Cites that are oddly located off the main highway

[TheStranger]

Ridgecrest, California - served by a US 395 business route that is not original US 395 (which passes well to the west)!  Area developed because of military installations in the 1940s/1950s.

[national highway 1]

If you consider US 99/I-5 the major highway up the Pacific Coast, then San Francisco.

[JREwing78]

Adrian, MI would certainly fit the theme. It's a city of 21,000 that's not serviced by a freeway or any 4-lane highway in any direction. The closest freeway, US-23, is 20 miles away to the east. I-80/90 (Ohio Turnpike) is 22 miles away. I-69, to the west, is 60 miles away. I-94, to the north, is 30 miles away.



The US-223/US-127 corridor between Toledo and Jackson isn't destined to get a 4-lane rebuild anytime soon either, despite lots of talk over the years. The locals had a fit when there was mention of I-73 going through here. If this was in another state, it'd be already 4-laned, possibly a freeway, by now.

[roadman65]

Dothan, AL fits this bill.  It is not serviced by any freeway's yet, until the connector ever gets built.  Its beltway is the infamous 13 mile Ross Clark Circle, that is an arterial with strip malls, businesses, and frequent traffic lights.

You have Kokomo, IN that even when the US 31 freeway is completed, it will not be tied into any interstates or other freeways and is a large enough population center with growth around the city limits.

Traverse City, MI is a decent sized small city as well, and has no current freeways linking it.  Its several miles to I-75 to the east and Lake Michigan is not far from the west with one of its estuaries: Traverse Bay directly to the north and I-96 is hundreds of miles to the south.

Panama City, FL is the Sunshine State's only large city to not be serviced by any freeways whatsoever.  Its almost 50 miles to I-10 to the north and no N-S interstates running for  hundreds of miles to the east and west as the Gulf of Mexico is imediately to the south.

[1995hoo]

If you consider state capitals to be important destinations simply because they're the seat of government, then Jefferson City, Missouri, would pop to mind in terms of how I-70 takes a direct route between Kansas City and St. Louis instead of curving south to serve the state capital. I guess you could say the same about Pierre, South Dakota, and I-90.

I suppose in Jefferson City's case it is served by US-50, so it was on the main highway until I-70 superseded it as the main route.

[huskeroadgeek]

Dothan, AL fits this bill.  It is not serviced by any freeway's yet, until the connector ever gets built.  Its beltway is the infamous 13 mile Ross Clark Circle, that is an arterial with strip malls, businesses, and frequent traffic lights.

You have Kokomo, IN that even when the US 31 freeway is completed, it will not be tied into any interstates or other freeways and is a large enough population center with growth around the city limits.

Traverse City, MI is a decent sized small city as well, and has no current freeways linking it.  Its several miles to I-75 to the east and Lake Michigan is not far from the west with one of its estuaries: Traverse Bay directly to the north and I-96 is hundreds of miles to the south.

Panama City, FL is the Sunshine State's only large city to not be serviced by any freeways whatsoever.  Its almost 50 miles to I-10 to the north and no N-S interstates running for  hundreds of miles to the east and west as the Gulf of Mexico is imediately to the south.

Of similar size, Enid, OK fits as well. The closest freeway is I-35, 30 miles to the east.

[realjd]

I'd argue that a city without a freeway cutting right through the middle is much nicer place than one with central freeways.

[roadman65]

I'd argue that a city without a freeway cutting right through the middle is much nicer place than one with central freeways.

You know you may be right about that! Many cities like Boston and New York complain that freeways have split neighborhoods.  I see it in Orlando with I-4.  It is the boundary between residential and industrial from Michigan Street to FL 408.  Then its a boundary between the Downtown Business District and also a residential area known as Parramore that is is inhibited by social economic class residents from FL 408 to Colonial Drive.  If I-4 was not their these neighborhoods would be  not be bordered the way they are at present.  Heck, if I-4 was not created there would probably be no Disney along with resort, economic, and residential growth in the Orlando area.  It would be a small city and probably be un-famous.

[KEK Inc.]

I-88 is a toll road that barely skirts through Naperville.  Otherwise, it's a large suburb of Chicago without any other freeway access.

[tdindy88]

Question on this subject: The title says cities that are oddly located off the main "highway." Can only interstates be main highways, or can it refer to other important highways (4-lane US or state routes, NHS routes, etc) that are considered to be major for the region, or does it HAVE to be interstates?

[national highway 1]

Juneau, AK is mainly accessible by plane and is completely isolated from the rest of Alaska's state highway network.

[ibagli]

Things are better now, but there was no 4-lane connection to Newark, Ohio (population ~50,000) at all until 2003, when State Route 79 was widened to four lanes between Heath and Hebron. Even then, that went through the business strip of Heath, and the 37/161 freeway west of Granville wasn't completed until 2010 (now there's just one light and one RIRO intersection between Newark and I-270 in Franklin County).

[roadman65]

Salisbury, MD could be considered one.  If you look at it from this way, the freeway of US 13 and US 50 are bypasses of the city that do not connect to another freeway network.  Unless the whole US 13 corridor is made interstate, which will never happen, due to Delaware fighting with Milford to have a freeway bypass built of it and VA not really wanting another highway on this peninsula according to other posts from this forum will it be sort of isolated from the interstate system.

Then again, US 13 and US 50 are major US Routes.  It could be viewed as being on the main highway as well.  US 13, especially carries long distance commerce in addition to local.    It is a primary route for those between NYC and Hampton Roads, as it cuts a lot of time off of I-95 and I-64.

[jdb1234]

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.

When I-65 was planned, Decatur was the largest city in north Alabama.  As a result, I-65 was routed closer to Decatur than Huntsville. 

[ftballfan]

Salisbury, MD could be considered one.  If you look at it from this way, the freeway of US 13 and US 50 are bypasses of the city that do not connect to another freeway network.  Unless the whole US 13 corridor is made interstate, which will never happen, due to Delaware fighting with Milford to have a freeway bypass built of it and VA not really wanting another highway on this peninsula according to other posts from this forum will it be sort of isolated from the interstate system.

Then again, US 13 and US 50 are major US Routes.  It could be viewed as being on the main highway as well.  US 13, especially carries long distance commerce in addition to local.    It is a primary route for those between NYC and Hampton Roads, as it cuts a lot of time off of I-95 and I-64.

Milford is not even on US-13. It is on US-113, while US-13 runs through Harrington.

[texaskdog]

I think they should have made a better attempt to build insterstates straighter instead of getting to every little town.  Often they bend miles out of the way instead of achieving their purpose of getting the masses back & forth to larger cities as fast as possible.

[vdeane]

Not as bad as US highways, which bend for no reason at all.

[NE2]

Montreal is not on I-95.

[jwolfer]

I'd argue that a city without a freeway cutting right through the middle is much nicer place than one with central freeways.

You know you may be right about that! Many cities like Boston and New York complain that freeways have split neighborhoods.  I see it in Orlando with I-4.  It is the boundary between residential and industrial from Michigan Street to FL 408.  Then its a boundary between the Downtown Business District and also a residential area known as Parramore that is is inhibited by social economic class residents from FL 408 to Colonial Drive.  If I-4 was not their these neighborhoods would be  not be bordered the way they are at present.  Heck, if I-4 was not created there would probably be no Disney along with resort, economic, and residential growth in the Orlando area.  It would be a small city and probably be un-famous.

Very True.  My mom grew up in Gainesville, FL during the 1950s she said that Orlando was a nice little city, probably along the lines of Ocala.  I have spoken with people who grew up there in the late 60s it was a very "Southern" city in the citrus growing and cattle ranch region.

The story is that Walt Disney picked the WDW site since it was near the junction of I-4 and the FL Turnpike.  He was flying over Florida looking for locations and it is far enough South to avoid most cold snaps that can hit Northern FL and away from the prime strike locations for hurricanes further to the South.

[agentsteel53]

Ridgecrest, California - served by a US 395 business route that is not original US 395 (which passes well to the west)!  Area developed because of military installations in the 1940s/1950s.

that's not a city; it's a Walmart with a live-in fan club.

[Kacie Jane]

Question on this subject: The title says cities that are oddly located off the main "highway." Can only interstates be main highways, or can it refer to other important highways (4-lane US or state routes, NHS routes, etc) that are considered to be major for the region, or does it HAVE to be interstates?

Main highways should absolutely not be limited to interstates, and I think that's where this thread is getting off track.  If you look at the OP, Brian mentioned two Texas cities -- granted they're not on interstates -- but even before the interstates, they were oddly located off the highway.  (In fact, Tyler is now slightly less oddly located -- since I-20 was built closer to it than US 80 was.)

I think Fresno (as I already mentioned) and Salisbury, MD, are the exact opposite of what this thread is looking for.  CA 99 is undeniably a main highway and runs straight through Fresno, while Salisbury is located at the intersection of the two most major highways on the Delmarva Peninsula.

[vdeane]

Montreal is not on I-95.

But it is on I-87, if you count I-87's logical extension of A-15.

[JustDrive]

Montreal is not on I-95.

Vancouver, BC isn't on I-5, either

[Kacie Jane]

Montreal is not on I-95.

Vancouver, BC isn't on I-5, either

(1) NE2 was either (a) making a joke, (b) being facetious, or (c) both.
(2) Following from deane's post above yours, Vancouver is on I-5 as much as a Canadian city can be on a US Interstate.  BC-99 cuts right through downtown.

[Alps]

I noticed a lot of Midwestern cities, such as in Kansas on the US 36 corridor, are not actually on the route at all, but you have to turn as much as a mile to get to them on a little back road (or as little as a block or two). In most of my travels, downtown is on the main drag, so this strikes me as odd. An eastern example would be Alberta, VA.