federal interstate highway urban main lane configuration

[datasuspect]

1949

note the absence of a center barrier. or traffic for that matter.

[ComerPerro]

1. There are a lot of places where you could take a picture like that today

[datasuspect]

2. within a major U.S. city?

on a limited access freeway?

[ComerPerro]

3. well, not a major city, true

[trof]

4. "Red Dog One-One, you're cleared for take-off"

Eisenhower's idea was for us to have a highway system that could be used for launching and recovering military aircraft like Germany's autobahn.

[datasuspect]

5. and for mobilizing men and materiel.

[ChoralScholar]

6. Not true.

http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/airstrip.asp

Also, from the misc.transport.road Newsgroup FAQ: (the road gurus)

Q: Is one mile of each five in the Interstate system required to be able to act as an emergency landing strip for aircraft?

A: No. See http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/mayjun00/onemileinfive.htm (official) and http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/airstrip.asp . It was considered briefly ( http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/turner.htm ) but never adopted officially. There are unusually-built overpasses (truss structure) on a straight section of I-75 near the former Kincheloe Air Force Base (now Chippewa County International Airport) in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, leading to speculation that the Michigan State Highway Department did build I-75 here to accomodate aircraft. This is purely speculation, however, with no conclusive proof so far.

Conversely, there was a Cold-War bunker built under I-5 in Seattle, at the Ravenna Boulevard overpass, by the state of Washington in the early 1960s (see http://www.historylink.org/output.CFM?file_ID=3705 ). Nov 6, 2003

[datasuspect]

7. good catch

but you could land an aircraft on a stretch of rural interstate in some places.

[ChoralScholar]

8. You 'could' land an aircraft in a lot of places -

but that's another discussion altogether!

P.S. I'm a roadgeek myself, so I felt the need to set the record straight. :)

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. What about it?

I like medians just fine, thanks.

The germans knew what they where doing when they built the Autobahn.

[datasuspect]

10. grassy median strips can be a form of control device

as opposed to a curb and a small concrete strip (although people get into head on collisions all the time on roads with grass medians).

by the vintage of the cars on the roadway, that strip of autobahn looks like its from anywhere between 1929-1940.

the average passenger car at that time didn't go as fast as cars do today.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. Not sure what you mean by control device.

Yeah, that picture's from the thirties. The Germans invented most major freeway features- on ramps, exit ramps, cloverleafs, etc.

Disagree about cars going as fast.

[datasuspect]

12. grass can slow a car down somewhat

and the size of the median can have a lot to do with lessening the impact of a car hitting opposing traffic (slowing the speed at which the car is travelling in the event of leaving the road). especially if there is a depression in the middle.

a 1930s vehicle could not routinely and safely do 80 - 90 mph comfortably or as safely as a modern vehicle.

in fact, in the US (especially in northern cities) the urban interstates were designed for traffic that wasn't supposed to move faster than 55 mph (notice clover leaf on ramps that seem really unsafe today).

i think they also assumed driver courtesy as well.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. Cars today can't routinely and safely do 80-90 mph.

Hence the 60-70 mph speed limit.

That said, people often do 80-90 mph today. They did it a lot back in the thirties too, and they would have had a few drinks.