The 18-mile, eastern-most strip of Pennsylvania’s busiest highway, Interstate 76, has 163,000 vehicles traveling within city limits along the Vine Street Expressway (Interstate 676), accrding to abc 27. Another 109,000 more cars, trucks, and buses join you by the time I-76 intersects with the Blue Route (Interstate 476). Known as the Schuylkill Expressway to locals, the intersection at the Vine and the Blue Route places Pennsylvania among the nation’s most congested states, per Reason Foundation.
The cobblestone streets of Philadelphia were originally built for horse and carriage, not semis, school buses, and soccer moms in SUVs. Nonetheless, the relief this highway was intended to provide to area commuters was undermined by engineering flaws in the original plans. Designed to manage 35,000 vehicles, the Schuykill has arguably been congested since the day it opened in 1958.
The stretch from Belmont Avenue to the Conshohocken Curve, with its rock-cut banks on the eastbound side, steep dropoffs on the westbound, and narrow shoulders on both, gets particularly log-jammed on the best of days. Ironically, I-76 also takes you to one of Philly’s most walkable suburbs, the vibrant Conshohocken.
Drivers love to dread the Schuylkill Expressway
The Schuylkill Expressway, with no traffic, is a beautiful thing that offers glimpses of historic landmarks such as Boathouse Row and tree-lined sections of Fairmount Park as it winds along the Schuylkill River. Navigating this curvy trail from King of Prussia to Center City at top speeds is sheer energy. But when the Schuykill gets bad, it’s very, very, bad. Some say that if you can drive the Schuylkill, you can drive anywhere…