Re: NC RTP projects starting

On Jul 4, 11:20 pm, Froggie <frog...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jul 4, 4:30 pm, NBtarheel_33 <NBtarheel...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

(About time that old "inner/outer" crap was removed.  I also expect
that I-440 along I-40 will be removed as well with this project.)

Thanks be to Heaven.  I don't understand why this doesn't happen with
the Washington Beltway as well - 95 N/S on the east side, and 495 N/S
on the west side.

Probably because both Maryland and Virginia wanted to maintain a
single route designation for the Capital Beltway (as existed to begin
with).  And because locals up here aren't confused by "Inner Loop" or
"Outer Loop".

Just about anyone who commutes here listens to radio traffic reports,
and almost all of them, but especially WTOP, always refer to inner and
outer loop. More than once someone at work has asked me what is inner
and what is outer. So I draw the Beltway with the US Capitol in the
center. See, the clockwise lanes are ever so slightly closer to the
capital on the inside! Usually then they say "oh, wow, thats so
simple i'm surprised I didn't figure that out before! It is fairly
universally understood.

But really, just as a cultural icon, the Beltway is its own separate
deal, and people think of it that way. On traffic reports, its always
"the Beltway", "95 Virginia" or "95 Maryland". And ironically, after
hearing complaints from tourists for years about how you have to take
an exit ramp to stay on I-95, when VDOT finally re-built the
Springfield Interchange, the locals started complaining that the
"exits" from 95 north to the outer loop and the inner loop to 95 south
were on the left. Just can't win!

I'm not sure of this, but I think that the I-495 designation on the
east side of the Beltway was approved by AASHTO, but not recognized by
FHWA. So according to FHWA internally, it is just I-95.


Froggie  |  Alexandria, VA  |  http://www.ajfroggie.com/roads/

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Relevant Pages

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