My parents moved us to Atlanta in 1965, so I watched 285 being built and literally saw what grew up alongside it. I left Atlanta for good in 1980 but still visit family there and cannot believe how much it has grown. And the traffic on 285 is insane!
It’s scary traveling on there along with the Trucks because 90% of trucks traveling in the Metro (ATLANTA) have to use 285 unless their Delivery destination is inside 285
@Jereigh508 If Atlanta allowed Trucks to go straight through town on 75/85 between 12 and 6 am, it might motivate more truckers to do that and avoid daytime traffic.
Yes lots of people left the Midwest/Great Lakes Region to move to Metro Atlanta what it is Today as there are cities with names that were not around in the 70s or 80s
GA failed to plan properly. They built T-intersections, subdivisions, and shopping malls all over the place but no one thought about routing traffic not destined for ATL away from 285, away from the city... now its a mess.
yep, I totally agree. One city metro I totally wished there was a beltway for is NYC. Of course too late now with all the urban development already done to the area, but wish 50-60+ years ago in the highway boom, there would be a highway infrastructure loop built around NYC building off the 287, but also providing a N-S expressway across Long Island, somewhere around Massapequa let's say. Have an ultra long (and of course well-engineered) bridge from around Long Beach to Long Branch in NJ, then continue looping around in circular fashion to Princeton, NJ (bypassing I-95 along the way), and then up to Bridgewater, NJ. Of course another bridge from White Plains into Long Island would also have to be built to complete the full loop. But I feel like this type of route can benefit a lot of through travellers and avoid NYC area. Long Island portion of the loop might still be log-jammed in the 21st century, but I'll take the traffic, as the bridge portions will ultimately cover those losses of time up with a direct free-flowing portion that would have no entrance/exit ramps.
@@bigdripbobz1072And your proposal is why NYC never had (and never will) have a ring road, and it would be impractical now to build a bridge between Long Beach and Long Branch, and forget about building this bridge during the 50s-60s. Ring roads are only practical to metros with flat, featureless land.
I would argue all this building is great for housing supply, look at cities that new roads like Dallas and they are most growing most affordable big cities in the US, look at places without new roads like NYC and they are stagnant and expensive
@@GeorgeVajagich Yeah, but it’s pretty much impossible to build new highways in the NYC region due to the abundance of development. And you can’t build a ring road due to the geographic limitations of the area.. and just calling NYC’s geography a disadvantage seems like a disgrace to centuries of history all because we apparently need more sprawling infrastructure.
I split my time between Denver, CO and Orlando, FL. So cool that this video featured both extensively. Really helps to translate my frustration of I-25, that stretch from US 6 to 20th really is an endless jam
Only sometimes is a loop's purpose to divert cross-state traffic away from the city center. North Carolina's highway funding has a special "loop fund" which is used to give cities large and small across the state the benefits that a loop highway provide. NC's large cities already have a loop, Winston-Salem is now getting one, Fayetteville's almost finished, smaller cities are next like Greenville, NC. BENEFITS OF A LOOP HIGHWAY FOR A LOCAL REGION: 1) A highway without any traffic lights that accesses every major thoroughfare radiating from all sides of a city. It's the magical highway that connects to every part of a city without ever stopping! 2) As a limited access highway, it reduces air pollution thru the lack of intersections/lights. 3) LOOP corral development of a growing city keeping it equidistant from the city core, thus mitigating sprawl that would otherwise just continue outward along interstates like Atlanta's exurban growth that now reaches the Tenn. State Line and Commerce, GA halfway to the SC State Line. A 2nd outerloop would have corralled growth closer in around Atlanta, reducing extreme commutes up I-75, I-85. Atlanta still could benefit with a I-75 bypass of the entire metro to keep Florida-Midwest traffic from mixing with local traffic. -------Loops cost so much to build I don't think states actually build them to divert out-of-staters. They mostly benefit the locals with increased mobility options.-----Turnpikes may be tolled to discourage sprawl but outerloops in growing Sunbelt cities are tolled to quickly get them built, Raleigh's outerloop is 60% tolled and the local love it.
Live in the DC area, can shed a bit more info on the Outer Beltway Also known as the Techway, the proposed Outer Beltway was constructed in several parts; the Fairfax County Parkway and obviously MD-200. The biggest issues getting them connected are Montgomery County not wanting their Agricultural Preserve threatened i.e. more development and over development on the Northern Virginia side of things with million dollar homes belonging to powerful people. At the very least, a new crossing over the Potomac River would be insanely helpful and relieve pressure on the American Legion Bridge.
I also live in the DC area. The Techway was actually a proposed segment of the Outer Beltway (versus referring to the entire loop), specifically the segment between VA-7 and I-270. Similar to how the ICC (MD-200) also forms a segment of the Outer Beltway, albeit a segment that was actually built. Even if we can't get a full Outer Beltway, yes an Outer Potomac Crossing would be a huge pressure relief valve and highly beneficial to the area, opening up new routing options.
@@Mapmaker1559 For all the bullshit around the ICC, the histrionic demands that it be built, andincluding the election of Bob Ehrlich in 2002 - nobody uses the damn thing.
I lived in Clarksburg, Montgomery County, MD for two years during the pandemic while my daughter and her family lived in Silver Spring. Both my wife and daughter worked in Bethesda. My daughter's in-laws still live in Northern Virginia, right across the Maryland-Virginia border. I have some not so fond memories of both the MD-200 and the I-485 DMV beltway. The DMV is the only area I've been to where people will actively try and prevent you from entering and exiting the darn highway! The people in the far right lane act like they own that lane and will actually speed up to prevent you from merging into that lane. It's the most dangerous lane on the DMV highways! I loved the culture of the DMV. Hated the high cost of rent, unfriendly people, and rude drivers.
Personally I think best way of alleviating pressure on the American Legion Bridge would be extending express lanes into Maryland so express bus service can be run between Bethesda and Tysons. So much of the traffic bottleneck is in relatively short distance commuting between Silver Spring, Bethesda, and Tysons which could be greatly reduced with the combination of express busses and the future purple line service.
Some surprisingly small towns in eastern Texas have loops/ring roads/bypasses/whatever around them. Drive to Atlanta from Austin using US 79, and you can use them to avoid driving through the centers of Palestine and Carthage. South of there, Lufkin is encircled. Near the Gulf, Victoria can be avoided from every direction, and tiny little Sinton is almost ringed now, too. In the Panhandle, Lubbock and Amarillo wear their rings proudly.
Even some cities that’re within larger metros have their own ring roads. Conroe-north of Houston but still part of the metro area-has its own full loop, while Taylor (Greater Austin) and Denton (DFW) have half loops that have land to be expanded to full ones should they ever be needed.
@@willp.8120 You don't know me! I absolutely meant Atlanta, GEORGIA. US-79 to I-20 is the most direct route from central TX. Why would I want to go to Atlanta TX?
Until I got my drivers license I didn’t even know I-664 existed lol. But growing up I was quite proud we had so many tunnels for our size and also bemused that I-64 E goes due west (this predated the beltway)
i feel like they shoulve had I-64 be I-664 and vice versa so that way I-64 wouldnt had run the opposite direction on the southside of Norfolk/Chesapeake
@@idriveastationwagon1534 right! I-64 should’ve stopped at the Coliseum and just let the whole beltway be 664. With that, people can just say “inner loop” or “outer loop”
Great video! Charlottesville VA has been trying to do a ring road for ages. We had one close in that was canceled because it would have been next to 3 schools that had been built in the mean time. An ‘eastern’ bypass would go through historic areas and some big money land…so a no go. Now we just have a crazy stroad where the speed limit is 45 but people do 65-70 and cut lanes like idiots. Good times.
I enjoy how you used examples from all over the country. As a Virginian it was nice to see Culpeper and the Beltway in the video, but I also enjoyed learning about exotic faraway places like Denver.
I was heading to St. Louis last year and I had the 'wonderful' pleasure of circumnavigating I-465 in Indy when there were several construction projects taking place. This was because the interchanges between I-70 and I-65 through the city were being rebuilt and this was the detour. Managed to get a small tour of Indy's southern suburbs and a drive through the airport.
It very interesting they put all US and State routes along the Beltway along with i-74 and future i-69 next, nice drive but outside the Beltway the Metro Area will probably grow more
Tyler, TX has a second, partial ring road in addition to Loop 323. I go through Tyler to visit a family member to the north. Loop 323 is always congested. So a new toll partial loop TX 49 was built. Very few exits and no development on it. Very nice way to avoid traffic in Tyler. Worth every penny to take.
My hometown of about 6,000 people has a quarter of a ring road. It's just a state highway, but it keeps trucks out of most of town. A ring road really works best if you get rid of all or most of the highways inside of it. Because the point of it is to keep traffic and roads out of the city, you shouldn't have a faster road cutting right through downtown.
Having lived in Columbus, the Outerbelt (I-270) was convenient for my commute to work in Dublin (NW Suburb) and from my apartment in Grove City (SW Suburb). However, there are quite a few exits along the way. That was one area where you learned to hang out in the left lane until it was close to time for your exit, otherwise you were dodging cars that were entering or exiting the Outerbelt.
Great content, MM! I live near the 417 toll expressway outside of Orlando. The tolling doesn't stop development along this highway, likely because other than I-4, every limited-access expressway here is tolled. Express lanes were built (and is continuing) to help alleviate congestion on I-4...but are tolled as well. So basically, getting around here quickly will cost you.
Even my own city is kind of making its own beltway. Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. In the 70s and 80s we built our Southwest and Northeast Bypasses, in the 90s, our Southeast Bypass, and most recently, the Maley Drive extension which serves as a Northwest Bypass. Just gotta fix up a Northeast Bypass and we're good!
Here in Alberta, ring roads were built around Edmonton and Calgary. Both work quite well, and unlike the US cities which bulldozed neighborhoods to to build freeways, for the most part, these cities stuck with arterials and that encourages use of the ring roads. However, as you said, Calgary does have an existing North-South freeway and it's closer and often more convenient to go through, rather than around. As a result, the main North/South freeway (Deerfoot Trail) is getting major upgrades and remains the busiest highway is Western Canada. Same is true with Edmonton which has no north/south freeways but an east/west expressway. They are currently upgrading that to freeway standards. The ring roads may help a little for through traffic but they really shine for those wishing to go a different direction. In the case of Atlanta, It may not help so much for drivers wishing to go straight through on I-75 or I-85. But for those on I 75 or 85 wishing to go on I-20, the ring road is the way to go. That's true of all ring roads. When I'm heading toward Calgary and wish to use Highway 1 either East towards Medicine Hat or West towards Banff, I never go through the city. I always use the ring road. But going south of Calgary, if it's not too busy, I go straight through to save the miles.
I would say Route 28 is like a branch of the outer ring road for DC and it could theoretically connect to 200 in Maryland. We desperately need another another beltway/ more crossings over the Potomac.
Yes, we do desperately need more Potomac River crossings. There are so few that the ones that do exist are some of the worst bottlenecks ever. Not to mention lack of connectivity.
Problem y’all have is the area where a new Potomac River crossing would help the most (Reston to Rockville) is also the most expensive real estate in the metro area. It’s full of millionaires and corporate executives.
I-840 has been a Godsend for those trying to go to W-S from GSO (coming from the N). It cuts down travel time than going US 29 down into GSO to get to 40W.
There is something some people call natural ring roads, which means 3 interstates form a certain beltway like the one in Columbia South Carolina which i26, i20, and finally I77 form a complete beltway
I was gonna bring up Columbia. Yeah we have a ring road from merging Interstates and I think it's pretty cool. There has been talks for awhile in making a north/ northwest connector road that connects Killian to Harbison in some way. At first it was an interstate idea but now it will be nice to see a nice Blvd. 4 lanes with a tree lined median and protected bike lanes on both sides.
Very informative video. I relocated to Atlanta from Southern California about 20 years ago. The 285 beltway is one that I try to avoid. You are correct about the outer perimeter that they thought about building. I first heard about it maybe about 10 years ago. The problem is that mentality of “not in my backyard.” The ones who are against it fear that they’ll be more congestion coming out there. The congestion is already there. I see it is a way to alleviate the congestion on I 75, I 85 and GA 400. I don’t think it will ever be built. But it would definitely work.
It's the same complaint about any infrastructure project. Over in NYC, the 7 train extension into northeast Queens was vehemently opposed to by NIMBYs, claiming the subway would bring too much people. It is nearly 50 years since that proposal was shot down, and northeast Queens densified anyways, without the subway access. Now the bus terminals over at the current 7 train terminal are perpetually congested, and if there is anything people know about the buses, it is that they are never on time, unlike the subways which are at most 5 min late.
If I'm headed South on I-75, unless it's early on a weekend, I'll always take 275 West around Cincinnati. Then take KY 237 and KY 536 back to I-71/75 South.
@@WakandaleezaRazzYou have obviously not experienced the I-485 rush hour spanning from the south side to the west side. The backups trying to get into westbound I-85 are unreal in the later afternoon, especially Thursdays. One of the few cities in which I have to take rush hour congestion into consideration when planning my travels. (The others currently being Baton Rouge and of course Atlanta.)
Mileage Mike! I just discovered your channel and i love it, because i love the subjects you cover. I'm especially interested in highways - and streets. You are or have been a civil engineer. I wanted to be a civil engineer when i was younger, but i decided to become a residential designer, something i wanted to do even more. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for doing this video. When i was very young - especially, i used to just study highway maps, (as well as ALL maps), and dream of traveling to see all the places on those maps, and especially the great bridges and other engineering masterpieces. I still do, though now I'm old and not financially able to travel. So many places and I'll never see. Anyway, thanks for explaining about these types of highways. I really enjoyed it!
Another first rate report from MM. Love to see a report on what happens when highway meet airports and all the specific issues encountered. Currently I am in Amsterdam and their main airport Schiphol is a train, highway and bus transit hub, something I have never encountered in the US.
Thanks Mike. I believe that I have always used the Ft. Monroe tunnel. Prior to this video, I didn't have any recollection that there was another one to the west.
Philadelphia doesn’t have a beltway. But we have an unofficial one. 476 west of the city connects with 276 (Pennsylvania Turnpike) north of the city, which merges with 95 to the NJ turnpike east of the city in New Jersey and that goes south to us-322 across the Delaware back to PA where you have to take a small stretch of 95 to get back to 476. Or you can just do 476 to 276 to 95 to 476 all within Philadelphia but that’s also not a traditional ring road as 95 goes through downtown (albeit at the edge).
Very cool to see my hometown (Greensboro NC) and current home mentioned. I live right off GA 20 in the northern ATL metro and I can’t wait til this road project is done. It’s such a pain to try to go from Canton to Cumming and get stuck behind a truck or some slowpoke, knowing it’s a solid 30 minutes of an agonizing single lane. Only been in GA a year so I was shocked to find out about the proposed outer loop that got canned. If widening GA 20 is as close as we can get, I’ll take it but the northern metro is only gonna keep growing so they really should’ve proceeded with a full outer loop.
Great video, I enjoyed it! I grew up in east-central Indiana. We had 2 examples of bypasses in my area. Anderson and Muncie. Both built 4-lane bypasses, but Muncie's is largely controlled access, and it flows like a rural interstate. Anderson didn't do that and it turned into a traffic nightmare (Scatterfield Road, though I won't say what I call it lol)
In Pittsburgh we have multiple belts that basically circle the city each have a color associated with them. I live near the yellow belt. I believe all of the belts are just 2 lane roads which are for the most part not highway roads.
As an Australian, love the shoutout at the beginning of the video. Would be interesting to see you do videos on other countries including Australia one day. Sydney and Melbourne according to Tom Tom apparently have worse traffic than LA and New York, although the slower commute times might be due to our ridiculously low speed limits (and punitive punishments for exceeding them)
Love your Mobile River Bridge and Bayway video. I used to live there..Now I'm in Dothan and I believe we're in the process of getting a Continuous Flow Interchange on Ross Clark Cir starting well south of Montgomery Hwy. The area is called Restaurant Row. People already don't like it and it's not even done yet
Yo Mileage Mike! I stay in the Hampton Roads area. The only places that’s growing along that beltway is in Chesapeake and Suffolk. Everywhere else on that beltway is FULL 😂😂😂. Love your content bro! Keep them coming. ❤
this is well detailed data you provided. ATL desperately needs to revive that Rte. 500 plan. politicians just need to be authoritarian on some issues. that 470 ring in denver metro is not viable at all. they need a real metro ring that'll most likely cause demolition of multiple neighborhoods
Great video. I noticed all the examples of ring roads you gave are east of the Rockies. On the west coast, we do have "bypass" freeways but not ring roads that I know of. That would be an interesting follow-up video. I'm sure it's mostly due to geographic constraints.
Very informative video, thank you! I moved to Northern Virginia almost 60 years ago, shortly after the Capital Beltway was completed. Lanes have been added through the decades, and congestion has only increased. There are now express toll lanes in the Virginia section of I-495 that can be very expensive to use depending on the time of day and traffic volume. It’s all rather a mess with no obvious solution!
I moved to Northern Virginia a little over ten years ago, and have studied this region's transportation history thoroughly. Unfortunately the obvious solution is a ship that sailed decades ago: building a thorough freeway grid. Central Maryland on the other side of DC managed to figure this out. And as a result, none of the highways there are wider than 8 lanes nor do any of them have express lanes, and spite of this, congestion is rare and the roads are pretty free-flowing outside of the peak of rush hour. Northern Virginia had numerous freeways proposed back in the '60s and '70s; the Outer Beltway, the Northern Virginia Expressway (both of which would have paralleled the Capital Beltway), the Monticello Freeway, the Potomac Freeway, and more. But they were all ultimately rejected due to nimbyism and lack of foresight. Today, Northern Virginia's freeway grid is very sparse, and the express lanes that are constructed are little more than a band-aid fix, with any real fix being at worst, impossible, at best, not feasible at the time being due to the political and social climate (i.e. US-50 from the Loudoun County Parkway to I-66 and from the Beltway to DC can and should be upgraded to freeway, but neither Fairfax nor Arlington Counties would ever go for this right now).
@@Mapmaker1559 I-66 as originally proposed would have had eight lanes and crossed the Potomac at the Three Sisters Islands. From there a freeway (the Potomac Freeway?) would have connected to the Southwest Freeway which was originally I-95. There’s a tunnel near the Kennedy Center that was the only part built. The North Central Freeway would have been the route of I-95 through poor NE neighborhoods (surprise, surprise!) and then connect to I-95 in Maryland. No doubt you already know all this. There was HUGE opposition within the city. “White men’s cars through Black men’s homes!” The freeway would have never been built through rich NW neighborhoods. The only solution for me is to move to the Netherlands, a small country with excellent public transportation. Thanks again for the video and all your research. Keep up the good work!
@@edwardjones4870 Thanks for the compliment! The Potomac Freeway in DC would've been a little different from the Potomac Freeway in Northern Virginia, which basically would've connected Woodbridge to Pentagon City by running through Hybla Valley and Alexandria, acting as a major pressure relief valve for I-95. Yes I-66 was originally supposed to be built as an 8-lane freeway inside the Beltway, but was instead built as a 4-lane interstate/parkway hybrid (albeit still fully grade-separated), all the more reason US-50 inside the Beltway needs to also be upgraded to freeway. I-66 was always intended to cross the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, while the Three Sisters Bridge would've carried the short I-266 across the Potomac River along what is today the Spout Run Parkway and the Whitehurst Freeway. While my research in Montgomery/Prince George's Counties Maryland hasn't been as extensive as my Northern Virginia research, I am familiar with the canceled alignments of I-95 and I-270 inside the Beltway.
@@Mapmaker1559 I have a few more memories that are a bit sketchy now because the events were so long ago. In The Washington Post there was an article predicting that after DC got home rule, it would become far more difficult for new freeways to be built inside the city. And that certainly proved to be the case. Congress voted for more freeways, but the then DOT secretary (I can’t recall his name. He later headed Amtrak.) was against them and influenced LBJ to return the matter to local authorities. I also remember a powerful House member named Hatcher (I think!) who withheld funds for building Metro for some two years because the city refused to build freeways. The drama over I-66 inside the Beltway went on for at least two decades, and the issue went all the way up to the Supreme Court. If I remember correctly, the decision was made to build it as a four lane highway (Custis Parkway?) under the Nixon administration (DOT secretary Coleman?) but not actually constructed until the Carter administration. Arlington and Fairfax wanted it built because Metro would use part of the median. And speaking of Metro, whenever I see its map I remember the line that was never built in Northern Virginia because of cost. It was a lost opportunity that would have served a lot of passengers between the city and Seven Corners. Thanks for taking me down memory lane. I just hope my memories are correct!
I live in a small town and we have an outer loop. It’s a bypass for the main highway, broadway of America. It also keeps trucks from driving in town. They can just go around and keep going 55-65.
I live in far north Forsyth County and it is common for traffic to extend into Dawson County these days. Especially on the weekends. 400 should be upgraded to limited access from where it currently ends at Exit 18 all the way past Lumpkin Campground Rd in Dawson County. A western bypass (let's call it I-275) linking Cartersville to McDonough could also help alleviate traffic on the Downtown Connector.
@MileageMike485 I'd say come in the spring time when everything blooms. Dogwoods & cherry blossoms are everywhere here. Just bring your allergy medicine if you do
What sucks about them is they create a wall around a city that is hard to cross on foot or bike, even when they do add long ass crosswalks like at 7:02. I kind of like diverting through-traffic, especially truck traffic away from the city centres. I think that is important and in a way fits my pro-cyclist and pedestrian attitudes as it takes away that noisy, polluting, and dangerous traffic from the centre.
They require many foot bridges or foot tunnels, of course. You shouldn't ever be further than a block away from an unimpeded crossing that doesn't require you to wait for a traffic light
The Interstate system was originally purposed as a national defense project, originated by President Eisenhower who was assigned to move an army from the East Coast to the West Coast during the 1930s and it took 31 days on the narrow roads of that day. Later on, he rode into Germany on the captured autobahns and made it a priority to ask Congress for appropriation to build similar highways for rapid movement of vehicular traffic during his presidency, billing it as a military project. The ring roads were purposed to bypass city centers made impassible by nuclear detonations in time of war. I've wondered if the Interstates might have worked better if routed outside the cities, then run spur roads into the cities, instead of routing them through the cities with ring roads around them.
Great vid, as always Mike! Comments: Atlanta, I-285 carries through trucks, all Interstates inside the Beltway have 10 foot wide lanes, not 12 foot lanes, meaning there’s often an extra lane those 4-wheelers can use. Many Texas Loops have a “right of way” to expand to a Limited Access road with their famous frontage roads; case in point: Lufkin, where intersections are being replaced with overpasses for eventual I-69 and Lubbock and Amarillo, esp. SE quadrants where overpasses exist and frontage roads are intermittent. Philly took over 200 years to complete the “Blue Route” of I-476, so there’s hope for mankind! I’m still waiting for Miami to complete their East Side loop of 826, the Palmetto, around down town.😂😂Thanks!
Agreed. Lacking that, at a minimum Georgia needs interstates or Georgia 400-type expressways that do not go to Atlanta. I-95 is the only one at present. Columbus to Macon/Warner Robins to Augusta. Macon to Athens to Commerce. Calhoun to Gainesville to Athens to Augusta. Calhoun to Rome to Cedartown to Carrollton to Newnan and past Griffin to I-75. Those or some modified combination would be an Outer Perimeter while connecting mid-level Georgia cities. And finish making Georgia 316 an expressway already!
Houston has another partial ring, FM 1960 comes from South Houston Northwest, up the West side and comes back East. It's slow going through it since much of it is developed and has stoplights all the way around but it is quite effective in getting between the radial highways around Houston sometimes.
Starting 9:55 into the video the narrator claims the routing of certain ring roads can be a problem. Good example that I can think of in Canada is the A30 freeway that goes around Montreal but goes so deep to the south it’s almost better to drive through the north end via the A40 and, if wanting to cross the St. Lawrence River later on, to simply cross one of the bridges further east.
One of my favorites is the Bennington Bypass, VT 279. Like many Vermont "highways", it's a super two (with hill lanes). They planned to do a third part of it connecting the east side to US 7 south, hence the curious half-SPUI at VT 9 East, though not sure if they'll do it, or keep US 7 traffic running through the city. Really nice rest area along it with plenty of overnight parking, though.
Good video. People don't like more roads but cities will grow whether you want it or not, so might as well build enough roads to make life better for most people.
I had never seen so many loop highways as I have when I moved to East Texas. Practically every freaking “major” city like Tyler, Longview, Marshall, Paris, Carthage, Athens, Palestine, you name it, have em.
Its all about money and what the development will bring as more people to move to the area, business for trucks i-420 around Metro Atlanta in 2030, i-540 to future i-640 in Raleigh NC and future i-422 Birmingham AL Northern Beltline(not i-259 or i-659) Look out for i-840 in Nashville TN AND I-269 in Memphis TN, they are great to bypass a city 4 long distant travels but when a sleepy-small community town develops into a major city like Hoover AL, Franklin TN, or Southaven MS, cities go for that more money in that area and rural, farm life in the area will be gone and more traffic, seen this happen in my area along the i-275 Corridor when there was no Canton MI in the 70s. Great Job as always Mike👍👍👍👍👍👍
Man, I can't believe you went the whole time without mentioning Nashville! 840 is a half ring road that actually has an unfinished extension on the west end. And Briley Parkway is nearly a ring, but the ring itself changes from a highway to surface streets on the southern side.
I think ring roads work quite well when the long distance traffic is either forced onto streets (slow) or forced onto traffic jammed freeways (slow). They also divert cars away from the city so you can make more pedestrian-focused streets. The drawbacks include encouraging sprawl, but that's a different policy decision at that point, and it can be solved without banning ring roads. Another drawback is the jams might migrate to the ring road, making it redundant.
As a professional truck driver, I can confirm that I-285 in Atlanta sucks. The west bypass is on average marginally better than the east bypass, but depending on the time of day, and if there are any accidents (which are common), it sucks either way. In the middle of the night, traffic does usually flow somewhat smoothly. If you hit it at rush hour, you are so screwed!
Keiffercriullo, I'm an Atlanta resident/native. Yes, it sucks. I live near and use the east bypass but I avoid it during rush hour. I have been wondering this: if truckers were allowed to go straight through the city on 75/85 from 12 am to 6 am, how many do you think would alter their trip plan to do that?
@@WilliamAkins-rw2hv I don't know. If that were to be the case, I would depending on which direction I was going. It would also help to allow trucks to go straight through on I-20 in the early hours too.
Funny you mentioned the Ross Clark Circle in Dothan. I was on it during Hurricane Milton made me evaluate Tampa Bay. A good topic would be US highways that connect Interstate corridors. Example US 301 between Ocala and Jacksonville. US 15 between Williamsport pa and Frederick Maryland. US 19 between Beckley and I 79 West Virginia. US 19 from Crystal River to I 10 in the Tallahassee area of Florida.
I always wished Tampa had built one. There were proposes for one but still has never been planned. The only closest to it is I-75 that goes around the city and I-275 goes straight through the city. Then we got the Veterans Expressway and Suncoast Expressway that now also go straight through the city.
I don't think it was mentioned but if it's an interstate loop it's a 3 digit # with even #'s being complete loops and odd #'s being incomplete loops. Although some look complete as in I-285 in ATL or I-635 in big D, they are connected with local roads or state highways. Being a map and geography buff, I always ❤ ur videos!!
Even first digit in its simplest form meant it connects two Interstates (ring or connector). Odd first digit meant it only connects to an Interstate from one end (spur).
We have a highway in Austin that is called state route 45 and is designated as a loop. However it has not been fully completed yet the currently completed route is essentially a backwards c shape highway going around the city, but I think there are plans to fully make it an actual looped highway.
One of the major factors in how effective a ring will be ad a bypass is how much the radial traffic flow is looking to turn. If half a the traffic on a northbound interstate is looking to turn east, then a ring will divert half of the traffic away from the core. But if 90% just wants to go straight through the metro, then a wide arcing ring road won't be of much use to those drivers. (Denver is in a north-south megalopolis so a ring doesn't help through traffic. In contrast Boston has multiple radials entering from the same side of the city so its 3 rings help divert a lot of traffic away from downtown) And rings are good for more than just highways, a transit system with multiple radial lines can free up capacity in the core by building a ring ling that connects the radials so people aren't funneled into 1 overcrowded hub.
I live in Metro-Atlanta. My town is off the I-20, a few miles outside of the I-285 beltway. I think you are spot on with your negatives for ring roads. The I-285 is essentially just a parking lot during rush hour, and it causes more traffic for people approaching Atlanta from the I-20E and W and I-75/85 N and S. Despite having two lanes dedicated to the I-285 exchange and 2-4 additional lanes for I-20/I-75/I-85 through traffic, all of the lanes get backed up for miles by people trying to get onto the I-285 to "bypass" Atlanta. Since most of the (older) perimeter suburbs are along the I-285, a lot of the "bypass" traffic for people traveling through Atlanta from outside of the Metro is tied up by inside of the Metro going from one suburb to another. It's honestly quicker sometimes for folks switching from the I-20 to the I-75/85 or vice versa to just go into Atlanta and make the switch directly instead of using the I-285. I've traveled to and from the Atlanta area to other cities outside of the state dozens of times in the last 5 years, and the only time Google Maps has me take the beltway for I-20/I-75/I-85 exchange is before or after the rush hours.
The I-285 was built for the needs of the Atlanta in the 1990s when the Atlanta was filled with the Atlantans. Since then the Atlanta has been filled increasingly by more people from the California. After those people arrived, more people arrived. And after them even more people. Is it any wonder that the roads of the Atlanta are now parking lots and resemble the roads of the California, except with more Georgia pine trees around them?
@WilliamAkins-rw2hv You can't blame the "Californians" for the poor roads in Metro-Atlanta and most of the South. I grew up in Los Angeles and left there in 1989 to join the military. Since then, I've lived all over the South West, South East, and DMV area. Los Angeles and most cities in the North East are set up along a grid system. It's easy to navigate through Los Angeles without using a highway since there are multiple prominent boulevards that run North-South and West-East. Atlanta and its suburbs are laid out haphazardly. It seems that the developers were allowed to build as they pleased, with minimum to no amount of planning, like the guy pointed out in his video. There are some old Georgia highways that run in between the city and some of the suburbs, but they almost double and triple your travel time. Californians didn't do that. That's the fault of the elected officials. Plus, Atlanta lacks a decent public transportation system from the city to the suburbs, which further increases the traffic, because of pure unadulterated racism. Which was also not caused by the Californians. If you want to blame the Californians for anything, it's trying to bring the local food up to Los Angeles/New York/Chicago standards, trying to improve the parks, and supporting the creation of the Beltline. I guess we are also responsible for driving the cost of housing up during the pandemic, but we had help from New Yorkers and international tech workers.
@fgjr96way it doesnt servevthe whole metro area; suburban counties have their own systems. With Marta, persistent issues of poor management, poor service and safety (vagrants on the train and station) keep its use lower than it should be.
@WilliamAkins-rw2hv Let's not forget the lack of sufficient funds and support that contribute to MARTA woes and hinder the building of the outer loop also. The South is just as notorious for people complaining about terrible public services who don't want to contribute an extra penny in taxes, as it is for trusting private businesses to serve the public with no guardrails that end up just serving themselves. There doesn't seem to be a good balance between the private sector and government that benefits the people. Georgia is better at this than most other Southern states, though. Hopefully, after the focus on the Beltline, Atlanta could work with suburbs willing to extend or connect to MARTA within their areas.
Not really. A stroad has high commercial and residential development along its frontage. It is where a high speed arterial also tries to provide numerous access points to unmitigated development. Where it ends up failing at both efficiency and access. This road has limited access, this functioning arterial or collector.
3:38 aye! That’s how we got the name of the cross roads of America. Hahaha although, as someone living here… you make it sound smooth, I avoid the 465, and all other highways, at all cost. It’s a parking lot, accident magnet, and a construction hellscape; all rolled into one, not all things are true once- well the construction is, which, is the common denominator. Better public transit would be better.
On the Virginia side of DC there are 2 routes that serve the purpose of the ring roads. There's the Fairfax County Parkway which is in the alignment of the outer beltway. It's has several long sections of freeway with limited at grade intersections. Then there's VA-28 which has been upgraded to interstate standards between US-29 and VA-7. Both routes serve as effective bypasses around the core. The biggest issue is that Maryland doesn't want to build a bridge between Montgomery and Fairfax Counties.
As a (for now) Northern Virginian, I can say that VA-28 is effective, but the Fairfax County Parkway is not. I avoid the Fairfax County Parkway whenever possible. I do agree though that the lack of an Outer Potomac Crossing is a major issue for the greater region.
Perhaps the state of Virginia should petition the feds to get an I-266 designation for the Fairfax County Parkway. It should qualify, as it connects I-66 with I-95.
@@SonnyBubba I don't think Virginia will do that anytime soon unfortunately, they seem to be very anti-interstate right now, contrary to their neighbor North Carolina. And even if the Fairfax County Parkway were to be designated as I-266, that would require significant upgrades to the parkway to bring it up to interstate standards. Right now it's riddled with traffic lights.
To continue with Texas’ ring roads, Center, TX has a partial ring road serving a population of 5,221 and Crockett and Carthage with populations around 6,400 have full ring roads 😂
What do you think about the collector-express system which separates merging and exiting traffic from through traffic? Both the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago (I-90/94) and Ontario Highways 401 and 427 use that system.
I think it’s also worth mentioning the Twin Cities loop/beltway or I-494/694. There was originally a plan to have the MN-100 Beltway, but that loop never went through. It was soon proposed to be I-494/694. I-494 today covers the West, South, and Eastern parts of the Metro while I-694 covers the East and Northern areas. With plans for removing I-94 between downtown Mpls and St. Paul and turning it into a boulevard, I-94 could be moved to where I-694 exists. It (maybe?) would be concurrent with I-35E down to St. Paul and then I-94 would join its original routing from downtown St. Paul east towards Wisconsin. I’d love to know I-94 through the Twin Cities would look like in the future. 😊
Rarely have to travel out of the quadrant of the " loop" still have access to the inner town and the mix country / city living with a couple acres here.
And 295 does the same for Philadelphia. It’s not a ring road but it bypasses Philadelphia for folks on 95 going north and south. 476 is also a bypass for people west of Philadelphia to avoid 76 when going South to the airport and towards Wilmington-Baltimore. And if you add those two along with the turnpike (276) along the north, you have an unofficial beltway!
Damn TH-cam got me 2 days late but I'm here for the 3 Texas loops lol. Gotta shoutout how we're doing 1604 in San Antonio. The cities grown though man to little too late. SA and Austin really refuse to slow down
Kind of surprised to see no mention of Dallas. Here, we have Loop 12, IH635 & Belt Line Rd. Having outgrown all of those, decades ago, the George W. Bush tollway is in progress of making its way around and through the most populous suburbs.
About the newly built bypass to replace direct center roads you talked about early on, here in Vietnam l can actually see them everywhere on gg map: when l look at a town/city, there will always be 2 main roads, one passing the center labeled "old country road" and one going around labeled "country road"😂😂
Surprised no mention of Boston, which has two partial beltways due to proximity to the ocean. Route 128 I believe was the first highway built for that purpose and I-495 also serves as essentially the Merrimack Valley Expressway.
Here in Denver, we still haven't managed to complete a ring road, E-470/C-470 encloses all but a 20 mile stretch of our Northwest quadrant. They're still trying to complete it, but the area is rapidly being developed, and people actively oppose it's completion for environmental reasons, so I doubt we'll ever see it done. Too bad, every other road around here is constant gridlock.
It’s too bad the E/C-470 loop won’t be closed anytime soon, or at least for a few decades, but I agree that the traffic thru Denver on I-25 can be insane!! Also this all reminds me of Calgary, except the 201 aka. Calgary Ring Road actually being completed. The last section to be done was the West Ring Road portion.
I think went it come ring road Houston tx got it right for it size over 7 million people. With 610 and belt way 8. Example if I'm coming from i- 45 north the woodland or the airport I don't have to go through the city to get through i-10 west to get to katy or Galveston I can either take the belt way 8 or 610. And that will ease traffic going through the city center.
It's also very interesting to see how no Coastal cities have ring roads because of ( you know ) the big body of the water that surrounds the cities unless it's A bay
Another benefit of ring roads, at least in theory, is to divert trucks hauling hazardous materials away from dense city centers.
Meh.
*FAXX*
"dense" city centres in America LUL
As a truck driver I love this statement
Noooo it's to keep noisy cheapos out and only let money in..
My day always gets a little better when a new Mileage Mike video drops.
Same.
My parents moved us to Atlanta in 1965, so I watched 285 being built and literally saw what grew up alongside it. I left Atlanta for good in 1980 but still visit family there and cannot believe how much it has grown. And the traffic on 285 is insane!
It’s scary traveling on there along with the Trucks because 90% of trucks traveling in the Metro (ATLANTA) have to use 285 unless their Delivery destination is inside 285
@Jereigh508 If Atlanta allowed Trucks to go straight through town on 75/85 between 12 and 6 am, it might motivate more truckers to do that and avoid daytime traffic.
Yes lots of people left the Midwest/Great Lakes Region to move to Metro Atlanta what it is Today as there are cities with names that were not around in the 70s or 80s
Yes, a lot of the suburban areas have incorporated in the last 20 years.
GA failed to plan properly. They built T-intersections, subdivisions, and shopping malls all over the place but no one thought about routing traffic not destined for ATL away from 285, away from the city... now its a mess.
Rings (or loops) are great... until the land around them is developed and then they're just as bad as every other highway.
yep, I totally agree. One city metro I totally wished there was a beltway for is NYC. Of course too late now with all the urban development already done to the area, but wish 50-60+ years ago in the highway boom, there would be a highway infrastructure loop built around NYC building off the 287, but also providing a N-S expressway across Long Island, somewhere around Massapequa let's say. Have an ultra long (and of course well-engineered) bridge from around Long Beach to Long Branch in NJ, then continue looping around in circular fashion to Princeton, NJ (bypassing I-95 along the way), and then up to Bridgewater, NJ. Of course another bridge from White Plains into Long Island would also have to be built to complete the full loop. But I feel like this type of route can benefit a lot of through travellers and avoid NYC area. Long Island portion of the loop might still be log-jammed in the 21st century, but I'll take the traffic, as the bridge portions will ultimately cover those losses of time up with a direct free-flowing portion that would have no entrance/exit ramps.
@@bigdripbobz1072And your proposal is why NYC never had (and never will) have a ring road, and it would be impractical now to build a bridge between Long Beach and Long Branch, and forget about building this bridge during the 50s-60s. Ring roads are only practical to metros with flat, featureless land.
@@bigdripbobz1072And good luck proposing to build a bridge out of Long Island, NIMBYism will never let that happen.
I would argue all this building is great for housing supply, look at cities that new roads like Dallas and they are most growing most affordable big cities in the US, look at places without new roads like NYC and they are stagnant and expensive
@@GeorgeVajagich Yeah, but it’s pretty much impossible to build new highways in the NYC region due to the abundance of development. And you can’t build a ring road due to the geographic limitations of the area.. and just calling NYC’s geography a disadvantage seems like a disgrace to centuries of history all because we apparently need more sprawling infrastructure.
I split my time between Denver, CO and Orlando, FL. So cool that this video featured both extensively. Really helps to translate my frustration of I-25, that stretch from US 6 to 20th really is an endless jam
Yeah I-25 can be a real nightmare.
because it makes sense to keep traffic out of the city, or for ring roads within the city, to distribute traffic across the city effectively
Only sometimes is a loop's purpose to divert cross-state traffic away from the city center. North Carolina's highway funding has a special "loop fund" which is used to give cities large and small across the state the benefits that a loop highway provide. NC's large cities already have a loop, Winston-Salem is now getting one, Fayetteville's almost finished, smaller cities are next like Greenville, NC. BENEFITS OF A LOOP HIGHWAY FOR A LOCAL REGION: 1) A highway without any traffic lights that accesses every major thoroughfare radiating from all sides of a city. It's the magical highway that connects to every part of a city without ever stopping! 2) As a limited access highway, it reduces air pollution thru the lack of intersections/lights. 3) LOOP corral development of a growing city keeping it equidistant from the city core, thus mitigating sprawl that would otherwise just continue outward along interstates like Atlanta's exurban growth that now reaches the Tenn. State Line and Commerce, GA halfway to the SC State Line. A 2nd outerloop would have corralled growth closer in around Atlanta, reducing extreme commutes up I-75, I-85. Atlanta still could benefit with a I-75 bypass of the entire metro to keep Florida-Midwest traffic from mixing with local traffic. -------Loops cost so much to build I don't think states actually build them to divert out-of-staters. They mostly benefit the locals with increased mobility options.-----Turnpikes may be tolled to discourage sprawl but outerloops in growing Sunbelt cities are tolled to quickly get them built, Raleigh's outerloop is 60% tolled and the local love it.
Live in the DC area, can shed a bit more info on the Outer Beltway
Also known as the Techway, the proposed Outer Beltway was constructed in several parts; the Fairfax County Parkway and obviously MD-200. The biggest issues getting them connected are Montgomery County not wanting their Agricultural Preserve threatened i.e. more development and over development on the Northern Virginia side of things with million dollar homes belonging to powerful people.
At the very least, a new crossing over the Potomac River would be insanely helpful and relieve pressure on the American Legion Bridge.
I also live in the DC area. The Techway was actually a proposed segment of the Outer Beltway (versus referring to the entire loop), specifically the segment between VA-7 and I-270. Similar to how the ICC (MD-200) also forms a segment of the Outer Beltway, albeit a segment that was actually built.
Even if we can't get a full Outer Beltway, yes an Outer Potomac Crossing would be a huge pressure relief valve and highly beneficial to the area, opening up new routing options.
@@Mapmaker1559 For all the bullshit around the ICC, the histrionic demands that it be built, andincluding the election of Bob Ehrlich in 2002 - nobody uses the damn thing.
I lived in Clarksburg, Montgomery County, MD for two years during the pandemic while my daughter and her family lived in Silver Spring. Both my wife and daughter worked in Bethesda. My daughter's in-laws still live in Northern Virginia, right across the Maryland-Virginia border. I have some not so fond memories of both the MD-200 and the I-485 DMV beltway. The DMV is the only area I've been to where people will actively try and prevent you from entering and exiting the darn highway! The people in the far right lane act like they own that lane and will actually speed up to prevent you from merging into that lane. It's the most dangerous lane on the DMV highways! I loved the culture of the DMV. Hated the high cost of rent, unfriendly people, and rude drivers.
Personally I think best way of alleviating pressure on the American Legion Bridge would be extending express lanes into Maryland so express bus service can be run between Bethesda and Tysons. So much of the traffic bottleneck is in relatively short distance commuting between Silver Spring, Bethesda, and Tysons which could be greatly reduced with the combination of express busses and the future purple line service.
@@Scrublord30
The purple line? They’ve been proposing that for over 20 years.
Mileage Mike, I’m from Longview and *instantly* recognized EXACTLY where that scene at 1:18 was shot! Great video!
Take a look a the belt road around the souther section of Rock Springs, Wyoming. Excellent example of a limited access surface street.
Some surprisingly small towns in eastern Texas have loops/ring roads/bypasses/whatever around them. Drive to Atlanta from Austin using US 79, and you can use them to avoid driving through the centers of Palestine and Carthage. South of there, Lufkin is encircled. Near the Gulf, Victoria can be avoided from every direction, and tiny little Sinton is almost ringed now, too. In the Panhandle, Lubbock and Amarillo wear their rings proudly.
Even some cities that’re within larger metros have their own ring roads. Conroe-north of Houston but still part of the metro area-has its own full loop, while Taylor (Greater Austin) and Denton (DFW) have half loops that have land to be expanded to full ones should they ever be needed.
Just so everyone knows, he is not meaning Atlanta, Georgia, rather Atlanta, Texas.
@@willp.8120 You don't know me! I absolutely meant Atlanta, GEORGIA. US-79 to I-20 is the most direct route from central TX. Why would I want to go to Atlanta TX?
@@colormedubious4747 Aiken South Carolina has a US-78 bypass around the town right outside of Augusta
Athens, Corsicana TX
I was googling "are ring roads and beltways the same thing" right before you mentioned Texas cities 😂 always love when you put out a new video!
I have NEVER heard the term ring road lol -fellow Texan
Ring road is a British/European term.
@@barryallen871 I love it, thanks for the new bit of knowledge!
@@retroGRADEhtx haha I can't say I know much but beltways and feeders are burned into my brain forever 😅
Wasn't expecting the Hampton Roads Beltway to lead off the video. Thanks for including our rinky-dink beltway!
Right! I stay right off 664 by College Dr lol
Until I got my drivers license I didn’t even know I-664 existed lol. But growing up I was quite proud we had so many tunnels for our size and also bemused that I-64 E goes due west (this predated the beltway)
i feel like they shoulve had I-64 be I-664 and vice versa so that way I-64 wouldnt had run the opposite direction on the southside of Norfolk/Chesapeake
@@idriveastationwagon1534 right! I-64 should’ve stopped at the Coliseum and just let the whole beltway be 664. With that, people can just say “inner loop” or “outer loop”
Great video! Charlottesville VA has been trying to do a ring road for ages. We had one close in that was canceled because it would have been next to 3 schools that had been built in the mean time. An ‘eastern’ bypass would go through historic areas and some big money land…so a no go. Now we just have a crazy stroad where the speed limit is 45 but people do 65-70 and cut lanes like idiots. Good times.
I enjoy how you used examples from all over the country. As a Virginian it was nice to see Culpeper and the Beltway in the video, but I also enjoyed learning about exotic faraway places like Denver.
Atlanta is a beast of a metro area. Like playing Cities Skylines with the timeclock on fast forward
I have that game. I love building cities.
I was heading to St. Louis last year and I had the 'wonderful' pleasure of circumnavigating I-465 in Indy when there were several construction projects taking place. This was because the interchanges between I-70 and I-65 through the city were being rebuilt and this was the detour. Managed to get a small tour of Indy's southern suburbs and a drive through the airport.
It very interesting they put all US and State routes along the Beltway along with i-74 and future i-69 next, nice drive but outside the Beltway the Metro Area will probably grow more
Well done!! Appreciate the videos! Travel safe, sir!
Tyler, TX has a second, partial ring road in addition to Loop 323. I go through Tyler to visit a family member to the north. Loop 323 is always congested. So a new toll partial loop TX 49 was built. Very few exits and no development on it. Very nice way to avoid traffic in Tyler. Worth every penny to take.
As a Texan, you’re silly. Imagine paying tolls 💀💀💀💀 bruh we had a budget surplus. Wake up. We’re being played.
Your PFP got me hauling ass on the toll road 😅
My hometown of about 6,000 people has a quarter of a ring road. It's just a state highway, but it keeps trucks out of most of town.
A ring road really works best if you get rid of all or most of the highways inside of it. Because the point of it is to keep traffic and roads out of the city, you shouldn't have a faster road cutting right through downtown.
Texas done the right way with traffic conditions
That didn’t work for DC. There are no freeways connecting the downtown core with the Maryland suburbs. And it didn’t help traffic.
Man you are killing it this is a great video
Thanks!
Having lived in Columbus, the Outerbelt (I-270) was convenient for my commute to work in Dublin (NW Suburb) and from my apartment in Grove City (SW Suburb). However, there are quite a few exits along the way. That was one area where you learned to hang out in the left lane until it was close to time for your exit, otherwise you were dodging cars that were entering or exiting the Outerbelt.
Great content, MM! I live near the 417 toll expressway outside of Orlando. The tolling doesn't stop development along this highway, likely because other than I-4, every limited-access expressway here is tolled. Express lanes were built (and is continuing) to help alleviate congestion on I-4...but are tolled as well. So basically, getting around here quickly will cost you.
Even my own city is kind of making its own beltway. Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. In the 70s and 80s we built our Southwest and Northeast Bypasses, in the 90s, our Southeast Bypass, and most recently, the Maley Drive extension which serves as a Northwest Bypass. Just gotta fix up a Northeast Bypass and we're good!
I-270 is nice for circumnavigating the traffic through Columbus during peak times, particularly the bottleneck on I-670 near downtown
Except for the Northside between Dublin and Westerville.
Here in Alberta, ring roads were built around Edmonton and Calgary. Both work quite well, and unlike the US cities which bulldozed neighborhoods to to build freeways, for the most part, these cities stuck with arterials and that encourages use of the ring roads. However, as you said, Calgary does have an existing North-South freeway and it's closer and often more convenient to go through, rather than around. As a result, the main North/South freeway (Deerfoot Trail) is getting major upgrades and remains the busiest highway is Western Canada. Same is true with Edmonton which has no north/south freeways but an east/west expressway. They are currently upgrading that to freeway standards. The ring roads may help a little for through traffic but they really shine for those wishing to go a different direction. In the case of Atlanta, It may not help so much for drivers wishing to go straight through on I-75 or I-85. But for those on I 75 or 85 wishing to go on I-20, the ring road is the way to go. That's true of all ring roads. When I'm heading toward Calgary and wish to use Highway 1 either East towards Medicine Hat or West towards Banff, I never go through the city. I always use the ring road. But going south of Calgary, if it's not too busy, I go straight through to save the miles.
I would say Route 28 is like a branch of the outer ring road for DC and it could theoretically connect to 200 in Maryland. We desperately need another another beltway/ more crossings over the Potomac.
Yes, we do desperately need more Potomac River crossings. There are so few that the ones that do exist are some of the worst bottlenecks ever. Not to mention lack of connectivity.
Problem y’all have is the area where a new Potomac River crossing would help the most (Reston to Rockville) is also the most expensive real estate in the metro area.
It’s full of millionaires and corporate executives.
I-840 has been a Godsend for those trying to go to W-S from GSO (coming from the N). It cuts down travel time than going US 29 down into GSO to get to 40W.
There is something some people call natural ring roads, which means 3 interstates form a certain beltway like the one in Columbia South Carolina which i26, i20, and finally I77 form a complete beltway
I was gonna bring up Columbia. Yeah we have a ring road from merging Interstates and I think it's pretty cool.
There has been talks for awhile in making a north/ northwest connector road that connects Killian to Harbison in some way. At first it was an interstate idea but now it will be nice to see a nice Blvd. 4 lanes with a tree lined median and protected bike lanes on both sides.
@growingup15 Yeah, they are pretty rare to find too.
Aiy, now that is a good thing, another surface street, I've heard of that.
Another example of this is Nashville.
@@SonnyBubba, Yeah, i65, i24, and I40 form an inner beltway and there is Tennessee 155 with the outer loop
Loops are best for locals. Say you live on the SW side and need to go NW. You can take the west side loop.
Very informative video. I relocated to Atlanta from Southern California about 20 years ago. The 285 beltway is one that I try to avoid. You are correct about the outer perimeter that they thought about building. I first heard about it maybe about 10 years ago. The problem is that mentality of “not in my backyard.” The ones who are against it fear that they’ll be more congestion coming out there. The congestion is already there. I see it is a way to alleviate the congestion on I 75, I 85 and GA 400. I don’t think it will ever be built. But it would definitely work.
It's the same complaint about any infrastructure project. Over in NYC, the 7 train extension into northeast Queens was vehemently opposed to by NIMBYs, claiming the subway would bring too much people. It is nearly 50 years since that proposal was shot down, and northeast Queens densified anyways, without the subway access. Now the bus terminals over at the current 7 train terminal are perpetually congested, and if there is anything people know about the buses, it is that they are never on time, unlike the subways which are at most 5 min late.
If I'm headed South on I-75, unless it's early on a weekend, I'll always take 275 West around Cincinnati. Then take KY 237 and KY 536 back to I-71/75 South.
Charlotte's I-485 ring road is just a big racetrack; I hate driving on it.
The west side is, at least for now, a much needed bypass for I-77 thru traffic.
Womp wompppppppp. Houston’s 610 is a parking lot. Be glad yours actually moves lmfao
@@WakandaleezaRazzYou have obviously not experienced the I-485 rush hour spanning from the south side to the west side. The backups trying to get into westbound I-85 are unreal in the later afternoon, especially Thursdays.
One of the few cities in which I have to take rush hour congestion into consideration when planning my travels. (The others currently being Baton Rouge and of course Atlanta.)
@@rickcobos1724 I-40?
@@justinsayin3979 my bad, I-85
Mileage Mike! I just discovered your channel and i love it, because i love the subjects you cover. I'm especially interested in highways - and streets. You are or have been a civil engineer. I wanted to be a civil engineer when i was younger, but i decided to become a residential designer, something i wanted to do even more. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for doing this video. When i was very young - especially, i used to just study highway maps, (as well as ALL maps), and dream of traveling to see all the places on those maps, and especially the great bridges and other engineering masterpieces. I still do, though now I'm old and not financially able to travel. So many places and I'll never see.
Anyway, thanks for explaining about these types of highways. I really enjoyed it!
Another first rate report from MM. Love to see a report on what happens when highway meet airports and all the specific issues encountered. Currently I am in Amsterdam and their main airport Schiphol is a train, highway and bus transit hub, something I have never encountered in the US.
I think about new circle in Lexington, ky. Its great for the 3/4 that is controlled access, but the part that isn’t is the worst traffic in the city
Thanks Mike. I believe that I have always used the Ft. Monroe tunnel.
Prior to this video, I didn't have any recollection that there was another one to the west.
Philadelphia doesn’t have a beltway. But we have an unofficial one. 476 west of the city connects with 276 (Pennsylvania Turnpike) north of the city, which merges with 95 to the NJ turnpike east of the city in New Jersey and that goes south to us-322 across the Delaware back to PA where you have to take a small stretch of 95 to get back to 476.
Or you can just do 476 to 276 to 95 to 476 all within Philadelphia but that’s also not a traditional ring road as 95 goes through downtown (albeit at the edge).
Very cool to see my hometown (Greensboro NC) and current home mentioned. I live right off GA 20 in the northern ATL metro and I can’t wait til this road project is done. It’s such a pain to try to go from Canton to Cumming and get stuck behind a truck or some slowpoke, knowing it’s a solid 30 minutes of an agonizing single lane. Only been in GA a year so I was shocked to find out about the proposed outer loop that got canned. If widening GA 20 is as close as we can get, I’ll take it but the northern metro is only gonna keep growing so they really should’ve proceeded with a full outer loop.
Great video, I enjoyed it! I grew up in east-central Indiana. We had 2 examples of bypasses in my area. Anderson and Muncie. Both built 4-lane bypasses, but Muncie's is largely controlled access, and it flows like a rural interstate. Anderson didn't do that and it turned into a traffic nightmare (Scatterfield Road, though I won't say what I call it lol)
In Pittsburgh we have multiple belts that basically circle the city each have a color associated with them. I live near the yellow belt. I believe all of the belts are just 2 lane roads which are for the most part not highway roads.
I thoroughly enjoyed this video, thank you!
As an Australian, love the shoutout at the beginning of the video. Would be interesting to see you do videos on other countries including Australia one day. Sydney and Melbourne according to Tom Tom apparently have worse traffic than LA and New York, although the slower commute times might be due to our ridiculously low speed limits (and punitive punishments for exceeding them)
Love your Mobile River Bridge and Bayway video. I used to live there..Now I'm in Dothan and I believe we're in the process of getting a Continuous Flow Interchange on Ross Clark Cir starting well south of Montgomery Hwy. The area is called Restaurant Row. People already don't like it and it's not even done yet
Yo Mileage Mike! I stay in the Hampton Roads area. The only places that’s growing along that beltway is in Chesapeake and Suffolk. Everywhere else on that beltway is FULL 😂😂😂. Love your content bro! Keep them coming. ❤
it will be interesting how that area will be in 10 years from now of future i-87 "Chesapeake to Raleigh NC" being built.
@@fgjr96way right! Seems Virginia is not interested bringing I-87 into the state though.
this is well detailed data you provided. ATL desperately needs to revive that Rte. 500 plan. politicians just need to be authoritarian on some issues. that 470 ring in denver metro is not viable at all. they need a real metro ring that'll most likely cause demolition of multiple neighborhoods
Great video. I noticed all the examples of ring roads you gave are east of the Rockies. On the west coast, we do have "bypass" freeways but not ring roads that I know of. That would be an interesting follow-up video. I'm sure it's mostly due to geographic constraints.
Very informative video, thank you! I moved to Northern Virginia almost 60 years ago, shortly after the Capital Beltway was completed. Lanes have been added through the decades, and congestion has only increased. There are now express toll lanes in the Virginia section of I-495 that can be very expensive to use depending on the time of day and traffic volume. It’s all rather a mess with no obvious solution!
I moved to Northern Virginia a little over ten years ago, and have studied this region's transportation history thoroughly. Unfortunately the obvious solution is a ship that sailed decades ago: building a thorough freeway grid. Central Maryland on the other side of DC managed to figure this out. And as a result, none of the highways there are wider than 8 lanes nor do any of them have express lanes, and spite of this, congestion is rare and the roads are pretty free-flowing outside of the peak of rush hour.
Northern Virginia had numerous freeways proposed back in the '60s and '70s; the Outer Beltway, the Northern Virginia Expressway (both of which would have paralleled the Capital Beltway), the Monticello Freeway, the Potomac Freeway, and more. But they were all ultimately rejected due to nimbyism and lack of foresight.
Today, Northern Virginia's freeway grid is very sparse, and the express lanes that are constructed are little more than a band-aid fix, with any real fix being at worst, impossible, at best, not feasible at the time being due to the political and social climate (i.e. US-50 from the Loudoun County Parkway to I-66 and from the Beltway to DC can and should be upgraded to freeway, but neither Fairfax nor Arlington Counties would ever go for this right now).
@@Mapmaker1559 I-66 as originally proposed would have had eight lanes and crossed the Potomac at the Three Sisters Islands. From there a freeway (the Potomac Freeway?) would have connected to the Southwest Freeway which was originally I-95. There’s a tunnel near the Kennedy Center that was the only part built. The North Central Freeway would have been the route of I-95 through poor NE neighborhoods (surprise, surprise!) and then connect to I-95 in Maryland. No doubt you already know all this. There was HUGE opposition within the city. “White men’s cars through Black men’s homes!” The freeway would have never been built through rich NW neighborhoods. The only solution for me is to move to the Netherlands, a small country with excellent public transportation. Thanks again for the video and all your research. Keep up the good work!
@@edwardjones4870 Thanks for the compliment! The Potomac Freeway in DC would've been a little different from the Potomac Freeway in Northern Virginia, which basically would've connected Woodbridge to Pentagon City by running through Hybla Valley and Alexandria, acting as a major pressure relief valve for I-95.
Yes I-66 was originally supposed to be built as an 8-lane freeway inside the Beltway, but was instead built as a 4-lane interstate/parkway hybrid (albeit still fully grade-separated), all the more reason US-50 inside the Beltway needs to also be upgraded to freeway. I-66 was always intended to cross the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, while the Three Sisters Bridge would've carried the short I-266 across the Potomac River along what is today the Spout Run Parkway and the Whitehurst Freeway.
While my research in Montgomery/Prince George's Counties Maryland hasn't been as extensive as my Northern Virginia research, I am familiar with the canceled alignments of I-95 and I-270 inside the Beltway.
@@Mapmaker1559 I have a few more memories that are a bit sketchy now because the events were so long ago. In The Washington Post there was an article predicting that after DC got home rule, it would become far more difficult for new freeways to be built inside the city. And that certainly proved to be the case. Congress voted for more freeways, but the then DOT secretary (I can’t recall his name. He later headed Amtrak.) was against them and influenced LBJ to return the matter to local authorities. I also remember a powerful House member named Hatcher (I think!) who withheld funds for building Metro for some two years because the city refused to build freeways. The drama over I-66 inside the Beltway went on for at least two decades, and the issue went all the way up to the Supreme Court. If I remember correctly, the decision was made to build it as a four lane highway (Custis Parkway?) under the Nixon administration (DOT secretary Coleman?) but not actually constructed until the Carter administration. Arlington and Fairfax wanted it built because Metro would use part of the median. And speaking of Metro, whenever I see its map I remember the line that was never built in Northern Virginia because of cost. It was a lost opportunity that would have served a lot of passengers between the city and Seven Corners. Thanks for taking me down memory lane. I just hope my memories are correct!
I live in a small town and we have an outer loop. It’s a bypass for the main highway, broadway of America. It also keeps trucks from driving in town. They can just go around and keep going 55-65.
I live in far north Forsyth County and it is common for traffic to extend into Dawson County these days. Especially on the weekends. 400 should be upgraded to limited access from where it currently ends at Exit 18 all the way past Lumpkin Campground Rd in Dawson County. A western bypass (let's call it I-275) linking Cartersville to McDonough could also help alleviate traffic on the Downtown Connector.
Wow! Look at the Kentucky representation early in this video. Are you planning another trip back here, Mike? If so, wait til Spring
At some point. I definitely didn't spend enough time exploring that state yet.
@MileageMike485 I'd say come in the spring time when everything blooms. Dogwoods & cherry blossoms are everywhere here. Just bring your allergy medicine if you do
I 270/255 Loop in the St.Louis area is considered a Ring Road.. it's called the St.Louis Metro Area Bypass
What sucks about them is they create a wall around a city that is hard to cross on foot or bike, even when they do add long ass crosswalks like at 7:02. I kind of like diverting through-traffic, especially truck traffic away from the city centres. I think that is important and in a way fits my pro-cyclist and pedestrian attitudes as it takes away that noisy, polluting, and dangerous traffic from the centre.
They require many foot bridges or foot tunnels, of course. You shouldn't ever be further than a block away from an unimpeded crossing that doesn't require you to wait for a traffic light
The Interstate system was originally purposed as a national defense project, originated by President Eisenhower who was assigned to move an army from the East Coast to the West Coast during the 1930s and it took 31 days on the narrow roads of that day. Later on, he rode into Germany on the captured autobahns and made it a priority to ask Congress for appropriation to build similar highways for rapid movement of vehicular traffic during his presidency, billing it as a military project. The ring roads were purposed to bypass city centers made impassible by nuclear detonations in time of war. I've wondered if the Interstates might have worked better if routed outside the cities, then run spur roads into the cities, instead of routing them through the cities with ring roads around them.
That was the original plan. Eisenhower didn’t find out until later that they were planning to route them directly through city centers.
Great vid, as always Mike!
Comments: Atlanta, I-285 carries through trucks, all Interstates inside the Beltway have 10 foot wide lanes, not 12 foot lanes, meaning there’s often an extra lane those 4-wheelers can use. Many Texas Loops have a “right of way” to expand to a Limited Access road with their famous frontage roads; case in point: Lufkin, where intersections are being replaced with overpasses for eventual I-69 and Lubbock and Amarillo, esp. SE quadrants where overpasses exist and frontage roads are intermittent. Philly took over 200 years to complete the “Blue Route” of I-476, so there’s hope for mankind! I’m still waiting for Miami to complete their East Side loop of 826, the Palmetto, around down town.😂😂Thanks!
Atlanta desperately needs a SuperPerimeter. It should have happened in the 1990s.
A serious failure of urban planning.
@@jliller I am just curious how you would want to plan Atlanta Metro. Do you really want it to have a square grid like all the "NPC" cities?
Agreed. Lacking that, at a minimum Georgia needs interstates or Georgia 400-type expressways that do not go to Atlanta. I-95 is the only one at present.
Columbus to Macon/Warner Robins to Augusta.
Macon to Athens to Commerce.
Calhoun to Gainesville to Athens to Augusta.
Calhoun to Rome to Cedartown to Carrollton to Newnan and past Griffin to I-75.
Those or some modified combination would be an Outer Perimeter while connecting mid-level Georgia cities. And finish making Georgia 316 an expressway already!
@@capi.strano7620
Perhaps upgrading GA-20 from Buford/I-85 to Atco/I-75.
they built a bypass around rolesville, nc to louisburg, and henderson on up US-401 too, such a life saver.
Like a lot of things, ring roads are great IF part of good urban planning.
Urban planning goes out the window as local government allows massive growth along the beltway
Houston has another partial ring, FM 1960 comes from South Houston Northwest, up the West side and comes back East. It's slow going through it since much of it is developed and has stoplights all the way around but it is quite effective in getting between the radial highways around Houston sometimes.
Starting 9:55 into the video the narrator claims the routing of certain ring roads can be a problem. Good example that I can think of in Canada is the A30 freeway that goes around Montreal but goes so deep to the south it’s almost better to drive through the north end via the A40 and, if wanting to cross the St. Lawrence River later on, to simply cross one of the bridges further east.
One of my favorites is the Bennington Bypass, VT 279. Like many Vermont "highways", it's a super two (with hill lanes). They planned to do a third part of it connecting the east side to US 7 south, hence the curious half-SPUI at VT 9 East, though not sure if they'll do it, or keep US 7 traffic running through the city. Really nice rest area along it with plenty of overnight parking, though.
Good video. People don't like more roads but cities will grow whether you want it or not, so might as well build enough roads to make life better for most people.
I had never seen so many loop highways as I have when I moved to East Texas. Practically every freaking “major” city like Tyler, Longview, Marshall, Paris, Carthage, Athens, Palestine, you name it, have em.
Its all about money and what the development will bring as more people to move to the area, business for trucks i-420 around Metro Atlanta in 2030, i-540 to future i-640 in Raleigh NC and future i-422 Birmingham AL Northern Beltline(not i-259 or i-659) Look out for i-840 in Nashville TN AND I-269 in Memphis TN, they are great to bypass a city 4 long distant travels but when a sleepy-small community town develops into a major city like Hoover AL, Franklin TN, or Southaven MS, cities go for that more money in that area and rural, farm life in the area will be gone and more traffic, seen this happen in my area along the i-275 Corridor when there was no Canton MI in the 70s. Great Job as always Mike👍👍👍👍👍👍
Man, I can't believe you went the whole time without mentioning Nashville! 840 is a half ring road that actually has an unfinished extension on the west end. And Briley Parkway is nearly a ring, but the ring itself changes from a highway to surface streets on the southern side.
I think ring roads work quite well when the long distance traffic is either forced onto streets (slow) or forced onto traffic jammed freeways (slow).
They also divert cars away from the city so you can make more pedestrian-focused streets.
The drawbacks include encouraging sprawl, but that's a different policy decision at that point, and it can be solved without banning ring roads.
Another drawback is the jams might migrate to the ring road, making it redundant.
Apparently Fairfax County Parkway is also a portion of an incomplete ring-road that was originally intended to be an "Outer Capital Beltway" around DC
As a professional truck driver, I can confirm that I-285 in Atlanta sucks. The west bypass is on average marginally better than the east bypass, but depending on the time of day, and if there are any accidents (which are common), it sucks either way. In the middle of the night, traffic does usually flow somewhat smoothly. If you hit it at rush hour, you are so screwed!
Keiffercriullo, I'm an Atlanta resident/native. Yes, it sucks. I live near and use the east bypass but I avoid it during rush hour. I have been wondering this: if truckers were allowed to go straight through the city on 75/85 from 12 am to 6 am, how many do you think would alter their trip plan to do that?
Amazing they have that Big Truck Stop off of i-285 on the westside of Atlanta that can be crowed any time of the day
@@fgjr96way I didn't know about it but I'm sure it helps. We could use one of those about 15 - 20 miles out in each direction on 75 & 85.
@@fgjr96way I know the place. It's the Petro on Hallowell Parkway. I've been there many times.
@@WilliamAkins-rw2hv I don't know. If that were to be the case, I would depending on which direction I was going. It would also help to allow trucks to go straight through on I-20 in the early hours too.
Funny you mentioned the Ross Clark Circle in Dothan. I was on it during Hurricane Milton made me evaluate Tampa Bay. A good topic would be US highways that connect Interstate corridors. Example US 301 between Ocala and Jacksonville. US 15 between Williamsport pa and Frederick Maryland. US 19 between Beckley and I 79 West Virginia. US 19 from Crystal River to I 10 in the Tallahassee area of Florida.
I always wished Tampa had built one. There were proposes for one but still has never been planned. The only closest to it is I-75 that goes around the city and I-275 goes straight through the city. Then we got the Veterans Expressway and Suncoast Expressway that now also go straight through the city.
Selmon is a great traffic mover, and it has less ramps too. Too bad FL-54 wasn’t rebuilt with frontage roads from I-75 to Suncoast Pkwy.
I don't think it was mentioned but if it's an interstate loop it's a 3 digit # with even #'s being complete loops and odd #'s being incomplete loops. Although some look complete as in I-285 in ATL or I-635 in big D, they are connected with local roads or state highways. Being a map and geography buff, I always ❤ ur videos!!
Even first digit in its simplest form meant it connects two Interstates (ring or connector). Odd first digit meant it only connects to an Interstate from one end (spur).
i know freeway revolts killed a lot of projects in the 70s especially Baltimore MD and I think the same happened with i-635 in Dallas TX area
Except Omaha and Council Bluffs… Even numbers, but don’t connect back to Mother Roads!! Smoking too much of something…
Mentioning Culpeper in VA caught me off guard
Babe, wake up. New Mileage Mike dropped.
I love ring roads!
We have a highway in Austin that is called state route 45 and is designated as a loop. However it has not been fully completed yet the currently completed route is essentially a backwards c shape highway going around the city, but I think there are plans to fully make it an actual looped highway.
One of the major factors in how effective a ring will be ad a bypass is how much the radial traffic flow is looking to turn.
If half a the traffic on a northbound interstate is looking to turn east, then a ring will divert half of the traffic away from the core. But if 90% just wants to go straight through the metro, then a wide arcing ring road won't be of much use to those drivers. (Denver is in a north-south megalopolis so a ring doesn't help through traffic. In contrast Boston has multiple radials entering from the same side of the city so its 3 rings help divert a lot of traffic away from downtown)
And rings are good for more than just highways, a transit system with multiple radial lines can free up capacity in the core by building a ring ling that connects the radials so people aren't funneled into 1 overcrowded hub.
That’s true.
Traffic looking to go down I-75 in and take I-20 out would use the bypass more than traffic looking to take I-75 both in and out.
I live in Metro-Atlanta. My town is off the I-20, a few miles outside of the I-285 beltway. I think you are spot on with your negatives for ring roads. The I-285 is essentially just a parking lot during rush hour, and it causes more traffic for people approaching Atlanta from the I-20E and W and I-75/85 N and S. Despite having two lanes dedicated to the I-285 exchange and 2-4 additional lanes for I-20/I-75/I-85 through traffic, all of the lanes get backed up for miles by people trying to get onto the I-285 to "bypass" Atlanta. Since most of the (older) perimeter suburbs are along the I-285, a lot of the "bypass" traffic for people traveling through Atlanta from outside of the Metro is tied up by inside of the Metro going from one suburb to another. It's honestly quicker sometimes for folks switching from the I-20 to the I-75/85 or vice versa to just go into Atlanta and make the switch directly instead of using the I-285. I've traveled to and from the Atlanta area to other cities outside of the state dozens of times in the last 5 years, and the only time Google Maps has me take the beltway for I-20/I-75/I-85 exchange is before or after the rush hours.
The I-285 was built for the needs of the Atlanta in the 1990s when the Atlanta was filled with the Atlantans. Since then the Atlanta has been filled increasingly by more people from the California. After those people arrived, more people arrived. And after them even more people. Is it any wonder that the roads of the Atlanta are now parking lots and resemble the roads of the California, except with more Georgia pine trees around them?
@WilliamAkins-rw2hv You can't blame the "Californians" for the poor roads in Metro-Atlanta and most of the South. I grew up in Los Angeles and left there in 1989 to join the military. Since then, I've lived all over the South West, South East, and DMV area. Los Angeles and most cities in the North East are set up along a grid system. It's easy to navigate through Los Angeles without using a highway since there are multiple prominent boulevards that run North-South and West-East. Atlanta and its suburbs are laid out haphazardly. It seems that the developers were allowed to build as they pleased, with minimum to no amount of planning, like the guy pointed out in his video. There are some old Georgia highways that run in between the city and some of the suburbs, but they almost double and triple your travel time. Californians didn't do that. That's the fault of the elected officials. Plus, Atlanta lacks a decent public transportation system from the city to the suburbs, which further increases the traffic, because of pure unadulterated racism. Which was also not caused by the Californians. If you want to blame the Californians for anything, it's trying to bring the local food up to Los Angeles/New York/Chicago standards, trying to improve the parks, and supporting the creation of the Beltline. I guess we are also responsible for driving the cost of housing up during the pandemic, but we had help from New Yorkers and international tech workers.
I thought the MARTA trainline would help??
@fgjr96way it doesnt servevthe whole metro area; suburban counties have their own systems. With Marta, persistent issues of poor management, poor service and safety (vagrants on the train and station) keep its use lower than it should be.
@WilliamAkins-rw2hv Let's not forget the lack of sufficient funds and support that contribute to MARTA woes and hinder the building of the outer loop also. The South is just as notorious for people complaining about terrible public services who don't want to contribute an extra penny in taxes, as it is for trusting private businesses to serve the public with no guardrails that end up just serving themselves. There doesn't seem to be a good balance between the private sector and government that benefits the people. Georgia is better at this than most other Southern states, though. Hopefully, after the focus on the Beltline, Atlanta could work with suburbs willing to extend or connect to MARTA within their areas.
C-470 in Denver is useful when going to the airport when you're coming from south or north of Denver I will say, or when going to the outer suburbs.
7:02 Dang that's a stroad!
Not really. A stroad has high commercial and residential development along its frontage. It is where a high speed arterial also tries to provide numerous access points to unmitigated development. Where it ends up failing at both efficiency and access. This road has limited access, this functioning arterial or collector.
3:38 aye! That’s how we got the name of the cross roads of America.
Hahaha although, as someone living here… you make it sound smooth, I avoid the 465, and all other highways, at all cost. It’s a parking lot, accident magnet, and a construction hellscape; all rolled into one, not all things are true once- well the construction is, which, is the common denominator.
Better public transit would be better.
On the Virginia side of DC there are 2 routes that serve the purpose of the ring roads. There's the Fairfax County Parkway which is in the alignment of the outer beltway. It's has several long sections of freeway with limited at grade intersections. Then there's VA-28 which has been upgraded to interstate standards between US-29 and VA-7. Both routes serve as effective bypasses around the core. The biggest issue is that Maryland doesn't want to build a bridge between Montgomery and Fairfax Counties.
As a (for now) Northern Virginian, I can say that VA-28 is effective, but the Fairfax County Parkway is not. I avoid the Fairfax County Parkway whenever possible. I do agree though that the lack of an Outer Potomac Crossing is a major issue for the greater region.
Perhaps the state of Virginia should petition the feds to get an I-266 designation for the Fairfax County Parkway.
It should qualify, as it connects I-66 with I-95.
@@SonnyBubba I don't think Virginia will do that anytime soon unfortunately, they seem to be very anti-interstate right now, contrary to their neighbor North Carolina. And even if the Fairfax County Parkway were to be designated as I-266, that would require significant upgrades to the parkway to bring it up to interstate standards. Right now it's riddled with traffic lights.
@ it should be I-666 lol
To continue with Texas’ ring roads, Center, TX has a partial ring road serving a population of 5,221 and Crockett and Carthage with populations around 6,400 have full ring roads 😂
DFW has 3 Ring Roads. Loop 12/I-635/I-20, I-820/I-20 and beltline rd.
In Jakarta we even have 3 Ring Road. Inner, Outer 1, Outer 2 and Outer 3 is being constructed
What do you think about the collector-express system which separates merging and exiting traffic from through traffic? Both the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago (I-90/94) and Ontario Highways 401 and 427 use that system.
I all I know is I hope I never have to drive anywhere near Atlanta, DC, Houston or LA ever again.
I remember travelling from Indiana to Florida back in 2016, traffic was a nightmare along Interstate 75. I'm talking jammed up.
I think it’s also worth mentioning the Twin Cities loop/beltway or I-494/694. There was originally a plan to have the MN-100 Beltway, but that loop never went through. It was soon proposed to be I-494/694. I-494 today covers the West, South, and Eastern parts of the Metro while I-694 covers the East and Northern areas.
With plans for removing I-94 between downtown Mpls and St. Paul and turning it into a boulevard, I-94 could be moved to where I-694 exists. It (maybe?) would be concurrent with I-35E down to St. Paul and then I-94 would join its original routing from downtown St. Paul east towards Wisconsin. I’d love to know I-94 through the Twin Cities would look like in the future. 😊
Beltways keep showing up because of the area's growth over the years, especially in Raleigh, and a few other cities
Look at Houston biggest loops in the world
Raleigh’s highways are so subpar to other cities omg they really screwed up
Yeah that's true
3:16 AB-ah-leen. As in its counterpart in Kansas. Mike!
I-285 is an intra urban loop. Hardly a bypass these days.
Rarely have to travel out of the quadrant of the " loop" still have access to the inner town and the mix country / city living with a couple acres here.
12:01 - ...on I-95 at Pennsylvania into Delaware
I-495 is a good choice to go south, beyond Wilmington.
And 295 does the same for Philadelphia. It’s not a ring road but it bypasses Philadelphia for folks on 95 going north and south. 476 is also a bypass for people west of Philadelphia to avoid 76 when going South to the airport and towards Wilmington-Baltimore.
And if you add those two along with the turnpike (276) along the north, you have an unofficial beltway!
Damn TH-cam got me 2 days late but I'm here for the 3 Texas loops lol. Gotta shoutout how we're doing 1604 in San Antonio. The cities grown though man to little too late. SA and Austin really refuse to slow down
Kind of surprised to see no mention of Dallas. Here, we have Loop 12, IH635 & Belt Line Rd. Having outgrown all of those, decades ago, the George W. Bush tollway is in progress of making its way around and through the most populous suburbs.
About the newly built bypass to replace direct center roads you talked about early on, here in Vietnam l can actually see them everywhere on gg map: when l look at a town/city, there will always be 2 main roads, one passing the center labeled "old country road" and one going around labeled "country road"😂😂
Surprised no mention of Boston, which has two partial beltways due to proximity to the ocean. Route 128 I believe was the first highway built for that purpose and I-495 also serves as essentially the Merrimack Valley Expressway.
that i-495 is a great way to surround the whole Boston Metro Area and i-95 as well around Boston
Here in Denver, we still haven't managed to complete a ring road, E-470/C-470 encloses all but a 20 mile stretch of our Northwest quadrant. They're still trying to complete it, but the area is rapidly being developed, and people actively oppose it's completion for environmental reasons, so I doubt we'll ever see it done. Too bad, every other road around here is constant gridlock.
It’s too bad the E/C-470 loop won’t be closed anytime soon, or at least for a few decades, but I agree that the traffic thru Denver on I-25 can be insane!!
Also this all reminds me of Calgary, except the 201 aka. Calgary Ring Road actually being completed. The last section to be done was the West Ring Road portion.
Variable tolls in fort Worth are $25 peak and $5 when traffic is clear
🍺 = Ring Road 😂😂😂😂 JK. Great video Mike.
I think went it come ring road Houston tx got it right for it size over 7 million people. With 610 and belt way 8. Example if I'm coming from i- 45 north the woodland or the airport I don't have to go through the city to get through i-10 west to get to katy or Galveston I can either take the belt way 8 or 610. And that will ease traffic going through the city center.
It's also very interesting to see how no Coastal cities have ring roads because of ( you know ) the big body of the water that surrounds the cities unless it's A bay