ICMR

No, it's not a type of missile. It stands for Integrated Corridor Mobility Route, which sounds vaguely military to me...a route shared by cars, trucks and missiles being hauled down the highway.

But it's actually a plan for relieving congestion on a portion of Interstate 80 near San Francisco.

Here's a video that describes all of the changes being made to help improve traffic flow during rush hour and when collisions occur.

I live right in the middle of this stretch of freeway and I get to deal with it most days on the way to work. The reason I'm talking about it today is that some of the lane signs are being tested. Here's a photo I took yesterday while stopped on the freeway.

Next year the interstate highway system will be 60 years old and it does have ties to the Cold War. One of the primary purposes in the creation of the interstate highway system was to increase the mobility of military troops. I remember seeing a section of 580 being built when I was about 4 or 5 years old, which would be around 1960-1961.

Highway 80 runs all the way from San Francisco to New York City. All main highways in the system are one or two digits, with east-west highways being even and north-south highways being odd. Interstate 5 runs from Canada to Mexico through California, Oregon and Washington. The highway numbering starts in the west for north-south highways with Interstate 5 and continuing to I99 between New York and Pennsylvania. The east-west routes begin with I2 which resides totally within Texas, to I96 which only serves Michigan. I10 runs across the US from Santa Monica, CA to Jacksonville, FL. When I moved from New Jersey back to California we took I10. It was in November so I wanted to avoid any snow that may have been along various parts of I80, which would've been a more direct route. And the southern route enabled us to visit my parents outside Knoxville, TN and my future father-in-law in Tampa, FL.

The shortest interstate highway is I97 which is only 17.62 miles, while the longest, I90, is 3,101.77 miles

Auxiliary highways have 3 digits, with the 2nd and 3rd digit being the primary route. If the 1st digit is odd, the road is a spur route. If even, the route returns to the main highway. In this local area, I often take I580 which starts in Marin county, crosses the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge (I live very near the eastern end of this bridge), and merges with I80 near the Golden Gate Fields horse racing track. The most interesting thing about this section of freeway is that I80 East is the exact same stretch as I580 West and vice versa (this section of freeway is actually running north and south). At the approach to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge the highways split, with I80 West continuing to SF and I580 East heading out to I5 south of Tracy. This split is known as the MacArthur Maze...I580 in this area is known as the MacArthur Freeway. Not only do 80 and 580 split from here but so does 880, which runs from Oakland to San Jose and a few miles down 580, CA24 also splits off to go between Oakland and Walnut Creek. This maze is a big reason for all of the heavy traffic in the area.

Interesting days

Today - https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/gorgeous-grandma-day/ and https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/hot-dog-day/ Since I'm not a grandma, gorgeous or otherwise, I'll only be celebrating one of these days. However, if any of you hot grandmas want to join me, you're welcome to

Tomorrow - Several interesting days - https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/cousins-day/, https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/tell-an-old-joke-day/, https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/drive-thru-day/ and https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/tequila-day/ I don't know if any drive thru's will be celebrating drive thru day but On The Border and Chevy's will be celebrating tequila day

Next Thursday - Continuing with the hot dog theme https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/chili-dog-day/. It's also https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/cheesecake-day/. Hmmm...a chili dog for lunch followed by cheesecake for dessert...works for me! Don't forget to bring your father-in-law to lunch with you since it's https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/father-in-law-day/. And buy him a book for https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/paperback-book-day/

August 23 - https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/valentino-day/ No silly, not Valentine's Day...that's in February. And it's https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/ride-the-wind-day/ Sounds like a good day for sailing or windsurfing, neither of which I've done in a long time