Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

or, more specifically,  on the Interstate.

Truck Drivers live on the Interstate.  Amazingly enough many drivers are less well informed (according to questions heard repeatedly on the CB) than you would expect.

Some facts for the Clue-less drivers out there.

Interstate Numbering System

Routes  with two digit odd numbers run  north and south. (I-5 through I-97)

Routes with Two digit even numbers run east and west.(I-4 through I-94)

High Numbers are north and east.

So no, you’re not likely to be on I-5 in Florida, even though I-4 runs right near Disney World, but yes, I-97 ( Maryland)  and I-90(Ohio, New York, Mass)  are in the same general part of the United States.

Routes with three digit numbers denote loops or spurs , we’ll take that up in the advanced class.

Exit Numbering System.

The Federal Highway Administration has mandated that all states use the Milepost numbering system.  Starting at the most westerly or southerly point on the route  with mile post “zero” the subsequent  mileposts numbers are incremented by the mile.  Some states, you all know which ones,  have been slow to switch from the old method.

This means, that if you’re on I-40 in Amarillo and hear a driver ask “How far is it to New Mexico?”, well that qualifies as a “stupid question”.  Look at the miles markers. (hint…somewhere around seventy miles from Amarillo to the New Mexico line) but “How far is it to the Oklahoma Line” ISN’T a stupid question. (no telling how far it might go east….although coincidentally it’s also about seventy miles.)

A tiny bit of history.

In the early days,  the Democrats thought it would be a good thing to have highways. (duh) so the “Federal Highway Act of 1938″ was passed, and nothing much happened. Six years later the Federal Highway Act of 1944 was passed and nothing much happened.  It wasn’t until the Democrats were removed from office and a Republican, Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected to President that something happened.  The Federal Highway Act of 1952 authorized the first funding for highway construction.  It seems that money is required to build roads, a fact that escaped the democrats.  Eisenhower knew this and had money authorized to actually build roads instead of just talking about it.  He even devised the federal fuel tax system to fund the HighWay Trust fund so that roads could be built on a “pay as you go” basis and thus avoid massive debt. It didn’t take long before the Interstate system was completed with over 41,000 miles, with money in the trust fund for repairs and maintenance.

In later years the democrats raided the trust fund for social programs and things like bridal and bicycle paths and it’s essentially useless today, hence the poor state of maintainence of much of the interstate.

Some Trivia.

Texas has the largest mile post number at  880 or thereabouts  near Orange Texas.

On a Trip from Miami Fl to San Diego Calif.at 2655 miles,.  pretty near one third of the distance, 885,  is going to be in Texas.

The shortest interstate is I-73 in North Carolina at a little over twelve miles.

The longest interstate is  I-90 from Seattle Wa. to Boston Mass at 3,020 miles.

The most expensive is I-95 at $8 billion. (this was back before the Democrats destroyed the economy and the dollar was worth something)

Texas has the most miles of interstate at 3,233 miles on 17 routes but New York has  largest number of Interstate  routes at 29 but only 1,674 miles.

More Trivia here and here.