Interstate 90 in one shot

Yeah, yeah, I know, it's been a while. Sorry, I've been busy, and we have a baby on the way, and class starts again soon.

Perfect time for an epic road trip!

Mrs. Thatsaabguy and I attend Gen Con every year, the biggest gaming convention in these United States - we did, in fact, get married there in '09, even. This year was no exception, but with a twist. We flew to Indy on 1 August, worked the show until 7 August, then flew to London. There we were tourists for a couple days, rented a car and drove to the far north of Scotland (Ullapool, to be precise), took a 3-hour oceangoing ferry to Stornoway, and spent another week or so with our good friends at their place on the northern tip of the Isle of Lewis. Then we drove back to Glasgow and flew to Newark NJ, there to spend the weekend at the 2011 Saab Owners Conventions (our geekery knows no bounds.)

Here's where this gets REALLY interesting. Our buddy Greg from Minneapolis sold us a 2000 Saab 9-5 Aero and offered to drive it to NJ for us to pick up. Seeing a rare once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I gathered the gear to make a time-lapse video of the entire length of I-90, the longest interstate highway in the US and, most likely, the world. I set the camera to take one shot every ten seconds, then spend an afternoon stitching it together and giving it subtitles.

Here is that effort.

It is 24 minutes long, and has an amazing kick-ass soundtrack. It was a serious blast to make. Hope you like!

UPDATE 9/3 by Cartophiliac:

To make it even easier to view ThatSaabGuy's video, I have embedded it here:

State Map Route Markers

In the United States, in addition to the Interstate Highway System (previously on Cartophilia here, here and here) each state maintains its own system of highways.

State highways are generally a mixture of primary and secondary roads, although some are freeways. Each state has its own system for numbering and signage. Some states (the really lame ones) use simple square or circular designs. Others use a symbol that is associated with that state (see Pennsylvania's Keystone State design). The coolest states, however, are the ones that use a map on their State Route signage.

Besides the four shown here, the other cool state highway systems are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and the District of Columbia. Of course, Wyoming and Colorado could be using their state shape... and who would know?

Take a Sporcle quiz to see if you can identify more State Route highway signs than your cubemate.

You can even order your own State Route sign (standard reflective or high intensity!) with the highway number of your choice.

In case you were wondering, Montana has the longest State highway route.

The best part about State map route signs: There is never a question which state you're in.

T-Shirt Tuesday: Suburbia

Several time since starting Cartophilia, I have highlighted interesting and fun map t-shirts. [T-shirts on Cartophilia] What better way to show your love of maps than to wear one? Lately I've come across several more... rather than bore with with shirts every day, we'll have a special "T-shirt Tuesday" every week (till I run out).*

Trying to find your way around the suburban jungle? Check out this "Surburbia" t-shirt.

Who hasn't felt lost sometimes at one of those confusing clover-leaf super highway intersections?



I immediately recognized this design as based on an actual intersection in the Detroit suburb of Allen Park, where I-94 and the Southfield Freeway (M-39) intersect:



However, my favorite, over-developed freeway interchange is just a few miles to the north where I-96 and Southfield meet:



In the comments, feel free to post a link to a map of your favorite/least favorite highway interchange.

UPDATE 6/16: Thanks to everyone for the interchange links (see comments). However, BoingBoing has offered the ULTIMATE highway interchange:



Of course it is a Photoshop montage... but still frightening...


*Some of the t-shirts come from very nice T-Shirt sellers, like Threadless Tees, who want to give me referral fees if you buy one. Win/Win all around! You get to see fun Map T-shirts, and maybe I'll get a couple bucks out of it.

Ike Underground and Simplified

Transit Map Theme Week continues here at Cartophilia.

The representational diagram style of the London Underground map has become the worldwide standard for maps of rail systems. Why not highway systems? Several variations of the United States highway system presented as a simplified diagram have turned up lately.

As a tribute, Cameron Booth has created his own Eisenhower Interstate System in the style of H.C. Beck's London Underground Diagram:



In detail:


Last year, I highlighted Chris Yate's The Eisenhower Interstate System (simplified). This month Chris informed me that he has created a new, revised edition that addresses many of the errors and omissions of the original:



Finally, for your amusement, another take on simplification: A Numeric Topology of the United States Eisenhower Interstate Highway System available as a poster from Hedberg Maps:



Hedberg Maps; their motto says it all: "Life's Too Short for Bad Maps"

Counties and Interstates

Last week, I posted the very popular Ohio is a Piano wherein Andy Woodruff at Cartogrammar mentioned his Counties Visited Map. Andy has noted every county in the United States that he has visited during his travels. I also know that Michael5000 has been recording his counties. Not to be outdone, I created my own:



Click on map for larger view.

I suppose each county recorder can use his or her own criteria, but I counted any county in which I have set foot, whether it was me driving, me as a passenger, or even got off a plane in an airport. Thus, any of the isolated green spots you see above were trips by air to places like Salt Lake City and Boston, with the exception of Niagara Falls, NY, by way of Ontario.

Unfortunately, I did mine the hard way... I took a blank county map and filled it in county by county with Windows Paint. It wasn't until I started preparing this post that I realized that Andy used a really cool tool at Counties.Visitedmap.com. The site creates your maps and keeps statistics for you. I may have to explore this further.

But wait! That's not all!

Last week, I also shared with you the Interstate Highway System as Transit Map and I wondered, how would my travels on the Interstate Highway System appear on that map. Here you go... another 40 minutes of my life I will never get back (but hey, you're reading this, so don't talk):



UPDATE: For those of you interested in collecting counties, Andy has provided some addional useful links:
The Extra Miler Club
Why do you think they call them counties?

UPDATE 8/14: I redid my counties visited map using the Counties.VisitedMap.com mentioned above. This is the one I'll keep up to date:

Interstate Highway System as Transit Map

This week Cartogrammar is highlighting the coincidence that two different city magazines used a transit map theme for the "Best of 2009" issues this year:



Also, coincidentally this week, while looking for something else I was reminded of this clever invention: The Eisenhower Interstate System (simplified) by Chris Yates:



Previously seen here and here, and available from the designer as a print.

Driving to the Beach

So, as previously noted, I am vacationing on the beach. In my nearly half-century of life, this mid-western boy has never done the "week on the beach" kind of thing. Its been a pretty laid back week. Not much to do (and that's just fine) but it doesn't make for much interesting map stuff. So, feel free to move on to the next post.



I'm on the North Carolina coast for a family reunion. All three of my brothers, and most of our kids, wives and grandchildren (none for me yet, thank you) are all staying in a big house of the beach.



The family is scattered all over. My brothers and I are originally from Michigan, but now we live in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida and Maryland. I've done a bit of swimming and bicycling, but mostly just hanging out with the family. The biggest bicycling challenge was climbing to the top of the bridge that connects our island to the mainland, over theIntracoastal Waterway



I find it quite fascinating that the Army Corps of Engineers has built this waterway that connects most of the Gulf and Atlantic coastal states with navigable rivers, straits and canals, allowing commerce and pleasure boats to travel without hitting the high seas. Perhaps more on that in a future post.

Another mappish thing noted on this trip: While I haven't added any new states to Where I've Been, I did drive a stretch of highway I've never driven before. That's always fun.



No new map postcards, in fact, I don't think I have even seen a postcard at all this week. Fewer and fewer shops even carry them any more. Who sends postcards any more I wonder...

I'll be back to a more regular schedule next week.

Daytonology North

Last month, in a post about Lost Highways, I wrote about the National Road and the Dixie Highway as part of the national road system prior to the numbered U.S. Highways and Interstates.

The Daytonology blog has posted a brief history of transportation routes north from Dayton as part of a series of articles discussing development of Vandalia and other points North.

Maps include rivers, canals, railroads and highways.

Lost Highways

In Michigan I grew up less than a mile from Dixie Highway, a four lane thoroughfare running through the Township. As a kid, I thought it funny that our highway was named for a Civil War song... It wasn't until many years later that I understood that this was just one part of a series of roads and highways connecting the Midwest with the South; from Sault St. Marie all the way to Miami.


The Dixie Highway was part of the National Auto Trail; an attempt in the early days of automobiles to connect state roads and highways into an cross-county system. It was first proposed in 1914, and was planned, built and expanded from 1915 to 1927 by the Dixie Highway Association, a group of individuals, businesses, local, and state governments. The route was marked with signs, sometimes painted on trees and telephone poles. The symbol for the highway was a red stripe.



The highway was inspired by the success of another inter-state highway, the Lincoln Highway, connecting Times Square in New York City with Lincoln Park in San Francisco.



Dozens of these named highways were developed all over the country. Eventually, they were superseded by the U.S. Highway and later the Interstate Highway systems. Some of the roads that were the Dixie Highway, became US-25 and I-75.

Very little remains of these "Lost Highways". Many states still have roads named Dixie Highway. Here in Ohio there remain two stretches that run north and south of Dayton. For those interested in tracing the paths of these old National Auto Trails can purchase a copy of this poster published by Mark R. Everhart:



"Lost Highways" depicts 48 major Named Auto Trails along with their corresponding pole marker signs on a full-color 22.5” X 28” poster on smooth 80# stock. Below is some of detail of the poster showing Michigan and Ohio, criss-crossed by named highways, including Dixie, Lincoln and the National Road:



The Lincoln Highway, previously on Cartophilia

Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday

Today is Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. A few maps in commemoration:

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site:


The Route of Abraham Lincoln's Funeral Train:


The Lincoln Highway:


"Now he belongs to the ages" -- Edwin Stanton