Interstates in California
Californians' love for the open road and private transit had led the state to become one of the first to test out freeways. With development of it's freeway system dating back to the 1940's, it was obvious that California was the perfect state for Interstates. When the numbers were rolled out in the late 1950's for the Interstate system, California was quick to adopt them and add them to reassurance assemblies. This led to overloading however, with some instances of as many as four route numbers on one road. It was a mess.
In the 1960's, California legislators took the responsibility to fix the multiplexing they had caused years prior. All roads were assigned a Legislative Route Number and a Signed Route Number, which allowed any shield to be posted on any roads with no really difference to legislators. One road, one number became the unofficial slogan of the Great Renumbering, which saw the LRN system deleted and the primary signed route became the LRN. Since the Interstate system was the future and the US Highway System was the past, it made great sense to favor Interstate route numbers over US Highway Numbers when possible, leading to the deletion of many once great highways - not just in California but in some cases around the country.
California's Interstates are some of the busiest in the country and some of the busiest roads in the world; I-405 is well known as being the busiest road in the United States, even busier then it's parent route, I-5. Freeways and interchanges have become infamous for their constant delays, backups, accidents and overall congestion.
Archived Roads.
- Interstate 10 - Running from coast to coast, this is one of the first Interstates in California due to it running on the completed San Bernardino and Santa Monica Fwys, later extended to the Arizona State Line.
- Interstate 215 - First it was US 395. Then part of I-15, then I-15E, and finally I-215. Could it be more confusing?
- Interstate 40 - The very controversial replacement of Route 66 through the high desert of California.