Lubbock had Reese AFB, which was a major pilot training center in its day (the Shah of Iran’s son trained there before the 1979 revolution). Thing is Reese was located some miles west of Lubbock on a crappy little road, while I-27 began, IIRC, at the northern edge of the city. I can’t recall ever hearing any connection between Reese and I-27 a la the Hawaaian interstates.
Hmmm. Actually, now that I think about it, Amarillo was where nuclear bombs were assembled (or something like that), Reese AFB had planes (albeit mainly fighters, I thought) … maybe they needed to be sure of a quick way to get the two together. I can’t recall such speculation ever coming up back in the day, but then, maybe being low key suited them.
I forgot to include I-85 when I voted, so it has one fewer vote than it should.
The military installations in the Texas Panhandle were not relevant. Interstates are not built or owned by the federal government, though 90 percent federal funding was available for most of the initial system and some recent, earmarked additions. I-27 was earmarked in the 1968 highway bill by Rep. George Mahon, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. However, Texas could have simply improved US 87 to Interstate standards on its own and then applied to AASHTO for an Interstate Highway number.
This is a fairly common phenomenon though, so you have to get familiar with it pretty quickly.
There’s a Virginia highway, 460, that wriggles all over the place. In the vicinity of Blacksburg, a portion of VA-460 “westbound” is actually moving to the northeast.
In fact, going further, I’ll bet there’s at least a few segments of US highways that move in the direction totally opposite to their name (though I don’t know any offhand).
As a incurable road-tripper, I’ve been on at least a short section of all of the listed choices. Of course I prefer the “Blue Highways”, but sometimes you just can’t avoid using the interstate.
Southbound I-25 Moves NNW (and northbound moves SSE) just south of Santa Fe, NM.
I’m pretty sure I-45 is an Interstate highway to connect the I-35/I-20/I-30 interstates in Dallas with I-10 in Houston, and thereby connect the 3 major Texas cities with Interstate highways. (I-35/I-10 go through San Antonio).
And, FWIW, I-45 is co-located with US Route 75 for it’s entire length, with 75 splitting off just east of downtown Dallas, and continuing up through Tulsa, Topeka, Omaha and Sioux City to the Canadian border in Minnesota.
I’ve also traveled all but six, but there were numerous interstates that I’d only traveled on once or twice in my entire life.
I was hoping to catch the sorted summary at 200 Voters, but it sat at 195 most of the day. Here’s a comparison to where things were at 100 Voters:
View Poll Results: Which Interstates have you travelled on?
95 128 65.64%
80 121 62.05%
10 116 59.49%
5 113 57.95%
90 109 55.90%
70 107 54.87%
40 106 54.36%
75 92 47.18%
35 73 37.44%
15 71 36.41%
65 63 32.31%
55 60 30.77%
20 59 30.26%
85 58 29.74%
25 45 23.08%
30 33 16.92%
45 28 14.36%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 195
Which Interstates have you travelled on?
95 62 62.00%
80 57 57.00%
10 55 55.00%
40 55 55.00%
90 54 54.00%
5 52 52.00%
70 47 47.00%
75 47 47.00%
35 37 37.00%
20 32 32.00%
55 31 31.00%
65 31 31.00%
15 30 30.00%
85 29 29.00%
25 18 18.00%
30 16 16.00%
45 11 11.00%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 100