Largest cities without multiple interstates

[dave8721]

If we are counting spurs differently than Miami only has 1. I-95 cuts right through the west side of Downtown and ends just south of it. I-195 and I-395 are spurs of I-95 connecting to Miami Beach. I-75 starts out in the burbs.

[Matthew]

Six or seven years ago, Winston-Salem only had one Interstate (Interstate 40) inside the city limits and no three-digit spurs or loops. This was due to anti-sprawl / environmental activists. Activists focused on preservation successfully fought to save the Victorian West End from highways and activists focused on anti-sprawl tried everything they could to stop new highways. North Carolina had plans to enclose every notable city in the state in highways and shield as many as possible as Interstates. The reason... Interstates attract jobs. The state shared their new plans to enclose Winston-Salem in highways sometime in the 1980s. Enter the anti-sprawl / environmentalists and their lawsuits. They held-up highway construction for roughly 25 years and this explains why Winston-Salem is the only sizable city in the state without an outer-loop. You would think the state would decide people in Winston-Salem don't want additional highway construction and would spend the money elsewhere, but no... the state continued to fight back. At one point, they selected their routes and took the property owners' rights along the route for Interstate 74. Property owners along the route couldn't make improvements to their properties and they couldn't sell their properties to anyone except the state. And the state wouldn't buy their properties until they had the money (possibly years, due to lawsuits!) and this would lower the valuation of the property at purchase. An idea to build local support for the state's side. However, it led to more lawsuits over property rights. Eventually, they had nothing else to keep it in the courts and gave-in to the State.

It didn't take long for the state to add an Interstate 74 and an Interstate 285 through the city limits, with plans to expand Interstates 74 and 285, a route selected and ready for land acquisition for an Interstate 274, and studies for an Interstate 273. There is even a plan for a possible Interstate that could connect Winston-Salem to Fayetteville. Planned to connect available land in downtown Winston-Salem's IQ District (innovation district) and Winston-Salem's colleges with manufacturing sites in roughly three or four other counties along the proposed unnumbered Interstate. It gives manufacturers a place for their research center and university scientists / recent graduates. Like I said, the state builds Interstates for jobs and to get the most from every project. I don't think they really care about sprawl. Winston-Salem has fought to reduce sprawl since the 1980s, which isn't easy to do in the southeast. Add to this the many southerners who think wide highways and massive sprawl make a city appear more important and reducing sprawl can be an uphill battle.

Someone asked why did they locate them downtown? The original Interstate 40 through downtown Winston-Salem was North Carolina's first stretch of Interstate highway. The state held a massive opening party for the first segment in 1957, with searchlights, speakers, a sponsored switch to turn-on the highway lights, and a party that night at a golf course clubhouse on the west side of the city. Interstate 40 was planned for the far southern end of the city, but the mayor fought to have it routed through downtown. There was concern if it didn't pass-through downtown, downtown would lose everything and decline. If it was routed through downtown, downtown would continue to grow. As you look at cities in the state with downtown Interstates and those with no downtown Interstates, it does appear to have made some difference, with downtown Interstates bringing at least some growth. Those cities do have issues with neighborhoods cut-off from the downtown and the loss of historic or interesting places/neighborhoods to the Interstate route. To route Interstate 40 through downtown, they created a very dangerous highway that had to be replaced with a new Interstate 40 on... you guessed it... the southern end of the city. The state then demolished the former Interstate 40 and created Salem Parkway in its place, with brick walls, nice bridges, part of the right-of-way going to bike/pedestrian projects (a bike commuter highway with tunnels and mini-bridges), the creation of park space, and development sites.

[dubu]

i like freeways going next to a downtown only if its not going along the grid. the city goes along a river or whatever and the freeway goes straight to where its supposed to go.

it looks real bad if a freeway goes along a grid downtown and then the freeway starts curving off to somewhere else for no reason. it looks like someone messed up when they were trying to make a straight line.

[dubu]

some examples from portland
these are the only parts like this downtown. there is light rail in both pics close to the freeway and nice parks. the only thing is its not safe with so many cars on the streets, when i lived there sometimes you would hear about people getting hit and dying.



i think in the second pic the pedestrian crossing is close to done. the first pic has one too close by.