paved with good intentions

The Forum Flavinius, or Colosseum as it is more commonly known, was second perhaps only to the Pantheon in annals or Roman architecture. Among other innovations it incorporated were the first large-scale air conditioning system, watertight construction so it might be flooded for naumachiæ, and an ingenious network of tunnels for crowd control that the Romans called vomitoria for their ability to rapidly discharge their contents. (The tunnels, not the Romans. But also the Romans.)

It was a colossal undertaking (hence the modern adjective), and the final set of improvements were completed only in AD 238, over a sesquincentennial after it was begun in AD 72. Its final date of completion remains presciently appropriate, since two millennia later the wise lawmakers of California and DC would use the number for a rather less colossal undertaking, namely the creation of Interstate 238 in the San Francisco bay area. Oddly enough for an interstate highway, the 238 is contained entirely within the city of Oakland. This, however, is a common pecadillo among interstates (as, for example, the lowest-numbered interstate, the 4, which runs from Tampa to Daytone Beach entirely within Florida).

(Tangentially: Southern Californians will refer to highways in the definite article, as illustrated above, e.g. “I took the 10 to Santa Monica.” Everyone else omits the article, e.g. “I took 95 to Newark.” Moreover, Non-Angelenos are also more likely to use names for their freeways, so that a New Yorker would be more likely to say “I took the New Jersey Turnpike to Newark.” Actually, a New Yorker probably wouldn't say that; he'd go to La Guardia or JFK. Never mine. But as is true in most matters of automotive patois, the SoCal faction has it right.)

The 238 may be the most villified highway in the nation by that underclass of people who pay great attention to the numeration and systematization of routes. The Great and Mysterious Zzyzx begins his description by opining that “this road is a travesty.” Others are rather more sanguine about its existence, but there's general consensus that it's a gross violation of the interstate numbering system. Why? Read on, dear soul.

All three-digit interstates—except for the 238—follow the same system. The final two digits indicate its ‘parent’ freeway, the two (or one) digit highway whence it comes. Thus the 405 is an offshoot of the 5 (the 5 is considered to be ‘05’ for this purpose). The 238's numeration, then, implies the existence of an Interstate 38, except that there is no such freeway, nor has there ever been. Moreover, even if there were an Interstate 38, it would not intersect San Francisco. It would have to be south of the 40, which is much farther towards Antarctica.

Thus the 238's violation of convention is egregious, and yet is approved by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the sanctioning body for highway nomenclature. Why this travesty? The road was signed as California 238 before being upgraded with federal money to interstate standards. Since it connects spurs of the 80 (the 880 to the 580), it should legitimately have been named as an X80. However, at the time of its construction, every X80 combination except two were in active use, and those two were already promised to other roads in the works. Lacking any remaining choices, the AASHTO allowed the road to retain its original number as an interstate, even in gross violation of the rules. Since its reigstration in 1983, it has served its purpose as a valuable shunt for traffic heading into the San Joachin Valley, and as a thorn in the side of road buffs everywhere (since it was built, the planned projects were abandoned, so several X80 options are now available).

The Colosseum was ultimately brought to its knees by a series of major earthquakes in AD 442, 508, 847, and 1349. Given Frisco's position directly over the volatile San Andreas fault, which has already sent it such tremors as the Great San Franscisco Earthquake of 1906 which destroyed essentially the entire city, it is not too presumptuous for these disgruntled road scholars to hope that the 238 will one day be wiped off the face of the earth by an act of god. A vengeful God, one would presume.

posted by citizen sunshine @ 9:10 PM