Why Is There No Interstate 50 Or 60?
At the beginning of the interstate system, officials decided that the numbers would not be random. Highways already existed at the time, and they needed a network that could co-exist with them and scale across the country.
All they had to do was borrow the logic of US highway number codes and reverse it; this meant that only long-distance routes between regions were assigned one- and two-digit numbers. Similarly, routes running from north to south were assigned odd numbers, while routes running from east to west were assigned even numbers.
Numbers ending in zero or five have been reserved to make it easier for people to identify nationally important routes. Some of these main routes are now The best highways in the USA, according to truckers. Reserving these numbers has narrowed the pool of numbers available for other routes, but this does not fully explain the absence of some numbers.
Read more: When (And Why) Did Cars Switch from Leaded to Unleaded Fuel?
Why were I-50 and I-60 never options?
A truck drives south on Interstate 69 in snowy weather – Jeremy Hogan/Getty Images
There are some deficiencies to prevent recurrence. The numbers chosen had to be unique in each state, and thus Interstate 50 was never able to operate. An east-to-west Interstate would run from the east coast into California, overlapping large parts of the country that U.S. Route 50 already passes through. Using the same number for both roads in the same state would cause confusion, and the numbering system was designed to prevent just that.
Interstate 60 encountered a similar problem. US Route 60 was already a well-known east-west highway when interstate numbers were assigned. Planners wanted the interstate system to integrate with the existing highway network rather than overwriting it. To do this, they decided it was best to skip these numbers rather than rename or modify existing routes. Although many of these old highways are now lost, US Routes 50 and 60 are still around.
What do the missing numbers reveal about the interstate system?
Freeway entrance to I-99 Southern Freeway – Lori Butcher/Getty Images
“Incomplete” I-50 and I-60 are just two symptoms design of interstate system. Other inconsistencies remain, such as repeated state-to-state figures in different parts of the country. Others, like I-99, appear far out of geographic order. These results reflect political decisions and practical limitations that emerged as the system evolved. Once routes were established, renumbering them for the sake of elegance did little to help drivers.
Anyway, the interstate system exists for ease of movement and national connectivity, not for numerical regularity. As long as drivers can understand direction and connectivity at a glance, the system is doing its job.
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