[USA] United States Non-Interstate Roads and Highways

[OakRidge]

Originally Posted by Botev1912

Does anyone know what the blue reflectors on USA roads mean? They are located in weird places - not in the middle of the road, not on the shoulder, but usually in the middle of the lane or close to the divider.

They are typically used to indicate fire hydrants. When you see one look to the right.

[MSP]

Originally Posted by ChrisZwolle

Note the narrow HOV lanes. What often happened in the Los Angeles area is that they turned left shoulders into HOV lanes, but left shoulders were often a tad narrower than the general purpose lanes.

image hosted on flickr

I would guess in this case, the original road had a 10 foot wide inside shoulder with 4 12 foot wide lanes in each direction.
It looks like they took the inside shoulder and made it into an 11 foot wide HOV lane. As well as the 4 general purpose lanes. The location of the concrete joints shows where I assume the original lane lines were. They are squeezing every inch out of the original footprint of the road.
They have done this on a couple of freeways in Minneapolis(I-35W south of downtown and I-94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul).

[diablo234]

[ChrisZwolle]

The new US 202 Parkway north of Philadelphia opens to traffic tomorrow. It runs from Montgomeryville to Doylestown.

Originally conceived as an expressway and outer bypass of the Philadelphia metropolitan area, it was scaled back significantly to a 2 to 4-lane parkway with signalized intersections. It does run on an entirely new right of way though.

[ChrisZwolle]

A run was held on the new Triangle Expressway near Apex, North Carolina.

image hosted on flickr

DSC_0344 by NCDOTcommunications, on Flickr

[diablo234]

[ChrisZwolle]

This is what 86 inches of snow look like.

image hosted on flickr

Chinook Pass 12/4/12 by WSDOT, on Flickr

[CNGL]

That is more than two meters of whiteness . The road must be below.

[ChrisZwolle]

This is what it looks like in the summer. It's not even all that high, about a mile, same altitude as Denver.
image hosted on flickr

Chinook Pass - Mount Rainier National Park by Jasperdo, on Flickr

[michael_siberia]

How to avoid hogging the left lane at this traffic "organization"?

[ChrisZwolle]

A new toll road is considered near Dallas, connecting Greenville with the President George Bush Turnpike, along the right of way of a defunct railway and parallel to I-30.

[hoosier]

Why? Only in America are roads built just for the hell of it or to induce demand as opposed to responding to it. There is absolutely no need for a parallel freeway next to I-30.

[I-275westcoastfl]

Dallas has planned their metro fairly well, it doesn't have terrible congestion considering its size and lack of transit although they are expanding it. Also you see I-30 does not have a close highway going towards the center compared to the other ones. In the future when the area develops this will be considered an alternate route to future congestion on I-30.

[ttownfeen]

What are the usage numbers on IH-30 between Greenville and DT Dallas? Considering that the area looks pretty rural on Google Maps, it can't be that high.

[Penn's Woods]

Is the point of that toll road perhaps to connect to that...unnumbered east-west thing through Plano (which would also lead to DFW airport if I don't miss my guess)...rather than to be an alternate to I-30? The angle at which said unnumbered thing meets I-30 at suggests to me the interchange was not designed for people doing the Greenville-to-Plano movement (although I see from GMaps the movement is possible).

Unrelated: GMaps, at least at the scale I was at to scroll from my default position down to Dallas, isn't showing the new segment of I-69 in Indiana yet.

[ChrisZwolle]

Traffic volumes on I-30 increase from 45,000 at Greenville to 105,000 in Rockwall and 158,000 in Mesquite. Rockwall County grew by 82% between 2000 and 2010.

Collin County is also constructing/planning an outer loop bypassing McKinney at some distance.

[FM 2258]

As time goes on I feel that the U.S. should focus more on efficient, well connected public transportation than expanding freeways. I'd be more excited if they would extend DART rail out to Greenville. If the infrastructure still exists, they can fix up the defunct railway instead of building a highway.

I love highways, but I really hate paying for gas, also I hate sitting in traffic. Getting more people off the roads is better than increasing road capacity to add more cars in my opinion.

Hell if they're going to build this highway, put DART rail in the median, win-win. Give me an option other than just using a car.

Originally Posted by Penn's Woods

Is the point of that toll road perhaps to connect to that...unnumbered east-west thing through Plano (which would also lead to DFW airport if I don't miss my guess)...rather than to be an alternate to I-30? The angle at which said unnumbered thing meets I-30 at suggests to me the interchange was not designed for people doing the Greenville-to-Plano movement (although I see from GMaps the movement is possible).

Unrelated: GMaps, at least at the scale I was at to scroll from my default position down to Dallas, isn't showing the new segment of I-69 in Indiana yet.

The unumbered highway is the Bush Turnpike (TX 190) and it does go close to DFW airport. If we could have local high speed rail next to every urban freeway this would be really great!

[ChrisZwolle]

Miracles like that won't happen. Traffic growth alone is bigger than all public transport in the region. Public transport is not suited for large suburban areas like DFW. Only a few corridors between job centers are viable.

[I-275westcoastfl]

Originally Posted by FM 2258

As time goes on I feel that the U.S. should focus more on efficient, well connected public transportation than expanding freeways. I'd be more excited if they would extend DART rail out to Greenville. If the infrastructure still exists, they can fix up the defunct railway instead of building a highway.

I love highways, but I really hate paying for gas, also I hate sitting in traffic. Getting more people off the roads is better than increasing road capacity to add more cars in my opinion.

Hell if they're going to build this highway, put DART rail in the median, win-win. Give me an option other than just using a car.



The unumbered highway is the Bush Turnpike (TX 190) and it does go close to DFW airport. If we could have local high speed rail next to every urban freeway this would be really great!

I agree but good luck with the American mentality of mass transit and urban planning. Most people in the suburbs will continue to drive.

[diablo234]