America's Top 10 WORST Interchange Bottlenecks For Trucks | Can They Be Fixed?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มิ.ย. 2024
- On this video we explore and analyze a report from ATRI on the Top 10 Worst interchange Bottlenecks for Trucks in the US.
Cities Explored: www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mi...
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I-69 Video:
• Why I-69 Is Taking SO ...
Cross Bronx Expressway Video:
• Why New York's Cross B...
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Sources and Further Reading:
ATRI Top 100 Bottlenecks in 2023:
truckingresearch.org/2023/02/...
I-10 Project - San Bernardino County
www.gosbcta.com/project/i-10-...
I-440 Study - TNDOT
www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/tdo...
I-710 Article - LA Times
www.latimes.com/california/st...
I-710 Study - Caltrans
media.metro.net/projects_stud...
SR57 SR60 Project - Diamond Bar, CA
www.diamondbarca.gov/966/SR-5...
GDOT:
0013918-gdot.hub.arcgis.com/
85study-gdot.hub.arcgis.com/
I-45 Project - TXDOT
www.txdot.gov/about/newsroom/...
Illinois Tollway - IDOT
www.illinoistollway.com/docum...
Gateway Tunnel - NY Times
www.nytimes.com/2022/08/31/ny...
Truck Photo:
Don O'Brien
www.flickr.com/photos/dok1/28...
EPA Suspends I-710 Project:
www.asce.org/publications-and...
New Jersey 2030 Plans:
www.state.nj.us/transportatio...
NJ Train Tunnel:
nypost.com/2023/01/31/biden-t...
One trucker summed up NYC rush hour on I-78 in one sentence: "A half a million rats all headed for the same hole in the wall.", perfectly put.
Plus, cat size rats as well.
I’m glad you mention that in places like NYC you’ll NEVER be able to add enough lanes to fix the traffic. The demand is just too high. Even in Chicago highway expansions just don’t work because the pent up demand just fills any extra capacity built. The only way to truly move more people in large cities is to build more robust transit, but sadly many cities continue to double down on adding more freeway capacity, often at the expense of air quality and destroying buildings. The I-45 project in Houston alone will destroy over 1000 homes
Even in smaller, but growing cities, adding more lanes does absolutely nothing to help in the long run. Counter intuitively, it isn't the number of cars that determines traffic, but the vehicle miles traveled (which, granted, more cars will cause more vehicle miles traveled... but, 100 cars traveling 10 miles each will create less traffic than 100 cars traveling 20 miles each). Reno is rapidly growing, but despite the incredible demand for new housing, up until a few years ago, you couldn't give away land in the Cold Spring community about 15 miles north of the city, people were more willing to build on smaller lots or even live in apartments/condos closer in... once NDOT announced that they were planning on adding lanes on 395 though, suddenly there were permit applications for 20,000 single family homes in Cold Springs, because people now think it will be easier to drive into the city (spoiler alert, that road is going to fill up just as bad as it is now, if not worse, because all those people are still going to get stuck in the same traffic in the city).
Transit has limited benefits. One could easily spend billions to move a relative handful of people. The California/ Jerry Brown boondoggle is a prime example. Zig zagging all over the Central Valley to “connect” fairly small population centers that will continue to use flexible personal transportation instead. Will it ever connect downtown LA and SF? Nope. Better to invest in rubber tired Bus fleets using EXISTING surface highways.
@@davestewart2067
Preferably with painted bus lanes. If there is too much demand still, rail would make sense
@@davestewart2067And your solution is, what, secret tunnel through the mountains?
Maybe that was “Moonbeam’s” idea. The whole rail thing was an enormous mistake. Fix existing problems instead of creating new ones. As for “tunnels” the 710 tunnel should have been constructed.
The worst part about the George Washington Bridge approach is that all trucks have to use the upper level. The worst spot is where I-87 meets I-95 because all trucks have a very short distance to move over to the left and it just makes the traffic much worse
You are absolutely right and because of that, a lot of accidents happens right there...!
Also that fucking kew gardens interchange in Queens where the I-678 meets the Grand Central Parkway, the Jackie Robinson Parkway and Union Turnpike
I feel the need to point out that it's done for "security," since there was a little problem at another Port Authority (of NY & NJ) property in lower Manhattan. Something to do with an attack... I think it made the news.
Boss-King you are so right with that assessment but prior to 9/11 they would allow truckers to use the lower level making it much easier to get I-87 from I-95 northbound ! It’s just sad that in almost 25 years nothing has been done to address the situation, especially the way people drive !!
@@naptime0143 Yes, Kew Gardens Interchange used to be especially terrible on the approach to Jackie Robinson on either direction of GCP and Van Wyck Southbound. The reconfiguration fixed that backup now just waiting for them to finish up Van Wyck between Kew Gardens and the Airport
While I’m not a trucker, I have personally experienced the bottlenecks at I-20 / I-285 & I-85 / I-285 in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. Glad GDOT is doing something about I-20 / I-285. The Tom Moreland Interchange (Spagetti Junction / I-85 & I-285) however might not be fixable. It’s already a massive behemoth of an interchange.
The best solution is to lessen the demand for using that interchange (Spaghetti Junction). This could take the form of an outer perimeter (even if its just the northern and eastern parts of the metro area), and expanding MARTA into Gwinnett County. Maybe even have an express lane on I-85 that bypasses most of the exits within I-285. When you have 1+ million people (more if you count Gainesville, Athens, etc) who's only option to get anywhere is to go through Spaghetti Junction, it just isn't going to work regardless of how big the interchange is. That isn't even mentioning all the traffic that is just passing through Atlanta. The worse traffic gets, the more likely that people will want more public transportation, so I am hopeful that the situation will improve.
@@wwsciffsww3748 Agree
When I clicked on this video, I fully expected the I-20/I-285 interchange to be on this Top 10 list!
Having driven there, I can tell you, it can be one heck of a nightmare, not to mention a headache!
As a Atlantan Layoff just a tad … We just did a major project involving 285 and 75 to help with the airport congestion. Yes the south side but glad GDOT has only local truck traffic in the heart of town. If not we would #1
I-45 through Houston (Pierce Elevated) has needed fixing for 20 years. Glad to hear something is finally happening.
I know all too well about that I-40/I-24/I-440 confluence in SE Nashville...it is horrendous to deal with on peak traffic hours. Also, Nashville has three major interstates going through it, so all 3 are trying to cross over each other. The T-interchanges are literally where it happens at each end of where the concurrencies may happen. Be sure to watch signs carefully so you don't end up cutting across two lanes at the last moment.
It gets worse the more people move over there as well. I used to be in Nashville metro often and it seemed like that spaghetti bowl was tied up more than it wasn’t. I feel bad for the people who have to experience it daily.
I'm glad Nashville made your list. That 24/40 split is terrible.
Not a trucker, but I definitely agree with you!
Also add the interchange with I 65 - I 24 & I 40 coming in from the westside. You take your life in your hands if your not paying attention to what lane you really need. 🤬
Nashville is for sure a mess at the downtown beltway in the daytime. No matter which direction you're coming, thru traffic is forced to change lanes. I usually take the Briley Parkway around since I'm usually going from I-65 southbound to I-40 westbound or vice versa. Building a northwest leg of I-840 from I-40 to I-65 would be a huge traffic relief.
Blame the people in the towns north of the western end for it not getting done
yea, but often if you are staying on the same interstate, I-840 doesn’t make much sense to use. I really don’t know who thought it was smart to combine so many interstates especially in Downtown…
We used to drive through Nashville every year going from Charleston, SC to Murray, KY. We were overjoyed when 840 was built.
Surprised that I-10 I-110 interchange in Baton Rouge wasn’t on this list as the interstate goes down to one lane if you want to go east on I-10
Don't get me started on my I-10 rush hour experience in BR!
Never been on 110 itself, but being on 10 at the LA 1 exit and trying to get over the bridge to 12 is always a cluster that backs up terribly. The bridge needs at least 2 more lanes each way or 12 needs to be extended west somehow and given its own MS R bridge, but that would be such a massive undertaking to do either thing. Beaumont to BR just feels like one huge ongoing construction project that "never" gets finished. I'm sure there are construction folks who've had 3 family generations do nothing but jack with I-10 all their careers. 🤣🤣
It never fails, I get stuck in a long traffic jam on I-10 eastbound around downtown BR every time I'm coming home from Lake Charles. It's often backed up past the LA 1 exit.
@@nicholasharvey1232 Every time I'm through LA, this area is a nightmare. All of BR needs to be 4 lanes each way and some nice interchange for LA 1 due to the plants down in Plaquemine. As a Texan, I'm glad I don't have to go through there much, but when I do... man do I dread it until I'm a bit on my way toward Hammond. I feel for y'all that have to deal with it on a pretty regular basis.
Baton Rouge has the WORST traffic for a city of its size (just like Austin) and that 10-110 stretch is largely to blame.
I know this isn’t really the topic of the video, but I-81 through most of Virginia is horrendous when it comes to traffic
True. I spend most of my time just trying to stay out of the way of the transfer trucks.
I'm thinking if they had to do it all over again, they probably should have extended the NJ Turnpike/I-95 northward of the I-80 junction to just west of the Tappan Zee/Cuomo Bridge (with a NJ Turnpike Connector in NYS like the GSP has). With I-287 terminating at the junction, I-95 would go east thru White Plains all the way to Rye, NY, then continue its original routing. I-80 would then continue east along I-95's current routing across the GW Bridge, Cross Bronx, and New England Thruway to terminate at the I-95 junction in Rye, NY.
Or I-80 could go over the Throgs Neck Bridge and Clearview Expressway into Queens, triggering a number change for the Long Island Expressway from I-495 to I-380
They WERE going to continue the NJ Turnpike north to 287 near the Tappan Zee Bridge - but the plans to do that were canceled in about 1970. It was too populated an area to build through, and people didn't want it.
@@sasz2107iirc a bridge that would have taken the Cross County Parkway across from Yonkers to Jersey was also considered but fell through
The location of the Tappan Zee Bridge was determined by politics. Originally the bridge was supposed to be built across at Dobbs Ferry, a much more southern route that would have aided with the current congestion problem. However, the plan was nixed by the governor at the time, Thomas E Dewey, who wanted full control of the bridge to be in the hands of the New York State government rather than the Port Authority and to do so, the bridge had to be built outside the 25 mile area of control of the Port Authority that has authority over all crossings of any rivers within 25 miles around the Statue of Liberty. So if you measure the distance from the Tappan Zee Bridge to the Statue of Liberty, it's roughly 25.1 miles away leaving the bridge firmly in control of the governor. Unfortunately, this also mandated the bridge be built at the widest point in the river north of New York City and drove up the cost and thus the bridge had to be built with substandard materials. Fast forward 55 years later and long story short (and it really is a much longer story), because of the materials, the bridge needed to be replaced. Now it's very interesting that the governor in office at the time, Andrew Cuomo, went to great effort to make sure that the new bridge also stayed out of that 25 miles area of control of the Port Authority to ensure that the new Tappan Zee Bridge also remains under the control of the governor of New York. And in a last bit of nepotism, he named the bridge after his own father, Mario Cuomo. So when it comes down to it, New York does not solve problems, New York only solves politics.
@@sasz2107only hope is a palisdes interstate parkway upgrade.
I-20 and 285 interchange in Atlanta is terrible smh i grew up around that interchange and that's all I'm used to and all I see is bottle necks especially during rush hour traffic🤦🏾♂️🤣
I was in that traffic yesterday, and the ramps are terrible; thats the main reason for the traffic
I don't have a whole lot of driving anecdotes, but my most memorable was the time I tried to enter the Cross Bx going north where the acceleration/deceleration lane was only about 200 to 300 feet long (and 50 feet in the air) . Traffic was flowing fast but heavy and an 18 wheeler would not let me in, so I had to take the exit and a long detour to get where I was going. I am sure people experience this regularly.
The Jane Byrne (Circle) Interchange is pretty much finished, with further construction going on to the north on 90/94 (finally fixing the odd ramp system ). Probably the biggest fixable issue was the Northbound Dan Ryan to Westbound Eisenhower (NB90/94 to WB290), and that was the first thing worked on. Endemic problems include pretty much all the through traffic approaching the interchange, with the widening of the I-90/94 corridor through the interchange merely passing the problem further north ( the Hubbard Cave/Ohio Street Feeder section, already an issue beforehand, becomes more of a problem), plus it appears that the Eastbound Eisenhower (I-290) approach to the interchange has become a greater problem with backups.
As for the I-88/290/294, the major issue is the westbound 294 to westbound 290, which the fly-under you mentioned will help out. That will, however, end up pushing problems further west on I-290 as traffic which had to trickle onto westbound 294 will be able to flow more readily once the (admittedly necessary) fly-under is built. More interesting is the building of I-490 on the West side of O'Hare Airport; I can see that road making things easier on 290 as traffic which would have taken 290 westbound up to 90 west could be persuaded to take 490 instead.
Actually it's the NB 294 to WB 290 as I know what you're saying
I heard traffic reporters call that interchange the Spaghetti Bowl.
@@PrinzII Actually that's closer to downtown Chicago
It's where the Kennedy Dan Ryan and Eisenhower Expressways meet up just west of the old post office before the Eisenhower Expressway ends
Another thing is the Hillside Strangler where 290 flows into 88 and 294 South as there's a toll booth that needs to be dealt with just after getting onto 294 South. 294 North isn't as bad as you have the ramp from 294 north to 290 west that can be a slow exit ramp especially for truckers in the winter
The Ambassador Bridge in Detroit has super crazy traffic but they’re building the Gordie Howe Bridge to alleviate the pain thankfully
Yeah I'm surprised that I didn't see that Detroit area on the list specially that I-75 I-96 where it meets up with the Ambassador Bridge lot of truck traffic rolling through their but maybe because that truck traffic is going across the bridge over to Canada but the Goldie Howe bridge is going to be very nice they should be completed with that bridge in 2024
The Gordie Howe Bridge looks to dump all of its traffic onto I-75, which is already overcrowded with all downriver traffic coming into downtown, plus all the truck traffic bound for Canada, currently via the Ambassador Bridge. Canada traffic might avoid a mile or two near the I-75/96 interchange, but their plan was for Gordie Howe to allow for increased truck traffic in the decades to follow. My fear is there’s just nowhere for it to go, but to make a big backlog on southbound I-75. Just to the south is the River Rouge bridge, a four-lane each way 5- mile long plate and girder bridge, once the longest of its kind. It’s going to have to handle all the increased traffic, with no good way to expand its capacity. It made sense to me to have a connector continuing crosstown from the Gordie Howe/ I 75 interchange to connect to I-94 W. That way, at least, traffic could begin to be distributed, With multiple connections to the south: the Southfield Freeway, I 275, US 23, I 69, as well as multiple choices in the Chicago area.
I'm happy that some states are kind of coming to their senses and instead of just shoving trucks into the right lane and "keeping the nuisances out of the way", making them stay left so local merging traffic filters easier.
The videos of people driving are wild. So many people giving almost no turn signal warning before just swerving into another lane. Especially in the Houston part.
17:23 BREEZEWOOD 😂 a traffic mess..
This has been your best video by far ! I give it a 10 out of 10 and will spead it around to some of my fellow truckers ! As someone who grew up just a mile or 2 from Giant Stadium, the traffic northbound up across the George Washington Br and Cross Bronx Expressway is crazy 😝 bad !!
A major bottle neck you missed was I-10 east bound over the Mississippi river bridge in Baton Rouge, La where 2 lanes merge into 1 causing traffic to come to a stand still daily and at night too. God forbid LSU has a game, you would want to have a full tank of gas.
I absolutely hated that interchange when I was OTR. Honestly surprised that wasn't a top 10 bottleneck with the heavy truck traffic on I-10
New york have 7 lane to go in the city , 4 in lincon tunel and 2 in hollan tunel and 7 in berrazano bridge
Baton Rouge is freakin' ridiculous.
He didn't miss it, he just listed the top ten based on the site he referenced.
LSU game *LOL* You go from Lake Charles to Slidell via Monroe in that case, it's quicker. >>:=p
The tunnels that carry Amtrak and NJ Transit under the Hudson have been a significant issue since Hurricane Sandy flooded them in 2012. I don’t miss the delays from those tunnels.
I’m always bothered by the Census and their constant reclassification of NYC Metro. By all realistic expectations, the Western CT counties and Orange and Dutchess counties in New York should still be classified as part of the MSA and not the CSA.
I went across the George Washington Bridge for the first time a couple weeks ago. I was heading northbound at 3PM on a Friday afternoon and I made the mistake of taking the upper level. Ended up sitting in roughly 15-20 minutes of delays at the bridge alone. 😅
Haha that sounds about right!
@@MileageMike485 Given a choice, take the lower... or avoid it altogether. If you're a car, try the Lincoln Tunnel.
I don't know where you are going, if you are headed to New England I always take the Cuomo Bridge I-287 across the Hudson River and avoid NYC altogether.
15-20 minute delay sounds great lol
@@JimAllen-PersonaNo way, I never take any of the tunnels going into Manhattan, and with congestion pricing now, I have one more reason to stay away.
Left out is the Northern Virginia section of I-95 between Richmond and Washington, DC. It is constantly clogged with traffic in both directions
trucking, maybe? idk i think that i81 in virginia balances the truck load despite the interchange in i95
Always Always Always
Former Nashville resident here. You can avoid the whole 440/40 interchange if you are coming from Lebanon/Cookville/Knoxville on I-40 by taking Briley Pkwy from I-40 to I-24. Coming from Downtown, you can avoid this interchange by using I-65 South, Broadway/West End Avenue, or Nolensville Pk. Also, don't forget there is a newer outer beltway, I-840, on the southern end of the tri-county Metro area.
Not surprising to see Nashville in the top 10. I wouldn't be surprised to see the city pop up more in the top 100 listings because one of the 'features' of the interstate system in the area is the combining and splitting of major roadways. Interstates 65, 40, 24 and 440 merge and divide in several places and the weaving you have to do in order to get down the road is insane.
Atlanta needs to finish it’s highways and expand transit…. Like a second loop for trucks and traffic bypassing Atl.
A lot of folks don’t realize that’s MTG district and she should be the one pushing for voters to vote in favor of the transit and northern arch(which is totally still possible)… but they pander to those folks up there.
@@shearperfect3150 umm pretty sure it's not just her, what about the Democrats who blocked a proposed bypass for Atlanta, saying it would hurt the local economy, so who's pandering again??
Not only Fulton side, the S. Decatur 285/20 is a clusterf.... with an horrific loop ramp from 20W-285W and no collector/distributor lane from Wesley Chapel to 285, causing severe gridlock, particularly in the morning. And the 285S-20E ramp shoots way south, causing traffic to suddenly slow down as they approach the dip. Luckily, GDOT is going to revamp that side, too.
And the Downtown Connector (the I-20 and I-75/85 interchange) is no picnic either.
I love this channel so much. I'm not sure why exactly but this subject is so captivating for me.
The Cape Cod Canal. Route 3, goes down to one lane to cross the Sagamore bridge. Interstate 195 and 495 comes in with 3 lanes towards the Bourne bridge and down to 2 lanes to cross the bridge. The exit to head over to the Sagamore bridge is just one lane and requires you do go around a rotary and then proceed onto the road along the canal which it goes down to one lane to cross the Sagamore bridge with route 3 making the second lane. It is aweful how much of a bottle neck it is to get on the cape in the summer. They need to add additional lanes across the Sagamore bridge and make going from the Bourne bridge approach (route 25) to the Sagamore bridge easier. They also need to bring more trains over the train bridge to supply much needed public transit, and would be very beneficial to rebuild the line down to woods hole.
There is no more rotary on the sagamore bridge that was removed years ago but I agree it is hell to get out of and to the cape
Thanks! I'm not a trucker anymore, but am a bit surprised the Baltimore - D.C. area was not in the top 10. I guess other places are even worse. Listening to traffic updates on the radio, it seems there are multiple crashes out here almost every day. I guess the main criteria for this list pertain to capacity versus traffic. Is there a list of the most dangerous interchanges?
Even with all of widening and express lane projects going on over there. They need to invest more into rapid, freight and commuter transportation.
7:35 Ah, the Jane Byrne Interchange in Chicago! This highway intersection is *so bad* that Biffa Plays Indie Games used it as a thumbnail for a TH-cam video on beating the traffic in Cities Skylines!
Which video?
Definitely agree about many of these - especially the Houston I45 - I69/59 interchange. Use to drive thru this comming from Conroe or Livingston TX going to Galveston.
My tip for avoiding the Fort Lee interchange: Take the train. NYC is definitely a city where you can heavily rely on public transit to get you around town.
My wife's parents live in northern New Jersey. Anytime we go into the city, we take the train and it's like a 45 minute ride to Penn Station. But, when her parents want to go to a Yankees game, they insist on driving. And even though we aren't encountering rush hour traffic into the city, it still takes over an hour to get into the city and then another 15 minutes from where they'd paid like $20 to park. Blows my mind they won't even consider the train.
Americans think public transit is for poor people, unless you live in NYC itself, in which case you sometimes have no choice other than to take the subway because during rush hour, it is faster walking than driving
I don't blame them...& not because I think public transportation is for poor people, being poor myself, but I do have my own vehicle & therefore I refuse to pack in with a bunch of people I don't know...I'd be in a full fledged panic attack before the train left the station...I'd rather have an hour drive & $20 parking just for the sake of my own sanity, which I have precious little left of to begin with, than take a train...but I also wouldn't go to a Yankees game requiring me being in a packed out stadium either...even if I were a baseball fan, which I'm not...but if I were, tv gives a better up close view of what's going on, & free as well, so no need to get up close & personal with thousands of strangers...no thanks all around on that...in fact, I don't even want to go to NYC, as it's packed just walking down the street...no thank you there as well...
@@Road_RashWhen I go to or from NYC, I drive. But once I get there, I take mass transit most of the time. Buses, subways, trains, whichever one takes me where I want to go. And I don't care if anyone thinks mass transit is for poor people, rich people, or whatever else. If it'll take me where I want to go to what I want to see, I'll use it. I've gone to parts of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens that still have bad reputations using the subways.
Chicago’s monstrosity of freight traffic creates so many problems, just a bottleneck of a place due to geography and a crossroads area, not to mention the third largest U.S. metro.
As an Atlanta resident, Atlanta’s bypass needs another bypass. All of the north metro traffic still depend on I-285 to take them east to west. When I was working in Dallas, I saw how several layers of bypasses spread out the traffic.
Totally agree. Been in Dallas the past several weeks and I've been pretty impressed at how much better the traffic flow is here than Atlanta despite there being even more people in the Dallas Area. Another thing that helps is that Dallas has a lot of 4-6 lane arterial roads that extend from the city and into the suburbs. Those help take some of the local traffic off the interstate whereas in Atlanta you pretty much have to always use the interstates.
@@MileageMike485 Right Texas has the space to build those types of roads. I’ve also noticed whenever new suburban communities are built there, they also build new toll roads to connect them.
Whenever Atlanta builds new communities, they still depend on existing road infrastructure.
I would pay a toll to avoid going through.
That has been proposed but then they shortened the plan only to build a partial road from I-75 North to I-85 North along GA SR 20 i believe. There has been no update since then…
And that’s why I chose the New York Metropolitan Beltway (I-287) to go around this issue, & then go to Westchester/Staten Island (Richmond) & then the TNB/WHSB/I-495/Long Is. Expy.. another way of easing congestion is to build the already mention for 100 years, the Long Island Sound Tunnel with Tunnel Exit inside the tunnel. Same goes to the TME/CBE (I-95)/(I-287). Then on the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expy., then Jones Beach W/ WSP/Expy., then OC, then LC, then through the Long Beach Island, then NY-878, then on the Belt Expy. (Sections of Brooklyn-Queens line to Sunrise Hwy./NY-27), then Coundit Aves., then Linden Blvd./Prospect Expy., then the Gowanus, then SIE, WSE, OBX, and through PERTH Amboy to make it into a full beltway meeting up with the other end of I-287 & I-95/NJ TPKE.
In Houston, it seems every time they finish widening & interchanges imrovements, they're already under-capacity! WTF? And why does it take 1 year per mile to widen a freeway? Ridiculous.
This is why its getting harder and harder to sell widening freeways, adding a lane just instantly fills up. And you cant just keep adding lanes, Especially because in places with the worst congestion they cant add more freeway anyway. Unless they want to take land and in a totally fracked housing market like we have right now, taking people's homes for a freeway will never win.
The Houston area is growing like crazy, but Texas often over-widens the roads. The wide roads will drop lanes so fast once you get near downtown where all the interchanges.
For Houston, I would have thought Gulf Freeway northbound at I-610 because the I-610 exits are on both sides making drivers drive most of the way down before changing lanes to continue on I-45.
Not a trucker but I knew Houston would be here and it was the first few seconds of the video lmao. I10 is a beast for truckers and cars alike. I always make sure to give y’all space.
i would say 1-15 between St. George and mesquite could be one of the worst that's not in a city
i often wondered why they never proposed or built a bridge or tunnel to connect the long island expressway to i 95 in Connecticut. that would help with the traffic from long island to new England as they could bypass the city.
I've heard cost as well as strong opposition from the wealthy people on Long Island were the main reasons.
Robert Moses was busy tearing up The Bronx and Queens and putting in expressways elsewhere. Had he focused on a bridge across the sound (and he did have a bridge between Westchester and Nassau counties in his plans) there would have been a bridge there before the wealthy population on Long Island reached critical mass to stop such plans.
@@godozo just think if there had been a bridge built it might have eased traffic and shortened the commute.
@@MileageMike485you’re exactly right. Extending I-287 onto Long Island or building a bridge to Connecticut have been proposed several times but it always gets shot down.
A bridge between LI and CT makes so much sense on paper. And -if- LI were lower middle class or any poorer, we would have had some juicy YT videos on the history/story of how a bunch of people lost to eminent domain land seizures...
But there's way too much money - and political power in those island suburbs. Politicians knew better way back then to piss off Big Money. Nowadays I'm sure they know better didn't even bring up such a disruptive, yet paramount road project.
In this case the needs of the many are forgotten over the needs of the few!
Also, that I-85/I-285 has to be getting HAMMERED by vehicles for something like that to be congested. That's an impressive stack interchange to begin with.
The interchange is impressive but has a couple of bad bottlenecks. Mainly I-285 EB to I-85 NB goes to one lake briefly just before the emerge. Signage also is old and not great on some approaches.
I remember when they called it Malfunction Junction.
a LOT of people use the section of I-285 from I-75 in Marietta area to that interchange.
I live in Nashville, Donelson near the airport to be exact. I often commute(not every day) from my airport exit on I-40 to I-65 south and get off at the Franklin exit. Well the best route is to go I-40 west to 440 west, to I-65 south. Just that going from 40 west to 440 west is a damn stressful drive, it goes from 50 to 0 in a couple seconds, then back to 50, then back to zero. Then there are all the people who cut you off in the lane to go to 24 east that want into that single 440 west lane. I figured out a secret route to get around all those bullshit drivers. Might be a bit slower, but man it doesn't stress me out like that stop-go, get cut off nonsense trying to go from 40 west to 440 west.
395 merging with 95 in Virginia is probably the worst bottleneck I’ve ever seen. New York and La have more cars but the way dc area roads are designed will make any seasoned traffic connoisseurs heads explode
TXDOT plan for Houston is to remove the entire I-45 Pierce elevated and reroute it to run along I-69 as a sub grade Freeway. There's also a plan to cap that portion with a park connecting Downtown with the 2nd ward. The I-45 Pierce elevated will turn into a sky park and downtown will connect directly with Midtown
Atlanta NEEDS an Outer Perimeter! It would be WAY better and would make it easier to travel from McDonough to Lawrenceville!
It would make traveling to Newnan from McDonough so much quicker too
No, ATL needs a functional transit system. I recall MARTA building some downtown "cut and cover" rail stations back around '77. Cobb and Gwinnett passed on MARTA because Racism; POC would take MARTA out to the suburbs and go back with TVs on their shoulders. Sheer racist stupidity.
I'm an admirer of the Berlin U-Bahn and S-Bahn network - the BVG. You are basically no more than about 400km/0.25mi from an U-Bahnhof anywhere in the city, and the trains run
Here's some vids of the network and the stations. Wittenbergplatz is a very cool Art Nouveau/Deco station across from KaDeWE, a department store with the most amazing food court I've ever seen in the 17 countries I've been to. A cousin used to live a block away.
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The Munich system is impressive as well...
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My flat was 2 blocks south of S-8 Feldkirchen at Sonnenstraße 14.
"New" cities like Atlanta, Charlotte, Phoenix, etc. could have developed into user-friendly walkable cities if they had stopped making all housing except single-family homes with minimum lot sizes, setbacks, and parking illegal.
@@omarrolle3842i always thought that Newnan & the cities east of it needed to be better connected vs having to go all the way up I-85 > I-285 then go down I-75 South or use GA SR 34 with a ton of red lights and a lot of traffic. Even just going from Newnan to Peachtree City is a headache
Absolute worst is interchange of I-95 and I-87 in NY.
I hope you get a chance to look at Louisiana and airline highway from New Orleans to baton rouge. They are building it up from country and sparse to s huge business corridor with constant intersections and driveways and the speed limit is much of it is 65mph but people drive at 80+mph and race to the next red light, it is crazy getting in and out of driveways
I-80 in Iowa is taking forever to fix its headaches.. Tiffin-Coralville is finally to the point of overnight lane closures, of course lane changes and temporary tilting roads where the construction is happening wasn't timely with icy weather..
How did you miss the 101/110 interchange in LA?
a month or 2 before this video was posted the Jane Byrne Interchange ( or just the circle interchange known by it former name and still refereed to as by many locals ) the work was" completed". But like many road projects in Chicago it is never really done no sooner that they complete one another starts up in same area
I travel from Milwaukee, WI. to Philadelphia, PA. every week, I can say the freeway and toll ways through the Chicago area isn't fun. But every freeway has long areas that are under construction. Also, the turnpike through PA is under a widening project in multiple "problem" areas.
I used to work in Marietta, GA and had to drive to Lawrenceville, GA regularly during rush hour (an average of 1.5x/week). Even though it was six miles longer, it was actually 30 minutes faster to drive down I-75 and take I-85 north than it was to go 75 > 285 > 85. That's how bad the 85/285 intersection affects flow on 285.
I take the I-24 I-40 I-440 interchange daily and it’s pure chaos at times. You need be vigilant and aware when going through here, or just be ready to sit and wait. Everyday without fail there is a slow down. There is two lanes that merge into one when coming off 440 so it makes things far worse then you initially realize until you hit the whole interchange at rush hour.
the biggest thing for nashville, is that damn inner loop. the main reason why that I-440/24/40 interchange tops. in my travels through that interchange, i have seen people trying to merge just to get to downtown. you have basically 10-12 lane wide interstates on the northeast, southeast, AND west from the nashville suburbs/western briley parkway portion to nashville proper, all trying to merge onto a 6 lane wide inner loop. on top of it, theres travelers coming from as far away as dickson tn on the western portion and on the eastern portion idk, but you have a lot of commuters from the west, to the south, then from the east. on top of it, you have through traffic to get to the smoky mountains tourist area from Sevierville to south to Gatlinburg. on top of it, I-40 is a major truck corridor, and the only east-west interstate corridor in the entire state of tennessee that goes from one end of the state, across the other side into north carolina. and it is rumored that the nashville downtown loop actually filled up very quickly after construction, idk if thats true or not, but if it is true, its not gonna be enough to handle the capacity needed for the current demand. all TDOT can do is finish up I-840 to the north, and designate the entire I-840 loop as a thru-only route for all of nashville.
How anything around DC is not on the top ten is beyond me.
Truckers is the key thing here … DC has a lot of commuter traffic.
We drove across Chi on a friday in the winter.We started at noon to get an early start because of snow, 6" of snow that day.. We made it to our hotel on the same day... 11pm! We got off the highway for 10 minutes to use the bathroom. I took a while to get back on the highway.
I15 connects the Canadian border in Montana not Idaho.
I agree with you on 60 and 57. When I go to Disneyland and stay at one campground in Azusa, that is the worst part of the drive between ASuza and Anaheim. So slow in that area where the 47 mile drive to Disneyland can take two hours
The 290 90/94 interchange is now finished, and traffic isn’t as bad, but still pretty jammed.
yeah .... the Byrne interchange is always gonna be a cluster, but it's not NEARLY as it was prior.
Just wait a few years
80-94 in Indiana and Illinois is by far the worst
@@packisbetter90Yes, that expressway has some form of construction on it 24/7/365, lots of truck traffic, and even outside of rush hour it still is extremely busy.
Hi Mike thanks for sharing great content on your channel. Could you also share some content on the interstates in the Seattle area? I405 is one of the worst in terms of bottlenecks , especially where it meets I90. For the time I have lived in the area it has been a perennial construction zone with not much apparent progress
Complicating things for the I-294/I-290/I-88 interchange has to be the fact that Illinois has different agencies responsible for toll roads and non-toll roads. The Illinois Toll Authority handles I-294 and I-88, and IDOT I-290.
although its further down the list, you definitely showed (at the beginning of your video) the mess created at the end of i4 at i275 in downtown tampa, with the crosstown expressway - interstate four connector a mile before and exit 1 (22nd st) making everything worst with massive amouts of weaving. affects passenger traffic a bit more than trucks because most truck traffic from the port can be routed east to i75.
19:10 it's literally like 8 lanes squeezed down into 2 lanes... never seen anything like it.. feel bad for truckers lol
I've not seen many of the roads and interchanges in this video but the number one interchange is absolutely right and I also agree there's not much that can be done about it short of leveling billions of dollars of real estate to build another freeway that would fill to capacity almost immediately
It's not just the NY metro area that is the problem like in Chicago - the city is on the coast so you cannot build a bypass around that side of the city - this means that through traffic must go through the heart of downtown or else go miles and miles out of the way to go around it
I think that the federal interstate system needs to start mandating that major metro areas start making through lanes that cannot be accessed by local traffic
In the case of the GW bridge though a lot of the congestion is due to the fact that you have to stop to pay the toll - eliminating the toll plaza would go a long way in relieving congestion - I suspect the same is true in Chicago
The Brent Spence Bridge where I 71 and I 75 meet and cross the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati is definitely one of the worst bottlenecks in the interstate system.
I regularly use Route 4 to get to the city and I literally talked about a potential plan to replace the bridge yesterday. But the traffic is whole other matter, there's no where to put a new road.
Thanks!
Thank you!
I run store runs for kroger to the Nashville/Central Tennessee area alot out of the Louisville DC. The 24/40/440 interchange is awful as is the downtown loop for Nashville. If I have to go south of Nashville like to Murfreesboro I usually take TN 109 to I-840 just because this interchange is so bad. This interchange is a big reason that Nashville has the nickname Crashville
A northern extension of I-840 to I-65 would be a huge help
FYI - the reason you don't see any improvements on the NJDOT website for the I-95 & NJ Rt 4 interchange is bc I-95 is under New Jersey Turnpike Authority jurisdiction until the 9W overpass, and then it's under Port Authority of NY/NJ until the Alexander Hamilton bridge in NYC. The Port Authority is removing the toll plaza and there will be minor realignment of the roadways when that happens. Otherwise, there's no available land to do anything to detangle that mess
Ah makes sense. Good to know
Imagine if BCE was downgraded and I-95 rerouted away from NYC?
I made the mistake one time coming in from Austin into Houston taking the 610 loop to get down to the southwest frwy through the galleria. what a huge mistake. IMO worst than downtown by a long shot.
I grew up in NW GA. I'm just surprised that I-75/I-285 on the northwest side didn't make the top 10. I checked and looks like ATL had 5 on the top 20, all with one road in common -- I-285
I lived in Sandy Springs for 16 years then moved away for about 5 years before briefly returning to Canton last year and you are spot on. The backups coming south from I-575/I-75 to the I-285 interchange were maddening.
@@SombraPilotothe problem with that interchange is that the lanes drop so fast, literally drops half of the 6 lanes…
Part of the NYC bottleneck is the east coast rail network. There is no freight rail bridge or tunnel under the Hudson near NYC. The southernmost crossing is at Selkirk, NY. There have been proposals to put a freight rail tunnel from the Newark area to Brooklyn, but it requires building up the freight rail network in Brooklyn, Queens, and east. The rights of way exist, but neighborhood opposition stands in the way, and there is pressure to take two of them for transit. In addition container transfer yards are needed, and because they will have a local truck concentration, they also face neighborhood opposition. See NYC Harbor Freight Tunnel.
I290 eastbound onto I294 southbound is a multi mile parking lot during the day. For a moment I wasn't sure if it was going to be mentioned....I was like "is something to the east of that actually WORSE?"
Another bottleneck is the I495, route 3 and Lowell connector in Lowell Massachusetts
With its useless cloverleaf interchange. Roadway is very outdated.
Start about Plymouth, Indiana, go southwest, run south of the Kankakee River to about Coal City, turn for Morris, on up to about the junction of US30 and i39.
It gives through traffic a working bypass of Chicago, easily picked up from i80/i90 using us20 and us31 on the east.
The key will be only having exits for state and US highways, so it doesn't get grown up like the freeways already in Chicago.
Another option would be to extend i76 to Fort Wayne on 30, then along us24 to i55 or i39.
Drop south a few miles at i55 to catch i74 back to i80 at the quad cities to bypass Chicago. I'd say take it clear to i74, but that would be another 40 miles of freeway to save less than 15 using existing routes.
As for anything doing with i35 in Texas, i33. Cut off i35 near Pearsall, aim for Wichita Falls, then turn back from Harper, Kansas, into i35 at the 35/135 junction in Wichita.
The key, once again, is limiting exits to state and federal highways so that it doesn't get grown up into its own traffic problem like i35.
The Illiana Expressway has been kicked around for years.
Based on what I get from my friend that lives north of Atlanta, it's best to just stay on 85 through downtown Atlanta vs the 285 loop. I've managed through there decent enough heading to NC and New England, although with its distance from Texas, all but 2 of those times, it was around 11pm or later going through there. Oddly, even midnight-2am there is still a heck of a lot of people out on the road there, likely due to Atlanta being one of the hugest airport hubs in the country, although if you are good at utilizing multiple lanes, you can finagle through there, but it like being on the Autobahn that time of night, although any native Texan is used to that level of crazyness on freeways.
Yea, that 45/69/288 situation in H-town is a pain of the butt and so many people are trying to pass and dodge into the correct lane at the last minute or then only realize what lane they need to be in, although 610 loop is a good way around it if you're expecting downtown to be bad. Far as interchanges in TX go, I'd say the worst one is in Dallas coming from 35E southbound trying to get on 45 south. It's been a bit since I had to do it, but last pass through there, you had to move over to the 3rd lane coming off 35E in order to NOT get on I-30, so that you could get to 45.
I flat avoided the NYC area when I went to CT/NH last year; that part of the country is just very unfortunate to have developed before cars were a thing, so enough room for roadways just never really existed. It would cost a fortune just in real estate, but the only real solution would be for them to buy up some swath of land that would allow them to build some mega 30 lane freeway from NJ, through SE NY and up into CT to cover all the commuter, truck and visitor traffic that goes through there. Not sure if they have any, but the only alt solution would be like for that stretch of 75 in Cinci, to double-deck their freeways, but that has its own issues and challenges with connectivity. I couldn't help but laugh at your solution for that one: "enjoy the scenery".
The 290 + 90/94 interchange has been under construction for years. It is basically the crossover for the main east / west expressway and the main north / south expressway. Most of the traffic is going to/from Chicago, as through traffic goes for the Tristate tollway I294 that bypasses the city.
i78 and NJ24 is a really bad interchange, with not too far from Newark it creates many bottlenecks as I remember back in the day.
I've got an interstate proposal for you Mike and would love to see you pitch it through an official video. I think you'll be surprised by the number of benefits that would come to fruition.
The Avenue of the Saints
This is a highway that currently runs from Metro STL all the way up to I-35 in northern Iowa, passing through Coralville/Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and Waterloo. The portion between CV/IC and CR is the I-380 spur.
I'm of the belief that this entire highway should be upgraded to an interstate, so that STL connects directly to the Twin Cities. (Ideally, I'd prefer that the interstate actually run from the Twin Cities down to Rochester and directly connect to Waterloo, but for many reasons that's unlikely, so I'll stick with the existing Avenue of the Saints as it is.)
I have a friend who lives in Cedar Rapids and the lack of a direct interstate to the Twin Cities has been complained about by the locals. As someone who travels frequently through these markets, it's something I find annoying to plot out as well.
So with this proposal of connecting STL to the Twin Cities, we not only have the obvious benefit of directly connecting two of the largest markets in the Midwest (as an alternate aside: it's a shame that there's no direct interstate link from STL to DSM, as that would get STL to connect directly to the Twin Cities and provide an alternate connection between STL and Omaha/Lincoln as well away from KC.)
But I digress. With my proposed interstate for the existing Avenue of the Americas, this would prove highly beneficial to the economy of Eastern IA, giving the region direct access to both STL and the Twin Cities.
With all of that said, there's another opportunity benefit at play here, and it ties in directly to this most recent bottlenecks list.
After many years of Cincinnati laying claim to the nation's #2 bottleneck, Chi-Town has finally taken that spot. Because like Cincy, Atlanta, Chattanooga, NYC, Philly, B-More, and DC, the Windy City has the compounded problem of being congested in its own right, while also being a major pass-through city for those trying to get from one market to another. In Chicago's case, it's the mentioned Great Lakes states traffic, as it currently serves as the only direct connection from the Dakotas, MN, and WI to IN, OH, MI, PA, and the Northeast.
With my proposed interstate using the existing Avenue of the Saints, we now draw away some (but obviously not all) of that congested Chicagoland traffic. For example: let's say I'm a Cincy resident, and I need to do a trip to the Twin Cities and Fargo. Now I'd have the option of doing the congested Chicago, or completely bypassing all of those shitty drivers and instead taking I-74 from Cincy through Indy and Central IL all the way to the Quad-Cities, then doing I-80 to CV/IC, and then my proposed interstate until hitting I-35 in Northern IA before heading to MN.
So not only are STL, Eastern IA, and MN benefitting from this proposed interstate, but so are the people of the northern Great Plains states, the southern Great Lakes states, and Illinois residents in Chicagoland, Champaign, Peoria, and the Quad-Cities. We've reduced some of the horrendous Chicago traffic, while bringing economic benefits to Central IL on top of it.
Altogether, I don't see how turning the Avenue of the Saints would be anything but a win not just for the states it would be placed in, but for the majority of the Midwest as well - MO, IA, MN, and the Dakotas on one side, IL in the middle, and IN, OH, KY, and PA on the other side.
0:18 - Damn I thought I was looking at the 6th street-Whittier Blvd. bridge in Boyle Heights [LA] for a second.
In San Bernadino They could remove the Inter change right after the intersection at Juneca street and add a ramp from the I-10 I-15 interchange
The interchange of the Sierra Nevada and I-80 is bottled all the way up currently, lol forty feet of snow up there
I heard. Rare weather events in California right now.
The real problem with the I-285/I-20 westside Atlanta interchange is that I-20W begins a substantial incline immediately after crossing over I-285 just as the combined I-285 to I-20W onramp enters the road. Since through trucks are required to use I-285, that onramp is a bottleneck of heavy vehicles struggling to pick up speed as they go uphill. It often backs up traffic on I-285 in both directions due to one-lane left exits. It also confounds I-20W motorists as entering heavy vehicles move farther left as they try to pass one another on the steepening hill. I-20E through this area is a raceway as traffic descends into the Chattahoochee River basin.
Trucker short cut that works if going into, but normally not though NYC is the Verrazano to the Goethals bridge will save you a bit of time and put you right in the thick of it. Another great one if coming from the north running south that will save time is bring I-87 S ( Major Deegan Expressway ). If u are really long haul in South to North. 287 off of 95 cross the what used to be tappanzee bridge ( this bridge was recently beautifully redone aswel as renamed ). Or West north grab I-81 into the PA mountains grab I-84 and meet with I-95 in CT or MA, as you see fit
The Mississippi River bridge (US90 business west) onramp from I-10 west/claiborne expressway in New Orleans.
One stretch that is not a junction but has a real issue with traffic volume is I-90 in Massachusetts between I-290 and I-84. All of the truck traffic between Maine, New Hampshire, and Eastern Massachusetts has to contend with this bottleneck to get to 84 down into Connecticut to the rest of the country, or to continue along the 90 towards Albany NY. If the 84 had been extended a bit further, the Northeast to Southwest traffic could be separated from the fully east-west traffic of the mass pike, but the govt wants to get their grubby little fingers on that toll money along the stretch.
I-84 throgh CT is a traffic nightmare. Many of the interchanges with other highways is by merge-cross-and-weave. There are slow-moving-vehicles on grades, but slow traffic NEVER moves right, leaving the lane open for cars powerful enough to accelerate safely up the grades.
Downtown Kansas City used to be the local "office jobs" Hotspot, if you're heading most any direction in the loop within 2 miles you have to be in the furthest left lane as the others dump you into exits.. thankfully businesses took to relocate in Overland Park Kansas, leaving the Eastern suburbs with a nasty commute.
More transit, more trains
And buses
Interstate 45 at us highway 59/interstate 69
You missed the I-24/I-75 split in Chattanooga, though to be perfectly honest, I-24 from I-59 through the city, the ridgecut and then the split is one great big bottleneck.
I've driven from Nashville to Atlanta (and back) more times than I can count and Chattanooga has to have been a mess at least 70% of the time. I've seriously considered just heading south out of Nashville to Birmingham then cutting over to Atlanta so I don't have to mess with the clusterfcuk that is the I-59 to I-75 section of I-24.
I looked at the full list and can’t believe that the 95N onto 476N in PA didn’t make the list
One horrible bottleneck is I-80 in the s. Chicago area. I-57 crosses it and 294 and 94 converge with it. It includes a short section of tollway. It is a total cluster f---! Badly outdated!
I’m not sure, I live in NYC and I rather get in to NYC via the I-95 /George Washington than the Verrazano/ 278, I honestly think that the congestion is way worse on that road.
The very worst traffic I have drove in is in Phoenix on the I-10 Parking lot, if you don’t get out of Phoenix by 1 PM during the work week be prepared to be in traffic till about 6 PM.
41 north of Chicago is extremely dangerous as when I was younger 41 & Clavey Rd in Highland Park use to have 80 accidents a year before they built an overpass over 41
Aggravating the Nashville situation are the hills that cause truck slowdowns.
There literally isn't anything more than can be done to alleviate the actual bottleneck at the 290/88/294 interchange ... unless 290 is expanded EAST of said interchange (which will never happen). the current project WILL alleviate the bottlenecks in both directions of 294 for exiting onto 290, for southbound 294 traffic heading to westbound 88, and eastbound 290 traffic headed for southbound 294. and the central 294 project as a whole will open up the tollway. but the main bottleneck is eastbound 290 headed into Chicago from that interchange ... and there simply is no room for added lane capacity.
It’s just stupid they tried to join 3 interstates at one interchange in the first place too. Ideally you’d close either 290 or 88 west of that interchange and force all westbound travelers to take one highway but that’ll never happen at this point
I drive on I-90/I94 a lot and it is currently terrible. They are doing major road work currently and say it will take 3 years however they just redid the Jane Bird intersection downtown and that took 9 years when it was scheduled to take 4
I-64 In Virginia Has Pretty bad traffic from the beginning of I-64 From I-664 All the way to the HRBT