Interstate 595

One of the oddest members of the Interstate Highway System. To all appearances, this stretch of Maryland highway, running from the Capital Beltway east to Annapolis, is an ordinary interstate highway. This road, also known as the John Hanson Highway, has the whole Interstate Highway package: Concrete, four lanes or more in both directions, median strip, convoluted interchanges.

The odd thing about it is that few people know it is an Interstate.

Because of public outcry from Annapolitans (and the local press) when US 50 was to have been upgraded to Interstate 68, the road's improvement plan was radically changed. Well, all the improvements were made, all the trees that were going to be cut down were cut down, and if anything, the interchanges were made more convoluted. However, all of the retaining walls near Annapolis now sport a spiffy brick facing.

The final part of the revision was not to call it an "Interstate". You will see US Highway shields sporting a 50. East of Bowie, you will also see signs indicating that the road is US 301. And right around Annapolis, you will also see Maryland Highway rectangles with a big "2".

You will not see a blue shield displaying a "595" anywhere along the route.

P.S. My AAA Road Atlas shows it as "Future Interstate 595".

Another I-595 is located in Broward County, Florida, and runs down the east-west axis of the Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area. It starts on the eastern edge of Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport, as a spur off of US Route 1, and goes north of the airport and south of Port Everglades before crossing Interstate 95 and Florida's Turnpike. At its junction with Interstate 75 and the Sawgrass Expressway, it turns into Alligator Alley, the portion of I-75 that crosses the Everglades. Its total run is 12.86 miles.

595 was originally known as State Road 84, the Everglades Expressway. SR-84 still exists, and straddles 595 for most of its length. There are no direct onramps or offramps to 595 in central Broward: instead, you get on 84, and then get on 595. It's a rather efficient system in theory, although it tends to confuse some slow people (and South Florida is full of those).

Technically speaking, 595 is a spur off of 75, not 95. Why it was named as though it were a spur of 95 is largely a mystery.

Despite the fact that 595 is less than fifteen years old, it is already running at 300 percent of its design capacity, and there have been only minimal efforts to offer mass transit alternatives for east-west commuters. 595 is a centerpiece of Broward's growing pains, and will probably remain that way for years to come.