Northbound on I-91 approaching Hartford, CT, we see a VMS message that wise guys might say belongs on a permanent sign. Photo taken April 2004 by Kurumi.
I could wax poetic about roads, the same way George Will does about baseball: they bring us together, yet drive us apart, Route 66, and so on. But that's not necessary.
Roads touch us all: they displace land, trees, and people, they take long to plan and build, and often millions (or billions) of dollars are involved. Since humans build them, the projects are prey to all the grandiose dreams, kickbacks, civil disobedience and corruption that accompanies other social issues. Every road has a story behind it, and chances are you'll find one here that's close to home.
For road geeks, there's plenty of stuff to hack: how roads get their numbers; what system of "secret routes" a state might use; what's coming up next year; what was decommissioned before you were born.
You can do this too! If you have an area of knowledge or interest, put up a site, and get linked.
Road information:
Andrew Plotkin:
> Erik Olson:
>>For example, I-895 in Baltimore is about two miles long.
>>
>>Shorter examples?
>
> Lots, as http://www.kurumi.com/roads/3di/long3di.html will gladly tell you.
All right, I'm boggled. There *is* a web page for all the important
information in the universe
One of us is mixing up "395" with "895", though. No doubt me. And in fact
the road I was thinking of *is* the shortest one on his list; I
overestimated the length. It's really only 0.72 miles.
-----
And I thought I'd given up being surprised at what kinds of information
you can find on the 'net...but now I find myself similarly boggled (and
somewhat strangely proud of our own local I-275 making the list of long
spurs...)
r. n. dominick -- cinnamon@one.net
