgh (I-76 and I-79) and Boston (I-95). Rochester got its start from the Erie Canal, later reinforced by several railroad lines, but it was eschewed later by US 20 and, as noted, I-90.

[mightyace]

One that was and is no longer is State College, PA which has a small college called Penn State in it.  I-80 passes several miles to the north of it and, for the longest time, you just had the disconnected US 322 freeway north of the city.  Now, it's on US 220/I-99.

[Bickendan]

Corvallis -- but it was served by US 99W and still has US 20. I-5 misses it by a good 10 miles to the east.

[blawp]

Tucson

[sp_redelectric]

Corvallis -- but it was served by US 99W and still has US 20. I-5 misses it by a good 10 miles to the east.

Despite Corvallis' perceived importance due to OSU, Albany is the industrial center - and has the larger permanent population.

That said, Corvallis was at the southern end of the Southern Pacific's Red Electric system and largely on a branchline; the SP mainline went through Albany as does Interstate 5 today.  And Corvallis is connected to I-5 by both U.S. 20 (the "business route" and Oregon 34 (the "bypass route" and also the expressway).

I would argue that Bend and Klamath Falls if you are simply looking at interstate highways as both are on U.S. 97 and Bend is also on U.S. 20.  McMinnville and it's 35,000 residents are no longer even on an U.S. Highway since 99W was decommissioned and gets just one sign on Interstate 5 (a secondary sign for Exit 294 southbound near Tigard) while Corvallis and OSU have multiple signs.

[HighwayMaster]

• Lynchburg, VA: On US-29 and US-460 but quite a ways from I-81 and I-64.
• Athens, GA: On US-29 but I-85 skirts 20mi north of there (maybe to be closer to Gainesville).

[Beltway]

• Lynchburg, VA: On US-29 and US-460 but quite a ways from I-81 and I-64.

Lynchburg was one of those ~10% of U.S. cities of 50,000 or more 1950 population that did not get an Interstate highway.

However, Lynchburg is well served by 4-lane long-distance highways, US-29 and US-460, in all 4 compass directions.  These highways were first targeted for 4-laning thru the state in 1964 legislation.

[national highway 1]

Palm Springs, CA