I-40 — Marching Towards OKC

[reddy]

Just looked at a few scenarios with the txdot.gov data I referenced above. If you are curious about how it works , do a query and search by highway. such as IH0027 or US0287 or US0084 .

Do the query with the Attribute set at AADT for average daily traffic, the Operation for Greater Than, and set the Value for levels such as 5000, 10000, 15000, or 20000.

US 287 is a really high traffic road, it gets well over 15,000 AADT at Childress. In contrast US 84 to Lubbock from Sweetwater or Clovis is a lot less, getting to that level only as you get into Lubbock with local traffic. The main rout north from Lubbock, IH 27 has less than 13,000 AADT unless you are within 30 miles of Lubbock or Amarillo, indicating this is mostly local (read: SC less critical) for them.

 

[timpierc]

Reddy I agree with what you said.

After running the math the Dallas, OKC, Amarillo, Trinidad, Denver route is 48 miles shorter then Dallas, Sweetwater, Lubbock, Santa Rosa, Las Vegas, Denver route. Me eye balling the map when I made the Lubbock suggestion, it looked to be the same distance, if not more then heading west on I-20 out of DFW.

My main advocacy for Lubbock came from my inner program manager coming out. Given existing plans, and infrastructure what would be cheapest and fastest for the most amount of people. With my earlier assumptions I thought Lubbock made the most sense. You hit Temple on the head because a Lubbock SC would be fastest for Austin & San Antonio folks. While a SC in Dumas or Dalhart would be best for DFW and Houston folks.

With that said I'm not familiar with the various charging times on 40 amp vs SC, given battery state of charge. (The day will come when I wear my wife down to buy a tesla haha). So a supercharge in Lubbock vs a 40 amp charge in Dumas or Dalhart may just end up being peanuts time wise anyway. I totally agree Tesla should just open up Wichita Falls and Childress and make this a moot discussion.

 

[vinnie97]

The 287 route was on the 2015 map before it got dumped for I-40 in a revision. I hope that just means they were pushed back to 2017 instead of something more sinister (like not coming at all!).

 

[BerTX]

I have reached out to TM, and pointed out a couple of things on the current I-10 trajectory.
I still see "Disneyland to Disney World" on I-10 as having a great degree of merit.

Did you point out that driving 240 miles from Ft. Stockton to El Paso will be difficult at the 80 MPH speed limit?

 

[bollar]

Did you point out that driving 240 miles from Ft. Stockton to El Paso will be difficult at the 80 MPH speed limit?

True, plus Van Horn is a gateway to Big Bend and Carlsbad NPs, so once I-10 is build out, it's a great location.

 

[RiverBrick]

I drove this stretch from the West yesterday. I didn't look in Grants, NM. Otherwise, construction underway in Tucumcari (as mentioned in its thread) and no sign of anything in Amarillo or Albuquerque.

Driving from Santa Rosa to Shamrock at ~65 mph (until 75 mph for the last 20 miles) took 248 rated miles for a distance of ~265 miles. Minus the stops in Amarillo and Tucumcari, it would have been about three miles less.

In California it would have been OK in the right lane due to the slower speed limit for trucks and anything towing, but on I-40 it wasn't fun having people constantly coming up fast from directly behind. Very light Southerly wind, when a stiff breeze from the West would have allowed me to drive faster. Otherwise, conditions were excellent for range: dry, 25°C, slightly overinflated Primacy's.

Obviously, the opposite direction would have been impossible because of the altitude difference of ~2,000 feet.