I hate highways because I also hate cars, the naming convention however isn’t bad. I mean the same concept applies to subways, you have the name of the line and it either goes north or south.
It’s more useful than when they label lines by where they terminate. Ok but what if I’m not going to the end of the line how do I know if it’s the right train or not?
“I don’t like long roads that don’t change name or heading. Their predictability confounds me.”
You ain’t blazing a trail by driving down a highway (90% of the times). It’s the main throughfare (in most places). Literally
Though you might consider going to work as an adventure, driving the same path 100 times doesn’t make it an exploration
Have you ever done that thing though where there’s a detour because the road is closed for some reason and you end up in an area that is obstensively nearby but you couldn’t identify. Like I know I’m only 200 m away from where I previously was, but this might as well be another planet.
I am more used to the ever changing stairs from my high school days at Hogwarts. Every day was a surprise.
It’s really not that complicated. The only other direction to go on I-65 is north.
Interstates with odd numbers run north and south. Even numbers run east and west.
The way I always remember is both North and South have an odd amount of letters (5), and East/West have an even amount of letters (4).
Sure, but use Google maps and have a look at “i-435”
Three digits starting with even are loops, with interstates at both ends, starting with odd are spurs, with interstates at one end. Thats why I-495 can be both the capital beltway and loop around boston
If you want a challenge, southwest of Boston there’s a short stretch of overlapping interstates where you can be headed north on I-95 while heading south on I-93
Similar overlaps over in NY with 87/287, and 95 does something shifty near there also.
Edit: and to make things more confusing, there is a 278 in the area also. In fact I can’t remember which one is the 87 overlap lol.
BTW there are multiple I-495s and 2/5 are Spurs
Oh yeah, I always hated that. I used to visit my ex’s parents down in that direction and I knew the way from having driven it every year but if I tried to give directions I never could remember which is 287 and which is 278
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And I thought I-45 being an “interstate” that only exists in Texas was bad!
There are interstates in Oahu if that helps, ha ha
Also Alaska and Puerto Rico! The interstate signage is more about the funding source than where the highway actually goes.
I think it is usually multiples of 10 as well so for example I-5 runs from the border in San Diego (or close enough) to the border with Canada. I-10 runs from LA in California to Jacksonville Florida, smaller routs ending in 2, 4, 6, or 8 are small sections that terminate a few towns over usually or connectthe bigger highways to eachother.
Ah, interesting. The number of digits means something too. 3-digit numbers are… Some other kind of routes. I’m too tired to remember exactly 🤦🏻♂️
Edit: auxiliary routes
Basically, routes meant to serve a metro area/region instead of being actually cross-country – “Interstates” that don’t actually go inter-state. Think ring roads around cities and whatnot.
Nah.
Around here I-76, I-78, I-80, I-84 (what happened to 82? I don’t know); are all major roads that go through multiple states
Going the other way 81, 87, 95 are all significant
They could be major in your local area and go through multiple states but the big ones ending in 0 or 5 tend to go across the country. And I-80 and i-95 would fall into that category, if those roads stay in a lower tier or get expanded later is another story.
In what world is that not complicated
I’m a flight instructor, have been for over a decade. Ask me how VORs work. In my world, highway numbering is not complicated.
How could it be less complicated?
One fun fact I learned years ago is that, in many if not all states, exit numbers correspond with mile numbers. It seems to be pretty common knowledge, but not universal.
I’ve been in a committed relationship for a long time, but before I was, I used to drive fairly long distances for dates. A few times I was able to impress my prospective partner by giving them a fairly accurate ETA using mile markers, exit numbers, and my speed at the time.
… Most of them didn’t care, though.
Mile-based exit numbers are better because numbering sequentially causes problems whenever they wanted to build a new exit between existing ones 'cause you can’t just go around renumbering them all the time. Even resorting to adding letters (e.g. having exit 42A, 42B, etc.) only gets you so far (although they still do that with mile-based numbering, for multiple exits within the same mile).
The Interstates in my state used mile-based exit numbers but state routes do not, and I remember when GA 400 got renumbered because they added an extension with four extra exits on to the beginning of it.
They should switch to kilometer-based exit numbers, so they could stack more exit per mile without needing to add letters!
Thank you for coming to my ted talk.Eh, in practice it wouldn’t net you much. In cases where you have, say, 3 exits within a mile of each other, they’ll fudge it a bit and number them, for example, 15, 16 and 17 even if they’re really close to mile 16. At typical interstate speed limits, you’d have to encounter an exit every 30 seconds for 4 straight minutes for it to really be a problem.
Lettering exists like 42A and 42B are usually used for junctions between divided highways, that is, exits that take you different directions on the same route. Say you’re going northbound on I-55, and you’re approaching the junction with I-50. Exit 42A will be encountered first, before the overpass, and will take you on a ~90 degree curved path to merge onto I-50 East. Exit 42B will be next, after the overpass, and will take you on a ~270 degree spiral to merge onto I-50 West.
Compare this to exits that lead into city streets, in which case you’re exiting the interstate system entirely, these will usually just be numbered, and on interstates they’re usually not that many that close together; you don’t have an exit from an interstate every block through a city.
Note: There is no Interstate 50; if there was one it would cross I-55 in Southeastern Missouri. I-50 and I-60 were skipped because they’d be confusingly close to the pre-existing US-50 and US-60 highways.
One thing I love about lemmy (and I promise there’s no sarcasm here) is that I can post about numbers being used and someone will respond “here’s why numbers are better!” I genuinely enjoyed and appreciate your post.
An advantage to the use of miles for distances is that 60mph works out to 1 mile a minute. Where I grew up most of the speed limits were capped at 55, so that worked out to a very easy approximation. 50 miles to go? That’s about 50 minutes (barring traffic).
Less accurate now that speed limits have been pushed up to 65 (so people drive 75 or 80) but better to arrive before your ETA than after.
I strongly agree with you!
I found that exits with mileage numbers pretty strange the first time I noticed it on a long road trip. On entering a new state, “wtf, why is this exit number so high?”
But I thought they were finally renumbered for consistency. Maybe it’s just a generalization though, states I’m familiar with have been renumbered over the years
It’s been a lot of years, but I thought it very strange going from Maryland (where the exit numbers corresponded to mile numbers) to Delaware (where they didn’t, but I don’t know if they do now).
Even if it wasn’t based on mileage, one side would still start with the highest number.
Of course, but in the olden days you could cross a state (0n the east coast) and have the high exit in the teens or twenties, vs having the high exit in the hundreds
Mood tho, minus fortnite
More of a Minecraft guy?
Jerking off.
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Is an interstate a highway? Because not in my head.
In the US, an interstate is one of the kinds of highways we have. They’re part of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System Of Interstate And Defense Highways of post-WWII. Interstates are controlled access divided freeways that, unless local terrain renders it impossible, have barriers, medians, breakdown lanes, on/off ramps, and no traffic lights. They’re designed for long distance, high speed travel. They are designed to be standardized across the nation in highway design, signage and markings, so that drivers will find them familiar and predictable no matter where they are in the union, under the assumption that predictable = safe. As the name suggests, most, but not all, interstates allow travel between the states, though there are interstate highways in Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, these being non-contiguous with most of the nation (two of them are islands) they don’t connect to the rest of the interstate system. Also, Interstate 45 begins and ends in Texas.
This is in contrast to the older Federal Highway System which by the 1950’s when they began construction of the interstates consisted of anything from dirt roads to divided freeways that already conformed to the Interstate system standards in all but name, or the state route systems which are their own can of 50 worms, the design of the signage varies per state.
Interstate highways are marked by red white and blue shield signs, and are numbered I-##. Federal highways are marked with black and white shield signs, and are numbered US-##. I am within an hour’s drive of where US-1 crosses I-40, south of Raleigh, North Carolina. It is common for the same corridor, the physical strip of asphalt, to carry several routes of both systems. For example, through much of North Carolina, US-15 and US-501 share a corridor, such that locals consider it one road they call “fifteen-five-oh-one.” There is a new major interstate under construction called I-73, and through most of North Carolina from its beginning in Rockingham to just outside of Greensboro it shares a corridor with US-220. Which is why signage such as this:
Makes immediate sense to Americans.
Every interstate is a highway, but not every highway is an interstate.
Idk. But I know we drive on the parkway and park on the driveway.
A “highway” is anything that isn’t a local street. Every state or federally maintained road* is a “highway,” whether it’s a controlled-access freeway or just a two-lane road.
(* except Forest Service roads, obviously)
