Ring Roads: Why We Spend Billions So We Can Drive In Circles

One of my favorite lines about Houston's sprawling metropolis -- "Anywhere in Houston is an hour and a half from Houston"

It seems like the beltway would be the ideal scenario for how far an interstate should go into a town. Would be nice if they would just eliminate the actual interstate in the city.

Living near Utrecht in the netherlands i hard disagree on ringroads being a bad idea. However, you're then supposed to tear down the highways through the city and make the high speed traffic use the ringroad.

I would have been interested in hearing more about the shortcomings of ring roads - details on why exactly they don't work "as intended" and why planning offices so often seemingly ignore these issues (even if the reasons are usually ideological/political pressures).

Interestingly, ring roads are so engrained in the geography of big Chinese cities that the location of apartments is described by what ring they're in.

I've always been overwhelmed by Chicago's "crescent shaped" roads, rippling out from Lake Michigan. Living in the city and going to the suburbs at times, there are seemingly endless layers of highways connecting essentially identical suburbs.

When Atlanta didn't appear in the first five minutes, I got so excited! I just knew you were waiting to lay some big shame! You never let us down!!

I would have liked to see an example of a via alternative. Some place where it’s done “right”. Also keep in mind that ring roads are often bypasses for traffic that transits the region. Richmond, VA, isn’t a big city, but it is sandwiched between megalopolises on the nation’s busiest interstate.

Hey! Big fan! Thanks for actually hearing me out in my video on ring roads. It works in game as vehicles are drawn to roads with higher speed limits, and I think bypasses are important for real life cities as well! If we don’t want cars in spaces for people we should allow them a way around :)

You mentioned Moscow's loop line on its subway system as though it is something bad. When I thought that loops lines on metro systems were very useful. Most notably Tokyo's Yamanote line is a loop and is the busiest line in their transit network. The links it creates between other train and metro lines increases the route options exponentially for transit users.

I'm from Edmonton and I have a kind of love/hate relationship with our ring road, called Anthony Henday Drive which is about 10-13 kilometers from the city center. I like how it diverts through-traffic around the city, improving things within the ring. However, being a year-round cyclist who tries to bike whenever possible (household of 3 people with 1 car that we use only about once a week), I find the ring road quite restrictive when I want to cycle beyond its bounds. I often have to divert my route dozens of blocks in order to use a bike friendly road or bike path to cross the Henday. More footbridges over the Henday (and/or adding bike paths beside existing roads) would go a long way towards solving this issue. Also, I think that the construction of the Henday has created some induced demand, where residential construction seems to have increased near it. This construction may have happened regardless though, so that is a bit subjective...

DFW (and most other Texas metro areas) fits nearly any/all criteria for bad: downtown interstates, stroads, ring roads, sprawling car-centric suburbs stretching forever…

How about a video about successfully turning a road into a railroad.

I grew up in Lincoln and then moved to Houston so this video was really funny to me. Not to defend beltways but I will say the Lincoln Beltway to the general public at least was always about diverting Semi trucks from driving through the highway 2 which went directly through the suburbs there. From what Ive heard from my family that still lives there it had so far mostly done its job now that it's finished.

For Houston, you forgot State Highway 6/FM road 1960, although it's not a full beltway (neither is 99 yet) and isn't fully grade-separated.

Beltways are nice if you're planning (or wanting) to remove a freeway in the city center, so there's a route you can reroute through traffic (and in the case of two digit interstates, continue the numbering without a gap) on. Like the existence of I-481 in Syracuse is a reason why I-81 could be removed in downtown, as through traffic and the I-81 designation can be moved onto there. And I know I-35 removal advocates in Austin proposed through traffic using a relatively new SH-130 beltway. Also the high traffic on rings aren't just exclusive to roads. The ring rail lines in the world (think Tokyo Yamanote, Beijing Line 10, Singapore Circle Line) are some of the most used lines in their respective city's rail network as well.

I live in Houston, and yes, it takes about 2 hours to drive from one side to the other. What's considered an average drive is 30 minutes. When I worked downtown, I drove an hour to work 6 days a week.

I'd love to see you cover the Rochester inner loop at some point, which is currently halfway demolished and is looking at being fully demolished in the near future. Maybe on a video on freeway removals of some sort.

Wondered when Atlanta would come up. My brother lived in Marietta. He died 30 some odd years ago. He would complain about his commute to the south side of Hotlanta. 30 YEARS AGO!

Lincoln NE resident here. I believe the south beltway is actually not that bad of a compromise between the city and the state. NE 2 went straight through the city and has a lot of semis and other traffic coming into the city, or using it to get to I-80. With NE 2 moved to this south bypass, the state gave the city the road back, now named "Nebraska Parkway" and I believe the city is planning on changing up the road a lot to make it more friendly. I just hope they don't complete the loop with the east beltway (also been planning since the 60s), as this is where all the suburban spawl is rapidly expanding, just more fuel to the fire. I do think the idea of a full beltway loop is not needed and all the interstate highways should just go around the city in the first place.