OK, but Bloomington/Normal is on I-74 and I-55, so it doesn't support either the I-70 or I-80 east-west routes. It's clearly a political choice to link the capital, Springfield, to Chicago.
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Effingham, IL would take care of traffic to St. Louis from Chicago (210 miles though so not ideal and one between that would need to be added later) and Indianapolis (140 miles). Although people may go to St. Louis through Bloomington, IL instead.
SC need to be spaced to allow 60kWh cars to drive at highway speeds with some margin. 210 miles is far too far apart. Tesla should be looking at 140 or so miles, max, for SC spacing.
mlascano
S Sig #722
For travel between Chicago and Cleveland, I would vote for a SC in Fremont, IN (nice name!). There's a rest area on I-90/I-80, 158 miles from Chicago, 188 miles from Cleveland.
> I-80 would like to have a word with you... [PattyChuck]
'I-80' is a political construct, as is 'I-70' etc. Has nothing to do with optimizing long-distance traffic flow from point A to point B. If it did, then they would rename old I-70 which goes thru downtown Indianapolis, for example, 'I-270' (or 'I-470', whichever follows the naming convention) and name the newly constructed shorter (southern) circumferential 'I-70'. Then if Dick & Jane just mindlessly follow the I-70 signs as they go across USA they could automatically avoid downtown congestion/pollution. But no, political forces WANT Jane & Dick to be forced into every downtown possible.
The absolute worst such sinkhole is ChicagoLand. Coming from the west 2 couples find themselves east of Grand Island NE on I-80 headed toward Albany NY/Boston MA. Jane & Dick mindlessly follow I-80 as it angles northeast toward Omaha NE and thus become trapped in the Chicago Corridor. Louise & Thelma however do some careful inspection of their Rand-McNally atlas and realize they could continue straight east @Lincoln NE on Hwy2 to I-29 south to US36 east across MO to I-72 in IL. These are newly completed 'interstate quality' highways with light traffic. I-72 then joins I-55 for a bit, then continues to Urbana where they join I-74 East to Danville>Indianapolis>ColumbusOH>MansfieldOH>etc to the NorthEast. T & L arrive in a relaxed state; J & D have been put thru the wringer by the time they reach eastern Ohio.
Avoiding downtown St Louis requires the same attention to detail with several route-name changes involved. Relying on InterState Signage dooms the tourist to failure.
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Being the ravings of a certified lunatic, the above posting may be copied, borrowed, improved at will, by any party.
'I-80' is a political construct, as is 'I-70' etc. Has nothing to do with optimizing long-distance traffic flow from point A to point B. If it did, then they would rename old I-70 which goes thru downtown Indianapolis, for example, 'I-270' (or 'I-470', whichever follows the naming convention) and name the newly constructed shorter (southern) circumferential 'I-70'. Then if Dick & Jane just mindlessly follow the I-70 signs as they go across USA they could automatically avoid downtown congestion/pollution. But no, political forces WANT Jane & Dick to be forced into every downtown possible.
The absolute worst such sinkhole is ChicagoLand. Coming from the west 2 couples find themselves east of Grand Island NE on I-80 headed toward Albany NY/Boston MA. Jane & Dick mindlessly follow I-80 as it angles northeast toward Omaha NE and thus become trapped in the Chicago Corridor. Louise & Thelma however do some careful inspection of their Rand-McNally atlas and realize they could continue straight east @Lincoln NE on Hwy2 to I-29 south to US36 east across MO to I-72 in IL. These are newly completed 'interstate quality' highways with light traffic. I-72 then joins I-55 for a bit, then continues to Urbana where they join I-74 East to Danville>Indianapolis>ColumbusOH>MansfieldOH>etc to the NorthEast. T & L arrive in a relaxed state; J & D have been put thru the wringer by the time they reach eastern Ohio.
Avoiding downtown St Louis requires the same attention to detail with several route-name changes involved. Relying on InterState Signage dooms the tourist to failure.
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Being the ravings of a certified lunatic, the above posting may be copied, borrowed, improved at will, by any party.
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The two digit interstate numbers are primary north-south and east-west corridors, designed to link major cities together. Thus, they enter the downtown areas. In those rare instances where they don't (Washington, DC, for example) they rely on a spur route. These spur routes have a three digit designator with an odd number prefix followed by the interstate they branch from. Bypasses also have three digit designators but with an even number prefix. All rules of thumb, there are some exceptions.
Because the initial bypass routes were constructed after the primary interstate routes that linked the cities, they were given the 3 digit designator rather than changing the designation of the original highway. This is contrary to the approach of the US highway route which has designated the road going through the heart of the city as "business." Question: Why would political forces impact the interstate designations but not the US highway designations? Of course, if local government was so serious about maintaining the "tourist trade" they would have followed Breezewood, PA and forced all interstate traffic off the road, through the little strip mall area, and back on to the interstate when transitioning to/from the PA Turnpike. That, by the way, was brilliant.
Personally, I like the consistency of the approach to the interstate system numbering. I'll defer on the rest of the routing information as I'm not familiar with transiting I-80 through Chicago metro when Chicago is not my final destination.
All I want is 3 SC around Chicago. All about 30-60 miles out from downtown. One from the North ( from Wisconsin border) one from the West and one from the South (Indiana). One in Downtown Chicago, but they have the service center, so not needed. I want to be able to drive to or through Chicago.
Pretty much. An even prefix (hundreds place) number means it rejoins the interstate system, and odd means it dumps into nothingness. Not necessarily a bypass/loop.
Also even numbered (10, 70, 80 etc.) interstates primarily carry traffic east to west. And odd numbered (5, 75, 85, 95 etc.) interstates primarily carry traffic north to south.
I live east of St. Louis on I-64, which runs to Richmond, VA. I take trips all over the place, having my wife's family reunions all scattered around the midwest. If I were placing SC's, I'd be doing them in Effingham (I-57/I-70 confluence for Chicago/Indianapolis/St. Louis connections), Bloomington/Normal (I-55) for St. Louis to Chicago. I'd add Champaign later and perhaps Evansville, IN for I-64 coverage.
FWIW, the route you suggest is one of three that Google Maps offers routing from Boston to Lincoln. 100 miles longer, and allegedly 1.5 hours more driving time. But, yes, clearly there's a benefit derived by people who plan.
The people planning Supercharger locations really should take note of this point: people in passenger cars may not want to be forced onto the major truck routes across America. So far, Tesla is building SCs on the truck routes: I-95 and I-5, but the local drivers prefer the byways (Merritt Parkway and US-101, respectively).
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