The Interstates...

[artguys]

an overview. Some will know that Eisenhower was in large part responsible for the building of our current interstate system. The overall goal was to span the east to the west with roadways that would expedite travel while at the same time link our great cities. Had they been able to fast forward 60-70 yrs they would have realized one very large mistake had been made...the linking of the cities. Travel on the interstates in and around our cities over the years has become nothing less than a bottleneck as well as being dangerous.

Most cities have built bypasses that relieve these conditions and many if not most have turned these bypasses in to commercial zones that lead to even more pressures. As an example...the I459 bypass around Birmingham was one of the better ones when first built. But over the years is also becoming commercialized.

What they designers should have done was to build the interstate system near enough to the cities to be considered linked and yet far enough to not be impacted by commercial traffic.

[tatest]

Eisenhower's intention was to build a National Defense Highway system to link military bases, defense plants, and shipping ports (sea and air) with roads that would handle the largest and heaviest military loads. His original idea was modeled on Hitler's Autobahn network, and like the Autobahns, the Defense Highways were not to go into the cities except by a minimal number of spurs, or stop at an outer ring. This model is still widely used in Europe, where they've learned from our experience that superhighways into and through cities change the nature of cities in undesirable ways.

The project got turned over to Congress and became something larger, bringing in the states, cities, and the trucking and highway construction industries. What came out of it was using defense money to build urban expressways and link the cities, and provide the construction industry with a lifetime task of building and rebuilding disposable roads.

At least before the whole thing got too far, it came off of the Defense budget and onto a newly created Highway Trust Fund with dedicated income sources.

[paulj]

Government chartered toll roads have been stealing business from barges since the 1840s (Oregon Trail)
Oregon Barlow Road

[westernrvparkow]

gbopp wrote:

robsouth wrote:

gbopp wrote:
That's exactly what my dad told me many years ago.

And, we should have kept our railroad system..:(

The railroad system would be doing fine if not for the interstate system. Put the truck lines in business and put the railroads out of business.

You're right. And the railroads put the canal system out of business. I think we called it progress. :@

That same progress is what is keeping the venture capitalists from funding my mule train and ox cart empire. Get rid of those pesky things with engines and I will be rolling like a big dog in a Georgia cotton field.

[paulj]

Interstate density map 1950 to 2000

Myth: President Eisenhower conceived the Interstate System.

Myth:Interstates are intended to serve only traffic going from State to State.

[paulj]

Dog Folks wrote:
...
One of the major problems with our interstates is that they are supposed to be a "limited access" system, and there are way too many exits and entrances.

I don't there is a clear distinction between too many and too few interchanges. The frequency of interchanges varies widely.

The Eisenhower through the west side of Chicago might have too many, with the complicating factor that some are left exits. But the Indiana tollway readily added exchanges in the South Bend/Elkhart area to handle the US20/31 bypass. Tollways in general have less than urban freeways.

On I5 north of Seattle they have added interchanges to accommodate traffic to malls that have been added since the freeway was built. They have also reworked interchanges to eliminate crossing traffic. In a number of cases exiting traffic mingled with entering traffic. In other cases exit lanes were too short, leading to backups on to the freeway.

Any freeway built through a rural area will need to be changed when suburbs grow up around it. Or consider I15 through Las Vegas. That was 64000 people in 1960, and nearly 10x that now. Adding lanes, adding interchanges, reworking interchanges to handle more traffic, are all part of raising the carrying capacity.

[Halmfamily]

Last two months both I20 east and west in Birmingham were closed to replace the bridges. While that was going on someone has the bright idea of repaving 459, the bypass. Talk about a quagmire of traffic.

[Dog_Folks]

The instate was championed by Eisenhower after he saw the German Autobon system in 1919. He felt a high speed road system was needed by our country for the movement of troops and supplies.

One of the major problems with our interstates is that they are supposed to be a "limited access" system, and there are way too many exits and entrances.

[skipnchar]

I agree that traveling through cities on the Interstate may be no fun and does have some problems but I'm old enough to remember earlier times when one traveled through Houstin, Denver, Indianapolis etc. using surface streets and you can believe me NOBODY wants to go back to those days. Especially when you factor in the vast increase in traffic from then and now. I LOVE our interstate system and not many things I'd change about it. Passing through even the largest cities is usually accomplished in less than an hour. Give it a try sometime and jump off and go through on the surface streets and count your time and aggravation. EVEN without the many thousands of others who would be joining you without the system supporting their travels.

[tonyandkaren]

We've found that sometimes it's easier, faster and safer to take the older interstate routes straight through the cities. In the middle of the day there's often light traffic and very few trucks.

[NCWriter]

By the way, David Halberstam wrote an interesting book called " The Fifties" that describes the origin of Eisenhower's road system.

One of my favorite parts is about how Kemmons Wilson, the founder of Holiday Inn, went up in an airplane to survey the planned interchanges and bought land to place his hotels nearby.

[amandasgramma]

I know areas where they built the freeway far away from the city.......the city built up, added more homes and businesses and now the freeway is down thru the city.. (Salem, Oregon)

[NCWriter]

I remember when the DC Beltway was built and it was out in the middle of nowhere. Very few cars on it. Same when Dulles Airport opened in the 1960s. Total nowhere.

But obviously developers saw potential and mini-cities formed around the exits. Now of course, growth filled in between, resulting in one big megopolis, and the really valuable real estate is around the Metro train stations.

[gbopp]

robsouth wrote:

gbopp wrote:
That's exactly what my dad told me many years ago.

And, we should have kept our railroad system..:(

The railroad system would be doing fine if not for the interstate system. Put the truck lines in business and put the railroads out of business.

You're right. And the railroads put the canal system out of business. I think we called it progress. :@

[I_am_still_wayn]

Eisenhower envisioned the Interstate Highway System to move war material. It was not built primarily for the motoring public. An unintended consequence was it took freight off the railroads onto the highways. The proliferation of tractor trailer trucks on the highway has worn the roads out and caused congestion. If the trucks were banned from the roads, while we would have no goods in our stores, we would have a pleasant motorway.

[artguys]

Connectors to remote interstates would be divided(interstate like) and would only be used to transit from the the interstate to the cities. And for rail as for shipping they are less expensive but inefficient and highly subsidized by the government.