Do you think the Interstate is outdated and needs a replacement? if so, what?

36 comments

1. I don’t think it needs a replacement, the interstate is a perfectly fine system and idea. Even if you dislike car centric infrastructure, national road systems are objectively good.

   The Interstate needs repair and construction, not replacement. I’d love to see more rail though.

2. Just maintenance, not replacement. The interstate system is fine as it is

3. It’s vitally necessary for the foreseeable future. The entire logistics system in the country would break down without it. Certainly, other forms of transportation can be added, like more and better rail, but it would take decades and who knows how many billions of dollars to build out anything that could reasonably rival the interstate system.

4. I just spent the last two weeks driving around the Southwest and parts of Texas. This area is so vast, and much of it sparsely populated, that you really can’t reach these areas without a high quality road system. And states like Texas make driving a lot easier and convenient with Turnarounds and Frontage Roads.

   This doesn’t preclude us from investing in public transit. In fact some great stuff is going on in the Southwest and Texas in regards to public transit. ABQ has gone fare-free on their bus system, which makes riding it so much fucking easier than having to fumble for exact change to board a bus. And in Texas, many of the major cities are making pretty big improvements in their local systems and private operators seem to be working to a rail link between some Texan cities.

   I do think Interstates need to re-thought in regard to our cities. We should be looking at them going around with ring roads rather than thru. And when they do go thru, we should be looking at burying the Interstates rather than elevating them so that the local city still has land and isn’t unnecessarily burdened with Interstate dead zones in what is often the most valuable land in a given area.

5. OP, I really want to understand how you could feel that the Interstate system is outdated? Unless someone invents teleportation technology, Freeways, and the Interstate System and the Autoban are Freeway systems, are the fastest and most efficient way to move cars and trucks for long distances. The developing world is building freeways as fast as it can, particularly China which has already built a significant HSR system.

   I also don’t believe that HSR competes directly with Freeways. HSR competes with Airlines and to some degree coach buses. To be successful, HSR need to be some combination of faster, cheaper, more comfortable, more reliable, or more convenient than discount airlines. As jet fuel prices rise and TSA headaches continue to exist, HSR should start to make sense in more regions. HSR should have the advantage of being able to get you closer to the actual destination than airlines can.

6. The interstate is far from outdated. Rail travel can exist well along with interstate roads. It doesn’t need a replacement at all, but alternatives are welcome.

7. Yes,

   Faster speeds, with more requirements/restrictions, and enforcement.

   For example a minimum speed of 60 in the right lane, and 70 in the left. All vehicles must meet modern safety, speed, and stopping standards.

   A minimum distance of 10 miles between off/on ramps to the next off/on ramp. On ramps must have dedicated lanes for 1 mile. Off ramps must have a .25 mile of clear road (no stop lights/signs).

   2.5% pavement sloping w/ no pavement deviations greater than 2 inches in depth.

   All interstates must have frontage roads, and urban areas must create collector/distributor roads to account for heavy traffic.

   More camera access for highway patrol to identify and stop dangerous drivers. Drivers can be banned from interstates w/out fully losing their license.

8. I don’t think anything will replace the interstate system. Even if HSR is fully developed it will still exist.

   We can do a much better job with making our cities more multimodal and less car centric though.

9. No, it goes about everywhere i need it to

10. Trucks use interstates to transport goods. HSR can’t do that. Not everyone lives close enough to a population center to make HSR useful. Interstates aren’t going anywhere,

11. No just update and maintain it lol every country has motorways like that

12. No, it just needs better maintenance in some places and might need a few more branches to go around some more cities.

13. No. Not at all.

14. Frankly I think the place needs more repair than anything, and preferably in a timely manner, the interstate ramp west closest to my apartment is still out of commission after over a year living here

15. The interstate system as a concept is a good idea. The problem is government runs it and hence its poor condition.

    The solution is to remove government from managing the interstate system and allow the private sector to own, manage, and innovate like it was when the private sector created a profitable interstate system before government illegally confiscated it

16. We’re just proposing getting rid of hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure now? Do we use HSR to deliver freight?

17. No I think it should be expanded.

    I know reddit loves to get train-boners, but I just don’t see them happening in any meaningful way any time soon. And HSR seems to be a clusterfuck where ever jts tried in this country.

18. I mean in the multiple states I traverse for work the interstate highway system is totally fine. It gets a little hairy on 95 going towards New York but that’s pretty typical depending on multiple things.

19. Yes. We need hovercraft.

20. It will be outdated when we all have the flying cars depicted in so many science fiction shows of the past. Where are the flying cars already?!?

21. Brain dead question.

22. No and no. I do wish we’d use the government space around it more effectively. Is there a reason the median and other spaces need to be mowed everytwo weeks?

    Why not line them with solar panels? Even if a crash wipes out a 20 foot section, the cost of replacement is absurdly cheap for the scale at which state or federal government operates.

    If you dont want them doing it we could at lease lease the land with caveats that it has higher danger levels for development.

    That way it can earn some money to pay for itself instead of it langushing 20 years too long without proper maintenance.

23. I was reading about this recently. So, we know that building more lanes in cities doesn’t help because it’ll just increase demand to fill it. For example, if you build more lanes between Austin and San Antonio, it’s just going to fill up.

    But Interstates are good for places where there’s not so much demand. For example, there’s no interstate between Denver and Dallas. Lots of people drive that way, including lots of trucks. It would be beneficial to have an interstate there. But if you build an interstate between Denver and Dallas, you’re not going to induce demand between the two nearly as much as the lane adding scenario.

24. Doesn’t necessarily need to be “replaced”, but rather than expanding it, I think we should be adding alternative means of transportation. I see no reason why a country as wealthy and capable as the US can’t have a robust passenger rail network.

25. HSR: For when you wanna take longer than a plane, and pay more than driving yourself.

    Other than that I’d like it to all be replaced by site to site transportation. “beam me the fuck up scotty”

26. I don’t know why so many are wanting to replace 20th century tech with 19th century

27. The interstate system is great, it needs repair rather than replacement

28. no, idk what would make it outdated. It is working great

29. Not really. They just need to maintain it as they already do.

30. What in God’s name do you think can replace it?

31. Where are you going to put said HSR? All rail line in the US are privately owned (Union Pacific, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, CSX, Canadian National, and Canadian Pacific) and it’s not easy to just eminent domain an entire cross country rail line to upgrade it to HSR. Also we need freight rail lines for moving goods around, it’s much cheaper to move goods around by rail instead of by trucks which is one of the reasons costs for goods is lower in the US when compared to Europe

32. It would cost too much money to replace it with something, plus roads just work. We need to be smarter about the materials used to build them though and we need to enforce weight limits on trucks better since that contributes to the rapid decay of the roads.

    I would also like to see the speed limit raised well outside of urban areas too. I agree urban and suburban areas should stick with 70-75mph though. To do this though, you’d need better maintained roads and better lighting as well.

33. Outdated, and needs a replacement?

    Absolutely not and the statement itself is nonsensical. 48,000 miles of multi lane high speed roadway replaced how? Train tracks? Tracks that have the option of going into or around a city, or like interstate highways, spurring off to multiple more specific destinations including the country’s other 4.1 million miles of road, depending on their end point?

    Roads, and their uninterrupted viability from start to end point are still the best and most viable option for moving millions of people and millions of tons of freight from millions of points of origin to millions of individual end points with an efficient and malleable system while the cost of building & maintenance is directly supported by the users.

34. I would say no, because our country relies on cars and not trains.

    But if you are talking about road maintenance, it should always be done!

35. The interstate is a revolutionary peice of infastructure to the US and any attempts of replacing can have catastrophic effects to the economy. It’s arguably the most important system in the US, but it definitely needs more maintenance budgets in some places where it’s neglected

36. Illinois has just under 1,300 cities and towns. People often live in one and work in another, and larger employers frequently pull their workers from many surrounding cities and towns. Making a rail network functional for all of that would be a nightmare and massively expensive, and that’s just one state.

    Passenger rail systems work fine in large urban centers, but even there they only carry a portion of the commuters. We have interstate passenger rail in the form of Amtrak, but it’s expensive and slow. The rail network is owned by the privately owned rail companies, so they prioritize the freight traffic that drives their income. If an Amtrak train and a freight train both need to occupy the same track, the Amtrak train gets pulled to a siding and waits for the freight to pass. Add to that the price of an Amtrak ticket is close to the same as an airline ticket and it’s not economically viable without massive government subsidies.

    It’s the US… we drive cars and we prefer it that way. Go make fun of the Dutch for riding bicycles everywhere when they should be riding trains.