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[thisdj78]

Just curious: Is there such a map of the entire US that shows average traffic volumes on the interstate highways? Perhaps color coded even?

[agentsteel53]

best I could find offhand:



look at all that traffic peter out on I-10 just east of the 10/20 split.  is Fort Stockton a truck black hole?

[thisdj78]

best I could find offhand:

look at all that traffic peter out on I-10 just east of the 10/20 split.  is Fort Stockton a truck black hole?

Very interesting. thanks! As far as I-10, no telling, but I believe that was one of the last portions of I-10 to be completed (late 70s/early 80s?).

Wow @ I-40 between Nashville and Little Rock, but having driving that stretch, I believe it.

[agentsteel53]

Very interesting. thanks! As far as I-10, no telling, but I believe that was one of the last portions of I-10 to be completed (late 70s/early 80s?).

I know there was a four-lane US-80 expressway further to the west: four-lane divided with the occasional at-grade by 1957, and I believe they just left the at-grades there.

as for east of the split, I had thought a similar time frame, but could well be mistaken.

[NE2]

If I'm not mistaken, the data for that map comes from origin/destination. So it's somewhat guessed when roughly equal alternates exist.

(As for the black hole at Fort Stockton, that's probably because the map uses only a few discrete widths. It simply drops below 12500 there.)

More maps of truck trarffic here: http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/freight_analysis/nat_freight_stats/index.htm

The best one is "Average Daily Long-Haul Freight Traffic on the National Highway System":

I could totally see this hanging on my wall.

[3467]

I have looked and looked to and only found the freight traffic one. There was one in the National Atlas of 1968. USGS updated parts of the atlas but not the most interesting one.
You would think with all the state maps and all the agencies like the BTS and the FHWA somebody could make one for the Interstates/NHS and or US Highways.
Maybe one of our talented map makers here could

[NE2]

The NHPN data does have an AADT field, if anyone wants to play with it. (QGIS can't do width by field yet - I tried.) You'll have to do some truncating of higher values to avoid the problem of massive short-distance tripping in built-up areas.

[3467]

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/processes/tools/nhpn/

[froggie]

The NHPN data does have an AADT field, if anyone wants to play with it. (QGIS can't do width by field yet - I tried.) You'll have to do some truncating of higher values to avoid the problem of massive short-distance tripping in built-up areas.

It's doable in ArcGIS (I've done it already)....if you guys can wait 4 months for me to get back from sea...

[froggie]

Okay, they let us off the ship for a couple hours before we leave port today.  Here's a quick and dirty map I created using data from the 2011 National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD), so it's whatever the state DOTs had submitted to FHWA for that report.

[froggie]

Here's another one, using graduated symbols:

[ET21]

best I could find offhand:



look at all that traffic peter out on I-10 just east of the 10/20 split.  is Fort Stockton a truck black hole?

Look at the southern tip of Lake Michigan between Chicago and Benton Harbor.... Now I understand why it took 15 years to upgrade that area to 4-5 lanes each way

[kkt]

Here's another one, using graduated symbols:

This is cool, thanks!

[kkt]

If I'm not mistaken, the data for that map comes from origin/destination. So it's somewhat guessed when roughly equal alternates exist.

(As for the black hole at Fort Stockton, that's probably because the map uses only a few discrete widths. It simply drops below 12500 there.)

More maps of truck trarffic here: http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/freight_analysis/nat_freight_stats/index.htm

The best one is "Average Daily Long-Haul Freight Traffic on the National Highway System":

I could totally see this hanging on my wall.

I like how it includes major noninterstate routes.  CA-99 from the Grapevine to Sacramento...

[NE2]

US 191 through Yellowstone...

[kphoger]

"Average Daily Long-Haul Freight Traffic on the National Highway System"

Interesting how there's so little long-haul traffic between Laredo and San Antonio.

[3467]

Thanks to Froggie!

[kphoger]

What does Froggie have to do with keeping long-haul trucks off I-35 south of San Antonio??? 

[NE2]

What does Froggie have to do with keeping long-haul trucks off I-35 south of San Antonio??? 

Froggie's military, so maybe 3467 knows something we don't.

[Sykotyk]

If you've ever been down I-35, you know truck traffic (and "IN TOW" vehicles) outnumber cars most of the time, it seems.

As for west of Fort Stockton, my guess is a lot of traffic might be heading up US285 toward the northwest and therefore leaving what little traffic destined for further west below the cut off. Also, Fort Stockton might not have a ton of traffic itself heading to El Paso than it does to San Antonio.

There's still a stretch of I-10 that I haven't driven between I-20 and US83. I've driven parts zigzagging around, but still have a few blank spots that one day will get filled in. And, since clinching the counties of Texas years ago, it's hard to find purpose for being that far southwest again (I've clinched west of the Mississippi except for Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and northeast Montana).

[architect77]

best I could find offhand:



look at all that traffic peter out on I-10 just east of the 10/20 split.  is Fort Stockton a truck black hole?

I've driven I-20, 40 10 and 70 across country, and I believe I-85 from Atlanta to Petersburg, VA should be a much fatter red line.

[cpzilliacus]

I've driven I-20, 40 10 and 70 across country, and I believe I-85 from Atlanta to Petersburg, VA should be a much fatter red line.

I driven I-85 between Durham, N.C. and Petersburg, Va. a fair amount and that section of freeway (especially in Virginia) has always impressed me as being pretty empty.   

Not so between Atlanta and Durham, which is much busier.

[JREwing78]

What's fascinating to me is the map of truck travel speeds, shown here:


This is a good indicator of the choke points on the Interstate network for truck traffic.

In particular, look at the sluggish pace of the I-5 corridor. Even the I-95 corridor manages to sustain higher truck travel speeds.

[NE2]

In particular, look at the sluggish pace of the I-5 corridor. Even the I-95 corridor manages to sustain higher truck travel speeds.

Gee, I wonder why. Could there be steeper grades on I-5?

[froggie]

Gee, I wonder why. Could there be steeper grades on I-5?

Only in a couple spots that reflect on the map.  Most of the red on I-5 is due to traffic in the LA basin and San Diego.  A more pronounced steeper grade example would be I-70 west of Denver.  The yellow on I-91 in northern Vermont can also be attributed to steep grades, especially north of Lyndon, near Wells River, and north of Bradford.

Since this thread's been revived, I'd like to point out that I'm (SLOWLY) working on an update to the maps I posted last month.  I've since discovered that the traffic data in the 2011 NTAD is from 2002.  My update goal is to include more recent traffic volumes (my target year is 2010) and also include select non-Interstate routes, but it's a daunting coding task.  There's no single nationwide dataset available that has more recent data, which means reaching out to the individual states, and I lack the data and datasets for most of them (in part due to being out to sea).  Likely won't be done until after I'm back from sea.