I did the same for almost 15 years and man it is an empty stretch of road as well. Most boring part of that drive. No cars is nice but there's barely even a gas station.
Iowa Toll Road?
- Thread starter jdoggivjc
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I did the same for almost 15 years and man it is an empty stretch of road as well. Most boring part of that drive. No cars is nice but there's barely even a gas station.
1,000,000x this. I wish those semi's had some driver discretion to just get the darn pass done. I understand why they are governed for fuel efficiency (and liability probably.) But there is no way in the world it should take 5 miles to pass a 70ft vehicle.
I'm pretty sure they're laughing about it as its happening
Exactly. There are several states that prevent semi's from driving in the left lane. I would like to see something similar on at least the interstates.
Would like to see it on 35\80 through des moines at least. nothing worse than when 3 lanes of traffic are mucked up by semis 3 wide.
In order to have capacity improvements you'll have to decrease the distance between cars or speed them up. With different braking rates of cars, weather conditions, and maintenance of those sensors, I can't imagine we're going to see bumper to bumper highway traffic anytime in the next 10-20 years. It'll take that long just to get everyone to turn over to this generation of automated driving with warnings and automatic cruise control.
Here you go fellow road nerd. Every Iowa map the DoT has produced.
https://iowadot.gov/maps/digital-maps/other-maps/historical-iowa-transportation-maps
Since its the 4 wheelers rather than the 18 wheelers complaining... Why don’t we charge the cars 0.24 and the trucks 0.08 per mile? That way we pay for the construction much faster. Lets take more money out of the truckers hands and eventually you will pay it back at the local grocery shelf. And what happens when we pay for the expansion? Do we remove the tolls?
Indiana and Ohio have been charging a toll on their stretch of I-80 for years and its still by far some of the worst interstate in the country. Wonder where all of that toll money actually ends up being spent?
Indiana and Ohio have been charging a toll on their stretch of I-80 for years and its still by far some of the worst interstate in the country. Wonder where all of that toll money actually ends up being spent?
I can and it'll be awesome. The technology is there today and it's not even remotely tough to do on an Interstate highway. I predict this will be the technological leap that the internet was over the last 20 years. Assuming this gets done, DOTs will be able to quit building more lanes, buying more ROW, destroying more habitat, and start maintaining what we have better.
If you are an engineer, here is my question to you. Why when doing projects do they have to move dirt what seems like 20 times before the dirt work is done. I know it has to be moved some, but it seems to be a little bit one the extreme in some cases.
D9 Cats and brand new John Deere tractors are not cheep. It seems you have to have that kind of equipment to get a state job or any government job.
Yeah but not everyone will have the cash set aside to buy those vehicles. Surely you don't expect people to make payments or - god forbid! - lease. There will always be some else looking looking to buy that 91 Grand Am for $200 without all those "modern conveniences" because Dave Ramsey.
Thought the guy who said toll roads were socialist was an idiot. The system we have now is literally socialism. All pay taxes and use the roads as we please.
In a practical sense, that's probably correct, if it's expense vs. (current) traffic volume. But stretches of U.S. 20 between I-35 and U.S. 71 are like driving on your own private highway.
Related question for those with far more knowledge than me: I know there was talk for many years of completion/expansion of 20 from the 4-lane-to-2 transition around Moville area(?) and eastward. How long was it before that finally commenced? I also remember it dead-ending at some point to the west of the Waterloo area (if memory serves). ... Haven't lived in Iowa for years, but my travels homeward involve part of those routes, so I'm curious from historic standpoint.
Is it open yet? Wasn't done last yr at this time. Haven't been over that way this yr yet. At either rate my point of taking over 40 yrs yrs still stands.
They have to justify the $40mil and two years to grade 30 between Tama and the Benton county line some how.
US 20 east of I-35 has been four lanes for years now. Without looking it up, I think the final stretches (east of Iowa Falls, west of Cedar Falls) opened in the early 2000s.
The remaining two lane portion of 20 west of I-35 is being completed now. It's been 2-3 years since I traveled it but IIRC Early to Moville was the remaining two lane stretch and the parts of it that aren't open already are supposed to be done this year.
