Comments on: Why Does Hawaii Have Interstate Highways?

By: Lindsey

Lindsey — Mon, 11 May 2009 21:38:00 +0000

I-12 in Louisiana runs from Baton Rouge to a few miles from the Mississippi border.

By: Jon.

Jon. — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:27:00 +0000

Saffron – the Trans-Canada Highway does not run the entire length of Vancouver Island – just from Nanaimo to Victoria. The reason, of course, being that Victoria is our capital and therefore an appropriate place to start the TCH, and the mainland part of the highway goes to Horseshoe Bay in North Vancouver, from whence the ferries go to Nanaimo.

Knowing is half the battle…

By: Curtis

Curtis — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:23:00 +0000

Interstate [sic] 4 was always a particular annoyance, as a former Tampa resident. But I-45’s lack-of-inter-state-ness is especially egregious, since highways ending in 0 or 5 are supposed to be more major.

By: John

John — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:15:00 +0000

There’s a couple more in my neck of the woods:

I-97 runs from the Baltimore Beltway to Annapolis, MD.

I-99 runs through Altoona and State College in connecting I-80 to I-70/76 in PA.

By: nihil

nihil — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:04:00 +0000

The tour guide on our trip to Pearl Harbor in 2006 pointed this unusual fact out. I felt all smart and stuff for knowing this today and on Monday to boot! :)

By: Witty Nickname

Witty Nickname — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:26:00 +0000

There are several interstate highways that never leave their origin state.

Interstate 45 runs from Downtown Dallas, Texas to the Gulf coast in Galveston.

Interstate 4 runs from Tampa Florida east through Orlando to Daytona Beach.

I am sure there are others.

By: Saffron

Saffron — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:06:00 +0000

My kids were asking pretty much the same question when we were over in Hawaii this year; nice to see we gave them the correct answer.

Canada has a version of this, at least they do out here on the West coast. Vancouver Island (which can only be reached by car via a two hour ferry ride from the mainland), has a section of the “Trans Canada Highway” running the length of the island. Of course it’s all because of funding issues but it did rather give me a laugh the first time I saw the signage!

By: AmyD

AmyD — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:06:00 +0000

Yes, Melissa, that’s the point of the Eisenhower Interstate System. The interstate system was actually cribbed from Germany’s Autobahn, which was built to facilitate easy movement between military bases.

By: EJ

EJ — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:55:00 +0000

NO, the legend about the American highway system being designed to be used for emergency airstrips in case of war is false.

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

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:44:00 +0000

Is it true that one out of every five miles on any interstate highway must be straight so that military planes could land there if needed during an attack? Inquiring minds want to know!