The freeway of your dreams
Posted on June 4th, 2007 – 6:05 AMBy Roadguy
Imagine four wide-open lanes, stretching as far as the eye can see. Imagine a freeway without Morons, without stop-and-go traffic, without anyone cutting you off as you try to move into the next lane. In fact, you can change lanes as often you like — there’s no one else around. It’s all about you.
Such freeways, alas, are the stuff of fantasy, but the CrapCam photo is real — taken Sunday afternoon, it shows I-35W from the 38th Street bridge in Minneapolis. The southbound lanes were closed entirely over the weekend, and the northbound lanes could be accessed from only a few local streets. The empty highway would’ve been a great location for a six-mile-long block party. If only Roadguy had thought to take out the proper permits.
10 Responses to "The freeway of your dreams"
I think my dream highway would have fewer cracks and bumps in the surface 
The block party idea is intriguing, but there really isn’t much of interest along the sides of a highway (well, maybe if you’re a transportation geek, but the stuff is still spaced out so much). Grand Old Days happened this past weekend, and that’s much more interesting since there’s actually stuff along the sides of the road.
Ha. I have the mirror image of this, taken from 42nd looking north.
I crossed that bridge several times this weekend and each time there was someone on foot motionless, just staring at the emptiness.
I gazed down from the 50th St bridge with local residents. It was a horrifying experience on so many levels. Suffice it to say, that the neighbors that that canyon cuts through said they only wish that a light rail or rapid bus would be going instead of making it wider and adding more lanes. The carnage of countless trees along side of the sound barriers facing homes is telling. Pure devastation.
Yes, it was a pleasant experience witnessing the lack of cars.
Rumor has it (I cannot verify this) that the early re-opening foiled a film project that was being filmed in the area–a couple of vehicles normally not found on interstate freeways in Minnesota were surprised to see cars entering southbound 35W from eastbound 94 on their trip through the (mostly) vacant trench to Lake Street.
Alas, the pleasure of a car-free space was short lived.
Roadguy, I almost called you on Saturday to say you shoot this very picture. You are way ahead of me!
Y’know, thinking of the cracks and gaps…shouldn’t MNDOT use the closure to do some tarring and filling of those very visible cracks while the road is closed!?
Those gaps let water in and will cause the whole darn road surface to fail from freeze-thaw cycles in the next few years.
Seems like dispatching a MNDOT patch crew or two during the next bridge-related closure would save a lot of hassle and possbily costs, too (though Sat/Sun work probably comes at time+1/2 or more…).
my dream highway would be train tracks. A fraction of the width cutting through town with as much (or more!) people-moving capacity.
Sorry, I forgot that we hate our fellow citizens and don’t want to be confined in close proximity to them. And that we’re all too lazy to walk a quarter mile to a train.
Dob: the HOV lane being added will be of HUGE benefit to the roughly 15,000 daily bus riders along 35W. Or don’t the neighbors you refer to realize that?
I don’t know them or what they know. I just bumped into a group of local residents gazing over the same bridge I was.
I’m with wayne…more trains!
