Some of you (ahemLsura may know I live in Knoxville, TN. Going right through the middle of town is an unholy section of turf known colloquially as “I-40”.
There are several pitting objects here.
The idiots who put I-40 through the middle of town and killed downtown.
The idiots who put I-40 through the middle of town and made traffic horrendous.
The idiots who put I-40 through the middle of town and placed a major interchange with I-75 at the same location, making traffic worse.
The idiots who put I-40 through the middle of town but who couldn’t spare the cash to fix potholes on the on-ramp.
The idiots who put I-40 through the middle of town and then decided that it desperately needed a speed limit of… 45 MPH.
Frankly, even the police pay no attention to that. You can get away with 65 MPH, and sometimes up to 75 when its not being used (re: about 1:00-4:00 AM)
So here’s a toast of piss and vinegar to the road which is absolutely neccessary to my lif and the road which causes me more pain than anything else in the world.
Likewise the section between Garner and Chapel Hill in NC, which is nearly perpetually congested – because it runs adjacent to three large cities and is the only freeway-style link between them (and darn near the only highway connecting them).
There’s a thing in transportation planning about local, collector, and main-artery routes – but somewhere it seems to have escaped the planners that when you feed a million people onto one main artery, you overload it. Paralleling routes and providing bypass routes makes sense.
BTW, by what insane logic was it decided that all traffic along the East Coast must pass along the Washington Beltway? A secondary route that permits people from Boston or Philadelphia bound for Atlanta or Miami to bypass D.C. would have made immense sense – which is probably why we don’t have one.
Polycarp, let us not forget that between Chapel Hill and Durham, they made the wise decision to shut down as many lanes as possible for the longest possible time, in order to do construction. Every time I go home to Chapel Hill, all the main sections I have to use, and their respective exits are blocked off from use. This is often without warning. So one exit that might have been available yesterday is blocked off when I try it today.
Polycarp, I was sure you’d be talking about the stretch around Greensboro, colloquially known as the Ninth Circle. When burundi lived in Raleigh and I in Asheville, we each got to make this drive twice every other week, and experience the joys of 15 mph traffic through most of Greensboro. It suh hucked.
It’s not just I-40 that sucks in Knoxville. Ever try driving around Fort Sanders?
I don’t think they’ve fixed any of the roads in at least 20 years. I have to go about 10 mph when going on 12th or 13th and hold my steering wheel tightly so the huge dips don’t make me hit the cars parked along the sides.
Also did any one notice that they pulled up the road twice on James Agee in the past year to fix the pipes underneath, but still didn’t fix the road? They just put it back and did a shitty job of patching it up.
Well that certainly wasn’t true last night. I was going from Broadway to West Hills and in that 45mph workzone I must have seen 6 cops. Its a great big money making venture for someone. If you are traveling 40 through Knoxville I highly recommend you DO NOT SPEED through that zone. Its a giant trap.
I live in Knoxvegas, have friends in Greensboro and family in Raliegh so I know that stretch of I-40 very well. I would caution against speeding anywhere near the Statesville, NC city limits. Also the major delay you will experience is about 5 miles west of Asheville where the highway goes from 4 lanes to 2. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving it took me an hour and a half to go 10 miles at that bottleneck. You also may experience some delays in the mountains because they occasionally (randomly?) close two lanes for blasting.
Oh and Lsura? You ARE the poster child for Knoxville - what you didn’t get the memo??
If they’d turn U.S. 301 into a freeway (or turnpike, whatever) all the way between Wilmington and Richmond, that would fit the bill. Plus, you get to skip Baltimore as well. I’m always inclined to take 301 just to skip the Harbor Tunnel.
Ah, I’m glad to hear that. It would have been helpful if they’d announced it in the News-Sentinel. How else will I be recognized by all the tourists in town?
Actually, there IS a decent alternate route to Atlanta, though you do have to go on the Beltway for about a quarter or so of its circumference. If you take 66 to 81, then go WAAAAAY south on 81 to 77, go south to Columbia SC, then pick up 20 in Columbia, you’re good to go to Atlanta.
I used to live in Augusta and had family in DC. I only took the 95 route once or twice before it sunk in that it truly is the Road To Hell, and it wasn’t just a bad day that one day I was on it.
Left Hand, when I lived on the west side of Greensboro, the only time I’d even dare to drive I-40 thru town was late at night when on my way home from visiting my parents in Eastern NC. Otherwise, it was surface roads all the way when going from the east side of town to the west or vice versa. Amazing how many GSO residents seemed to be blithely unaware of or in denial about the state of I-40 as it bisects that (otherwise lovely) city. I always wanted to ask them if they’d ever heard of a nice stretch of east-west running asphalt called MARKET STREET? Sheesh!
