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After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

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21–30 of 149 posts

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#21

Stuff like this is why I have exactly zero faith in the US ever building the type of high speed rail systems that other countries have and we clearly need. These projects are simply to expensive for private entities to undertake alone and federal and local governments can't stay aligned long enough to see anything that last longer than an election period through to it's finish. Unless someone invents teleportation, w…

Somehow this stuff got built before. There must be a way to get back into that state.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#22

Tolls. Oh yippee

User fees are the most "fair" way to pair for infrastructure. It's not economically efficient to collect taxes on fuel in the aggregate, and then piecemeal out highway funding by any other metric than usage (although it makes for great politics).

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#23

Stuff like this is why I have exactly zero faith in the US ever building the type of high speed rail systems that other countries have and we clearly need. These projects are simply to expensive for private entities to undertake alone and federal and local governments can't stay aligned long enough to see anything that last longer than an election period through to it's finish. Unless someone invents teleportation, w…

I think state to state partnerships with federal funding help could do it.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#24
post #19

I really don't understand the problem. From NY to just outside Philadelphia, I-95 is part of the Jersey Turnpike. Then the Jersey turnpike is suddenly labeled I-295, and I-95 teleports to the highway running through Philadelphia. You can see it from this map [1]. They both then meet up again in Wilmington, where they both merge into 1-95 again. Why not just keep the designation of I-95 on the Jersey Turnpike througho…

Because the southern part of the NJ Turnpike (exits 6 through 1) is not constructed to Interstate standards at all points. Things like lane width, curve radius, visibility distance, shoulder space.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#25
post #21

Stuff like this is why I have exactly zero faith in the US ever building the type of high speed rail systems that other countries have and we clearly need. These projects are simply to expensive for private entities to undertake alone and federal and local governments can't stay aligned long enough to see anything that last longer than an election period through to it's finish. Unless someone invents teleportation, w…

Somehow this stuff got built before. There must be a way to get back into that state.

After witnessing 2008, I'm not sure that even another Great Depression would get America back to the New Deal mindset. Politicians would just blame welfare recipients, or something.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#26

Tolls. Oh yippee

User fees are the most "fair" way to pair for infrastructure. It's not economically efficient to collect taxes on fuel in the aggregate, and then piecemeal out highway funding by any other metric than usage (although it makes for great politics).

Could you go into more detail? I always wondered why public roads would opt for awful toll plaza back-ups over increasing the gas tax.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#27
post #18

> Near the Pennsylvania border, drivers have long been forced off the interstate and onto other roadways, only to join back 8 miles away. This is a misleading overstatement. This is only true if you want to drive the roads labeled as I-95. There are indeed two segments labeled as I-95 that are discontinuous: the NJ Turnpike south until exit 6, and from Trenton southwards through PA to Delaware. But those segments are…

There's a slight inaccuracy in that diagram. While NJT does (via a short stint on I-295) intersect I-95 in Delaware on the southern end, the northern end has a rather more roundabout connection. I-95 continues up as a beltway around Trenton. But the beltway continues as I-295, which turns south and parallels the NJ Turnpike. If you're trying to go north on I-95, you end up heading south instead for ~7mi and then needing a ~7mi stint on I-195 to continue north.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#28
post #21

Stuff like this is why I have exactly zero faith in the US ever building the type of high speed rail systems that other countries have and we clearly need. These projects are simply to expensive for private entities to undertake alone and federal and local governments can't stay aligned long enough to see anything that last longer than an election period through to it's finish. Unless someone invents teleportation, w…

Somehow this stuff got built before. There must be a way to get back into that state.

It was built when the top marginal tax rate in the United States was above 70 percent, a level which would make a lot of people go into fits of apoplectic rage if you were to suggest it now.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#29
post #19

I really don't understand the problem. From NY to just outside Philadelphia, I-95 is part of the Jersey Turnpike. Then the Jersey turnpike is suddenly labeled I-295, and I-95 teleports to the highway running through Philadelphia. You can see it from this map [1]. They both then meet up again in Wilmington, where they both merge into 1-95 again. Why not just keep the designation of I-95 on the Jersey Turnpike througho…

The NJT is not I-295. I-295 runs about a mile or two west of the NJT.

Re: After 60 Years, I-95 Is Complete

#30
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow this stuff got built before. There must be a way to get back into that state.

It was built when the top marginal tax rate in the United States was above 70 percent, a level which would make a lot of people go into fits of apoplectic rage if you were to suggest it now.

Wait, what?
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